Eleven vfx companies were called to duty for X-Men: The Last Stand. All images ™ and © 2006 Twentieth Century Fox. All rights reserved. X-Men character likenesses ™ and © 2006 Marvel Characters Inc. 

When it came time to prepare the last of Fox’s mutant-themed trilogy, X-Men: The Last Stand (which broke box office records during its Memorial holiday debut), there were some firm absolutes: One, there would be the addition of new mutants, including impressive examples of their powers in action. Second, the eye-popping visual effects set pieces would raise the bar. Third, the scale and the mortal stakes for the X-team would be raised as well through the complex vfx sequences conjured up by writers Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn. Their epic ideas proved to be so vast and challenging, that 11 visual effects companies were hired. Vendors such as Soho VFX, Framestore CFC, CIS Hollywood, Rhythm & Hues, New Deal Studios Inc., Kleiser-Walczak, Hydraulx and Lola Visual Effects all contributed work to the film, with The Moving Picture Co. (MPC), Cinesite and Weta Digital contributing the largest sequences. The latter three companies will be the focus of this article.

Cinesite’s work in the Danger Room required showing the transition from VR training to reality. 

Cinesite: The Danger Room
Responsible for the opening sequence of the film, Sue Rowe, visual effects supervisor for Cinesite, details that their participation on Last Stand was a project they aggressively pursued. “We were keen on working on the show as soon as we heard it had been green lit. Cinesite had worked on both previous films, with Cinesite L.A. having done the majority of work on X-Men 2, so we had a good understanding of the show’s needs. Also, the overall vfx supervisor, John Bruno, was a good friend of Cinesite’s, as we worked on Alien vs. Predator with him a year before.”

Explaining the specifics of their contributions, Rowe offers, “We did the more unique, boutique-type shots rather than whole dedicated sequences, which was great as we were able to enjoy the creative process more with Bruno. The film was spread across the globe and we all got a selection of shots, some more challenging than others. There was previs work to follow as a guide and, in some cases, we stayed with it and in others we were able to embellish the original concepts.

“For example, the film opens with the Danger Room, which has not been seen before in the earlier films. The concept was to go from a VR training program, which then reveals itself to be an empty set. Ironically, we really go from a real set with CG lasers and missiles and fireballs into a totally 3D environment. Here the concept was to dissolve into a wire frame to show the transition from VR to reality. We discussed a design concept with Bruno and he liked the idea. We used a graphic visualization of ‘point cloud data,’ which brought the concept right bang up into today’s software capabilities. The actual room that is revealed is a 3D build. We made it dark and moody with a sexy brushed metal floor. The scenes no longer dissolve from one to another; the structures diminish into particles, which have an eerie x-ray quality to them. Bruno loved it — he said it was ‘bitchin-tastic!’“ she laughs.

Thrain Shadbolt, Cinesite CG effects supervisor, adds, “We modeled the live-action geometry in the plate, then used RenderMan to create point clouds of the geometry. This was read into Maya as particle systems using custom scripts, and then animated within the shot using Maya’s dynamics tools and particle expressions. This was combined with a more traditional wire-frame look to give the appearance of the structures dissolving as the virtual environment gave way to the ‘real world.’ Many layers of particles were used in addition to the multiple layers of motion control.”