The LEGO Batman Movie 4K UHD (2017)

[joenostalgia23]

Originally Posted by jakeacc

Exactly. Render times for CG are very long. It would be very expensive and double the production time if they had to create and render a 4K animated film. (as computing power gets faster, that should change eventually)

Furthermore, for the same reason as animation, VFX for movies are also rendered at 2K. Even movies that were filmed in 4K will include 2K-upscaled VFX. (i.e. The Martian 4K) I think one of the few recent films to have 4K footage AND 4K VFX was the Tom Hank's film "Sully". The VFX was mainly for the airplane crash scene, while the rest of the film had minimal VFX. A movie like Avengers, which has VFX is almost every shot, would have to use 2K VFX in order to have the VFX rendered in time for the film's release.

Technically, if the VFX kept all thier project files in order, they could re-render all the VFX out at 4K for a future release, but the production cost of that may not be worth it. (for the slight sharpness that native 4K VFX would give to upscaled 2K VFX)

I think it's better to keep the VFX at 2K anyways. The CGI in Sully looked a bit dodgy, and the 4K resolution probably just exposed the little flaws you won't detect in 2K.