Life of Pi
Nearly all of the scenes in Life of Pi that featured Richard Parker, the tiger who served as Piscine Molitor's only companion, were created with CGI. The director decided to reserve real tigers for single shots only. "By doing that, it set our bar high for CGI. We couldn’t cheat at all," said visual effects supervisor Bill Westernofer. "It pushed the artists to go and deliver something that’s never been done before, something as photo-real as anyone has ever done with an animal."