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'XXX: State of the Union' — 2 the Xtreme VFX

Alain Bielik signs up for the mission looking into the extreme effects ILM performed for XXX: State of the Union.

With help from ILM, Ice Cube blasts onto the screen as the new XXX. All images © Revolution Studios/Columbia Studios. Photo credit: ILM.

With help from ILM, Ice Cube blasts onto the screen as the new XXX. All images © Revolution Studios/Columbia Studios. Photo credit: ILM.

His name is Bond, James Bond Or is it Hunt, Ethan Hunt? Or could it be Darius Stone, codename XXX? Whatever his name is, the modern screen spys mission has turned from gathering intelligence to dazzling audiences with outrageous stunts, cool gadgets, dream cars and hot babes. Columbias XXX: State of the Union is no exception, as director Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day) delivers one thrill after another. Ice Cube walks in Vin Diesels footsteps as renegade Navy SEAL Darius Stone who is forced to work for a national security agency. The reluctant secret agent must track a dangerous military rogue unit, led by the Secretary of Defense (Willem Dafoe), who is conspiring to overthrow the U.S. Government.

While the original movie featured visual effects created in majority by Digital Domain, State of the Union showcases digital illusions crafted by Industrial Light & Magic with Scott Farrar (Peter Pan) as visual effects supervisor. Facing an intimidating deadline only 12 weeks between principal photography and delivery date Farrar elected to share the workload with associate visual effects supervisor Samir Hoon (Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines). We had 254 shots to do and less than three months to complete them, recalls Hoon. I mostly focused on the creation of the CG backgrounds. During principal photography, Scott and I each supervised one of the two shooting units. We switched between them depending on the circumstances.

Associate visual effects supervisor Samir Hoon and the rest of the crew had to move at 200 mph to get 254 shots done in less than three months.

Associate visual effects supervisor Samir Hoon and the rest of the crew had to move at 200 mph to get 254 shots done in less than three months.

Recreating Washington D.C.

The movie required three main types of effects: computer-generated environments, CG vehicles and set extensions. Several effects shots turned out to be a direct consequence of 9/11/2001. It has become very difficult to shoot in Washington D.C., explains Hoon. They now have strict limitations on where you can shoot, how you can shoot, in which direction you can point the camera, etc. For example, it is allowed to shoot the Capitol building from the House side, but not from the Senate side. The production quickly determined that it was just impossible to shoot the required plates on location. It meant that all the Capitol building scenes, indoor and outdoor, had to be realized via visual effects. The restrictions also affected the way we shot our background plates. For example, we couldnt set up a camera tripod on cement. It was only allowed on grass, which presented serious stability problems. I decided to use a gyroscope to help stabilize the camera, but that meant I had to carry the batteries around my waist.

Eventually, Hoon and his crew took a lot of still photographs of the location and managed to build a two-dimensional representation of the Capitol. Using Discreet Inferno and Flame, ILM tracked the still photographs into live-action plates that had been shot on a set reproducing the top stairs of the building. No 3D model was required. The Chamber itself was meticulously recreated on stage by production designer Gavin Bocquet (Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith). Since the set was only one floor high, the production anticipated a need for many digital set extensions. However, Lee Tamahori framed his shots so cleverly that, in the end, we only did one CG extension on this set, observes Hoon. We did do several CG extensions for the scene of the commandos in the rotunda. There again, only the first floor had been reproduced on stage. The higher part of the walls and the rotunda itself were added digitally. We built them in 3D from a series of still photographs capturing the real room at 360°, and we tracked them into the shots.

Doing CG at 200 Miles per Hour

If the Capitol scenes had their load of logistical problems, the final chase sequence was a major technological undertaking. It features Stone driving a sports car and chasing a (fictitious) bullet train in the Washington, D.C. countryside at about 200 miles per hour. The sequence marked a welcome opportunity for ILM to improve on the celebrated bullet train sequence of Mission: Impossible (1996). In the Brian De Palma movie, John Knoll and his crew broke new ground by compositing Tom Cruise onto a CG train into a CG tunnel. It was the first official use of a digital backlot, a new shooting concept later extended by ILM on the new Star Wars trilogy. Ten years later, Farrar and Hoon pushed the concept even further as the State of the Union chase takes place in an open environment and involves a car, several helicopters and the train.

The sequence was mostly realized via CG animation, except for tight shots on Ice Cube. The production provided us with story-boards and animatics of the chase, says Hoon. Given the speed of the action, it turned out to be impossible to shoot real background plates. So, we knew most of the scene had to be computer-generated. We first shot live-action plates on a bluescreen stage with Ice Cube playing the scene in a mock-up car along a partial set piece of the train. We had huge fans generating a strong wind on the set. The idea was to combine the plates with a CG background, which would give us the tight shots of Ice Cube interacting with the train. However, in 90% of these shots, for timing or framing reasons, we ended up extracting either the car or the train from the plate in order to replace it by a CG version. Ultimately, we kept very few of the real elements.

