F/X Tech Helped "Iron Man 3" Make Release After RDJ Mishap

Everyone knows by now that Robert Downey Jr.was forced to take six weeks off during production of Shane Black's Iron Man 3 to recover from an ankle injury. That kind of delay would've normaly wrecked havoc with the studio's plans for a May 3rd bow.

Not in today's world, a special effects team was brought in to continue filming--a body double shot the scenes live action, while Downey's face was shot acting out the scenes and digitally inserted over the double.

Visual effects supervisor Chris Townsend tells IGN: "We were able to reconstruct [Downey] as Tony Stark on set, with the help of a body double and the facial captures we collected afterwards."

The entire beach finale of "Iron Man 3" was semingly constructed using this technique.

Similar tactics were used in films such as the early scenes of Chris Evans in "Captain America: The First Avenger, and how Armie Hammer became his own twin in "The Social Network ".