History Main / PracticalEffects

Practical effects are those which are done using props or special gear to produce an effect for the camera to film. Wind- and rain-machines, squibs, radio controlled vehicles, {{Muppet}}s, and pyrotechnics are all practical effects. So are breakaway furniture, walls or windows, and tilting or shaking platforms under the set.

Rightly or wrongly, though, practical effects are seen by many as being in some way superior to ComputerGeneratedImages or CGI. Certainly early CGI was much more prone to SpecialEffectsFailure, the lower resolution, texturing and lighting flaws would push the images into the UncannyValley while even a bad practical effect could be seen to be physically real. The more modern [[ConspicuousCG CGI can still be very conspicuous]] compared to a well integrated practical effect. And an argument can be made that it's easier for actors to turn in a good performance when interacting with something physical.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' has an interesting example for an animated feature. Near the end as The Beast transforms back into a human, his body is engulfed by a large puff of smoke as it levitates into the air. The film's directors [[WordOfGod confirmed]] this wasn't a computer effect, but was actually a real smoke cloud they filmed using a store-bought smoke machine which was later inserted into the movie.

** ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'': ''Film/BatmanBegins'', ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' and ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' were all very conservative on the post production special effects. Only the most extravagant or dangerous stunts were performed in post production. But certain scenes like Bruce saving Ducard from sliding off the edge of a cliff was done on location, with the actual actors wearing the necessary safety lines. ''The Dark Knight'' managed to film the flipping of an 18-wheeler by...[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRgq12XOhjc actually flipping an 18-wheeler]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJmEZe3ICpY on the streets of Chicago.]] They got it in one try. The plane hijacking scene in ''Rises'' makes rather spectacular use of practical sets and stuntwork. The director of the trilogy.

* ''Film/CarnivalOfSouls'' had a miniscule budget that didn't leave much in the way for any special effects during post production. So to achieve the scene where the ghoul's face appears on Mary's passenger window while driving, director Herc Harvey sat in the back seat with a flashlight which, when turned on, would bounce his reflection off of a mirror rigged on the car's side and project it onto the window.

* Surprisingly, a majority of the deaths in ''Film/FinalDestination'' used a large amount of practical effects. For instance, when Rory is trisected in ''2'', the abdomen and legs are dummy mockups, while Rory's actor donned a green-screen suit from the chest down. The main use of CGI is to enhance some of the {{Gorn}} in the deaths.
* For ''Film/{{Fitzcarraldo}}'', director Creator/WernerHerzog made the insane decision to pull an actual 320 ton ship over a 40 degree inclining hill rather than pulling it up in pieces like the real Carlos Fitzcarrald did. Unsurprisingly the movie was a [[TroubledProduction bit of a nightmare]] to work on.

* Remember the "[[ScreenShake Star Trek Shake]]", with actors leaning to the left and the right while the camera shook? Well, in ''Film/GalaxyQuest'', the whole ''set'' did the shaking after being mounted on a gimbal. A nice bit of EnforcedMethodActing updating an old trick.

* ''Film/Godzilla1998'' used CG to create the title monster on screen, but the scene where Godzilla tries to eat the taxi the main characters are driving used a giant rig for the inside of his mouth while an animatronic Godzilla head was used to show him spitting it out. Other practical effect shots included an animatronic of Godzilla's upper body for close-ups, the monster's newborns which were portrayed by people in body suits, and a miniature of the Brooklyn Bridge for the scene where the military finally shoots the title monster down.

* The earlier ''Film/HarryPotter'' films mixed animatronics and CGI. Fawkes, generally speaking, is an animatronic when he's perched and CGI when he's flying. The animatronic Fawkes could even cry "real" tears for the scene when he heals Harry's arm. Supposedly, it was so convincing that Richard Harris thought it was a real bird, commenting "they sure do train those things well." In the spider grove scene from the second film, Aragog is animatronic and his children are CGI. Lupin's Werewolf form even had a practical suit with stilts made for certain shots though it was pretty much impossible to get realistic movement out of it so most of it is CGI. ([[SpecialEffectsEvolution CGI took over more as the series went along]]). Though it is likely due to the rising complexity of the film. WordOfGod states that if they could do it practically they did. Many of the creatures in the later films such as the inferi would have been impossible to do practically. Ginny shattering the prophecies in the fifth film was another one that would have been impossible to do practical, at least not within any reasonable amount of time or budget.

