How Did District 9's VFX Look SO GOOD?

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Despite its cripplingly low budget of only 30 million dollars, District 9 was the first film of its kind - Having mind blowing visual effects - which ranged from full CG characters to dynamic weapon effects.

However, with District 9 coming out in 2009 - it meant that the film always existed in the shadow of another major CGI film release that Year: 2009’s Avatar, by James Camereon.

With Avatar being a Goliath success; District 9’s incredible CG and VFX achievements were largely passed over and the film was never given the praise it deserved for changing the way Hollywood approaches its VFX production.

So, with the release of Avatar 2, I thought it was time that we cast a light back on District 9 and explored exactly why this film looks so good, how it did it on such a limited budget, and how it influenced the next decade of VFX.

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More VFX analysis here!:

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Sources:

[egronfeldt]

After all these years, this is still the film I'm most proud to have worked on (I worked on the model and texturing for the mothership, helicopters, prawn eyes). It was such a well told story, and the approaches to the VFX were really clever in part because Image Engine hadn't done much in the way of film VFX prior to this -so novel approaches were being created because we didn't know any better. The practical effects were also really great, benefitting so much from Neill Blonkamp's VFX background.

[ivan_domangaming]

This movie looks even better than most movies right now

[bensokol-composer]

District 9 is one of my top favorite films, because the story felt so grounded, so realistic, the FX visuals perfectly added to cinematography, and the aliens themselves were masterfully animated to induce empathy and compassion from the audience.

Seriously, what an amazing movie.

[PaddyMcMe]

I watched District 9 on a rip that didn't have the subtitles for the Roaches. I thought it was an overall directorial decision for the film and to be honest I still pretty much understood 80-90% of the whole experience without Subtitles. Which I think shows you just how well they managed to portray the story.

[ExploringUndercover]

This film shouldn’t have happened. But it did. And it’s the best aliens come to earth film ever. I’d love to see a sequel. I need to know if Christopher keeps his promise. He’s 11 years late

[tiggerdyret]

Also don't forget that money doesn't always buy talent. Sometimes a VFX team is just made up of extremely competent management and individual artists who haven't yet made a name for themselves. Hell, having good top to bottom communications compared to the large studios of bloated egos might also be a factor. This movie had a clear vision and no-one on the team phoned it in.

[carlosb]

One of my favorite movies! When other people didn't like it and I asked why, they said it made them feel weird. That is how powerful this sci-fi is.

[ConfusedandFrustated]

District 9 was an absolute masterpiece of a movie. The staggering amount of things that had to line up for this to be made on the budget it had will probably not be replicated for years to come. I watched this when I was in high school on a "decent" tv for the time. Watched it again recently on a 4k TV: still holds up.

[fhqwhgadz]

I loved this movie, I remember being totally blown away at the time by every piece. Was so surprised when I learned other people didn’t like it. The Directing, acting, and visuals are all incredible at a level you rarely see in movies.

[NeoThabo]

My friend said he watched this movie for the first time and this is in 2023 and he was amazed at how good the film is. This actually shows that this is really a great film with great VFX.

[plr]

The movie is a masterpiece, and the scenes with the mech suit are still the best ever to this day. No other film has done mech suits as good

[dudebandit]

This film came out at the perfect time as those riots you mentioned was a big thing here in SA, had major xenophobic attacks on foreigners, not just Zimbabweans in 2008. It was so bad that people that were locals were mistaken for foreigners and killed. The one line in this film hit me big time when I saw it, "if they were from another country, it would be fine, but they're not even from this planet" and I was like

The other thing is what you said about the mech suit. it also showed what a real person would do with tech he has never used before in a life or death situation. You wouldn't be cool in it or even strategic, you would just go and hope to live through it. I loved how real this film felt and as a Saffa, the commentary was spot on.

[ZDVictim]

This film was amazing. No one around me liked it and I was so confused. I was heartbroken that a sequel never came to light.

[blowfishes]

With the main character turning into a “prawn” as things progress, I always wondered if all of the others were actually born prawns or whether many were other species who were transformed by their oppressors. Did a certain species become transformed who retained enough of their intelligence to orchestrate their escape?

[freakinccdevilleiv]

The lighting matches the scenery real well, and the surface materials are not overly saturated with color or overly shiny. They really nailed it.

[MadMeeper]

Im so glad that you've specified how much work animators put in to make vfx look as good as they are. I work in 2D, but I still encounter a ton of people saying "well they'll just CG it" or how "the actor did all that" in terms of mocap. Vfx/animation/video production is an insane feat that takes teamwork, careful planning, and a whole lot of attention to detail.

My first encounter with this movie was in college when my friend livestreamed it to me from her place in NYC to my place in LA. I remember being SHOCKED at how good it looked, and even now it still holds up.

[Tommass]

Not only is it visually stunning and ahead of its time in many ways but the topic and themes are also powerful that affected me as much as the visuals.

[HavasiP]

Starship troopers is another movie with mind blowing effects that mostly holds up today. Very few movies achieve that.

[Vespyr_]

As someone who primarily only likes practical effects, District 9 was the first film to make me think maybe, just maybe CGI could become truly an asset to film... If more films went this direction it'd be incredible, but then the Avengers was released and everything changed forever.

[peakingmantis]

District 9 has to be one of my favourite movies of all time because of well done and immersed I was when watching. The acting, plot, CGI everything was done perfectly.