A lot of work for the stunning scene.
A lot of professionals in the movie industry believe that practical effects are better than pure CGI, and Michael Bay, who directed 2007's Transformers, is among them.
Did you know that the flashy scene where Optimus Prime and Megatron crash through a building was shot using real props? I'm sure you do if you're a fan of the franchise, but if you're more into effects than films themselves, here is some interesting info for you.
The VFX studio Industrial Light & Magic created a 1:4 miniature to make sure every small piece of the destroyed setup was as random and realistic as possible, without expensive simulations.
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As filmmaker and VFX artist Rassoul Edji shared, the CG robots were later added to the shot, replacing green-screened constructions.
"When doing live-action films, it is always a good idea to shoot physically as much as possible. This provides the VFX artists with real world reference to ground their work in and allows them to compliment the shot with CG elements," Edji said. "One of the reasons the original Transformers trilogy looks so good is because of the incredible blend of practical and digital effects. It is difficult to watch the film and spot what is real and what is CG.
This footage adds to the collection of impressive Transformers feats we've shown before. Don't forget to check out how the Driller scene from Transformers: Dark of the Moon, made with 70,000 individual parts, was done, taking ILM 288 hours per frame to render.
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Digital Domain
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