'Frankenstein': a look at the prosthetics, miniatures and digital VFX in the new magazine

Go in-depth into the making of Guillermo del Toro’s film.

Issue #50 of befores & afters magazine covers the visual effects of Frankenstein.

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Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, based on the novel by Mary Shelley, stars Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as the Creature. The director’s long-time visual effects collaborator, Dennis Berardi, oversaw 1,176 VFX shots for the film, working with visual effects producer Stacey Dodge.

Berardi’s Herne Hill (recently re-named back to MR. X) took on the majority of sequences, including ice and other environments, tower and lab scenes and destruction, fire, digital doubles, the flayed man and half corpses and more. Industrial Light & Magic came on as another principal visual effects vendor to deliver several animals, a number of ice shots, the Creature underwater, and the Dark Angel shots. Ticket VFX worked on demodernization shots, rose petals, the beetle shot and supporting visual effects. A dedicated in- house team also contributed to the VFX.

Meanwhile, del Toro collaborated with creature designer Mike Hill on the design of the Creature and a range of other prosthetics. Model FX supervisor José Granell with his Magic Camera Company built a range of miniatures relating to Victor’s tower, too.

In this special issue of befores & afters magazine, we go in-depth on the effects of Frankenstein with Berardi, Granell, MR. X visual effects supervisor Ayo Burgess, and ILM visual effects supervisor Ivan Busquets. We showcase the main effects sequences with a significant number of behind the scenes images from the film.