What A Minecraft Movie Looks Like Without Special Effects

Along with most of the moviegoing world, there were plenty of reasons why we were worried about the "Minecraft" movie after that awkward first reveal in September 2024. But things turned around as we learned more about the film and additional trailers were released, previews that better showcased what the movie was going to be — not to mention special effects that were actually finished. Now, "A Minecraft Movie" is breaking records, and audiences are so excited about it that they're literally cheering and celebrating in theaters. Needless to say, everyone who predicted that it would fail couldn't have been more wrong.

Speaking of those special effects, they are rather impressive and do an excellent job of bringing the world of the "Minecraft" video games to life. It was fortunate that what was shown in that original trailer was clearly a movie that didn't yet have all of its digital post-production work finalized. But as fun as it is to allow ourselves to get lost in the world that a movie has created, it can also be neat to see what that same film looked like while it was still in development, before all those fancy effects were added. When the actors were making "A Minecraft Movie," they only saw about half of what was present in the finished film, and a number of behind-the-scenes clips and "making of" featurettes give us a peek at what it was actually like on the set.

It must have been tempting to just go full green screen for "A Minecraft Movie," letting the actors run around on empty sound stages and having the effects team fill everything in after the fact. But while the film could have gone that route, with the iconic blocky universe from the "Minecraft" game series being built entirely within computers for the film adaptation, there's something to be said for a film production using physical sets for actors to walk around in and interact with, and "A Minecraft Movie" had plenty of those. In fact, a lot of work was clearly put into them.

Perhaps the film's most elaborate physical set is that of the main town that the human characters first explore when they arrive in the cubed world. Not only are all of the actual buildings real — inside and out — but the town is packed with tons of physical items like trees, signs, tables, crates, and even the games' signature block-shaped fruits and vegetables. As advanced as digital effects are these days, there's still nothing like seeing a physical set with tangible items in a movie, particularly in close-ups, to make the world of a film feel more natural and lived-in.

It can't be overstated how much work was put into designing the sets for "A Minecraft Movie" or how refreshing it is that so much of it actually physically existed rather than simply being created by computers. But practicality dictated that those sets needed to be built entirely indoors. For one thing, it protects the sets and props from the elements — not needing to worry about rain, wind, or other such pesky intrusions from Mother Nature ensured that the film's expertly crafted physical elements remained in pristine condition for the duration of the shoot. And for another, filming indoors meant being able to shoot any time, day or night, and not having to worry about weather or lighting continuity between shots.

So the scenes for "A Minecraft Movie" were filmed on indoor sets and sound stages as needed, and then the effects team came in and added skies to all of the outdoor shots in post-production. Not only did this let them control the time of day for each shot, but it also allowed them to create a sky that was specific to the world of "Minecraft" — blocky clouds, a square sun and moon, and the various flying animals and such that further helped to bring the world of the film to life. 

The image that shows what the main town square in "A Minecraft Movie" looked like during production makes it pretty obvious that the sky was the main thing that needed to be added digitally. And that was the case for much of the film, as the fact that it was shot on sound stages meant that computers needed to do the heavy lifting to make it look like the characters were actually outdoors — well, outdoors inside of a video game world, anyway.

But the digital effects team did more than just swap out a roof for a sky. In order to give the illusion that the cubed world within the movie was as expansive as it is in the games, computers also had to fill out the horizon in side shots. As the actors were walking through a physical set, most of the close-up objects like walls, rocks, trees, stairs, and the like were physical elements. However, pretty much anything seen beyond the immediate foreground was typically drawn in digitally to sell the illusion that the world of Minecraft goes on for miles and miles in all directions. In the games, the world is designed to feel infinite, and that could only be accomplished in the movie with digital assistance.

In the "Minecraft" video game universe, portals must be crafted in order for the player to move between dimensions. While "A Minecraft Movie's" portals allow for interdimensional travel, they also facilitate travel between the cube world and the real world. Given their magical properties and striking blue glow, the portals are yet another example of a special effect that you'd never guess isn't CGI. In fact, they're yet another physical set element built by the film's skilled set designers.

Not only is the frame of the portal a physical set piece, but its blue glow is a practical effect that can be seen in the background of various behind-the-scenes images and videos. Of course, the digital effects team did have to add a little bit of their own magic to fully sell the otherworldly properties of the portals; specifically, the swirly effect that's seen in the finished film. That part was drawn in digitally, and it should go without saying that further special effects had to come into play when it came to characters entering and exiting the portals.

While the villagers and the piglins in "A Minecraft Movie" are, of course, digital creations, there still had to be something for the live actors to interact with and avoid bumping into when they were walking around. Behind-the-scenes footage reveals people in brown cloaks wearing boxy gear who were clearly the physical stand-ins for where villagers would later be digitally added to the movie. The box coincides with how big the villagers are in the finished film, ensuring that they didn't get too close to a physical set element or one of the human actors. Otherwise, they would be passing through walls and other characters once they were fully animated. 

Additionally, a fun behind-the-scenes video popped up on Instagram that appears to show the filming of the scene where the piglins overtake the town. On top of the aforementioned performers running around in boxy brown outfits, stunt performers can also be seen moving around the set in grey motion capture jumpsuits, covered with markers and swinging axes and swords. Those people were clearly later turned into the piglins as they attacked the villagers — and the huge smiles on their faces as they filmed the scene prove that they were having the time of their lives working on "A Minecraft Movie."

