Behind the Magic: The Visual Effects of Alien: Romulus

[@oenchanteddoveart6294]

People seriously don’t understand how much of a work of art cgi is. The complexity of how you teach it to behave in a certain way takes hundreds of people. Loved the visuals in this!

[@KennyJ.]

The Spaceship crashing is probably the best VFX that has been created in a while. Correct lighting, behavior in ice… absolutely flawless.

[@PentaPrismMusic]

Totally agree. Unfortunate that they didn't show it here. Would be nice to see if the 'glitter effect' of the ice is a shader layer or supersampled.

[@AllisonRoadWest]

Darn I was hoping they were going to show it.

[@captainviggo4575]

This particular shot appears in Weta's 2024 showreel, so I guess it was not done by ILM.

[@MattFiler]

I think this is the first time I've watched a VFX reel and been genuinely shocked at how much was CG - I was totally convinced that a lot more things in the film were practical models/sets/suits. Incredible work to get everything not only moving so believably, but lit and grounded in the world so convincingly!

[@PierceArner]

SO many brilliant examples of using the right tools for the job. The X-ray Chestburster scene is so subtle but spectacular, while all the space & Xenomorph shots that swap practical & CGI elements are basically invisible when they're one or the other.

[@A_M_Bobb]

Incredible work. The CGI ships (and the aliens themselves) look top-notch.

[@evdokmv]

Visual effects in the movie was top notch! That first shot of the ship flying up from the planet surface was amazing! Such an inspiration!

[@ericpeterson4657]

Just WOW!!!! Amazing work, great job. The effects when she put the light behind her body so it could see through to the alien, superb.

[@11MV]

Deserve your credit for the great effects since everyone loves to just say everything is practical

[@acledfloyd]

It’s amazing how detailed the models are then they are put in darkness. Amazing work!

[@mamelco]

Seeing the shot of the ship impacting the asteroid belt singlehandedly made me interested to stream the film! Great work

[@jwtrailers5317]

I love it when filmmakers harp on about practical effects and then ILM just casually drop a video showing how much CGI is used.

[@AT1972ASDF]

A KZbinr called The Movie Rabbit Hole did a 4-part series on films that say "no cgi" but are actually just doing "hidden CGI." Really interesting, for anyone who hasn't seen it

[@divBy0]

What are you talking about, we all know CG sucks. This was all practical effects. The computer images you must have just been previs tests to figure out how to build everything practical!!!;-)

[@adarnia]

​@@divBy0 its both. The CG in this are awesome 👌

[@drphobia6214]

One of the finest vfx studio ❤

[@mimbarfirmansah1748]

i just had goosebumps while watching space station crash into asteroid belt scene, this is magic!!!

[@The9PointStar]

Crazy stuff the amount of details the spaceships have, insane

[@unicornhuntercg]

"No CGI at all, all practical"

[@श्रीजनरिजाल]

Tom Cruise and Christopher Nolan tried to hide the hard work of VFX artists for so long, even others started adapting it. A real shame. This "No CGI" bullshit train ain't stopping any time soon.

[@unicornhuntercg]

@श्रीजनरिजाल fr it's embarassing they still do the "No CG at all" marketting gimmick

[@gnosjo]

It's so sad that we're in this timeline where studios and sometimes even directors won't acknowledge and sometimes even lie about your hard work. This looks awesome.

[@TheMovieRabbitHole]

THAT is lovely. Thank you very much

[@YoutubeAlgorithm01]

ALLRIGHT, Gonna watch the movie again, thank you

[@decibelfilm]

Such a good looking sci-fi movie - I didn't expect every department on this production to 100% live up to the charm, invention, and atmosphere, of the earlier movies but you truly all did. Maybe the best looking (and sounding) movie of the year.

[@ItsAnIsaac]

This has got to be some of the best space cinematography I've ever seen. Top notch work!

[@michaelcooney9368]

The Alien shuttle rocket exhaust was spray nozzles in a focused light beam suspended over a camera. I like the plasma splattery rocket flame recreation.

[@helixvfx8569]

Just incredible!!! You guys created quite a masterpiece with this film! It's incredible!

[@imperfect_smile]

The effects on this movie were god tier, good job.

