50 CGI Scenes You Didn't Notice
Digital magic

Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005)
CGI Scenes: Worried about alienating their pre-teen audience, Disney reportedly spent a huge amount of cash having Lindsay Lohan's boobs digitally reduced for this family adventure.
Why It's Special: Audiences were allowed to concentrate on Herbie 's fun-filled storyline, as opposed to Lindsay's jugs. Dads in the audience must have been thrilled.

Return Of The Jedi (1983)
CGI Scene: In the 2004 DVD re-release, Sebastian Shaw's de-helmeted Vader has his eyebrows digitally removed to reflect the burns suffered by the younger version of his character in Revenge Of The Sith .
Why It's Special: It's a rare example of George Lucas tinkering with his original creation for the better.

Forrest Gump #1 (1994)
CGI Scene: The post-war sequences featuring Gary Sinise's double amputee, whose legs were digitally removed to create the effect.
Why It's Special: It was a pioneering effect that showed how CGI could be hugely effective in hiding elements of a picture, as well as adding things in.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)
CGI Scene: Most of the exterior shots in Hedestad, where the wintery landscape is made even more chilling with the addition of some CGI weather.
Why It's Special: Fincher's take on this nordic tale is a visual treat throughout, but his exterior shots are truly gorgeous.

Gladiator #1 (2000)
CGI Scene: Maximus enters the Colosseum for the first time, and the effect is enough to make even the most hardened warrior check his step.
Why It's Special: Of course we know that the Colosseum no longer looks like it does here, but without that prior knowledge, this shot would be more than enough to convince you otherwise.

Gladiator #2 (2000)
CGI Scene: Some of Oliver Reed's scenes needed to be completed after the actor's sad death during filming. Thanks to the wonders of CGI, his performance remains intact.
Why It's Special: Reed is excellent in Gladiator , and it would have been a terrible shame not to complete his character's story arc.

The Change-Up #1 (2011)
CGI Scene: Leslie Mann goes topless in this ryan Reynolds comedy vehicle, but wait… those aren't her boobs.
Why It's Special: Bizarrely, the studio decided to give Mann some surgical enhancement, courtesy of their digital team, although according to the actress it was all her own work. "It was really hard, but some people can do that, and I can,"laughs Mann. "It’s a strange talent I have."

The Fighter #1 (2010)
CGI Scene: Mickey holds up a napkin with Charlene's number on it. However, the number had to be digitally altered to confirm with broadcast laws, so that entire napkin is a CGI composition.
Why It's Special: It's the perfect example of non-intrusive CGI you would never have known was there.

Fight Club (1999)
CGI Scene: The Narrator's apartment explodes, in a beautiful example of photogrammetery. That's the use of photographs to create wire-frame 3D models of a set. Just FYI.
Why It's Special: David Fincher employed the technique so as to avoid the reflection of the camera being seen in the stove's shiny surface. That's attention to detail...

Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of The Clones (2002)
CGI Scene: The early scenes featuring C3P0 on Tattooine were initially shot with a skeletal, pre-plating version of the camp rust-bucket. The scene in which he is eventually plated up was cut, so Lucas had ILM graft a digital version over the original figure.
Why It's Special: It doesn't jar even half as much as some of George's digital "upgrades" to the original trilogy!

Shutter Island (2010)
CGI Scene: As the boat approaches the titular island, the landmass looms out of the murk looking just about as ominous as an island can manage… with the aid of CGI of course.
Why It's Special: The pre-CGI island actually looks quite cheery. This one positively brims with menace, without looking fake.

The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
CGI Scene: As Matt Damon and Emily Blunt tear through various crowded streets at the film's big finale, you could be forgiven for not noticing that most of the backdrops are computer-generated.
Why It's Special: The bustling cityscape they're running through is utterly convincing. Marvellous stuff.

Monsters (2010)
CGI Scene: The post-apocalyptic backdrops, including barricades, ruined buildings, warning signs etc. were all added in post-production.
Why It's Special: Incredibly, Gareth Edwards created most of said effects using Adobe After Effects, a visual effects package available to any wannabe filmmaker with a microscopic budget.

A Beautiful Mind (2001)
CGI Scene: The scene with the baby in the bath was filmed in an empty tub, with that perilously deep water added in after the event.
Why It's Special: The effect is so convincing, and the scene so terrifying that you don't even stop to think that filming this naturally would probably have be a bit cruel!

Panic Room (2002)
CGI Scene: As the camera pulls back from the bedroom and takes a tour through the various layers of the house, most of what you're seeing has been digitally mapped out using CGI.
Why It's Special: The CGI is totally unobtrusive, but allows for a continuous shot that's dizzying in its complexity.

X-Men: First Class (2011)
CGI Scene: When Magneto swims towards the boat moored out at see, who would have guessed that the whole thing was a CGI fake?
Why It's Special: Obviously there's plenty of CGI in play when Mags starts using his powers, but we had thought the initial shot of the ship was real!

The Social Network (2010)
CGI Scene: Any of those in which Armie Hammer's head is grafted onto Josh Pence's body to create the illusion of the Winklevoss twins.
Why It's Special: Had we not already known that the trick was being used, there's no way we would have picked it. Those Hammer twins were mighty talented, no? Wait, what?

Jurassic Park (1992)
CGI Scene: When the T-Rex investigates the light coming from the kiddies' car. A prize for anyone who notices the moment when CGI is swapped in for the animatronic head…
Why It's Special: To pull off such a thoroughly convincing piece of CGI without the join being remotely noticeable… well, it's a masterpiece isn't it?

Zodiac (2007)
CGI Scene: Most of the exterior shots of 1970s San Francisco were entirely computer-generated.
Why It's Special: Most directors would attempt to wing their period detail by hoping fancy costumes would distract the viewer's eye. Not Fincher, who instead decided to recreate a period city through an incredibly detailed process of digital rendering.
George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.


