Full disclosure here — this isn't a perfect film. In fact, there are a number of dumb things we all ignored when we watched "A Minecraft Movie," some of which taint the film's quality a fair bit. That said, there are also moments when the audience is asked to put their suspension of disbelief goggles on for the sake of keeping the film moving. One of those things is to not think too hard about why all of these people who had previously been living regular, mild-mannered lives miraculously knew how to wield swords and pickaxes and could fend off armies of dangerous creatures like they'd been training for it for years.

As for those creatures, the easy assumption is that they were all built entirely in computers and never had any sort of physical presence on the set. In fact, that's not the case, as making-of footage reveals. Creatures like the ghast can be seen being built and tinkered with by crew members as models, either being used as a reference point for how to animate them or as stand-ins to interact with like the villagers. Ir's even possible that actually used in the movie but with effects and animations added in post.

It's already been established that some of the animals, creatures, and other inhabitants of "A Minecraft Movie's" world were human performers in special outfits or, in some cases, physical models. In those instances, it's easy to see how the actors were able to interact with those creatures and characters, just like it's understood how they engaged with parts of the set that physically existed. But, as has also been pointed out, there was a lot added to "A Minecraft Movie" in post-production that didn't exist on set.

As can be seen in a lot of the making-of footage of "A Minecraft Movie," there were a lot of times when the actors would be surrounded by what looked to be simple grey sheets and screens. In those cases, the stars had to imagine the various background elements, characters, and creatures that were going to be drawn in by computers later, simply acting like those things were already there. So when you watch the final version of "A Minecraft Movie" and see something like Garrett (Jason Momoa) screaming in terror at some giant creature, keep in mind that the actor was likely screaming at nothing on an empty set when they filmed that moment.

Actor Emma Myers, who plays Natalie in "A Minecraft Movie," has shared some behind-the-scenes images and footage of the movie on social media. Among the things that she's posted is a shot of her standing on a sound stage holding an iconic "Minecraft" sword with a night sky projected on the draped walls behind her. The photo also includes a glimpse of what it looked like on set whenever Myers or one of her co-stars had to share a scene with General Chungus, one of the movie's literal big bads.

Standing behind Myers is a performer who appears to be wearing a motion capture suit like those worn by the people in the piglins vs. villagers scene discussed earlier. The performer is holding a pole, and on the end of the pole, there is some sort of object that has General Chungus' face on it. As the villain is much taller than the film's human characters, the actors needed a reference point for when they needed to look him in the eyes, and this is how that was accomplished.

Given all of the small details you might've missed in "A Minecraft Movie," including some deep-cut Easter eggs related not only to the original games specifically but video game history as a whole, it's clear that the creative team behind the film knew their stuff. For the movie's big climax, where the group has to take down Malgosha, General Chungus, and the piglin army, Steve dons a suit of diamond armor, which fans of the games know is one of the most powerful types of armor a player can wear. It also looks really cool, with a distinctive glow that owes to both its diamond-based construction and its magical properties.

The filmmakers, costume designers, and effects team knew that Jack Black simply wearing armor that was the right shade of blue-green wasn't going to be enough. Fans were going to expect the diamond armor to have that trademark glow, and, if anything, they were going to want the glow to be even more impressive than it is in the games owing to this being a big-budget, live-action film. So the effects team added the armor's glowing effects in the post-production phase, helped along during filming by having purple lights and screens to do some of the work to show the way the glow of the armor would light the objects around it.

It can be argued that "A Minecraft Movie's" true primary protagonist is Henry (Sebastian Hansen), the boy whose quirky creativity frequently finds him at odds with his peers in the real world but ends up saving the day in the film's cubed reality. After Steve's origin story is revealed, the next stretch of "A Minecraft Movie" deals with Henry and the various ways his brainy imagination gets him into trouble.

For reasons best chalked up to movie logic, Henry is allowed to not only build a jetpack at school, using the school's resources, but he's also permitted to demonstrate it himself as students and teachers alike happily observe. Though one of his classmates sabotages his prototype, Henry is still able to get himself airborne.

Surprisingly, there is behind-the-scenes footage of Hansen practicing piloting a jetpack, though he's being supported by wires rather than using a real, functioning jetpack. This means that Hansen wasn't simply sitting on a chair or stool while green screens and digital effects did all of the work. The actor did at least get up in the air and "fly" around the set to help make the shots of him using the contraption in the movie that much more believable.

Given that "Minecraft" has been publicly playable since 2009, it isn't just young kids who are fans of the game. It stands to reason that there are a number of things only adults would likely notice in "A Minecraft Movie," which allows the demographic who were kids when the game first launched but are now grown-ups to have things to appreciate in the film as well. One of those things was the borderline NSFW position that Steve and Garrett get into when they're flying through the sky together and need to get close to each other to fit through a small opening.

Seeing Black literally riding Momoa, using strands of the actor's hair to steer him, is definitely one of the funniest visuals in the entire film. While they obviously weren't really flying, Black was, in fact, sitting on an outstretched Momoa's back in a green screen room in order to film the scene. The two actors clearly had a blast making the movie, and the press they've been doing together to promote it makes it apparent that they're also real-life buds. In the behind-the-scenes footage showing the duo filming that flying scene, there was a lot of struggling to keep from cracking up as the two had to get into a hilariously awkward position to fully sell the flying effect.