Behind The Scenes -Transformers: 'Revenge Of The Fallen'

Just a week after its release, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen' is breaking all kinds of records at the box office. The first day it was released, it raked in over 60mm USD surpassing 'Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix' by over $20 million USD, and lagging the all-time box-office leader 'The Dark Knight' by only $6mm USD.

The main reason for the huge success of the sequel, starring alien robots, is its incredible special effects. As you can imagine, these were not easy, especially given that the movie had both live and animated characters.

The saga of the sequel began three years ago, when director Michael Bay hired some artists to sketch the transformer robots that he had envisioned . It was based on these sketches that scriptwriters started to draft the story line.

Once that was ready he set about filming two separate movies - An animated one starring the transformers and a real-life one with the human stars which was filmed on location in Egypt and New Mexico.

This was challenging, since the director had to visualize exactly where the transformers would be, when filming any scene that involved them and the actors had to act as if they were reacting to the giants - while in reality they were just talking to tall poles.

The live-action was filmed first. Then the animation teams set to work, inserting the hand-made transformers into each scene and making them appear larger-than-life. Once the scenes look seamless, the sound-effects guys added the drama to make them even more realistic. Finally, came the carpenters who added all the dust and the debris and other fine details.

No wonder it took hundreds of artists about three years and $150mm USD to make this movie - But the end result, as we can all attest to is simply incredible and something they will be proud of their entire lives.

Sources:eninews,wired.com,newsday.com