Pacific Rim: Special Effects with Industrial Light & Magic

In this fascinating video of behind-the-scenes film making, fxguide visits Industrial Light & Magic to discuss the work they did on Pacific Rim. This film is an in-depth VFX “pipeline” video showing production from pre-production effects to putting it on film and post production. Interviews include Visual Effects Supervisors John Knoll, Eddie Pasquarello, Lindy De Quattro and Hal Hickel.

The team had to coordinate their effects work with Guillermo del Toro’s production and filming to ensure continuity throughout. Incredibly, the team used an augmented reality app on their smartphones to know what the virtual environment would look like on film. They could stand on set and tell the actors where the Jaegers would be seen.

The team also discusses how they reconstructed the streets of Hong Kong, including widening some of the streets because they were too narrow for the Jaeger-kaiju battles. Interestingly, they were not allowed to destroy certain landmark buildings, even in the virtual world.