Too much CGI in Skyfall ? Or just Obvious CGI that wasn't needed ?

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  • imranbecksimranbecks Singapore
    Posts: 984
    I too did not notice that the helicopters were CGI. The komodo dragons and Silva's face when he removed the dentures were obvious CGI, but they weren't really bad CGI.
  • Posts: 1,548
    The CGI work was fine IMO. Dont know why anyone would whinge about it to be honest. It's hardly noticeable which suggests the VFX team did their job, unlike the Die Another Day Iceberg-Consultant!
  • While there was a lot of digital work in the movie, there was also a rather welcome return of physical miniatures (rather large) for the manor siege. Details on that, along with a Deakins interview, at: http://www.hdvideopro.com/display/features/secret-agent-man.html
  • Fellow fans, I've just seen Skyfall and I don't understand why you think there was CGI that ruined the film. The problem is that you can't just sit back and enjoy a film, you're always searching for something to bitch about. As for the reptile, this isn't a documentary, its fantasy.
  • I've no problem with the CGI in this film it all looked fab..I;m going to see it again next week so will look out for some of the stuff you guys are pointing out. I love the bit when Bardem takes out his teeth! just so creepy.
  • Posts: 5
    CGI didn't ruin the film by any means. The only part that bothered me were the superimposed faces on the bike chase (just film the stuntmen from the distance!) and some of the abandoned city bit (not the helicopters). Still, it's one of the best Bond movies ever.
  • Posts: 278
    Oh My God, get real people. There is relatively little CGI in the film. Wht do you want them to do, put DC in a pit with 2 6 foot Dragons when you can CGI them? Dont forget, in the old days CGI wasn't available so they had to do it for real. I'm Sure Connery would have been happy for a CGI shark to pass him in Thunderball.
    The difference is that they could have filmed the whole of the Pre-titles sequence using CGI, but they chose to have the actors on top of the trains. Even the race over the rooftops they used stunt actors, rather than CGI.
    If you want to see CGI overused then go buy Tnansformers or some other similar crap.
  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,217
    On the very positive side, the special effects used on the explosion at MI6 HQ were flawless. Extremely good.
  • Some other (less obvious) CGI elements...

    When Bond and Patrice are fighting on the train, the trees which you see passing by in front of them are CGI.

    When Bond falls off the waterfall after he is shot in the PTS, his body which you see dropping is CGI.

    The scorpion from the drinking game scene.

    In the scene where Patrice goes up the glass elevator and Bond jumps and grabs the lift shaft, that's a CGI body aswell.

  • imranbecksimranbecks Singapore
    Posts: 984
    Some other (less obvious) CGI elements...

    The scorpion from the drinking game scene.

    In the scene where Patrice goes up the glass elevator and Bond jumps and grabs the lift shaft, that's a CGI body aswell.

    I thought the scorpion was real... It looked incredibly realistic though...

    As for the one with Bond jumping and grabbing the elevator, I don't think that was CGI.. It was probably a stuntman that did that move as we only saw the back of Bond doing it. After that, we cut to Craig dangling on the elevator with the green screen. It was a nice move by the way to grab the elevator!
  • JamesCraigJamesCraig Ancient Rome
    Posts: 3,497
    Lol... the scorpion looks real enough.

  • The scorpion was pretty well done. Also a large majority of Silva's island was CGI. They used the same technique as they used in Inception when they showed Cobb's crumbled dream world. The bit with the elevator was in fact CGI also. If you look closely the lighting doesn't quite match. It's a minor thing really, didn't spoil the enjoyment at all, just trivia :D
  • JamesCraigJamesCraig Ancient Rome
    edited November 2012 Posts: 3,497
    The scorpion was pretty well done. Also a large majority of Silva's island was CGI. They used the same technique as they used in Inception when they showed Cobb's crumbled dream world. The bit with the elevator was in fact CGI also. If you look closely the lighting doesn't quite match. It's a minor thing really, didn't spoil the enjoyment at all, just trivia :D

    I hate to be mr negative here, but... the long shots of the island are real, it's Hashima island in Japan.

    They filmed the "inside" of the island at Pinewood and the only added CGI are the helicopters.

    On a side note: the CGI in Inception looks more than realistic, and was done by the same company that worked on Skyfall (& CR & QOS).
  • Yes you're correct. The actual island is a real island, I was referring to those 'inside' shots, particularly one shot where Silva's henchmen are leading Bond and Severine down the street towards Silva's 'lair'. You can spot the CGI again because there's a slight scale issue and with the lighting, but overall they did a superb job- convincing green screening and compositing is not an easy thing to do.
  • JamesCraigJamesCraig Ancient Rome
    Posts: 3,497
    Yes you're correct. The actual island is a real island, I was referring to those 'inside' shots, particularly one shot where Silva's henchmen are leading Bond and Severine down the street towards Silva's 'lair'. You can spot the CGI again because there's a slight scale issue and with the lighting, but overall they did a superb job- convincing green screening and compositing is not an easy thing to do.

    And again, the inside was constructed at Pinewood. I'm not saying they didn't use CGI, but most of it is real.
  • The CGI was fine, hardly noticed. Thankfully it's a lot better than the dark days of DAD!!
  • JamesCraig wrote:
    I hate to be mr negative here, but... the long shots of the island are real, it's Hashima island in Japan.

