Christabel Kim: September 2011

CASE STUDY OUTLINE- PHIL TIPPETT

1) Introduction

a) Phil Tippett is an award winning movie director of visual effects. He is also the founder of Tippett Studio. Many of his works are seen throughout classic and visually inspiring motion pictures of film history. Tippett’s work and craft in VFX not only won him numerous awards and nominations, but also paved the film industry’s way into the age of digital effects.

2) Early Life Biography

a) Born in Berkeley, California

b) At the age of seven, Phil was inspired by Ray Harryhausen’s “The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad” (stop motion classic) and Willis O’Brein’s “King Kong”

c) Education

i) Cascade Pictures, an animation studio located in L.A.

ii) Fine Arts degree from University of California, Irvine

3) Early Career

a) 1970’s traditional effects included the following:

i) stop animation, rear screen projection, hanging miniatures, forced perspective

b) Phil Tippett, Dennis Muren and Ken Ralston gained interest in the world of VFX and were inspired by Tex Avery (mentor, animator and boss of Tippett)

c) During this time, visual effects had little regard in the motion picture business

4) Star Wars

a) 1975- Tippett was hired by George Lucas and John Berg to create a stop motion miniature chess scene for Star Wars I

b) 1978- lead ILM animation team

i) brought life to the sinister Imperial Walkers and alien hybrid Tauntaun for The Empire Strikes Back

(1) co –developed animation technique called go motion to animate the sinister AT-AT Imperial Walkers and hybrid alien tauntauns

c) modeled alien heads and limbs

d) Tippett can be spotted in few of the scenes playing the role of colorful musical aliens in Star Wars

e) 1983- as the head of ILM creature department, he worked on Return of the Jedi

i) designer of Jabba The Hutt

ii) presided over creation and design of numerous character such as those occupying Jabba’s Palace, Rancor Pit Monster and legged Walker

f) 1984- left ILM and created his own studio Tippett Studio

i) set up his studio in his garage and created an experimental film “Prehistoric Beast” (10 minute film)

5) Works

a) The Crater Lake Monster

b) *Star Wars A New Hope
c) Dragonslayer
d) Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

f) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (effects creative consultant, 1984)

g) Willow (two-headed dragon go motion sequence, 1988)
h) Robocop2 (Robochain go motion, 1987)

i) *Jurassic Park (CGI dinosaurs, 1991)

j) Dragonheart (dragon designs, 1996)

k) Evolution (visual effects supervisor, 2001)
l) The Spiderwick Chronicles

r) Cloverfield (monster, 2008)

s) The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (wolves, 2008)

6) Awards and Nominations

a) 1982- Nominated Oscar Best Effects, Visual Effects for Dragonslayer

b) 1984- Won Special Achievement Award for Star Wars: Episode 6- Return of the Jedi

c) 1989- Nominated Oscar Best Effects, Visual Effects for Willow

d) 1994- Won Oscar for Best Effects, Visual Effects for Jurassic Park

e) 1997- Nominated Oscar for Best Effects, Visual Effects for DragonHeart

f) 1998- Nominated Oscar Best Effects, Visual Effects for Starship Troopers

g) 2009- February- Visual Effects Society awarded him with the George Méliès Award for his lifetime achievements in Visual Effects

h) 2005- Festival Honors in Frankfurt, Germany at the 8^th Annual eDIT Film Festival (international film festical with a focus on storytelling digitally)

i) won a total of 4 Saturn Award and nominated for 2 more

j) won BAFTA Film Award in 1994 and nominated in 1989 and 84

k) won 2 Emmy in 1986 for Dinosaur! (TV Outstanding Special Visual Effects) and 1985 for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for Ewok Adventure

l) Nominated for Golden Satellite Award in 1998 Outstanding Visual Effects for Starship Troopers

7) Personal Quotes

a) “We’re in a little bit of a fantasy stage with this digital stuff where we say, well you can do anything you want. And yeah, you could,” he shrugged, “maybe; but to a certain degree, it’s about doing an engineering reality check…”(Dunlop).

b) “…don’t just use technology because you can, because technology is a tool, not the accomplishment” (Dunlop).

c) “You forget you are working and just get into the creative aspects…”(Dunlop).

8) Conclusion

a) Phil Tippett is a successful visual effects designer and artist who enjoys what he does and continues to take part in well known films for its 3D and CG characters. His company, Tippett Studio, is a leading visual effects studio specializing in 3D CGI animation. He is a leading director and producer of visual effects in many of the films we watch today such as the Twilight and Stars Wars series. He is also the responsible mastermind behind many film creatures, such as the monster in Cloverfield and Hogsqueal from The Spiderwick Chronicles. Tippett has carried stop motion animation longer than some artists who have abandoned this form when computers stared dominating the motion pictures industry. Much of his amazing go animation techniques are used in the tauntaun creatures and AT-AT walkers of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and the dragon in Dragonslayer. Tippett is a pioneer in visual effects and stop animation as he continues to succeed in creating visually inspiring film works that display his talent and creativity.

Works Cited

Dunlop, Renee. "CGSociety - Phil Tippett." Welcome to The Computer Graphics

Society. The CG Society, 27 May 2008. Web. 10 Sept. 2011.

<http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/CGSFeatures/CGSFeatureSpecial/phil

_tippett>.

"Phil Tippett Bio | Tippett Studio." Tippett Studio. Tippett Studio, 2009. Web. 10

Sept. 2011. <http://www.tippett.com/studio/phil-tippett-bio>.