History Main / MiniatureEffects

** ''Film/RevengeofTheSith'' used miniatures for the Mustafar lava planet.

* Alfred Hitchcock would use aerial shots in places and making movements that were at the time impossible, such as for going between signs and buildings. He would often use miniatures then to make the shots possible. An example can be seen in the beginning of ''The Lady Vanishes'' even with little models cars being pushed along.

* Film/VForVendetta. You didn't think they blew up the actual Parliament, did you?

** Whenever the TARDIS flies through space in classic ''Series/DoctorWho'', it's a miniature. Special, ahem, [[IncrediblyLamePun props]] go to the Dalek Emperor in ''The Evil of the Daleks'' and "The Parting of the Ways" and to the Time Lord space-station in ''The Trial of a Time Lord''.

* Most of the exterior shots for 'Series/RedDwarf'' have been miniatures, and aged better than the CGI replacements introduced in the late-1990's.

* Most of the exterior shots for 'Series/RedDwarf'' have been miniatures, and aged better than the CGI replacements introudced in the late-1990's.

*** The revival begining with ''Red Dwarf X'' uses a blend of models and CGI - the primary ships are miniatures while some one-off ships and more complex effects have been rendered as CGI.

** Played with amusingly in "Planet of Giants". The TARDIS miniature used at that time is [[SpecialEffectsFailure not very good]], and is obviously, although forgivably, just a tiny model. So it's enjoyable when we're first shown a closeup of the miniature standing amongst tall stones on an alien world... and the camera zooms out, revealing that it's just over an inch tall and sitting in a crack between crazy paving slabs in a British garden in the 1960s.

*** Interestingly, the ''Dwarf'' miniature used since ''X'' iis actually a heavily modified version of a miniature built in ''1997'' for the Red Dwarf Remastered project. It had ended up too big for the studios and was instead used as reference for the CGI "pencil" design, with its ''X'' appearance being heavily shortened and adapted to better resemble the "classic" ship.

Minatures can be used to replace large buildings and made man objects in backgrounds, often combined with a matte background. They can also be used to simulate the explosion of large (and thus expensive) objects like planes and bridges.

* The ''Film/LordOfTheRings'' films made much use of miniature for the cities and towers. However, when you're dealing with a 1/100 scale model of a tower that's supposed to be ''3,000 feet tall'', you still end up with a 30-foot structure - hence the crew's nickname for the models, "bigatures."

* Due to the...minute budget the BBC gave ''Series/RedDwarf'' most of the effects were miniatures, even well into the mid-1990's.

** Played with amusingly in "Planet of the Giants". The TARDIS miniature used at that time is [[SpecialEffectsFailure not very good]], and is obviously, although forgivably, just a tiny model. So it's enjoyable when we're first shown a closeup of the miniature standing amongst tall stones on an alien world... and the camera zooms out, revealing that it's just over an inch tall and sitting in a crack between crazy paving slabs in a British garden in the 1960s.

* Mocked in ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'', which doesn't disguise its "[[{{Supermarionation}} Supercrappymation]]" effects for RuleOfFunny. The fact that the MonumentalDamage is being inflicted on models is made completely obvious, and a scene where the marionette protagonists are attacked by Kim Jong Il's trained panthers features two housecats with roars dubbed over them.

* Staple of tokusatsu shows like ''SuperSentai'' and by extension ''PowerRangers''. No matter how fancy CGI robot fights get, PeopleInRubberSuits fighting in a miniature city ain't going nowhere. Even this is subject to SpecialEffectsEvolution; the model cities get increasingly detailed.

MiniatureEffects are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin - film effects achieved by the use of miniatures. They are technically a blend of InCamera and PracticalEffects, but a lot of time they're given their own listing in the credits since they often require specialists and staff focusing on just building the miniatures. It's not just a case of making smaller size objects (although that can be quite hard depending on how much the camera is going to have to focus on them). Smaller sized objects will have different textures, they take [[SquareCubeLaw stress and strain differently]], the camera perspective and focusing works differently, objects don't fall at the proper rate, fluids and explosions behave differently and the material the large scale object may be made out of may not be suitable for the small scale so a suitable visual approximation must be found.

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* Most {{Kaiju}} films, even the infamous American-made''Film/{{Godzilla1998}}'', which combined a CGI 'Zilla with miniature buildings and vehicles. ''Film/PacificRim'' mostly uses CGI, but an enormous and intricately detailed miniature office building set was used for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHTDlC_tetQ this scene]].

* Every {{Kaiju}} film, ever. Come on, you didn't think they actually filmed a 200-ft lizard stomping through a real countryside, did ya?
** Well, almost. Both American versions of ''Godzilla'' used CGI, as did ''Film/PacificRim''. However, ''Pacific Rim'''s director Guillermo Del Toro mandated that [[http://io9.com/unbelievable-pacific-rim-video-reveals-all-of-the-kaiju-634921963 all the Kaiju be designed so]] that if they ''were'' suits, [[TheCoconutEffect a stuntman could fit inside them]].
* [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail "It's only a model."]]

* The set pieces in ''Ride/BackToTheFutureTheRide'' were done via stop-motion animation through miniature sets. Everything riders see, from the destruction of the Texaco sign to the icy waterfall, is a miniature.

* James Cameron likes breaking big toys so for things like the bridge destruction in ''Film/TrueLies'', the tanker explosion in ''Film/TheTerminator'' and the ship Film/{{Titanic}}.

* Mocked in ''TeamAmericaWorldPolice'', which doesn't disguise its "[[{{Supermarionation}} Supercrappymation]]" effects for RuleOfFunny. The fact that the MonumentalDamage is being inflicted on models is made completely obvious, and a scene where the marionette protagonists are attacked by Kim Jong Il's trained panthers features two housecats with roars dubbed over them.

MiniatureEffects are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin - film effects acheived by the use of miniatures. They are technically a blend of InCamera and PracticalEffects, but a lot of time they're given their own listing in the credits since they often require specialists and staff focusing on just building the miniatures. It's not just a case of making smaller size objects (although that can be quite hard depending on how much the camera is going to have to focus on them). Smaller sized objects will have different textures, they take [[SquareCubeLaw stress and strain differently]], the camera perspective and focusing works differently, objects don't fall at the proper rate, fluids and explosions behave differently and the material the large scale object may be made out of may not be suitable for the small scale so a suitable visual approximation must be found.

* The spaceships in ''StarWars'' were models, as a joke the crew would sneak things in. During the final battle in the ''ReturnOfTheJedi'' a tennis shoe was in the dogfight and a potato made do as an asteroid in ''TheEmpireStrikesBack''.
** Although the prequels are famous for containing lots of CGI, they also used miniatures, [[SpecialEffectsEvolution especially earlier on]]. In ''ThePhantomMenace'', for example, the pod race stadium was a miniature with q-tips used to create the audience.

* The ''LordOfTheRings'' films made much use of miniature for the cities and towers. However, when you're dealing with a 1/100 scale model of a tower that's supposed to be ''3,000 feet tall'', you still end up with a 30-foot structure - hence the crew's nickname for the models, "bigatures."

* It's also how they shot the ''HotFuzz'' scene in which George Merchant's mansion explodes.

* Staple of tokusatsu shows like ''SuperSentai'' and by extension ''PowerRangers''.

* Ever seen an airplane crashing onto the runway in a film, knocking down telephone poles? [[SeenItAMillionTimes Only a million times?]] Miniatures, all of them.