The sets play a huge role in the film as Aereon (Judi Dench) takes an audience with the Lord Marshal (Colm Feore, far right). Photo Credit: Joseph Lederer.

Outrunning the Sunrise
When Riddick finally escapes the prison with several other inmates, he must very quickly reach a safe place before being burned down to ashes by the rising sun. “The run on the volcanic terrain was photographed on sets that were augmented with CG extensions,” reveals Wassel. “Mostly matte-paintings. In some instances, the actors were extracted from the live-action plate altogether and composited in a CG environment. It allowed David to frame the shots in ways that were impossible to achieve on the stage. The escape sequence features a crash back from the ground to planet. A pullback combining three live-action plates shot simultaneously. We started with a tight shot on Vin Diesel and transitioned to a wider shot of the whole group. We then switched to a long shot of the characters before transitioning to a completely CG environment.”

The main effect of the escape sequence was the gigantic heat wave created by the sun. The Visible Thermal Front, or VTF, destroys everything in its path, remaking the planet surface everyday. The VTF was generated via a series of fluid simulations that needed to interact with the terrain.

“David didn’t want the heat wave to look like fire or a dust storm. After a long period of development, we ultimately came up with a unique look that’s self-luminous. Not dust, not fire, but something we’ve never seen before.”

Star Vin Diesel watches as a potential sci-fi franchise takes off. Photo Credit: Rhythm & Hues.

Planets and Spaceships
There is no true “space opera” movie without spectacular spaceships and exotic planets. On The Chronicles of Riddick, many of these shots were awarded to Hammerhead with company co-founder and president Jamie Dixon supervising the effort. “We had about 90 shots to create, all of them involving CG spaceships or virtual planet environments. One of the most important sequences we worked on was the aerial battle between the Necromongers armada and the fleet defending the main planet, Helion. David wanted to use the visual approach that had been so successful on Pitch Black, an ambiance of mystery in which you never completely see what’s going on. Indeed, during the battle, the ships are never fully lit, but briefly illuminated by all the flashes and flak from the battle instead. The image almost has a strobe light quality.”

The Helion ships were CG models provided by Double Negative and heavily modified by Hammerhead. Both companies created numerous shots involving those ships, but Chiang cleverly split the workload in daytime and night-time sequences, Hammerhead being assigned the later.

In some shots, several thousand ships are seen flying around. The main units were hand animated while the bulk of the armada was generated via procedural animation. “When you look at the shots, there are explosions and flashes everywhere,” Dixon notes. “It all looks random but it fact, every single event is calculated to direct the viewer’s attention to the part of the image where we want it to be. Another massive sequence that we worked on was the arrival of the Lord Marshal after the Necromongers’ victory. He walks down an enormous staircase while spaceships hover in the background and thousands of soldiers look on. Except for the actors on the staircase, the image is entirely synthetic, including the Necromongers army.”

In one of these sequences, a spaceship crashes right behind Riddick and flips over him. Hammerhead created the shots by combining multiple elements. “I wouldn’t say this was the easiest sequence we worked on…” Dixon laughs. “We had a plate of Vin Diesel running in front of a greenscreen. The ship and the street environment were New Deal Studios miniatures, shot separately. We composited these elements and augmented the effect with explosions shot on black, CG debris, camera shake, volumetric smoke and various atmospheric effects. What really sold the shot was the camera shake: we worked a lot on that particular element to get it just right.”

To be Continued?
With its operatic tone, imaginative visual style and spectacular effects work, The Chronicles of Riddick will certainly strike the imagination of science-fiction fans around the world. As the Star Wars saga comes to an end next year, Riddick’s outer space adventures could very well become the next franchise in the genre.

Alain Bielik is the founder and special effects editor of renowned effects magazine S.F.X, published in France since 1991. He also contributes to various French publications and occasionally to Cinefex.