    They filmed the "inside" of the island at Pinewood and the only added CGI are the helicopters.

    I'm pretty convinced the first shot of Bond seen close (with handcuffs, seen from the back) with the 12 or so storey building in the back is green screen.

    As for the long shot, I think the island is CGIed, even just to make it "more abandoned" than it is (ie : no sign of the growing vegetation that must be all over the real place, I think).

    But, well, frankly it looked quite fake to me, it felt to me so far away from the huge sets of the past. The camera was so static, etc.

  • JamesCraigJamesCraig Ancient Rome
    edited November 2012 Posts: 3,497
    I seem to have missed the part where I said that everything on Silva's island was built at Pinewood. But most of it was.

    The long shots are not fake. And how a static camera takes you away from the sets of the past is something beyond me. Believe, they used CGI/green screens on those as well.

    Here's the island, looks like it was shown in the movie:


    http://www.google.be/search?num=10&hl=nl&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1680&bih=801&q=hashima+island&oq=hashima+island&gs_l=img.3..0l2j0i24l3.691.1966.0.2097.14.7.0.0.0.0.252.454.2-2.2.0...0.0...1ac.1.DqUrgsoqgpE
  • imranbecksimranbecks Singapore
    Posts: 984
    Wow... How is it that all this time, I did not know they used Hashima Island as a setting? Was it mentioned anywhere during the Skyfall production?
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,355
  • JamesCraigJamesCraig Ancient Rome
    edited November 2012 Posts: 3,497
    Go to www.movie-locations.com for further information.

    Too bad you can't visit Pinewood Studios. #-o
  • Posts: 198
    RyanKint wrote:
    The PTS also has some very dodgy CGI as well. The scene with the digger also slowed the pace. Why didn't patrice just wait for bond to climb over the digger arm and shoot him then?
    Patrice was out of ammo. That's also why he threw his gun away.
  • Posts: 198
    The only obvious CGI for me was one or two moments on the bike with Craig's face. But that didn't disturb me. Also I thought the MI6 blow up looked better on screen than in the trailer!
  • Does anyone know if a crew were sent to shoot real background plates for the long shots of the island? on the subject of the CGI in the film I thought it was all really well done. I am quite surprised to hear the scorpian was CGI !!!...I also thought the scene when
    Silva removes his dentures
    was really well done. While the helicopters arriving at the island were probably CGI I thought they looked quite good and certainly didn't spoil the film for me....this also applies to the Komodo dragons.
  • Funny, I never noticed the CGI until I started reading this thread. I was too busy enjoying the movie it seems, so to most people it's probably not that obvious. I wouldn't expect it in the dragon and helicopter parts, maybe that's why it didn't occur to me. When Brosnan was riding that wave in DAD it was a bit more expected.
  • JamesCraig wrote:
    The long shots are not fake.

    As the images you link to show, after 40 years of abandon, the vegetation has started to come back like in any other abandoned places. Silva's lair had to look abandoned less recently, and it means at least the vegetation was CGI cleared I think. And from memory, the long shot is a static one (with some pan at best) with the boat approaching, it could even be 2D matte painting. I remember no flyover of the zone in particular.
    JamesCraig wrote:
    And how a static camera takes you away from the sets of the past is something beyond me.

    Because with a true set you can have a sense of space by moving the camera everywhere, having focus reacting realistically (obviously, since it's real !).
    Very costly to do with CGI, even today miniatures would be used first I think.
    JamesCraig wrote:
    Believe, they used CGI/green screens on those as well.

    When Bond is fighting in the tanker of TSWLM, you simple "see" he's inside something huge indeed, no CGI/green screen there.



  • I'm pretty convinced the first shot of Bond seen close (with handcuffs, seen from the back) with the 12 or so storey building in the back is green screen.

    This is the exact shot I was talking about. It's definitely CGI. The rest of it might not have been, but that one shot is definitely green-screened. Maybe they didn't like the original take of it so they redid it virtually. No way to know, but it's green-screened.

    A little off topic, - did anyone notice in the Skyfall trailers, there's a shot of Patrice falling from the Shanghai building after the silhouette fight, but in the trailer it looks completely different to the theatrical release version?

  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,217

    I'm pretty convinced the first shot of Bond seen close (with handcuffs, seen from the back) with the 12 or so storey building in the back is green screen.

    This is the exact shot I was talking about. It's definitely CGI. The rest of it might not have been, but that one shot is definitely green-screened. Maybe they didn't like the original take of it so they redid it virtually. No way to know, but it's green-screened.

    A little off topic, - did anyone notice in the Skyfall trailers, there's a shot of Patrice falling from the Shanghai building after the silhouette fight, but in the trailer it looks completely different to the theatrical release version?

    And the trailer one was so much better. There must be a reason why they dropped it.
  • I was very impressed with the CGI around Skyfall Lodge (a set in Surrey). The mountains in the distance and the lake in the foreground. Seamlessly matched up with the approach shots filmed at Glen Coe.
  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,217
    I was very impressed with the CGI around Skyfall Lodge (a set in Surrey). The mountains in the distance and the lake in the foreground. Seamlessly matched up with the approach shots filmed at Glen Coe.

    I have to say, the entire final sequence of the film was immaculate on the technical front, superbly lit especially.
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