10 More Movie Special Effects Nobody Believed
2. The Robots - Real Steel
Given that Real Steel released in 2011 with a $110 million budget, it seemed clear that the giant fighting robots featured throughout the film would be achieved almost entirely through post-production VFX.
And though Oscar-nominated visual effects were indeed employed to realise the bots battling one another and walking around, a large chunk of the film was shot with real, full-scale robot props.
Studio Legacy Effects produced 26-and-a-half robot props for the movie, all of which had hydraulic neck controls, and a few of which had more advanced animatronic articulation for limbs.
While it'd be easy to assume that every hunk o' metal we see in the movie was just piped in after shooting had finished, credit to the filmmakers for making the extra effort to give the actors tangible props to work opposite.
That the practical and digital elements blend together so seamlessly is a serious testament to the crafts work that went into this movie, whether you're a fan of Real Steel or not.