The DCEU is well known for its heavy use of CGI. It’s caused controversy in the past with its use of visual effects to cover Henry Cavill’s mustache in Justice League and has also been used to great effect in the underwater scenes of Aquaman. Without the huge CGI budgets some of the films would not look nearly as spectacular and some may actually see a vast improvement from this.
When done right CGI is completely invisible to the eye. Good visual effects should be mistaken for practical effects and melt into the scene. They should never stick out and you should be shocked when you learn that there was nothing real about the shot. The DCEU has managed to do this in the past so here’s 10 things in DCEU movies you didn’t know were CGI!
Themyscira Battle
Wonder Woman featured some amazing battles, with the trench sequence usually in everyone’s minds when they think about the movie. But, there’s another battle sequence which has a lot more CGI than you would think.
Usually for a big battle, a lot of the effects would be practical, with a few digital enhancements. The fantastical world of Themyscira was mostly digital though, with the ground really the only physical part. Even the horse was CGI so that it didn’t injure anyone in the fight and many of the soldiers were simply digitally duplicated.
Underwater Hair
Hair is a difficult thing to shoot underwater. It’s unpredictable and can get in the way of an actors face. When digitally adding water there’s a similar issue, with the shot becoming more complicated if the hair has to be made to look as if it is floating.
Therefore, the best thing to do is to get all the actors in Aquaman to pin back their hair, so they can add some digitally and maneuver it however they want. It’s a far simpler process and you would never know that that isn’t actually their real hair!
Zod’s Armor
Man of Steel was the first installment into the DC Extended Universe and set the groundwork for what was to come. It relied a lot on practical costumes, including most of the Kryptonians although one was surprisingly entirely CGI.
Despite other armor from Krypton being a real suit, for most of the film and the stunts involved, Zod’s armor was actually all CGI, with the actor wearing a slim fitting suit with tracking marks on them. It isn’t quite as impressive in person as on screen but the end effect looks very real.
Mall Customers
In Shazam there’s a big fight scene through the mall, where Billy is punched straight through the building. During the scene there are a number of onlookers who are just watching the action unfold without running away; there’s been a lot of speculation from fans about these people.
The truth is that they are just members of the crew who have accidentally walked into shot. To disguise this the digital team has added bags, mops and a trolley to make them look like cleaning crew and shoppers. You would never know that anything CGI has happened to the background of the shot.
Bat Suit
Batman Vs. Superman didn’t actually contain much of the fight that was promised. The epic showdown was cut short although we did see a comics accurate adaptation of the Bat armor used to fight the Man of Steel. It’s an impressive costume, but much like Zod’s before it, not at all real.
Usually the Bat suits are actually designed to be worn by the actor to get the right physicality and proportions. But because this would have been so large and heavy and requires a lot of movement, for most the fight scenes it’s easier to just CGI the suit onto the actor. Most of the time it wasn’t even Ben Affleck behind the digital artistry!
Russian City
During the big finale of Justice League the team race to Russia to help the people in a city that’s getting destroyed by the presence of a Mother Box. It’s a huge battle and is pretty spectacular, although often looks like a lot of CGI smoke is covering some of the action.
It’s not just the smoke that’s CGI though. Nearly none of that city is real or shot on location. It’s all done on green screen which could explain why it’s sometimes difficult to track where our heroes are geographically. This was to make production cheaper and for it to be easier to carry out the stunts that were needed for each scene.
Enchantress Costume
Another enchanting costume now and you’d be surprised at how much of it is actually CGI. The Enchantress outfit is actually pretty comic accurate and it’s obvious it’s been digitally enhanced to make it seem much more magical.
But in reality Cara Delevingne was actually wearing only a very thin base outfit where most of the costume was layered on top. Nearly all the green parts of the costume were CGI, as was the helmet. It has since been made into a practical costume and was practical in some scenes but the majority of the finale had an entirely CGI suit.
Wonder Woman’s Stomach
The filming of her own movie provided a bit of a problem however. For some of the shoot she was actually pregnant and showed signs of this. Therefore, CGI was actually used on her stomach to hide that fact that she was with child. It’s still noticeable from wide shots which Gadot herself finds hilarious.
Atlantis
Atlantis is an impressive structure and it would be no surprise to say that the exterior is designed out of digital components to make it seem more fantastical. But the CGI doesn’t stop there!
Most of the interior shots were also through CGI, with a green screen being used to fill in the gaps. This is to make it a lot easier to add the underwater effects when it came time to submerge Atlantis into the depths of the ocean.
Superman’s Cape
Cape’s are often a practical part of the costume in order to help the actor get into character. It’s also easier than tracking it into a scene but it can sometimes get in the way. The tech wizards in the DCEU thought it was easier to CGI Superman’s cape in Justice League.
So every shot with Superman in has been filmed without a cape. The rest of the suit is real but there is no flowing red piece of cloth hanging from the back of him. This makes it a lot easier to do stunts though and made the filming day a lot smoother. Then it was digitally placed back in with reference to previous films.
