Lunar landscapes. (film).(created by Riot)

Many consider space to be the final frontier--an untamed, unsettled realm holding the promise of adventure. In the futuristic-themed feature film The Adventures of Pluto Nash, the first city on the moon is untamed indeed. But, it is far from unsettled. In fact, the metropolis--nestled in a canyon and encased in glass--makes New York City look as congested as a backwater town in Maine.

Building the film's complex, megacity of the future fell to a team of digital matte artists, computer animators, and visual effects specialists at Riot (Santa Monica, CA), who created a series of urban landscapes filled with trains, buses, holographic signage, office towers, and throngs of lunar residents.

"Our challenge was to create paintings that suggested all the complexity and life of a real city," says lead matte painter Rocco Gioffre. "It had to look alive with a lived-in feel, and it needed to suggest scale. Yet, it had to fee a, claustrophobic and have the character of a self-contained colony."

The size and scope of the city is suggested largely through a series of richly detailed matte paintings created in Softimage|3D, and composited with Discreet's inferno. In one shot, the camera travels over a four-square block section of the city looking down at buildings roadways, subway tunnels, and pulsating neon signs.

"We added numerous layers of details--far more than viewers will ever notice--and we melded them into a natural environment," notes animator Hans Payer. For instance, the team added puddles, steam, and overall grit, giving the cityscape a realistic look.

Many of these matte paintings had to be integrated ...