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Check Out These Before and After Visual Effects From ‘The Martian’

The-Martian-Matt-Damon-20th-Century-Fox-Everett-10092015
20th Century Fox via Everett

Ridley Scott‘s adaptation of the 2011 Andy Weir novel, The Martian, starring Matt Damon has already taken in over $100 million at the box office, but have you wondered how Scott and co were able to create such a realistic version of the Red Planet?

The answer is greenscreens and color correction of real Earth deserts, rather than pure CGI. Originally brought to our attention by reddit user filmfanatic5, the gallery shows the before and after versions of several of the movie’s scenes.

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Visual effects for The Martian were done by MPC Films, the people responsible for the VFX in blockbuster movies like Godzilla, Maleficent, X-Men, Pirates of the Caribbean, Man of Steel, The Lone Ranger, the Harry Potter series, and Life of Pi, for which they won an Academy Award.

Most of The Martian‘s scenes were filmed against greenscreen at the soundstages at Korda Studios in Budapest. However, some exterior shots were acquired in the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan which was selected for its arid climate and “Mars-like appearance.”

Filming on site for was especially important to the film in order to achieve a life-like environment for Mars, which almost acts as a character itself within the film. “There’s a shot I love where Watney’s going across a dried river bed and there are these dust devils twisting around – that shot looks beautiful, but the starting point was beautiful,” MPC visual effects supervisor Tim Ledbury explained to fxguide, “Working with real location footage is almost a rare thing these days.”

You can view the full gallery of before and after shots here.

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