Here's what 'Arrival' looks like without the giant alien landing sites

Oblique FX/Vimeo

These before-and-after shots of "Arrival" show just how much CGI was used in the movie.

"Arrival" was 2016's most inventive sci-fi movie. And one of its biggest features are the mysterious alien "landing sites."

The big egg-like features weren't the only thing added with special effects. The visual effects artists also added roads, trees, cars, and all sorts of things to create the movie's specuacular landscape shots.

Take a look at some of these before-and-after stills, taken from a making-of video published by Oblique FX, a Montreal-based visual effects firm that worked on the film. You can see just how much the movie was made through visual effects.