* ''Film/LadyInTheWater'' had the wolf-like Scruffs created on screen using sophisticated animatronics that not only moved with realism, but were also capable of running through the tall grass near the apartment complex using a track which the grass obscured.

* During the red lady scene in ''Film/TheMatrix'', while Morphius is explaining the dangers of agents to Neo you can see that everyone in crowd has a duplicate. Creator/TheWachowskis confirmed in a behind the scenes video that no CG was used for this scene, but rather they cast real twins instead [[note]] it's mentioned in the movie that the simulation was created by Mouse, and the doppleganger crowd is meant to suggest [[FridgeBrilliance that he finished half of the program, got lazy, and copy/pasted the assets he had]][[/note]].
* ''Film/TheMatrixReloaded'' had the iconic fight scene with the army of Agent Smiths end with Neo flying away, leaving the agents to look at each other before walking away. This shot was achieved by simply getting an actual group of people to stand behind Creator/HugoWeaving with the only CG being used to replace their heads with his; even then this was only done for those up front, [[FreezeFrameBonus as the actors in the back simply had makeup work done on them]] to vaugely resemble Hugo instead.

* ''Film/SpiderMan2'': Doctor Ocotpus' tentacles were often portrayed through puppetry instead of, or in conjocntion with, CGI, with the end result influencing the character's portrayals to this day.

* In ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' when Kirk and Saavik ride the turbolift, you'll notice that when it stops, a wall has been moved in to make it look like a different floor. The trick was used first in in the second pilot of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''. When Kirk, Spock, and Gary Mitchell ride the turbolift, a corridor wall is visible outside the doors when they close and the bridge is revealed when the doors open. They simply placed a wall outside the turbolift on the bridge set and wheeled it away while the doors were closed.

* The 2007 ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' film only had a handful of actors in front of green screens. While the robots were CGI of course, most of the stunts were entirely real, involving the actual actors [[EnforcedMethodActing shitting bricks while running from timed explosions]]. And even still there were a handful of images of the robots that were actually puppets: Frenzy in a few shots, Megatron's legs and even Bumblebee when strapped to a flat bed trailer.
* ''Film/{{Underworld|2003}}'' and its two follow-up films made a point of using practical effects for the werewolves, with CGI only really used in their transformation sequence. They were costumes that had built in stilts with animatronics used to move their faces. True to the perception of this trope, in ''Film/UnderworldAwakening'' the effects for Lycans take a rather blatant hit in quality due to relying strongly on CGI.

** "Public Property on Parade" Similar to the preceding example, prop-birds flee Mrs. Davis' Limburger omelette.

** For the Doozers, rather than using blue screens to insert them into scenes with the Fraggles like the rest of the show, the crew instead used miniature puppets and groundbreaking remote controlled animatronics in order for the two races to share screentime together.

* For the [[Film/TheJungleBook 1994 adaptation]] of ''Literature/TheJungleBook'', puppetry and animatronics were only used for Kaa since it would have been difficult to train a real snake for the movie; although CG was sometimes used for more difficult scenes with him.
* ''Film/JurassicPark'' is constantly lauded for its great use of combining practical and digital effects. It stands among [[Creator/StanWinston Stan Winston's]] greatest ever work, which is saying something. While the effects, both practical and computer generated, have aged very well (the CGI probably even has better musculature), scenes like the kitchen chase with the ''Velociraptors'' would have been much less taut without the ability for close ups of the 'raptors' faces or pots and pans being knocked and clashed and jangled by the dinosaurs.
* ''Film/KingKong1933'' is notable amongst stop motion enthusiasts for bringing the dinosaurs and title character to life through this method; while forgetting the other methods used to make them interact with the human characters. Sometimes the animation would be projected on a screen behind the actors, while other times the actors themselves are projected onto a miniature set frame by frame as the monsters were being animated. Not to mention that for close up scenes of Kong's face and body, a life sized Kong puppet was used instead.

