mike chambers the day after tomorrow

Twisters, giant waves, terrific storms, frosts... 'The Day after Tomorrow' presents to us the worse of the futures for our planet completly detailed, using a lot of amazing visual effects generated by a wide number of studios.

Mike Chambers, Visual Effects Producer in this film, has more than 20 years in the industry. Among the films in which he has been involved we found some like 'The Abyss', 'True Lies', 'Broken Arrow', 'Evolution'... All of them with a great number of fantastic visual effects.

We have spoken with Mike on his trainning, his work in previous films, his work in 'The Day after Tomorrow', the effects generated by the studios involved in this project, the twisters, the flood of New York, the ice, ...

El Portal del 3D y la Animación - Looking at the list of movies in which you have been involved, we can find ‘True Lies’, ‘Broken Arrow’, ‘Evolution’,… ¿How were your beginnings in the visual effects? ¿Which was your trainning?

Mike - The differences between the two were that Volcano utilized miniatures and practical elements to a much greater degree, but otherwise the organizational requirements of these types of films are very similar. The technology available to us currently has improved greatly in the 8 years since Volcano was produced.

Mike - In the final film there are over 400 visual effects shots, with a great percentage of them being highly complex. In the end, we used about 9 or 10 vendors to produce the work, including Hydraulx, ILM, The Orphanage, Tweak Films, Digital Domain, Yu+Co, Zoic Studios, Ring of Fire, Dreamscape and Crack Creative. We tried to give the main vendors complete sequences, but some work was shared between 2 or 3 studios.

Generally speaking Hydraulx handled Antarctica, Tokyo and Space. ILM covered the Wolves and Frozen New York at the end. The Orphanage did the Helicopter Crash, the Storm Cell and the Big Freeze sequences. Digital Domain took care of the Twisters and some of the NYC Storm Tide. Aerials of the wave were done by Tweak films. Miscellaneous 2D and invisible effects were handled by the others.

3DA - Hydraulx has generated more shots for this movie that any other studio, among them the flight over the Antarctica, that we can see with the opening credits, and later how this is cracked. How were created these shots?

Mike - The opening shot and the few other aerials were entirely CG, built from the ground up. Only the skies were based on actual photographic elements, though they were stitched together and painted for the actual needs of the shots. The actors worked on a small platform stage that was completely surrounded by bluescreens, and these shots were composited with CG terrains, skies, and most importantly, the crack itself. The depths were modeled and falling chunks of ice were hand animated to serve each shot specifically. Great work on a great sequence!

Hydraulx also created the hailstorm in Tokyo and the spectacular views of earth and its storms from, and including, the space station.

3DA - Have Hydraulx used real footage in these views of earth and its storms from the space? How were created these shots?

Mike - Some actual satellite images were used as a base, but they were extensively painted. 3D clouds and storm systems were also added.

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