"Die Hard," directed by Pedro Romhanyi through London-based Outsider, follows the exploits of a young man seated in his Ford Focus at a drive-in movie theater. As the quintessential dick-flick Die Hard plays on the screen, our protagonist reaches into the backseat to grab some change, inadvertently kicks his stereo and sets off a silent SOS alarm. An emergency call center operator picks up the signal, overhears gunfire screaming from the movie through a sensor, and, envisioning the ammo to be the real deal, alerts emergency services of the situation. In an instant the sky is alive with combat helicopters deploying troops from ropes. Army trucks and foot soldiers join the ill-advised crusade, surrounding our confused protagonist as he peers out into the testosterone-filled exterior.

John-Paul Harney, 3D animator at Rushes worked with both Softimage|3D and Discreet combustion to create all but one of the helicopters in the spot (one 'copter was actually shot in-camera), acquiring polygon mesh files from Viewpoint as a preliminary step in the process.

"I basically commenced designing the helicopters from a technical drawing perspective," says Harney of Viewpoint. "I ended up with a lot of extraneous data that I stripped down because it created too much computation. In this case, it was actually more helpful than a totally accurate model because the helicopters were placed in a dark background at night."

Harney then commenced applying Softimage|3D and combustion to the back plates, adding texture to the choppers to create a more used and bruised look. He achieved the necessary depth and perspective for the camera, paying particular attention to creating an accurate visual rendition of the rotor blades and environmental reflections as the choppers glide into view.

"The main thing to focus on was getting the grading right," says Harney of the 3D ordeal. "I worked on compositing, defocusing, then laying the grain back over the top and adding glows where necessary. Then I rendered separate elements like light rays coming from the helicopters as they surround the car. I occasionally de-saturated the image to allow it to sit back from the foreground action."

Harney used his own discretion when blurring specific sections of the helicopters to convincingly convey both the speed and reality of a group of choppers swinging into the drive-in theater in attack formation.

"I used models of the AH-1 Cobra assault helicopter used in Vietnam which was perfect because they are so threatening," says Harney, who also added military camouflage for a more ominous look. He then added the reflections to precisely fit the action of the shot plates. "The main work was focused on the glints, flashes and spots of light reflecting from the environment like the red ambulance lights."

Rushes' 2D department worked alongside Harney on the job. Claire Pollock, inferno artist created a projected look for the drive-in movie theater as the adrenaline-soaked action unfolds.