* ''Film/SpiderMan2'': Doctor Ocotpus' tentacles were often portrayed through puppetry instead of, or in conjucntion with, CGI, with the end result influencing the character's portrayals to this day.

* Killer Croc's appearance in ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'' is done entirely in make-up and prosthetics. The movie most likely won its Best Makeup Oscar for this.

* ''Film/TetsuoTheIronMan'' is heavily praised for it's intricate special effects despite its small, out of pocket budget. In the movie, the main character is transformed into a living heap of scrap metal [[spoiler: after accidentally killing a metal fetishist and [[Squick having sex over his dead body]]]], which is achieved using a mixture of prostetics, puppetry, and stop motion animation.

* ''The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb'' was originally going to create its RogerRabbitEffect by splicing together footage of the human actors and stop motion animated characters in post. But due to the film's NoBudget, the effects crew had to pull this off on camera by having the actors pose frame by frame with the animated characters, resulting in the humans moving in an odd, jiddery fashion that adds to the film's already uneasy atmosphere.

* ''Series/FraggleRock'' would use blue screens in order to have characters share screentime together; specifically for scenes involving the Fraggles and Gorgs. For the Doozers, Creator/JimHenson had them appear with the Fraggles on camera by using animatronics that were, at the time, never used on puppet shows before. One episode had a Traveling Matt segment where we see him riding on a real roller coaster. Matt's puppeteer, [[CreatorCameo who posed as a bystander]] seated next to him in the scene, wore a fake arm draped over Matt's seat which hid his real arm as he puppeteered the character.

* ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'': ''Film/BatmanBegins'', ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' and ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' were all very conservative on the post production special effects. Only the most extravagant or dangerous stunts were performed in post production. But certain scenes like Bruce saving Ducard from sliding off the edge of a cliff was done on location, with the actual actors wearing the necessary safety lines. ''The Dark Knight'' managed to film the flipping of an 18-wheeler by...[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRgq12XOhjc actually flipping an 18-wheeler]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJmEZe3ICpY on the streets of Chicago.]] They got it in one try. The plane hijacking scene in ''Rises'' makes rather spectacular use of practical sets and stuntwork. The director of the trilogy, Creator/ChristopherNolan is unsurprisingly a massive proponent for practical effects.

* The practical effects in ''Film/{{Inception}}'' border on the ridiculous. Most notably, the famous spinning/zero G fight scene was filmed using a full rotating set rather than any CGI or camera trickery. This is film is pretty much Creator/ChristopherNolan making a point about how good practical effects can be.
* Nolan did it again in ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'', which heavily utilized practical effects for all but the footage of the planets, stars, black holes, and other space phenomena. The spaceships were done entirely with MiniatureEffects and the shapeshifting robots were actually large puppets operated by Bill Irwin, who also voiced TARS. Even the dust clouds were done with giant fans blowing cellulose-based synthetic dust at the actors, and the [[MindScrew brain-twisting]] [[spoiler: "[[AlienGeometries tesseract]] [[EldritchLocation space]]"]] that Cooper finds himself in at the climax was actually a giant set that they dangled Matthew [=McConaughey=] in from a crane. Unlike most films featuring space travel, the cockpit scenes in the spaceships were shot "live" in front of projection screens rather than green screens, so the actors are reacting in real-time to pre-rendered footage on the cockpit screens rather than a blank green wall to be filled in later.

* Killer Croc's appearance in ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'' is done entirely in make-up and prosthetics.

* While ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' (as well as its sequels, ''Series/WalkingWithBeasts'' and ''Series/WalkingWithMonsters'') use a lot of CG, they almost always use mechanical puppets for close-ups. Most likely they took a note from ''Jurassic Park''[='s=] book in this regard.

* ''Film/KingKong1933'' is notable amongst stom motion enthusiasts for bringing the dinosaurs and title character to life through this method; while forgetting the other methods used to make them interact with the human characters. Sometimes the animation would be projected on a screen behind the actors, while other times the actors themselves are projected onto a miniature set frame by frame as the monsters were being animated. Not to mention that for close up scenes of Kong's face and body, a life sized Kong puppet was used instead.

