Specific to the characteristic of water, as it approaches the horizon, it is mostly constituted by reflections; therefore, high detail 2D sky matte paintings were very important part of rendering the water. These matte paintings were integrated into large dome reflection textures to make sure the water color matched the final composite.

Velocity and caliber for gun-fire as well as resulting glass damage was designed down to the exact frame. To match the gun flashes, bullets hits and blood splatters were composited into shots using a combination of practical and digitally painted elements. McGuinness and his team carefully researched a host of other supporting digital assets to ensure they were not only accurately represented but visually exciting.

"Youthening" has been brought to a science, with the use Flame for compositing, Maya for 3D and Bijou for 3D tracking. Courtesy of Lola. 

Lola, meanwhile, created 315 shots, greatly refining its "youthening" technique since X-Men: The Last Stand. In fact, Lola broke it down to a science, using Flame for compositing, Maya for 3D and Bijou for 3D tracking.

The artists adjusted the features of Blanchett and Pitt based off ratios and tables derived from anatomically correct formulas. Because of the large volume of age enhancement shots, Lola had to create an efficient pipeline that was both accurate and efficient. Blanchett was difficult because her skin is nearly flawless; it is hard to remove wrinkles that do not exist. For Pitt, the challenge was to match how he looked in Thelma and Louise, his iconic breakthrough performance.

In the dance studio scene, Pitt dramatically emerges from the shadows, and is 20 years younger. This is the first time Daisy sees Button as a young man, and the effect required strong audience reaction. Senior Animator Casey Allen was tasked with creating new techniques. "In the end, after removing and/or repositioning every fold and crease of the eyelids, Casey was able to create new geometry of the eye though re-lighting and resetting the structure of the entire eyelid," Williams explains. "This created an eye socket structure that Brad possibly never had, but the overall effect, combined with the re-shaping of the rest of his face, was that of extreme age rejuvenation. Casey worked closely with David Fincher and me to fine tune the look of Brad's eyes, and Casey devoted close to 60 hours for this one shot.

"[Later], when 21-year-old Daisy first encounters Benjamin back from over-seas, we adjusted Blanchett's already porcelain-fine skin and sculpted features to suggest the clinging baby fat of early adulthood. Lola's technique preserves the skin's natural texture while adjusting the depth and lighting of the face to push the character forward or backward in age, all while emphasizing the actor's performance, so we filled in her defined cheek hollows and more evenly spread the light across the facial features. Much of this was established in our earliest tests done by Senior Artist Leong Wongsavun. [Fincher] made adjustments to the overall look and then to individual shots with Artist Chris Ingersoll over a few months. The tracking challenges presented by Blanchett's youthful performance were addressed with a combination of solutions in Flame and PF Track.

Environments that were computer-generated included a snowy street scene in northern Russia, shots of New York in the '30s and '40s and a dramatic flyover of Paris in the '50s. Courtesy of Matte World Digital. 

"One of the challenges we faced when working on older Pitt closeups was enhancing the makeup already present and ensuring the most realistic looking skin possible. Latex and other prosthetic pieces just don't react to light like skin does, or necessarily have the same texture as skin. In the scene where Benjamin discovers his eyesight is getting better, Artist Sean Wallitsch readjusted the breadth and intensity of highlights and sheen on the skin, and used virtual skin grafts to smooth out the edges of prosthetic pieces and get more realistic looking skin overall. In addition, mesh warps were also used to distort features (like eyes) for an older look that you just can't do with prosthetics. In other sequences, we 3D tracked facial features with PF Track to allow us to accurately place even more complex details onto an actor's performance.

"In addition to drastically altering the primary actors' ages, it was necessary to carry through distinctive facial characteristics such as scars and bone structure to all ages of the characters. For instance, Pitt's character Benjamin has a scar across his cheek that is integral to the story. When the character appears as an infant, our Flame Artist Trent Claus was able to track the featureless skin of the baby using PF Track and then, using Flame, he could adjust the height, texture and other dynamics of the skin to create a dramatic scar across the baby's cheek. Trying to apply such a drastic make-up effect to an infant on set would be impractical, whereas we were able to seamlessly alter the skin of the baby to suit the story using digital effects.