erminator Salvation, the recently released
fourth installment in the iconic series, differs
considerably from the prior films in terms of look, setting, and effects. T4 takes place in 2018 in a bleak post-Apocalyptic future, whereas the other films were by and large contemporary. The Terminator robots are less primitive, more numerous and also better articulated, owing to major advances in CGI technology since ‘Terminator 3: Age of the Machines’ was released in 2003. And though Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Terminator of the first three films, has gone on to be Governor of California, an animated version of him appears in a brief but tantalizing sequence.

McG, the film’s director, and Charlie Gibson, the VFX supervisor, were both new to the franchise. “McG came to me with the idea of creating an action-driven film with effects rather than an effects-driven action film—and that appealed to me,” says Gibson. That idea became the organizing principal for T4. Most of the effects, practical as well as VFX, were done in camera and then animated based on the footage. “We were always going for the best action and the best cinematic effects first, and then finding ways to shoehorn the CG effects into that context,” he adds. “The net result is that you get a very integrated and organic feeling, and you’re not sure where the effects start and where the action stops, which is the goal."

Gibson came on board after some heavy lifting on the three effects-laden 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies. (He won his second Oscar as part of the team that did 'Dead Man’s Chest'—the first was for 'Babe' in 1995—and he was nominated for ‘Curse of the Black Pearl’.) The experience stood him in good stead. He had already worked closely on Pirates with the VFX team under Ben Snow at Industrial Light & Magic, which was also the main visual effects and animation house on T4.

“We drew more on the work ILM had done on 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and 'Iron Man' than on 'Terminator 3',” he says. To make the CG animation effects appear grounded in reality, the film relied heavily on ILM’s iMoCap technology which was developed by John Knoll for Pirates. The iMoCap system represents a big advance over traditional motion capture where actors on a set imagine they are grappling with an invisible CG character that’s later animated in.

And T4 includes numerous fight and chase sequences with a multitude of Terminators. With iMoCap, it was possible to capture the physical connection between what would end up being CG Terminators and the film’s two stars, Christian Bale and Sam Worthington. “Having a performer stand in for the Terminator on set working with the principal actors was key to the sense of immediacy and the sense of physical reality,” says the VFX supervisor. “There’s actually a physical drama unfolding in front of the camera—otherwise, it’s a one-sided tennis game.”

There were some 1,250 visual effects shots in 'Terminator Salvation'. “You’re dealing with well over an hour—65 or 70 minutes—of solid visual effects footage,” notes Gibson. “There’s no way for you to get in and direct every aspect of every single shot--you have to delegate.”

In addition, Gibson served as second unit director on the film, responsible for many of the more CG-heavy action sequences, while McG focused more on scenes involving the actors.

To handle the huge effort, Gibson assembled a team of collaborators from previous projects: “I cherry-picked people I’d worked with before, that I trusted to come out on location when I needed them and, in post-production, to supervise a portion of their work.” Instead of micromanaging them “I let them run with it, and working with their own teams, they added all kinds of incredible things to the shots that I certainly would never have come up with.”