Rightly or wrongly, though, practical effects are seen by many as being in some way superior to ComputerGeneratedImages or CGI. Certainly early CGI was much more prone to SpecialEffectsFailure, the lower resolution, texturing and lighting flaws would push the images into the UncannyValley while even a bad practical effect could be seen to be physically real. The more modern [[ConspicuousCG CGI can still be very conspicuous]] compared to a well integrated practical effects. And an argument can be made that it's easier for actors to turn in a good performance when interacting with something physical.

Rightly or wrongly, though, practical effects are seen by many as being in some way superior to ComputerGeneratedImages or CGI. Certainly early CGI was much more prone to SpecialEffectsFailure, the lower resolution, texturing and lighting flaws would push the images into the UncannyValley while even a bad practical effect could be seen to be physically real. The more modern [[ConspicuousCG CGI can be very conspicuous]] compared to well integrated practical effects. And there is an argument can be made that it's easier for actors to turn in a good performance when interacting with something physical.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Film/{{Shazam|2019}}'' had a few practical effect shots that most viewers don't notice.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Seen in several episodes, including:

* ''Series/DoctorWho'', naturally (due to being a LongRunner from ''long'' before ComputerGeneratedImages were at all possible). Between tight shooting schedules and [[NoBudget limited budget]] this led to the SpecialEffectFailure that the series is remembered for, although there was enough creativity and skill involved that SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome still happened occasionally, particularly in Seasons 13-14 and some of the gorgeous puppetry in the [=McCoy=] era. The new series uses a lot of CGI, but Series 8 had a stated goal to use more practical effects for various reasons (reduced budget due to the expense of the 50th Anniversary Special "Day of the Doctor", a less experienced CGI team than before and the desire to establish a unique visual identity for the show rather than aping effects seen in various golden-age-of-television fantasy shows that the BBC could never begin to achieve). This led to quite a lot of robot enemies and more detailed, claustrophobic sets.
* ''Series/GoodOmens2019'': Infamously, the show created the effect of Crowley driving a burning Bentley by setting a Bentley on fire and having Creator/DavidTennant drive it.
-->'''Neil Gaiman:''' And if we lose David Tennant driving a burning Bentley... what a way to go.
* ''Series/FraggleRock'' would use blue screens in order to have characters share screentime together; specifically for scenes involving the Fraggles and Gorgs. For the Doozers, Creator/JimHenson had them appear with the Fraggles on camera by using animatronics that were, at the time, never used on puppet shows before. One episode had a Traveling Matt segment where we see him riding on a real roller coaster. Matt's puppeteer, [[CreatorCameo who posed as a bystander]] seated next to him in the scene, wore a fake arm draped over Matt's seat which hid his real arm as he puppeteered the character.

** much like the skeleton, the Garden of Eyes that Kubo and Beetle encounter while searching underwater for the "Breastplate Unbreakable" was also a giant animatronic that the animators manipulated using control mechanisms.

* ''Film/IndependenceDay'' won an Academy Award thanks to its extensive usage of practical effects. When it was determined that CGI fire would not do for the city destruction scenes, the team constructed models of city blocks and tilted them upward so that real fire utilized the model like a chimney. The alien destroyers were also portrayed by a number of scale models, including one complete model and one that was a detailed section of the ship's outer hull.

!!Examples In Alphabetical Order:

[[folder: Film ]]


