Watch the special effects breakdown for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Ahead of the 2017 Oscar nominations, Image Engine releases a reel showing off its work on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them had amazing CGI work! The Oscar nominations are just around the corner (January 24) and the special effects studio Image Engine has released a reel. It is destined to remind voters that, hey, it did a really good job on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Watch it below.

How the Beasts Came to Life

According to an article on its website, Image worked on 88 shots form the movie. That’s not a ton, but considering how complex the effects were, “the amount of work and screen time involved made Fantastic Beasts as intensive a project as any of Image Engine’s previous digital creature creations.” The movie looked terrific, so their work paid off.

Image was largely responsible for bringing to life the Graphorns. They are one of the many creature’s in the movie’s magical bestiary. “We introduced many ideas for movement and aesthetic,” explained VFX supervisor Martyn Culpitt. “Providing our own thoughts and research on what would make the Graphorn feel right for its scale.” Inspirations for these beasts included “rhinos, elephants, caterpillars, ostriches, hippos, lions, and alligators.” And the studio’s work with velociraptors in Jurassic World that first brought it to the attention of Warner Bros. Takes all kinds.

The studio also worked on the scene where Tina Goldstein is almost swallowed by freaky black water in fiction’s weirdest execution chamber. The killer liquid isn’t named, but Image came to think of it as a magical creature all its own. Although they had to redesign it after director David Yates decided he didn’t like the original take. Said Culpitt:

"The potion didn’t really interact with the character before; we needed to make it feel like it was almost a creature itself, and almost threaten the character in question, like it’s about to grab her."

That may be the scene I remember most vividly from Fantastic Beasts, at least from a visual perspective, so well done and best of luck at the Academy Awards!

Next: James and Oliver Phelps Headed for Harry Potter: The Exhibition

h/t SnitchSeeker