Artec in The Darkest Hour

Certain movie scenes make your blood run cold. 20th Century Fox’ latest sci-fi thriller, The Darkest Hour, features five young people that lead the charge against aliens who try to wipe out the human race using electrical current and strip the earth of all its metal. The movie’s mind-blowing special effects were generated with the help of an Artec MHT scanner.

“The Darkest Hour” starts off with young Americans on a tour of Moscow. While sightseeing, they are confronted with a mankind-endangering species. This alien entity claims world power and many human lives.

The way people and animals die in this movie is cruel and brilliant at once: when touched by an invisible tentacle of the alien, victims pulverize into atomic particles. To increase the visual impact and ensure the quality of his special effects, film director Chris Gorak, opted for the Artec MHT scanner.

Twelve actors were captured in full with their 3D doubles ready to be digitally scattered. The lightweight and versatile 3D scanner made it easy to capture them in between takes on the open-air set. No more than 3 minutes were required to fully scan a person in 3D.

The actors were excited and curious at once. “It’s impressive how quick the scanning process is! I couldn’t believe my eyes, when I saw myself in 3D”, said one heroine. The movie was shot at famous Moscow tourist hubs and the Mosfilm studio. The special effects supervisor, Brian Cox, had done work for movies like Australia and Narnia – The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Production of the latter also involved Artec 3D scanners. Learn more about it here!

There was a bitter note to the project, though, as Artec employees knew which characters weren’t going to make it in the movie…basically, everyone they scanned.