I wrote an essay on this exact thing back in college. Basically every backdrop, including every mountain range the action actually took place in was totally digitally created, furthermore many of the explosions were beefed up in post production. Some obvious stuff like the sandstorm were of course CGI too. Sometimes the ground would just be reshaped a little for the aesthetics of the final shot when it’s basically just changing desert to desert.

The thing is, practically every vehicle and person you saw was real, and most of the special effects like the explosions were real and looked incredible on the day, with things like shrapnel and the like being added in post.

Fury Road barely used CGI for the content people care about, the stuff that’s exciting to know was done for real on location. But beyond that, it was used liberally.

I’m happy with this approach and I’m curious to see how much the new film adheres to this choice.