Mel Gibson shot Apocalypto in Yucatec Maya on the Panavision Genesis, and it opened in the US on 8 December 2006. VFX supervisor Ted Rae's brief was realism rather than spectacle, so most of the work is invisible: wire removals on the stunts, digital shoe removal to bare the actors' feet, real jaguar plates composited into the chase, three digital doubles for the waterfall, and crowds multiplied from repeated passes of costumed extras instead of built in the computer.
A sixty by eighty foot miniature of a Maya city and a full-size riggable sixty five foot tree were built for the environment and destruction shots. Seven effects houses delivered 398 shots between them, 372 of which made the final cut.