Blow up the White house in UE5 (Independence Day)
Published on
independence day, unreal engine, unreal engine 5

blow up a building
4th July is around the corner and even as Europeans we perfectly know what that days stands for. The independence of the United States, a massive holiday which they celebrate like no other. And with this coming up it was the perfect opportunity to do a CopyCat on no other movie than Independence Day!

A classic movie with an iconic scene. Even if you didn’t watch this movie you 100% know the scene where an alien ship blows up the White House. Recreating something like this does come with its challenges but we found a way to be able to do it as fast and as easy as possible all in Unreal Engine.
It was all Practical Effects
Believe it or not but the original shot was done without ANY vfx work! They build a 1:24 scale White House out of plaster. Which they blew up with explosions. The original shot was over in seconds but since they recorder this in 300 frames per second it gave the illusion of a big building being blown up by a massive explosion.

Storyblocks
Big thanks to Storyblocks for the support on this video. Their community driven library always help us to find something perfect every VFX shot. They really help us to bring our Visual effects to life, without compromising on anything.
