10 CGI Moments In Recent Movies NOBODY Noticed
8. CGI Water - The Tragedy Of Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is an undeniably beautiful film powered by the combination of first-rate production design and cinematography, yet you'll probably be pretty shocked to see just how much of the film's style and atmosphere was dictated by mind-bogglingly seamless VFX.
The production used countless matte paintings and set extensions to make the film's small soundstage set look considerably larger, while also employing CGI fog to obscure the set's limitations and imply a greater sense of scale.
But we all know that water is one of the trickiest elements to replicate digitally, behind only fire, and this is where The Tragedy of Macbeth truly comes into its own.
During the scene where Macbeth (Denzel Washington) sits in the apparition room and has a vision of the floor transforming into a bubbling cauldron of black liquid, the liquid is 100% CGI.
While it looks like Washington is simply sitting in a set filled to ankle-height with water, the actor is actually sitting considerably more comfortably in a totally dry set, with the liquid instead a brain-breakingly photoreal simulation.
This is the sort of subtle, not-showy effects work that deserves much greater recognition.
Check it out at 2:29 in the clip below: