How fake animals are made for movies & TV

When a movie or TV show wants to film an action that it never could with a real animal, special effects artists have to come up with a convincing fake version. Thanks to the special effects artists at MastersFX, "The Boys" season three created several infamous scenes involving octopi and hamsters. Many instances, like in "Nightmare Alley" (2021) and "The Love Guru" (2008), involve scenes that switch between a real animal and a fake version for moments that wouldn't be safe for a real animal to do. To make sure the switch is seamless, the artists need to focus on skin texture and blotchy skin tones while adding hair and feathers by hand. This all gets more complicated when the animals need to move on-screen. With creative thinking, an animatronic chicken can flap its wings while pieces of fishing line can stand in for CG tentacles.

MastersFX:
https://www.mastersfx.com/
https://www.instagram.com/mastersfx1/?hl=en

Zane Knisely:
https://www.instagram.com/zeelowcee/

Kayla Arena:
https://www.instagram.com/kayla_arena_fx/

Sean Sansom:
https://www.instagram.com/sansom.sean/

Ron Stefaniuk:
https://www.steffxstudio.com/home2222222.html
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsru1EktD_-YuB6VYlYQ9kA

MPC:
https://www.youtube.com/c/mpcvfx