We started with this background, shot by Visual Effects Supervisor Ernest Farino on the site of the actual launch in 1968. The pad has long since been decommissioned and the gantry scrapped, so there isn't much remaining today but concrete and overgrowth. Before any other work could be done, I had to match move the camera in Lightwave to reproduce Farino's manual tilt up.

Next, the Saturn 1B and gantry were placed into the scene, for endless refinements of the match move. We didn't have any fancy surveying or computer assistance, so the move had to be corrected by trial and error. To get rid of the final weave, we had to remake the sky and map it onto a curving screen behind the rocket. Since the sky was now an object in the same world as the rocket, the weave can't show up.

While Tony surfaced the Lightwave objects and lit the scene, ace animator Cecilia rotoscoped the FG actors, so they would appear in front of the rocket.

One day on set, Ernie grabbed this photo of the grip truck, to fill up the empty space on the right edge of the shot. Tony reworked the image in Photoshop to more closely resemble a period vehicle.

The final composite, with all the elements in place. Note the digital men we added on the pad, next to the rocket fins.