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The factory
 | Presentation of the factory | |
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The factory, well-known to our heroes, is located a few hundred metres away from Kadic Academy. On first sight, they seem to be able to go there quite easily, so long as XANA doesn't try to throw a wrench into the works. In order to do so, they can use the secret passage than leads from the school's park to the factory.
The building is located on a little island, in the middle of the river that flows through the city – to be more specific, the Seine! This is also the reason why, when they go underground, they are really below water level!
But maybe a map might be clearer. This conceptual document concerns the factory in Code Lyoko, but it is probably still valid for Evolution, since the hybrid series did not really make many changes to the factory...
This place, former stronghold of Franz Hopper, is our heroes' HQ, since it harbours the well-known complex of the Supercomputer, a powerful machine that generates Lyoko. In theory, only our heroes know of this place and go there; when there is anyone else in the factory, it is generally a bad sign.
XANA sent several spectres there to get back its source codes since it knows that our heroes spend most of their time there. So the teens witnessed spectres of Samantha (episode 07 “Countdown”), a man in black (episode 19 “The Trap”) and Ms Hertz (episode 23 “Jeremy's Blues”) bursting into the factory. Both times, our heroes coped well, by deactivating the tower, virtualising the spectre or simply running away.
There were two other undesirable visitors who were brought to the factory. First, Laura's father, Mr Gauthier, was taken there by our blonde heroine so that she would not have to go to another school (episode 12 “Chaos at Kadic”). Then Graven, one of Tyron's men, was brought to the factory by Aelita, who wanted to gain some time (episode 17 “A Professional Career Guaranteed”). Jeremy gets rid of the two intruders with a Return to the Past.
However, since our heroes are anxious to limit the Returns to the Past because it costs too much energy, they are sometimes deeply annoyed by the fact that they must preserve the secret about the factory...for instance, when they have to rush there while Sissi is being clingy (episode 21 “False Pretences”). Even so, compared to their previous adventures, the secret about the factory has been well-preserved during this new battle against XANA.
As for the inside of the building itself, our heroes no longer venture into the nooks and crannies they do not need to explore. They just enter the building, walk into the elevator, enter the code 1506 and go down to the part that is actually interesting... | | |
| The Supercomputer complex | |
| | In the factory, there is a secret complex composed of three underground rooms, one on top of the other.
The deepest one is the Supercomputer room. This is where you can find the famous machine that generates Lyoko, launches the Returns to the Past and records all the data relating to the Lyoko Warriors.
The room contains an underground part into which the Supercomputer sinks and resurfaces with a kind of white fluid seeping out of it. From all accounts, it is a cooling chamber because Supercomputers heat up so much that they must be cooled with something more than simple air vents.
It is also the place where our heroes shut down the Supercomputer after XANA's supposed death... They swore not to come back ever again; but they have to do so when the artificial intelligence once again gave signs of its presence. So they switched the machine back on (episode 01 “XANA 2.0”). Then, they made sure that it would be turned off again, after they infected the Cortex with their virus (episode 26 “Ultimate Mission”).
The heat and light in the room are generated by the Supercomputer. Consequently, the room is hot and illuminated if the machine is on...but bleak and freezing if this is not the case.
Also, since there is nothing in the room except this imposing computer, Aelita imprisons Laura and her father there in episode 12 “Chaos at Kadic”, until the problems concerning XANA are settled and the return to the past is launched.
Above the Supercomputer are the scanners!
Big cables cross every part of this room, connecting the scanners to the Supercomputer and the laboratory! The heroes always have to come through the Scanner Room because it is the direct portal to Lyoko and the virtual world.
This room is not very big compared to the Lab or the Supercomputer room, but it is very high. It shelters three yellow cabins that measure two metres high. So our heroes frequently have to virtualise in turns.
At the base of scanners is a mess of cables. They feed the scanners with energy. If they are disconnected (like in episode 19 “The Trap”), any rematerialisation is impossible. On the tops of the cabins, messes of cables rise up to the ceiling to end up in the laboratory.
The Laboratory is the most important room in the factory.
A machine paradise, in the centre of the room sits the Supercomputer terminal as well as the Holomap, the hologram showing every Sector of Lyoko as well as any activated Towers. It changes its appearance depending on the part of the virtual universe in which our heroes are located.
The terminal is equipped with four screens. A central one, two laterals and a fourth above the main screen.
Cables in every corner of the room are connected to the terminal. This place is, above all else, the user's control centre. Anything that is going on in Lyoko can be monitored there. Be it Jeremy, Laura or, in some cases, someone else, the user provides the Lyoko Warriors on the field with essential logistical support. They are also the one who launches most of the programs, like virtualisation or the vehicles.
It is also one of the places where the heroes meet in order to review the situation, about XANA's return, or Tyron and Aelita's mother, or the inclusion of Laura in the group. Therefore, it is not rare to see the five friends together in the room.
Like the ground floor, the lab is the room where the confrontations may take place when spectres come. However, let us point out that unlike what it used to do before, XANA hasn't attacked the operators (Laura and Jeremy) since it returned. So battles inside the factory are much less frequent. | | |
| | Our heroes' factory, as it is drawn in Code Lyoko, is inspired by the Renault factory of Boulogne-Billancourt. Unfortunately, at the present time, this place has been destroyed. So the scenes that take place in the factory, in Code Lyoko Evolution, were not shot in an actual factory, and the old Renault factory can still be considered to be the inspiration source of the factory in Evolution.
Do you wish to discover the real factory? Come browse our file.
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| |  | The factory elevator code, 1506 is the birthdate of Marin Lafitte, the actor who embodies Jeremy and was born on the 15th of June. |
 | The scenes on the ground floor, in the scanner room and in the Supercomputer room, were entirely shot using a green screen. Then, the characters were inserted onto the background through matte painting. For the scanner room, big tubes from construction sites (those that usually evacuate rubble from the upper floors of buildings) were used to mimic a scanner's structure before the matte-painting. |
 | The laboratory and the secret tunnel are two unique sets entirely created for the shooting of the series. The actors, the screens and so on are then added using matte painting. From the outside, the laboratory is a big wooden dome. This set was created by Paul Chapelle and his team. |
 | Click on the image to see a video about the making of the matte-painting in the series. Click here to download it. |  | Click on the image to see the interview with Paul Chapelle, the lead set designer of the shooting of Code Lyoko Evolution. Click here to download it. |
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