Fight Club (1999)

Fight Club (1999)

 

First realistic close-up of detailed facial deformation on a CG human, advanced photorealistic photogrammetry of surroundings (trash can, buildings), first photorealistic cgi body double, first photorealistic human skin close up, first absolute realistic CGI human face

Fight Club
Original Poster

Video (HD 1080p)

All CGI effects (Behind the scenes)

Trivia:

1) Camera flashes past city streets to survey Project Mayhem's destructive equipment lying in underground parking lots; the sequence was a three-dimensional composition of nearly 100 photographs of Los Angeles and Century City by photographer Michael Douglas Middleton.

2)  The reverse-tracking shot out of the trash can, an elaborate digitally animated sequence, was the very last shot to be added to the film. It required so much processing time that it almost had to be spliced in "wet" - i.e., fresh from the lab - so that the film could be duplicated on schedule. Due to the amount of reflective surfaces in the shot, it took almost 8 hours to render a single frame. The entire shot took 3 weeks to render. 

3) The sex scene between Tyler and Marla was shot using the same 'bullet-time' technique used in The Matrix (1999); stills cameras were set up in a circle around the bed, and each one would take a single shot in sequence. These single frames were then edited together and enhanced with CG, as both Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter were fully clothed in motion capture suits during the shoot. 

4) The shot of The Narrator shooting himself it's a motion capture footage of Edward Norton having 180 psi of air shot into his mouth (to make his cheeks blow out). Only one element of the shot which is real is the spurt of blood coming out of his mouth, everything else is CG. 

5) The final shot of the collapsing credit bank buildings was designed by Richard 'Dr.' Baily, who worked on the shot for over 14 months straight. According to director David Fincher, there are almost 4 million separately animated digital elements in the shot.

6) Directed by David Fincher.

7) First photogrammetry was in Godzilla (1998).