ILM’s Cary Phillips on the development of Cari for ‘Dragonheart’

June 27, 2026

It’s the newest podcast in our ILM series!

Today it’s our latest episode from the special ILM podcast series, as part of the release of my book, Industrial Light & Magic: 50 Years of Innovation.

Today we chat with Cary Phillips, who is Director, R&D Engineering Architect at ILM. Cary has been recognized with three Academy Scientific and Technical Awards. These were for the Caricature Animation System in 1998, the ILM Creature Dynamics System in 2001 and the ILM Shape Sculpting System in 2015.

Caricature, or Cari, as it was known, was famously used to help animate the face of Draco on Dragonheart. That’s where I start the conversation with Cary Philips, asking him how Cari came to be.


This podcast is sponsored by RE:Vision Effects.

 

Here’s a quick quiz: Name the company that made VFX for these movies?

E.T., Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Abyss, Terminator 2,, Forest Gump, The Mask, Twister, Mission Impossible, Spawn, Speed II, Saving Private Ryan, The Perfect Storm, AI, Minority Report, Cowboys and Aliens, Lucy, Kong: Skull Island, The Revenant, The Batman, Alien: Romulus and Running Man?

Thanks for inspiring us, ILM. A message from revisionfx.com.


Listen in to the podcast, above.

Leave a Reply

Don't Miss

“The ending with the Zeppelin was a nightmare, but it turned out pretty cool”

How that final airship explosion in The Rocketeer was (almost)

Deathclaws: practical and CG artistry

Bringing the nine feet tall creatures to life. An excerpt

How ILM invented ambient occlusion for ‘Pearl Harbor’

Plus, a look back at the miniatures work, and rarely-discussed

Discover more from befores & afters

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading