VivaSync

Before Harry Potter soared through the Quidditch pitch on a broomstick, he was just Daniel Radcliffe balancing on a broom in a movie studio.

The fantastical universes of great movies are made with CGI special effects. But before they can be rendered by visual effects artists, filmmakers first need to put the actors in strange situations.

To play the dragon Smaug in the "Hobbit" movies, for example, Benedict Cumberbatch wore a motion capture suit and roared while crawling around on the floor. And to play a raccoon-like alien in "Guardians of the Galaxy," Bradley Cooper strapped up in a full-body green suit.

Here's what 15 movie scenes look like without the CGI effects.

Thanos is the powerful villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's "Infinity Stones" arc, appearing in 2018's "Avengers: Infinity War."

Thanos was teased in several movies for years, finally becoming the dominant villain in the climactic "Avengers" movie.

He's played by Josh Brolin, who had a cardboard cutout of the character taped to his back.

Josh Brolin played the character in a motion-capture outfit. In some scenes, he had a cutout of Thanos taped to his back. Thanos is much taller than any human, so the cutout presumably helped other actors talking to him know where to look for his face.

"Beauty and the Beast" created a magical world where Emma Watson, as Belle, dances with a beast.

The 2017 adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast" had lavish sets and costumes, as well as some CGI magic that made Dan Stevens look like a prince-turned-beast.

In reality, Dan Stevens wore a goofy outfit to play the beast.

Behind the scenes, Stevens wore a 40-pound padded gray onesie that bulked him up and allowed the movie magic to happen. The suit tracked his movements and allowed the post-production team to build the beast digitally to scale while tracking his movements.

"With the size and mass and shape of the Beast, so yeah, it was a whole combination of things — vocal exploration, dance, singing, movement, the whole package of challenges, really," Stevens told People.

The big egg-like spaceships loomed over "Arrival."

In 2016's "Arrival," alien "landing sites" floated in different spots around the world. The one Amy Adams visited had rolling, magical fog that added a mysterious effect. 

They were, of course, added digitally. But the fog was real.

As ObliqueFX demonstrates, the landing sites were added digitally. But the fog was totally real.

"That shot was a total gift: All that fog appeared out of nowhere," Bradford Young, the cinematographer on "Arrival" told Variety. "It's one of those happy accidents where the movie gods are looking out for you. An aerial shot that was just going to be the most mundane shot in the history of cinema turns into something really special."

In "Guardians of the Galaxy," Drax and Rocket are part of Star Lord's team.

They're members of his "Guardians" crew.

Behind the scenes, the raccoon is Sean Gunn in a big green suit.

While Dave Bautista wore layers of intricate makeup to play Drax, Sean Gunn wore a green suit to be Rocket, who was digitally rendered later. Bradley Cooper gave Rocket his vo

For the 2010 "Alice in Wonderland" movie, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee were two of the people on Alice's adventure.

The series continued with 2016's "Alice Through the Looking Glass."

They're played by actors in pear-shaped costumes on stilts.

While filming the movie, the effect of their bodies was achieved by having actors wear ridiculous-looking suits and sometimes wear stilts if they needed more height. The whole thing was rendered in green screen, and Matt Lucas — who also did part of the physical acting — provided both their voices.

In the "Twilight" series, Bella formed a relationship with Jacob, a werewolf.

Sometimes, they were affectionate while he was in werewolf form, like this scene in the third movie, "Eclipse," where she pets him.

In reality, he was wearing a funny suit and bending down.

While Kristen Stewart can play Bella as a human easily, Taylor Lautner can't actually turn into a wolf. That had to be achieved with visual effects.

"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" featured the greedy dragon trying to roast some dwarves alive.

Bilbo Baggins tries to stop him from terrorizing a nearby town.

On set, Benedict Cumberbatch writhed around and made faces.

It turns out that Benedict Cumberbatch wasn't just the voice of Smaug, the main antagonist in Peter Jackson's "Hobbit" trilogy. The actor wore a grey motion capture suit, crawled around on the floor, and opened his mouth at unusually wide angles as if he were breathing fire.

Even less fantastical movies like "The Wolf of Wall Street" use special effects.

In one scene from the movie, a lion roams through the floor of Leonardo DiCaprio's character's brokerage firm. But what really happened?

The lion was really there. The people weren't.

Martin Scorsese didn't ask for a CGI lion. Instead, he filmed the scene with a real lion and no people, and then again with people and no lion. The two shots were seamlessly edited into each other and the lion's trainer was digitally erased.

In "Life of Pi," Pi befriends a tiger who's both real and CGI.

For the 2012 movie, director Ang Lee cast a real Bengal tiger for some scenes, but mostly used an identical, ultra realistic digital one as well.

For sensitive scenes, it was all digital.

While it's possible to get a trainer Bengal tiger up close to people, it can also be really, really dangerous. For some scenes, a doll-like object was used as a real-life placeholder for the digital tiger.

The "Harry Potter" movies feature Quidditch. It's a dangerous sport played on broomsticks.

No "Harry Potter" movie is complete without a good flying scene.

Of course, it's not actually done in the air.

The flying scenes are filmed differently throughout the "Harry Potter" series depending on the scene. In general, they involve real costumes and broomsticks filmed behind a blue screen or green screen, where the digital environment is filled in.

The floating books are another cool effect from the series.

In another scene from "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," Hermione holds up books to a library shelf, where they float back into place.

They're grabbed by green-gloved people.

In reality, there are people standing on the other side of the shelves wearing green gloves and grabbing the books back in. The hands are removed in post production, making it look like the books magically float.

David Jones is the villain in 2006's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

He's the captain of the Flying Dutchman — part human, part octopus, and part lobster.

It's really Bill Nighy with a bunch of stuff on his face.

The character was played by Bill Nighy wearing some creepy makeup and a motion capture suit to capture his movements and expressions.

"Avatar" created a wondrous world ruled by moody blue aliens.

James Cameron's epic remains the highest-grossing movie of all time.

It was also all filmed with motion capture.

To get everyone's emotional expressions, tiny cameras were rigged up to be right in front of the actor's faces. They were converted into an animated form in post production.

Ever wonder how they burned off Aaron Eckhart's face in "The Dark Knight"?

Late in the movie, Harvey Dent turns into "Two-Face," a villain who tries to rip apart Bruce Wayne's personal life after experiencing an accident that burns off half is face.

You guessed it: Motion capture.

Eckhart wore dots that tracked the movements on the left side of his face, so it could be easily replaced digitally while still maintaining the muscle movements while he spoke.

In Okja, a young girl attempts to rescue a giant genetically engineered "super pig."

It's kind of like if "Charlotte's Web" were a sci-fi adventure movie.

It was a guy in a "stuffie suit."

At least Okja was huggable in real life, too.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o8HSoqWeq6Oeu7S1w56pZ5ufonyuu9WinKxlkpqzsL7EZpqgoV1nfXKEjG0%3D