Aquaman has been a box office hit that has been largely praised for its use of visual effects. Since so much of the story takes place underwater, VFX were going to be key to making Atlantis feel like it was a real place. Now, one of the studios responsible for that work has shared a peek at what the movie looked like before all that work was done. Check it out.
These pictures come courtesy of HALON Entertainment, a studio that has done digital work on both films and video games like The Meg and the recent God of War. They show a number of shots from Aquaman in various stages of the process.
We see a shot of the final battle that looks like it's taking place on a really foggy day rather than on the ocean floor. Jason Momoa and Amber Heard and embracing in the water and the wires holding her up are still visible. We also see Heard using her water abilities in an unfinished form and Momoa riding a seahorse with the unfinished battle in the background.
It's great to see images like this because they make clear just how much work is really done by the visual effects studios. A movie like Aquaman has so much of it take place underwater that eventually you're likely to stop noticing it. However, every second of footage that is shot like that requires a lot of work to make it look like no visual effects work is being done at all.
If the work is done badly then you realize you're looking at visual effects the entire time. When it's done well, you get to ignore it to focus on the characters and the story. Of course, since you eventually stop noticing the work, it's nice to have this reminder of everything that was done to make Aquaman work.
While Aquaman isn't the best reviewed DC movie to date, many have praised the film's visual style and use of effects. What the movie may lack in critical praise, it has more than made up for in box office success. Aquaman is the highest grossing DC movie to date and that's at least partially due to the fact that the VFX are the sort of thing that you want to be sure to see on a massive movie screen.
With success like Aquaman has seen we can all be fairly certain that we'll get a sequel before too long. This means we'll get to see these impressive effects once again. Of course, there will be an expectation that a sequel takes things to the next level. It will be exciting to see what they come up with.
