What Starship Troopers Looks Like Without Special Effects

As its title implies, "Starship Troopers" was about more than just soldiers, but starships as well. While there was plenty of CGI employed to bring some of them to life, many of the outer space sequences involving ships — like Carmen's cruiser called the Rodger Young — were filmed using custom-built models. One sequence involving dozens of starships under attack used models created by artisans at Sony's model shop Thunderstick, with George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic, and a VFX studio called Boss also lending a hand.

Augmented with the use of some CG attack ships, 13 scale starships were created for the scene, which took a total of 14 months to assemble from start to finish. The scene, which saw chaos erupt when the fleet met an unexpected attack from the bugs, required the VFX team to put together all of those ships, plus background elements such as large rocks created out of foam, as well as CGI. This meant using an advanced computer software program, though even that could barely handle the task of compositing so many moving parts.

As shown in this making-of image, a single large model of the starship is dangled in front of a black backdrop to capture just one of the more than 200 individual elements, while technicians carefully arrange exterior lighting to help simulate movement. The large, empty warehouse space stands in stark contrast to the final scene: a frame buzzing with starships, explosions, and debris.