A little bit Lord of the Rings, a little bit Matrix — The Chronicles of Riddick ups the ante for visual effects. Photo Credit: Hammerhead. All images © 2004 Universal Studios. All rights reserved.

When it came out in 2000, Pitch Black took science-fiction aficionados by surprise with a charismatic anti-hero (played by Vin Diesel), innovative creature design and a very effective “less is more” visual approach. The film was produced on a shoestring budget, but four years later, director David Twohy got all the money he wanted to put his epic vision on screen for the sequel. It is a vision that encompassed no less than three different worlds, six classes of starships and some nasty alien creatures. In this new adventure, Riddick is caught in the middle of an invasion by a planet conquering religious sect, the Necromongers. Eventually, he becomes the key to the future of all beings in the galaxy.

To supervise the ambitious vfx work, Twohy tapped Peter Chiang, who had overseen the visual effects on his two previous movies, Pitch Black and Below. Originally, about 600 effects shots were planned with three facilities evenly sharing the workload: Double Negative, Rhythm & Hues and Hammerhead. Ultimately, the movie ended up featuring more than 800 effects shots.

Director David Twohy on the set of The Chronicles of Riddick. Photo Credit: Joseph Lederer.

Astral Effects
One hundred and forty of these shots were created by Double Negative under the supervision of Tom Debenham and Jesper Kjolsrud. “There was one sequence that was pretty complex from a conceptual point of view,” Kjolsrud says. “The bad guy, whose name is Lord Marshal (Colm Feore), has the power to send his astral body in a direction and to project himself very quickly in its trail. During his climactic fight with Riddick, it gives him the ability to strike at light speed while avoiding being hit. It took us a very long time to develop a look for this effect. In fact, we were still refining it six weeks before the film’s release.”

Originally, Twohy wanted the effect to look as if the camera shutter had been left open while filming the actor. However, early tests demonstrated that this approach produced very static results. “We ended up using a combination of live-action elements and 3D animation to make it work,” Kjolsrud explains. “Basically, what we did was to photograph the actor on a green screen at the start point of his move, then at the end point. On either side of the main camera, we had two extra 35mm cameras equipped with wider lenses in order to capture the whole action. These plates allowed us to triangulate the exact position of the actor and to track his moves onto a CG double. Using Maya, we then animated the ‘ghost’ version of the character to run at light speed across the set until it blended into the actor in its final position. The streak itself was generated in 3D via a proprietary particle renderer combined with RenderMan.”

The most complex shots of the fight required intricate planning of the plate photography. “Sometimes, Vin and Colm were shot together on a greenscreen,” Kjolsrud says. “But there were shots for which we had to photograph them separately. Vin would rehearse his moves with four or five stuntmen playing Lord Marshal materializing everywhere around the character. Once the choreography was in place, Vin performed the action alone, using tennis balls to hit his marks. We then timed the animation of our CG ‘Marshal ghost’ to respond to his movements.” All Double Negative shots were composited in Shake.