Despite the loss of Paul Walker in the middle of filming, James Wan’s “Furious 7” still came together. With the aid of Walker’s two brothers as stand-ins and some digital FX wizardry from Weta, the team behind it was able to finish the picture.

Weta Digital, the effects company behind The Lord of the Rings trilogy, admitted that it was difficult since they didn’t have digital body scans of the late actor.

To complete his character’s (Brian O’Connor) journey in the franchise, 350 CGI shots of the actor were used, along with distant shots of his brother.

“We had to complete a performance – what Paul Walker would have done if he’d been able to continue. And it had to be his performance,” Joe Letteri, Weta’s senior VFX supervisor told Variety.

The crew utilized a combination of scans of Walker’s brothers Cody and Caleb, as well as old footage of Walker’s performances and outtakes from “Furious 7,” to create Walker’s digital model. Leterri acknowledges the technology was “barely possible” when they did it last year.

The computer models took a long time to render and necessitated a lot of overtime. They had to get his hair just perfect, including how it varied depending on the wind, as well as his skin’s blood flow. “They even worked to make sure he blinked in character,” said one of them.

Another VFX supervisor, Martin Hill, told the trade that convincing an audience that a digital stand-in is an actor is very hard, but that his team did an excellent job of blending in the visual effects work.

“That’s a high bar in itself, to create that. Beyond that, this actor was known to millions of fans, and this had to be Paul Walker – more specifically, Walker in character as Brian O’Conner,” said Martin Hill.

Hill continued, “We knew we were doing something special for the filmmakers, the fans, the family – and for Paul’s legacy. We wanted to give him the sendoff that he deserved.”

Nonetheless, director James Wan was concerned that the CGI would be disrespectful in one of the most important sequences – when Brian effectively says goodbye to the crew and Dom gives his “brother” a farewell speech.

“This is the key moment in the arc of Brian’s character. Can we get that kind of nuanced performance,” he reportedly asked.

In a heartbreaking appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show, Furious 7 co-star Vin Diesel talked out about Walker’s death.

“I feel blessed that I’m able to carry on and talk about how wonderful a person he was and how special a person he was,” he said.

While O’Connor’s story is sadly over, the Fast and Furious franchise is far from over. The eighth installment of the Fast and Furious franchise will be released on April 14, 2017, and Diesel has stated that there will be at least two more movies after that.