* In ''Film/{{Alien}}'' the titular alien (being a man in a suit), the face-hugger, and chest-burster are all practical effects. The film would likely not have aged as well had they used stop motion.
* ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' not only delivers better looking aliens and a better array of practical effects but also introduces the Alien Queen. Courtesy of Stan Winston and his crew, she was a huge animatronic that required a full team to operate. They had apparently considered stop motion given her size before Winston was able to deliver something much better. Other items viewers might take for granted, like the dropship, the nuclear explosion, [[spoiler:Bishop's severed torso]], everything was made without the use of modern CGI, instead opting for models and puppetry. The iconic power loader was a full-scale puppet with a stuntman behind it moving in tandem with Sigourney Weaver.
* ''Film/AnAmericanWerewolfInLondon'' is well known for its slow, painful transformation sequence done via an animatronic prop courtesy of Creator/RickBaker.
* While the [[Film/BladeRunner original film]] predated modern CGI, ''Film/BladeRunner2049'' used in-camera effects as much as possible to an extent that most audiences didn't even notice, building the vast majority of its futuristic cityscapes as MiniatureEffects and creating the scenes of Ryan Gosling walking through the ruins of an irradiated future Las Vegas via ForcedPerspective statues and a massive matte painting background.
* ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' has an interesting example for an animated feature. Near the end as The Beast transforms back into a human, his body is engulfed by a large puff of smoke as it levitates into the air. The film's directors [[WordOfGod confirmed]] this wasn't a computer effect, but was actually a real smoke cloud they filmed using a store bought smoke machine which was later inserted into the movie.
* Many scenes that would normally be done with special effects in the movie ''Film/{{Crank}}'' are in-camera, including the dramatic finale where [[spoiler:Chev Chelios and Verona are falling thousands of feet out of a helicopter]].
* ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'': ''Film/BatmanBegins'', ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' and ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' were all very conservative on the post production special effects. Only the most extravagant or dangerous stunts were performed in post production. But certain scenes like Bruce saving Ducard from sliding off the edge of a cliff was done on location, with the actual actors wearing the necessary safety lines. ''The Dark Knight'' managed to film the flipping of an 18-wheeler by...[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRgq12XOhjc actually flipping an 18-wheeler]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJmEZe3ICpY on the streets of Chicago.]] They got it in one try. The plane hijacking scene in ''Rises'' makes rather spectacular use of practical sets and stuntwork. The director of the trilogy, Creator/ChristopherNolan is unsurprisingly a massive proponent for practical effects.
* In ''Film/DeepBlueSea'' they mixed in puppet and CGI sharks and in this case the puppets certainly moved and felt more realistic.
* The crew of ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow'' built dozens of sets of physical prop "[[PoweredArmor jackets]]" for the actors to wear. In an amusing and ironic twist, the actual props were most definitely ''not'' "powered" armor, meaning the actors actually had to walk, run, and fight in these things under their own power, and they were heavy as shit, too, which is especially hilarious for a movie starring infamously shrimpy Creator/TomCruise.

* ''Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}}'' used heavy amounts of practical effects throughout. Many of the Library Ghost effects were practicals: books on wires, library cards being blown through copper pipes, etc. Also, when Stay-Puft kicks over a fire hydrant, the miniature actually sprays blue sand rather than have a gusher added in post-production.

* ''Film/TheGoonies'' has aged very well indeed due to its use of simply massive and quite simply awe inspiring sets. The final act features a fully constructed pirate ship sitting in a gigantic water filled cavern. And it was all real. Even the water slides used to reach it in the film were 100% practical ([[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome the crew spent weekends using them]]). Its only major special effect failure is an obvious greenscreen shot when Mikey is lining up rocks to his medallion piece. The Special Edition commentary even has joking cries of "worst greenscreen ever" but throughout director Richard Donner is notably very proud of the way movies used to have epic sets like this built, not to mention how well it's held up because of it.

* ''WesternAnimation/KuboAndTheTwoStrings'' had a few notable practical effect shots.
** When Kubo, Monkey, and Beetle find the "Sword Unbreakable" they discover that it's stuck on the head of a giant skeleton they have to fight. It's revealed in the post credits scene that the animators really did make a giant skeleton that not only towered over them, but was so large that they had to animate it using wires rigged to the ceiling.
** much like the skeleton, the Garden of Eyes that Kubo and Beetle encounter while searching underwater for the "Breastplate Unbreakable" was also a giant animatronic that the animators manipulated using control mechanisms.
** In Kubo's dream, an elderly man named Raiden reveals that the "Helmet Invulnerable" is in an abandoned fortress which proceeds to unfold from the ground like origami paper. While a shot like this would normally be done with CG, it was instead animated completely on camera by hand.