[@coreyfisler8663]

Ilm did work great.

[@TeddyLeppard]

The fast-moving rings made no sense from a physics standpoint, but it did help create a very memorable cinematic moment.

[@halfvader8015]

Indeed. That'd be the "fiction" part. And the filmmaking/narrative/drama/structure and... but as my friend said to me when I started on all the things that made no sense even from a movie standpoint - "don't pick at the thread"! 😂

[@MystiicMadness]

Amazing! Nice to see the practical ships being made even if they do get digitally scanned after

[@yarisTSk]

as always, superb.

[@AslanAlmukhambetov]

Incredible work!! Shame the marketing team was playing the "no cgi" card while promoting the movie.

[@Max-bu5ky]

This breakdown needed to come out sooner. Really sad to see the director and the marketing team downplay or ignore the amazing work the VFX team have made. Videos like this should be placed in behind the scenes videos and discussions rather than the director claiming that you could watch the film with no CGI.

[@blackfoxstudioX]

Saw it in Imax, it was SOO Good!

[@samuelsherman5513]

Just seeing this compared to something like the trailer for the new Captain America is just such a night and day difference of great use of CGI vs a rushed unfinished looking product

[@auntvesuvi3872]

Thanks for this! 🎬

[@trizvfx]

Wonderful work ILM!

[@Nedry92]

ok im gonna watch this goddamn movie AGAIN!!

[@anthonypc-248]

The realistically restricted motion of cinematography helps sell the realism of the full CGI shots.

[@andrewdunn8259]

Alien Romulus short talk with Fede Alvarez goes through all the details and colour choices for the sets

[@vfxfan]

I'm waiting to see the magic behind Wicked, and maybe even Sonic 3.

[@ashleyartus1193]

👏👏👏👏👏👏🤝🤝🤝🙌🙌🙌❤❤

[@shardik]

Such greeble

[@T-Hazza]

I knew the vehicle models were scanned in to make CG versions but I thought the scanned vehicles would be used for movements that cant be done with physical models, I thought they would shoot the physical models on camera like the Org star wars movies!! also what shots of the xeno in the movie was a guy in costume?

[@halfvader8015]

The ones where they barely move! Same for the animatronics.

[@A_M_Bobb]

The thing is that practical models are great reference but they still have "tells" primarily they don't react to light in the way a ship made of actual metal/paint/plastics/etc. would, they also would take a lot of post to sync up to the other elements (can't do thousands of shards of metal in space practically), and scale-wise there's only so close you can get before the small details feel "gloopy" ala paint and plastic pieces look toy-like.

[@collinblack]

fastest click of my life

[@cjkalandek996]

I love that they only used CGI for the Xenomorphs when they absolutely needed it (mainly for the wide shots) and relied more on practical effects whenever they could.

[@halfvader8015]

Yeah like any time they had to actually move!

[@2ndchannel-r7c]

In b4 anyone complains that Fede Álvarez said that they didn't use CGI. He literally never said that, he said that they used practical effects and blended techniques whenever possible. A ton of on-set reference, moreso than 90% of the films out there. And I think that's apparent in all the BTS and reels. And all of the CGI (aside from the uh deepfake) is pretty stunning and fantastic. Please don't start a flame war like in the other comments let's just appreciate the work here 🙏 EDIT: 5 minutes in and already got multiple comments about it dammit. Guys do some research If they bring back the puppet crew from Aliens (1986!) they're damn well allowed to mention it

[@halfvader8015]

You're making it simplistic too. It's absolutely the fault of the studio and marketing when it comes to the "it's all real!!" shenanigans, just as it was with Maverick. The narrative was pushed on this, and hard. And they were cherry-picking/choosing to only show clips where Alvarez talks practical. So, y'know, both things can be true.

[@xx_kuus_xx]

yeessssss practical effects ftw. although cgi is also good

[@davidolsen9425]

Notice that they didn’t show Rook😅

[@ILMVFX]

Considering that that wasn’t our work, it would make sense that it would not appear in an ILM breakdown.

[@davidolsen9425]

@ fair point! You woukd have done a better job.

[@peterlenham3180]

​@@davidolsen9425Its been improved.