Long shots of the chase were realized entirely in CG. The vehicles, the environment and in some instances, the characters too were modeled and animated in Maya and rendered in RenderMan. Lighting was handled with proprietary software. Given the extreme speed of the train, ILM faced the prospect of having to create CG backgrounds of enormous proportions. Hoon knew that it was impossible to build a 3D geometry for every single object of the environment of the whole chase. Another solution had to be developed. We discussed using photo-modeling to create CG models of the background elements, but eventually, it was not necessary, explains Hoon. What we did instead was to dress the digital set for the camera. This approach was based on an image projection technique that we had recently developed for Star Wars: Episode III. The first step was to create a library of high-resolution photographs of background elements: we shot bushes, trees, poles, houses, farms, industrial buildings, etc. The chase takes place at night but we had to integrate several explosions for which we needed a lit environment. To this purpose, we systematically shot the elements both in daytime and at night. By balancing the two versions of each element, we could later create the illusion of an explosion lighting up the whole environment.

Once the photo library was completed, individual elements were projected onto CG cards facing camera. The same set of train tracks was used all along the sequence. We only replaced the environment. In every shot, we carefully repositioned the cards to have them exactly face the camera. If we moved the camera the wrong way, the illusion no longer worked. As long as all the cards faced the cameras, we had a perfect CG environment. We didnt even use any 3D geometry, except for elements passing by camera in the foreground. These were very low-resolution CG models. Otherwise, the entire background of the sequence was entirely realized by projecting images onto CG cards. It is a remarkable technique as you add detail only where you need it. You dont waste time rigging elements that wont be on camera.

The climactic speeding train sequence was a visual effects challenge in making the visceral action seem real.

The climactic speeding train sequence was a visual effects challenge in making the visceral action seem real.

Ending with a Bang

The first part of the chase concludes with Stones car crashing violently, a shot realized via CG animation with rigid body simulation. ILM has kept perfecting the technique since it pioneered it on the pod race sequence in Star Wars: Episode I (1999). We watched a lot of Formula One footage to get the right feeling of a car body disintegrating into many pieces, comments Hoon. The chase climaxes with the explosion of the train on a bridge, high above a river. The scene was executed by a combination of models and CG animation. The ILM model shop built a 1:6-scale miniature of the train that comprises the engine section and the first bogey. The model explosion was photographed at 96 fps on a black background with air blowers generating very strong turbulences on flames and debris.

We took those plates and added the rest of the train via a digital extension, explains Hoon. We then combined the whole train with a complex CG environment that included the landscape, the tracks, a bridge and a digital river underneath it. In order to perfect the integration of the model in the background, we needed to add reflections of the landscape passing by. We did that by rendering the whole CG train and extracting the reflections on the engine and the first bogey. These were later composited on the model. It really helped to make it look like it belonged there.

Another tricky sequence involving digital vehicles was the high-speed collision between a fictitious Abrams stealth tank and a regular Bradley tank, one of them ending up in the ocean. Designed by the art department, a full size stealth tank was built by John Fraziers special effects department. To create the crash, ILM opted to utilize rigid body simulation. We did four shots in which the tanks were completely computer-generated, notes Hoon. To show the tank falling down in the water, we dropped big boxes on fire in the water and used this as a splash element to integrate the CG debris in the plate.

Digital doubles and face replacements were used to create some of the more dangerous stunt shots.

Digital doubles and face replacements were used to create some of the more dangerous stunt shots.

Stunts and doubles

Digital doubles and face replacements have become an essential tool for action movies directors, but, surprisingly, State of the Union makes very little use of these techniques. We had very few of these effects in the movie, adds Hoon. We even built a CG double of Peter Strauss (who plays the President) that we ultimately did not use. Lee Tamahori was very careful in framing his shots in a way that allowed the use of stunt doubles. He was very keen on capturing most of the action in camera. One shot that couldnt be photographed live was Darius Stones jump from a speeding motorboat onto a bridge. The jump was realized with CG animation boat and character while the landing was shot with a real boat suspended from a crane on location. The only face replacement that we did on Ice Cube was a shot in which Darius Stone runs for his life on the prison rooftop. The action had been successfully captured with a stunt double, but on screen, you could see that it wasnt Ice Cube. So we replaced the stunt doubles head with the actors CG head.

For Hoon, XXX: State of the Union was a project full of challenges and rewards: In less than three months, we had to produce a completely computer-generated sequence that had to look just like the real thing on screen. The audience had to believe that it was an actual train rushing in a real environment. With the whole movie being grounded in reality, the photo-realism of the sequence was of paramount importance. And Im really satisfied that we managed to pull it off in such a short period of time.

Alain Bielik is the founder and special effects editor of renowned effects magazine SFX, published in France since 1991. He also contributes to various French publications and occasionally to Cinéfex. He recently organized a major special effects exhibition that opened Feb. 20 at the Musée International de la Miniature in Lyon, France. Displays include original models and creatures from 2010 Odyssey Two, Independence Day, Ghostbusters, Cliffhanger, Alien Vs. Predator, Alien 3, Pitch Black and many more. The exhibition will run until Aug. 31.

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