* ''Film/{{Oblivion 2013}}'' had some great special effects but its most impressive visuals were the practical techniques used for the Sky Tower. Unable to actually build a set at such a height, the effects crew did the next best thing and filmed countless hours of the 360 degree view from the top of a volcano in Maui. They then projected this on a silver screen around the set. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DCkIuv82Q4 Take a look.]] Why does the skyline and lighting in the tower look so beautiful and ridiculously accurate? [[TheWorldIsJustAwesome It's all being provided by the real thing]]. The actors gushed about how beautiful this made the set look and Tom Cruise even declared it the most beautiful set he'd ever seen.

* The effects in ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' were a mixture of practical and CGI Most of the landscapes are sets or were shot on location, for instance in Iceland. The creatures such as the Hammerpede were either puppets or animatronics with some CGI used on them. ''Prometheus'' is praised even amongst detractors for being a very visually striking film as a result.

* ''Film/Shazam2019'' had a few practical effect shots that most viewers don't notice.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongebobSquarepantsMovie'', the scene where Creator/DavidHasselhoff [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext jets through the ocean with SpongeBob and Patrick on his back]] was achieved by pulling Hasselhoff across the sea on a sled tied behind a boat while close-ups of the main characters on his back were shot using an 11 foot tall replica of the actor in the water. [[spoiler: The Cyclops' boot]] was shot in a similar fashion.
* ''Film/{{Stalingrad 2013}}'': Most of the film is set in one ruined square in the war-torn city. The square is one open-air set.

* ''Franchise/StarWars''

** ''[[Film/TheForceAwakens Episode VII: The Force Awakens]]'' goes out of its way to use practical effects to almost the same level as the original trilogy.
*** When the first trailers appeared and [=BB-8=] was shown, the Internet went into an uproar about a [=CGI=] droid in Star Wars. A few weeks later, during a panel about the upcoming movie, lots of crow was eaten after they brought out the actual working [=BB-8=] robot. Some scenes were obviously [=CGI=], but the working robot was used in-camera as often as possible.
** Following the example set by ''The Force Awakens'', the subsequent new Star Wars movies have gone out of their way to use practical effects as much as possible.

* ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'' was able to achieve the effect of the title character flying by suspending Cristopher Reeves in front of a screen that the arial footage would be projected on while a wind fan would blow air in front of him. The effects crew also timed the camera to zoom in on Reeves as the arial footage would zoom out to create the illusion that Superman was moving forward in the air.

* ''Film/TheThing1982'' stands as an iconic example of practical effects. Animatronics and puppetry was used bring its ship-shifting alien creature to life. Its SignatureScene of a man having his arms bitten off was achieved with an actual double amputee as a stand in.
** Its [[Film/TheThing2011 2011 prequel]], on the other hand, had CGI added over the practical FX at the last minute for whatever reason. [[http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/23966/unused-practical-fx-footage-emerges-from-2011s-the-thing]]
* ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'' might have used some CGI but most of its effects were still models, miniatures, and enormous sets. It was mentioned on the "making of" that 90% of the effects were practical. The combination of computer graphics and practical effects might be why its [[SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome visuals are awesome]]. One sequence involved over 100 stuntmen rolling down the deck of the ship as it sank. Entire portions of the set had to be built to flood with water during those key moments. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWPVuVvUCG8 Here's]] a time lapse video of them constructing several full scale sets, one of which is the Titanic itself.

* ''Film/{{Underworld 2003}}'' and its two follow-up films made a point of using practical effects for the werewolves, with CGI only really used in their transformation sequence. They were costumes that had built in stilts with animatronics used to move their faces. True to the perception of this trope, in ''Film/UnderworldAwakening'' the effects for Lycans take a rather blatant hit in quality due to relying strongly on CGI.
* While ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' (as well as its sequels, ''Series/WalkingWithBeasts'' and ''Series/WalkingWithMonsters'') use a lot of CG, they almost always use mechanical puppets for close ups. Most likely they took a note from Jurassic Park's book in this regard.

