The gore added a new level to the fight scenes.

"But the other thing was that all sorts of choreography would happen across different shots, across the cut; it was an efficient way to have action carried across multiple shots because each fight was presented in a handful of shots but the action was continuous that the gods were doing."

How was this different from other fight movies? "I think this took the graphic gore nature of the fighting to a higher level and pushed it further," Jacobs insists. "And that was another challenge: to make it gory and make it cool but not make it corny, so the amount of blood we brought to the fighting didn't enter the level of absurdity. At some point, it is over-the-top, but you don't want some people to view it as Monty Python. It definitely pushed the envelope. But it also uses [beautifies] the gory deaths."

Tippett tried to bring beauty to the bloody.

In fact, the blood (animated with Houdini, which was another first for Tippett) became a character of its own. It had to be highly graphic and beautiful, as in a liquor ad, because it had to linger in slow-mo.

In addition to the Titan fight, which is around 70 shots, Tippett also animated a canine creature they called the mongrel (very grungy-looking and with hyena-like markings), which appears in about a dozen shots. In addition, Tippett contributed to the "Sistine Chapel" shot at the end comprised of dozens and dozens of Titans and gods fighting in the sky. It's an exquisite tableau of people killing each other. So Singh liked it so much that he requested that Tippett integrate some of the Titan footage. "It's amazing to watch in 3-D because they're fighting on multiple planes in the sky," Jacobs adds.

"This definitely took us in a new direction, technically and creatively."

Bill Desowitz is former senior editor of AWN and editor of VFXWorld. He has a new blog, Immersed in Movies (www.billdesowitz.com), and is currently writing a book about the evolution of James Bond from Connery to Craig, scheduled for publication next year, which is the 50th anniversary of the franchise.