Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

During the Napoleonic Wars, a brash British captain pushes his ship and crew to their limits in pursuit of a formidable French war vessel around South America.

Much of the movie takes place on the high season, often in stormy weather. ILM had proven its ability to create digital water for The Perfect Storm, but for this film, visual effects supervisor, Stefan Fangmeier, (who also supervised the effects in The Perfect Storm) had another idea. Because he had received real ocean footage shot in extreme conditions, he relied primarily on his compositors. To create the ocean surrounding the naval ships, compositors assembled bits and pieces of real water, using digital water only to glue the pieces together.