Working on the visual effects for the HBO mini-series Generation Kill, one of our biggest challenges was to create a whole fleet of 3D photorealistic trucks, Humvees, tanks and aircraft to blend in perfectly with the main photography.

We worked closely with military advisor Eric Kocher to make sure we got all the details spot-on. As well as Eric’s real-life battlefield photos, we used location stills, military models and even YouTube clips to help us bring the desert theatre to life – right down to the dust kicked up by the vehicles.

A number of Iraqi towns feature in the series, as well as the huge pre-invasion camp in Kuwait – we reproduced these digitally. We also sent our in-house location snapper Aviv Yaron to Israel for shots of generic Middle Eastern architecture.

We added black smoke, fires and artillery flashes to show the devastation wrought on the cityscapes. And using crowd-replication software, we could make the CGI troops we’d created walk, talk, run or stand – whatever the scene called for.