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.

[u/padfoony]

[u/HeartOn_SoulAceUp]

The CGI people were on set at every scene taking notes to LATER enhance it, but Nolan went to great lengths for reality to start with, pre CGI phase. The boat is real too and they were really out in the ocean on it... very uncomfortable for actors and crew.

[u/SeeingEyeDug → u/HeartOn_SoulAceUp]

This is why those late 90’s and early 2000’s movies hold up so well in the earlier days of CGI. Like LoTR trilogy, Titanic, etc. They used practical effects and models and used CGI to enhance that.

[u/VegaJuniper → u/SeeingEyeDug]

LotR used more and more CGI as it went along. My favorite is still FotR: the battle of Amon Hen just has this incredible physicality while the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in RotK just looks like a video game cutscene. Partly it's because the battles became more massive and difficult to do practically, but also because the CGI evolved and they became more comfortable making it visible.

In FotR, you only see the eyes of Gollum briefly, because that's all they could do, the Balrog looks amazing because it's wreathed in shadows, with flames and smoke hiding its shape, etc.

[u/MrFlow → u/VegaJuniper]

the Balrog looks amazing because it's wreathed in shadows, with flames and smoke hiding its shape, etc.

That's also why the CGI T-Rex in Jurassic Park looks so amazing, it was dark and rainy when we first encounter it.

[u/MobileJob1521 → u/MrFlow]

And like 90% of the T-Rex shots are physical effects.

[u/CosmicX1 → u/MrFlow]

And the same thing for Pacific Rim. One of the big reasons why a movie about giant robots fighting giant monsters somehow looks believable. For the daytime shots it’s either foggy or a long distance shot.

A lot of directors seem to have lost sight of how to use CGI properly.