It’s a spectacle of heavy-hitting VFX, including big battle sequences; extra-terrestrial war machines; CG military tech; aliens en masse, and plenty of destruction and explosions. The most epic creature in the film is the Alien Queen – a 220-foot invader with a ‘strange beauty’, created by Weta Digital.
We also handled the final battle sequences set outside the Area 51 base on the surrounding salt flats captured in expansive wide-shots. The environments are entirely digital and very detailed, featuring swarming aliens, crowds of troops, hero digi-doubles, and a lot of destruction fx.
Mike Seymour from WIRED sits down with Independence Day: Resurgence director Roland Emmerich and discusses the astonishing visual effects used in his newest picture.
Roland Emmerich wanted the Alien Queen to be like nothing he had seen before, and have various forms. She was perfected using a creative approach to fx simulations and character animation that balanced artistic licence with physical plausibility.