Hydraulx used Global Illumination, a feature within mental ray, to calculate the true bounce of light. Image by Hydraulx.

This technology was also used for deep-space shots created at Hydraulx. “We did all but one of the shots from the international space station, and we had to come up with these giant storm cells that were the size of North America — huge 3D volumetric displacement mapped objects.” Global Illumination was used on these shots to give the storms a translucent, puffy appearance.

Finally, Hydraulx created the final and literally chilling image in the film. “It’s a big pull back on the earth where the whole top half is frozen — they’re in an ice age now.”

The biggest challenge was creating shots that ran for long duration, allowing audiences ample time to detect mistakes. “Every shot is like 400 frames long -- most are 10 seconds, 20 seconds, right up to two-and-a-half minutes. And it’s not like you can get away with a lot like on a quick shot, so any flaw, any roto problem, all stuck out like a sore thumb. Everybody had to try that much harder to make sure the shots were dead on.” As a final comment Strause points out that Hydraulx created 109 shots total. “And our 109 is 12 minutes of a 98-minute film!”

Freezing the Empire State
A key scene shows the freezing of New York, a sequence created by ILM and The Orphanage. “You see the storm settling over New York,” Karen Goulekas says, “And we start at the needle of the Empire State Building, and we track down, and you can see the whole building getting covered with frost, and as we get lower we tilt up and you see the whole city getting covered in frost”

The Orphanage wasn't left out in the cold when bringing these f/x to life. Courtesy of The Orphanage.

Unfortunately, when the city was totally covered it looked miniature, so a method was devised to maintain an illusion of scale. “We found it looked better if we didn’t cover some of the windows, creating dark pockets, so we went back into the shot tracking down Empire State, and had some of the windows explode as the ice contacts it, making the windows break under the extreme pressure, and that in turn allowed us to have dark areas where the frost is absent, which helped both ILM and Orphanage in terms of maintaining scale in the city.”

Schematic Design
As one can imagine, televised weather reports play an extensive role in the film, both in terms of supplying background detail, and in the narration of the story. Erin Williams, accounts manager at Schematic, and project manager Tavin Marin Titus, both produced the playback graphics for Day After Tomorrow.

“Playback graphics are anything on the screens and monitors seen in the film,” Williams says. To create these graphics, Schematic creates set mock-ups, hires actors, creates effects, and shoots the scenes.