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Category: Retro

Articles, Retro

Celebrate the release of the new 4K UHD ‘Dragonslayer’ SteelBook release with this Phil Tippett gallery

Posted onMarch 21, 2023

Re-visiting the go-motion work by Phil Tippett at ILM.

Articles, Retro

Dark City at 25

Posted onFebruary 26, 2023February 26, 2023

A conversation with colorist Peter Doyle.

Articles, Retro

An old Amiga with ‘Titanic’ miniature shoot ‘video taps’ on it is a treasure-trove of VFX history

Posted onFebruary 10, 2023February 11, 2023

The Commodore Amiga 4000/040 was used by Digital Domain to help craft effects shots and review miniature shoots for Titanic, Apollo 13 and True Lies.

Articles, Retro

‘Flubber’ turns 25: how ILM made the shape-shifting green goo come to life

Posted onNovember 24, 2022

Flubber!

Retro

Celebrating 25 years of ‘Starship Troopers’

Posted onNovember 7, 2022November 7, 2022

“The only good bug is a dead bug.”

Articles, Retro

You can now re-visit one of the greatest ever SIGGRAPH presentations in history

Posted onSeptember 18, 2022September 18, 2022

ACM has made 50 years of their publications open and freely available, including this killer animation-related session.

Articles, Retro

‘Event Horizon’: You just don’t get to see this kind of raw effects footage these days

Posted onAugust 14, 2022

This old-school footage is direct from the miniatures set on Paul W.S. Anderson’s horror film.

Articles, Retro

‘Predator’: VFX supe Joel Hynek recalls the days of optical compositing, thermal cameras and *that* red suit

Posted onAugust 4, 2022

Before you see ‘Prey’, read about the old-school way the VFX in ‘Predator’ were crafted.

Articles, Retro

The last-minute roto tool that saved the ending of ‘Death Becomes Her’

Posted onJuly 30, 2022

A new article on the 30th anniversary of the film.

Articles, Retro

Head stretching and stomach holes: re-visiting the visual effects of ‘Death Becomes Her’

Posted onJuly 29, 2022

“Bob had said to Meryl Streep: ‘Whatever Ken asks you to do, no matter how silly, just go with it. You can trust him.’ Because she must have been thinking, ‘What am I? What is this stupid thing?’” – Death Becomes Her visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston.

Articles, Retro

Why ‘Air Force One’ has some of the most talked about visual effects in history

Posted onJuly 25, 2022

The film has turned 25!

Articles, Retro

‘Men in Black’ and its crazy collection of real and CG creatures

Posted onJuly 2, 2022

“I’ve always told people that when you have a movie that’s fairly complicated be sure to have a talking pug dog in it, because then you can fix things after with the same pose.” – Eric Brevig, Men In Black visual effects supervisor.

Articles, Retro

The forgotten freeze-frame moments from ‘Batman & Robin’

Posted onJune 20, 2022

The infamous 1997 film had its own form of bullet-time, before bullet-time.

Articles, Retro

Multi pass and motion control: re-visiting the VFX of ‘The Fifth Element’

Posted onMay 8, 2022

‘You know, Mark, I don’t want to do these ‘fancy panning around and seeing the whole world shots’. I’d much rather set a camera looking down a street, having a cab rush towards me, and cut as it passes by, and then cut to a reverse of it passing by, and construct my film that way.’

Podcasts, Retro

Looking back at the practical and digital effects of ‘Anaconda’

Posted onApril 19, 2022April 19, 2022

Happy 25th birthday to the film’s animatronic snake.

Retro

‘David had the picture of the movie in his head’

Posted onMarch 30, 2022March 30, 2022

The VFX supervisor of ‘Panic Room’–the film is now two decades old–shares key moments from its production.

Retro

A deep dive into the history of ‘The Lawnmower Man’

Posted onMarch 24, 2022March 24, 2022

The film just turned 30! So I talked to director Brett Leonard.

Retro

‘Ice Age’ turns 20: a celebration of Blue Sky Studios

Posted onMarch 15, 2022

Looking back at Blue Sky’s first feature film and the art and tech behind it.

Articles, Retro

PDI won the bid to do a CG cape in ‘Batman Forever’ for an amazing reason

Posted onMarch 4, 2022March 4, 2022

The cape heralded a new wave of cloth simulation in movies.

Articles, Retro

It’s 25 years since ‘Dragonheart’; learn the VFX secrets behind the film

Posted onOctober 6, 2021

One of the befores & afters retro panels happening at VIEW Conference

Articles, Retro

The secrets behind the ‘Independence Day’ cloud tank effects

Posted onSeptember 20, 2021

Learn more about the spaceship arrival/cloud tank VFX at this exclusive VIEW Conference panel.

Retro

Celebrating ‘Joe’s Apartment’ and those CG cockroaches

Posted onJuly 26, 2021

The roaches came to life thanks to Blue Sky Studios.

Retro

25 years on, ‘The Frighteners’ still thrills as Weta Digital’s first calling card

Posted onJuly 23, 2021July 23, 2021

A look back at the VFX studio’s first major project.

Retro

Richard Edlund looks back at the making of ‘Multiplicity’

Posted onJuly 17, 2021July 17, 2021

The invisible effects film is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Retro

The surprising game-changing VFX of ‘Jurassic Park III’

Posted onJuly 17, 2021July 19, 2021

All about ILM’s adoption of several new technologies back on JP3, including ambient occlusion, virtual sets, Maya Paint Effects and dynamic flesh sims.

Retro

The miniatures of the original ‘Space Jam’

Posted onJuly 15, 2021July 15, 2021

Go behind the scenes with Vision Crew Unlimited back in 1996.

Retro

‘Escape From New York’ at 40: how those ‘CG’ glider graphics were actually achieved with physical models

Posted onJuly 12, 2021July 12, 2021

The model build behind those simulated computer wireframes.

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