Despite the trend to claim ‘no CGI’ was used, VFX continued to play a crucial role in most big movies in 2024. It helped create fictional worlds like Arrakis in Dune, fantastical creatures like the xenomorphs in Alien: Romulus and all-out magic in Wicked (also see our pick of the best CGI movie moments of all time).
But which were the best movies for VFX? The Oscars remains a couple of months away, but we’ve drawn up our own list of the best VFX movies of 2024, including what may be a couple of controversial choices.
01. Alien: Romulus VFX
There’s been a lot of talk about the heavy use of practical effects in Alien: Romulus. But, although lots of physical models were used, VFX was used widely for everything from props to set-extensions, digi-doubles and creatures. Indeed, the fact that the practical effects are getting such acclaim could be a sign of how good the VFX was, with the CGI enhancing the film rather than overpowering it.
VFX were led by Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) VFX supervisor Nelson Sepulveda. He’s noted that although there were animatronic xenomorphs, many of the xenograph shots were CG or CG enhanced/replaced. Director Fede Álvarez struck a great balance, dialing back CGI when it became too much, part of his aim to take sci-fi/horror franchise back to its roots. Also check out the Alien: Romulus concept art
02. Dune: Part Two VFX
We can’t talk about VFX in 2024 and not mention Dune. For me, it was the most beautiful movie of the year. Many factors that contributed to that, from the photography and blocking to the use of vintage lenses, but the VFX played a huge role.
As we saw in our roundup of Dune design secrets, Denis Villeneuve used various techniques to create the unique aesthetic of Arrakis. Like with the first film, sand-coloured screens were used instead of (or as well as) traditional green or blue screens to make the desert light look more realistic and to avoid colour contamination. When inverted, the sand colour becomes blue, suitable for keying for VFX.
And then there’s the sandworms, of course. DNEG’s incredible VFX continue to capture the sheer scale, speed and power of the fantastical creature.
03. Talking creatures in Wicked
Jon M. Chu’s big screen adaptation of the musical was in danger of becoming most famous for the Wicked poster controversy, but the film has been delighting audiences with its mix of a strong story, show-stopping choreography, and a lot of magic.
As the film is set in a magical world, ILM’s VFX work was crucial to immersing the audience in a setting where even gravity may not be as it seems. The story required artists to tackle one of the most difficult things you can do in CGI: taking animals! Characters like the goat Professor Dillamond used almost no motion capture. Instead, the creatures’ faces were entirely original CG animation.
ILM visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman proposed the creation of a a dedicated ‘animal unit’ of about 15 people who would stand in and perform for digital characters on set, allowing a more organic approach then what would be possible using green screen alone (or blue screen due to the challenge’s caused by Elphaba’s green skin tone. This allowed for the director to capture “happy accidents” that weren’t in the script.
04. The mix of subtle and dramatic VFX in Here
Many people think the best VFX movies tend to be in the sci-fi or fantasy genres, but Robert Zemeckis’s drama Here has some of the most interesting VFX of 2024. Most notably, AI was used to de-age Tom Hanks, but there were plenty of other examples of VFX, some of them very subtle.
The film’s unusual concept with its fixed camera position created a lot of challenges for DNEG, which was tasked with creating a sense of place across millennia. As Visual Effects Supervisor Alexander Seaman told us, “when you haven’t got a moving camera, everything in your scene has to move”.
The most complex parts included the prehistoric sequence, which included a falling meteor, dinosaurs, and – most difficult of all – melting snow. “That required a huge amount of careful simulation to art direct exactly where the snow melted and at what point, and over what period of time,” Alexander told us.
And then there was the exception to that fixed camera position at the end of the film. It’s such a subtle transition you don’t notice it until it’s happened, but it was a massive challenge to pull off. At one point the set becomes entirely digital because the physical set didn’t cater for such a camera-move.
“What was challenging about that shot was that the camera rotates around our actors, then exits through a window that never actually exists, and then settles on a neighbourhood which is entirely digital,” Alexander said.
DNEG also used AI to create subtle “melty” environmental transitions. Martine Bertrand, Senior Researcher in Artificial Intelligence (AI), came up with a workflow that involved generating the key frames with a latent generative model and then stringing them together with Google’s Large Motion-Frame Interpolation model.
05. Mufasa: The Lion King
Released just in time for Christmas, Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King may be a controversial choice on our list of the best VFX of 2024. A lot of people don’t care for Disney’s move towards a mix of live action and CGI (see the reaction to the Snow White trailer!), but this photorealistically animated feature is undeniably impressive.
But MPC’s photoreal computer-generated imagery achieves an incredible level of detail and fidelity. The style may leave some fans of the original Lion King cold, but this modern look is stunning audiences.
MPC also worked on 2019’s Lion King (Mufasa is both a prequel and sequel), so it had already perfected its virtual production workflow. See our Lion King CGI behind the scenes piece and our round up of the best CGI creature design.
For more recaps on the year that’s coming to an end, see our piece on the best uses of Unreal Engine in 2024.