Special Effects

Special Effects:

The Jungle Book (2016)

I recently saw The Jungle Book and was absolutely amazed by how real the animals appeared in the movie. I researched and found that the entire movie was shot on a sound stage in Los Angeles. There was only one human performer, the rest was CGI animated animals. 

“We motion captured Neel, and we had humans kind of mimicking the animals he talked to so we could see a live digital composite of Neel with the dialogue with the bear or other animals, so we created eyelines for him to look at,” Legato explained. “That was essentially the shot, and then we took that apart on a blueprint basis and replicated it on stage, because we liked that shot, liked the composition.” 

https://www.inverse.com/article/14351-how-the-jungle-book-made-its-animals-look-so-real-with-groundbreaking-vfx

I couldn't believe how realistic these animals looked throughout the film. I was also blown away by how talented the young actor was. Acting without any actual animal had to be incredibly challenging. I have seen this in other films, such as avatar. Rob Legato worked on visual effects for both of these films, and I can definitely see the similarities.