* For the monsters in the film adaptation of ''Literature/WhereTheWildThingsAre'', CG was only used to animate their faces in post production, as the rest of their bodies were elaborate life sized body suits made by Creator/JimHensonsCreatureShop which allowed the actor playing Max to interact with them for real on camera.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''Series/FraggleRock'' would use blue screens in order to have characters share screentime together; specifically for scenes involving the Fraggles and Gorgs. For the Doozers, Creator/JimHenson had them appear with the Fraggles on camera by using animatronics that were, at the time, never used on puppet shows before.
** One episode had a Traveling Matt segment where we see him riding on a real roller coaster. Matt's puppeteer, [[CreatorCameo who posed as a bystander]] seated next to him in the scene, wore a fake arm draped over Matt's seat which hid his real arm as he puppeteered the character.

[[folder: Multiple Media ]]

* ''Franchise/TheMuppets'' are probably one of the few major franchises (outside of post-2015 Star Wars projects) to still use puppets in TheNewTens.

* In the first ''Film/{{Hellboy}}'' film, the writhing hair of the Sammael monsters was a practical effect -- the hair was motorized! (Reportedly, when the producer saw the dailies, he was startled that they'd had time to put in CGI hair, when it wasn't CGI at all.)

* ''Film/TheDarkKnightSaga'': ''Film/BatmanBegins'', ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' and ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' were all very conservative on the post production special effects. Only the most extravagant or dangerous stunts were performed in post production. But certain scenes like Bruce saving Ducard from sliding off the edge of a cliff was done on location, with the actual actors wearing the necessary safety lines. ''The Dark Knight'' managed to film the flipping of an 18-wheeler by...[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRgq12XOhjc actually flipping an 18-wheeler]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJmEZe3ICpY on the streets of Chicago.]] They got it in one try. The plane hijacking scene in ''Rises'' makes rather spectacular use of practical sets and stuntwork. The director of the trilogy, Creator/ChristopherNolan is unsurprisingly a massive proponent for practical effects.

* ''WesternAnimation/KuboAndTheTwoTrings'' had a few notable practical effect shots.

* ''The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb'' was originally going to create its RogerRabbitEffect in post by splicing together footage of the human actors and stop motion animated characters in post. But due to the film's NoBudget, the effects crew had to pull this off on camera by having the actors pose frame by frame with the animated characters, resulting in the humans moving in an odd, jiddery fashion that adds to the film's already uneasy atmosphere.

** Director David S. Sandberg revealed in an [[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://heroichollywood.com/shazam-tv-spot-practical-effect/&ved=2ahUKEwjC5pCVysfjAhXWJDQIHc7tATcQFjAAegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw0U3_SDhC3Sru_wjFNI4tMm article]] that the Ferris wheel that's nearly knocked over in the climax was an actual Ferris wheel that they built and destroyed for the movie.

* For the [[Film/TheJungleBook 1994 adaptation]] of ''Literature/TheJungleBook'', puppetry and animatronics were only used for Kaa since it would have been difficult to train a real snake for the movie; although CG was sometimes used for more difficult scenes with him.

* During the red lady scene in ''Film/TheMatrix'', while Morphius is explaining the dangers of agents to Neo you can see that everyone in crowd has a duplicate. No CG was used as Creator/TheWachowskis actually cast real twins just for this one scene.

* ''Film/Film/Shazam2019'' had a few practical effect shots that most viewers don't notice.

* ''Film/{{Shazam}}'' had a few practical effect shots that most viewers don't notice.

* For the 1994 adaptation of ''Literature/TheJungleBook'', nearly every animal character in the film was played by a real trained animal, with the exception of Kaa since training snakes is quite difficult. Because of this, the special effects crew had to use puppetry and animatronics in the place of a real snake instead; although CG was sometimes used for more difficult scenes.

* For ''Film/{{Fitzcarraldo}}'', director Creator/WernerHerzog made the insane decision to pull an actual 320 ton ship over a 40 degree inclining hill rather than pulling it up in pieces like the real Carlos Fitzcarrald did. Unsurprisingly the movie was a [[TroubledProduction bit if a nightmare]] to work on.

* For ''Flywheel'', director Alex Kendrick confirmed that the rotating flywheel seen in the opening credits wasn't CG, rather it was a real one that he suspended on fishing lines and filmed in his garage.