Matte World Digital helped to create the many environments and periods needed for the "time traveling" locations.

Beginning with the Armistice and ending with the rising flood waters as New Orleans's levees break from Hurricane Katrina, Matte World Digital's contribution to the film covers the 20th century and the beginning of the new millennium, with notable timeline stops along the way that include 3D environments and digital matte paintings of New York, Paris and period views of New Orleans itself.

The time traveling required the kind of photorealistic effects work that has to seamlessly fit into live-action photography and match realistic, not fantastic, environments. "Such so-called 'invisible effects' have long been a Matte World Digital specialty and our most demanding projects," Barron suggests. "Our Benjamin Button work ranged from digitally expanding a New Orleans train station set to creating entire city environments out of pixels."

MWD filled out the complex 3D train station interiors environment by adding ornate ceilings, rows of windows with light coming through them, benches and other set dressings, and additional crowds of people. Courtesy of MWD. 

Matte World artists created a World War I armistice celebration that takes place the same night that Benjamin is born. "As fireworks go off and jubilant crowds gather in New Orleans' French Quarter, MWD filled out the sequence with crowds, put in period fireworks and created elements with interactive lighting to enhance the location and extended the visible streets back further into the distance," Barron continues. "For the crowds, we shot our employees in our parking lot at night, running around and waving sparklers, creating a library of elements for compositing.

"For the train station interiors, Fincher shot only a minimal set on stage of only a few benches and a façade that MWD filled out with complex 3D environments. We added ornate ceilings, rows of windows with shards of light coming through them, benches and other set dressings, and additional crowds of people. Photographers within the scene fire flash bulbs, and additional lighting renders created momentary cast shadows and highlights. The interiors were re-created in different eras and at various stages of deterioration as a 3D station model rendered with global illumining techniques as 32-bit high dynamic range photorealistic set extensions of a given scene that could be altered and aged as needed. Our pipeline included using sliders to manipulate lights to match the on-set plate lighting. Environments that were wholly, or partially, 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 required modeling most of the city, and was textured with aerial still camera pictures photographed and retouched by MWD artists.

"Audiences might not suspect that they are viewing matte shots when they see the moody dawns at the Button family lakefront home. The house becomes an emotional touchstone for the film and was also created in 3D by MWD artists. We aligned our sunrises to a practical light source mounted at the end of the Button pier to illuminate the actors. The water was modified in composite to reflect the added skies, and combined with additional backlit water elements.

The clock face was a digital creation, tracked into the frame or part of the 3D environment, rendered with the effect of bright windows seen reflected in the glass face. Courtesy of MWD.

"MWD provided the theme of time itself in the form of the New Orleans train station clock, which runs backwards as testament to the clockmaker's pain at having lost a son in the Great War and his wish that he could turn back the hands of time. The clock face was a digital creation, tracked into the frame or part of our 3D environment, rendered with the effect of bright windows seen reflected in the glass face. The CG clock is seen throughout the film, including the end of the movie, after it's been taken down and stowed away (replaced by a contemporary CG LED clock whose numbers move forward). The final scene sees the flood waters of Katrina rise as the forgotten clock is revealed, still moving... backwards, with added digital painting illustrating the weathering and aging of the clock face and the effect of rising water seeping in and causing it to stain."

However, it all comes back to the believable performance of Pitt as Button. And now that Digital Domain has arguably created the first completely photoreal human performance, what's next?

According to Ulbrich, who believes Digital Domain has crossed the "Uncanny Valley," the studio has already begun production on the next feature that incorporates the technology developed for Button in its next iteration.

"Digital Domain first saw a script [for Button] in the late '90s when Ron Howard was attached," Ulbrich recalls. "It was deemed impossible. Tools would have to be invented that didn't exist. This was still in the realm of science fiction. Benjamin Button has been a quantum leap for us... we achieved what had never been done before."

Bill Desowitz is senior editor of VFXWorld and AWN.