r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/padfoony • 3h ago

Christopher Nolan avoided CGI and used 7ft stuntmen to portray Laestrygonians in The Odyssey. The giant leader, King Antiphates, is portrayed by actor Josh Stewart, while Matt Damon’s stunt double is Devyn Dalton, who is just under 5ft.

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u/siraolo 3h ago

Forced perspective really does a lot here. 

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u/Sardoodledome 3h ago

It really show the genius of the production - no cgi can beat the real thing.

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u/tunesmiff 2h ago edited 2h ago

No cgi is really just invisible cgi. I guarantee there was CGI deployed in those scenes in addition to what was captured in camera.

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u/RedHawk_94 2h ago

CGI and VFX are not the same thing

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u/DShepard 1h ago

Idk, they're pretty interchangeable in a lot of contexts. I've heard "could we make that with CG" and "could we do that with VFX" about the same exact tasks pretty often.

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u/ctaps148 24m ago

VFX adds dramatic flair, CGI invents what was never there

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u/RedHawk_94 1h ago

They're not interchangeable. To people who don't understand the difference, sure, and they are used together when editing a movie, but they're not the same thing

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u/DShepard 1h ago

CGI is a form of VFX, which makes them interchangeable in a lot of contexts. Even Nolan movies have plenty of CG, but it'll be subtle particle effects and background elements more than characters and props.

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u/RedHawk_94 1h ago

It is not a "form of VFX". Layering different shots to make 1 shot is VFX, creating the character model for the Hulk is CGI, putting that character model in a scene with real people is VFX, taking a particle/fire/smoke effect over an existing shot that didn't have that element is VFX.

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u/DShepard 53m ago

You're just describing compositing in your first and third example, which again is a form of VFX, but is not all it is.

But I guess how you view it also varies from what area if the industry you're in and what your educational background is. I know a lot of film and art schools are real sticklers when it comes to certain topics.

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u/RedHawk_94 48m ago

Exactly, not all VFX is CGI. Compositing is VFX with 0 CGI included, but people would call that CGI. Removing wires or compositing one shot (Odysseus with the cyclops puppet) removing the puppet and overlaying the shots of the physical cyclops actor is not CGI. An areal stunt with wires being shot then removing the wires is not CG either. Green screening a persons performance onto a new background shot is not CGI either

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u/DShepard 42m ago

No, but adding a layer of fine dust particles simulated in Houdini or whatever is CGI and could easily be in a shot like the OPs, and is what I think of when I think "invisible" CGI like the commenter was referring to.

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u/TheWatersOfMars 2h ago

Absolutely, but the more you capture in camera, on set, the easier it is down the line so you don't have to David Fincher your budget on CGI. 

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u/Sardoodledome 2h ago

there is a lot of cgi in the movie. Cgi is really a lazy way out - I like how they chose to use perspective in this scene, like they did in LOTR with Gandalf scenes. It just fools your eye and brain, while cgi always is " ah .... not real" ...

Edit:

Also in this scene where they have to show Matt Damon's face you can see that the "giants" ain't gianting ... :)

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u/MonitorPowerful5461 2h ago

Watch Dune, research the CGI they used, and then tell me that CGI is a "lazy way out". CGI is art; sometimes art is bad, but sometimes it can be beautiful.

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u/PhilxBefore 1h ago

Hate to be that guy, but you're absolutely wrong.

The sandworms in Dune were locally sourced from Beetlejuice, and just given a handy-sandy paint-job, IIRC.

/s

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u/polite_alpha 2h ago

As a vfx artist it always amuses me that people cite shows as little to none CGI that have literal THOUSANDS of VFX shots.

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u/Tipop 1h ago

while cgi always is “ ah …. not real”

No, BAD CGI is “ah, not real”. Good CGI is indistinguishable from reality. You’ve probably seen thousands of CGI shots and didn’t even realize that’s what they were. The only CGI you notice is bad CGI.

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u/Outrageous-Wait-8895 1h ago

while cgi always is " ah .... not real"

lol

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u/BulbusDumbledork 1h ago

cgi is the lazy way out, because laziness is recreating every pixel of the real world in the shot from the lighting, to modelling every single prop and character, to animating everything that moves on purpose, to doing physics simulations for everything else, to making photo-real surfaces and materials, to compositing it into real footage so seamlessly you think there isn't cgi at all. you only notice obvious or bad cgi and think that's all it is.

those thousands of vfx artists spending thousands of hours expertly mixing art and technology to make modern movies possible are just so lazy

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u/Exciting-Cancel6468 34m ago

I think its easier than commanding several hundred people march in a forest where the ground isnt level and run a camera that can only run for 3 minutes at a time to where you have to tell the hundred people to reset their cues and do it all again all while making sure your aperture is right and your angle is right and no one accidentally left a coffee cup in a shot.

CGI is definitely easier than that.

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u/bdubwilliams22 2h ago

CGI is different from VFX. VFX still uses shot video, but using computers it’s stripped in. CGI is completely computer generated. The only obvious CGI that I saw was the cyclops scene and that creature by the whirlpool. Off the top of my head. Nolan really doesn’t like to use CGI, he does however utilize VFX quite frequently.

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u/Ellimis 1h ago

Go watch Inception or Dark Knight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFLcP-t0-kI

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u/pokerstar420 2h ago

Except when you use flame to depict a nuclear explosion instead of CGI

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u/CorrectPeanut5 2h ago

Eh, the Atomic bomb blast in Oppenheimer wasn't anything like the real thing. It's the key scene to the whole movie and he should have used CGI.

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u/Independent-Bug-9352 1h ago

Completely agree. That scene was so anticlimactic. Should've just aimed for making the best CGI recreations with consultation from physicists that was as accurate as possible.