'Aquaman' VFX Reel Shows How The Underwater City Of Atlantis Came To Life

Director James Wan had to craft a lavish underwater world primarily out of visual effects, so it's no wonder that the before and after shots are so dramatic in this Aquaman VFX reel. On the heels of Aquaman's splashy box office success, Warner Bros. has released a video that shows the painstaking work that went into building the expansive underwater world of Atlantis, and all those flow-y hair shots.

Aquaman may have been unjustly cut from the Oscars visual effects shortlist, but at least we can gain a greater appreciation of its lush visual style with this Aquaman VFX reel. The two-minute featurette simply shows the before and after shots for many of the CGI-heavy sequences, from the intense fight scenes, to simply shots of star Jason Momoa swimming. It's fascinating to see that in order to achieve the look of hair flowing in the water, Momoa and co-star Amber Heard had to wear their hair (or in Heard's case, wig) in a bun while the rest of their hair was added later.

The film had tons of wire work as well, which Momoa and co-star Patrick Wilson had earlier referenced when describing how Aquaman was one of the hardest films to shoot stunt-wise.

"Hardest to date, for everything," Wilson said. "And I'd even go a step further and say at least in stunts, you're talking about a matter of seconds doing a specific action 30, 40 times. When you have to hang in different wires and harnesses and devices for minutes at a time just to talk and make it seem effortless, that weirdly took its toll even more so for me, because it was just a constant state of dangling."

But hey, at least their hair looked good doing it.

Aquaman is currently playing in theaters.

Once home to the most advanced civilization on Earth, the city of Atlantis is now an underwater kingdom ruled by the power-hungry King Orm. With a vast army at his disposal, Orm plans to conquer the remaining oceanic people — and then the surface world. Standing in his way is Aquaman, Orm's half-human, half-Atlantean brother and true heir to the throne. With help from royal counselor Vulko, Aquaman must retrieve the legendary Trident of Atlan and embrace his destiny as protector of the deep.