Birth of Antimatter 

By Money Sharma & Mrigank Dhaniwala, June 12, 2009 - 12:04 IST

In Angels & Demons Tom Hanks plays Harvard academic Robert Langdon, who discovers evidence of the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood called the Illuminati - the most powerful underground organization in history.

When Langdon finds evidence that the Illuminati have stolen antimatter from a secret laboratory at CERN (the world's largest particle physics laboratory. Which is in the business of finding out what the universe is made of and how it works), which they plan to use as a devastating weapon to destroy the Vatican, he and CERN scientist Vittoria Vetra begin a race against time to recover the antimatter and prevent catastrophe.

One of the most challenging shots was the ‘Birth of Antimatter’ sequence set in the CERN facility in Switzerland which combined a studio shot green screen with CG Hadron Collider, X-Ray and macro lens effects and a fast journey tracking the particles as the form into antimatter.

The 40 second shot describes the creation and storage of antimatter by travelling through the inner workings of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider and Atlas Detector. The true nature of CERN’s particle collisions was adapted to suit the story and provide a visually thrilling moment for audiences. An extensive pre-visualization was created as a guide for the onset crew who filmed the first part of the shot in a green-screen backed Control Room set and the last part of the shot in the antimatter collection lab.