No More Pretending You're Dinosaurs

Master Qui-Gon, more to say, have you?

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"No More Pretending You're Dinosaurs" is the sixth episode of the documentary series Light & Magic, released on Disney+ on July 27, 2022.^[1]

Official description[]

CG finally comes into its own with "Jurassic Park," paving the way for a new era of innovation.

Synopsis[]

Creating dinosaurs[]

For the Jurassic Park film, Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg enlisted the services of Industrial Light & Magic including creature creator and builder Stan Winston, animator and puppeteer Phil Tippett, practical effects expert Michael Lantieri and visual effects artist Dennis Muren. Spielberg sought Tippett's help in realizing the dinosaurs while Muren helped to smooth out the animation around the dinosaurs' visual effects.

Mark Dippé suggested that the team create CGI dinosaurs despite Muren's reluctance. In addition to the puppet dinosaurs set built by Spielberg and Tippett, Dippé and Steve Williams used computer graphics to build a T-rex skeleton. When Kennedy and Frank Marshall, Dippé and Williams displayed their animated skeleton dinosaur, earning the praise of Kennedy. Kennedy asked Muren if they could blend practical effects with computer generated imagery. Muren and the practical effects experts initially felt their work was threatened by the advent of CGI.

ILM subsequently invested money into Dippé and Williams's digital animation work. Jean Bolte and Carolyn Rendu talked about the lengthy process behind creating the skin and bodies of dinosaurs. Stefen Fangmeier worked on the skin texture and the colour maps. Winston built a six scale T-rex model, which was then cut up by the animators. Dippé and Williams also acquired a three-dimensional scanner to develop polygonal data sets. It took four months for ILM's digital effects department to build digital T-rex.

Kennedy, Dippé and Spielberg regarded the animated dinosaur in Jurassic Park as revolutionary for the film industry. By contrast, Tippett, who specialized in building physical models, said he feared he was going extinct due to the changes in technology. After recovering from pneumonia, Tippett found a new job directing animators at ILM. Dippé worked with Tippett to build a dinosaur input device to provide animators with feedback on the dinosaurs' movements. Muren realized Tippett's value and protected him from being laid off.

Tipett trained the animators to imagine that they were dinosaurs; with animators attend a physical workout to simulate moving like dinosaurs. To make the T-rex run, Williams came up with the idea of slowing the camera footage of the creature. The success of Jurassic Park accelerated the digital transition, leading to the decline of ILM's model shop. While some employees like Kim Smith and John Goodson were able to transition to computer graphics, some like Peterson were unable to adapt and retired.

The Prequel Trilogy[]

Following Jurassic Park, ILM worked on the visual effects for Casper. ILM's CEO Jim Morris recalled that the movie had 45 minutes of CGI animation, which was considered large in those days. ILM's computer graphics department grew to 105 people, with Roger Guyett joining. Other projects that ILM worked on included Jumanji, The Mask, and Forrest Gump.

ILM eventually grew to 1,200-1,500 people. By the mid-1990s, Lucas believed that digital effects had advanced enough for him to produce the Prequel Trilogy. Lucas hired Doug Chiang to produce concept art for The Phantom Menace, leading to 36 large story boards. John Knoll worked on the CGI for the Gungans and the battle droids. Ben Burtt likened the editorial process to manufacturing, calling it "film recomposing." Digital editing technology was also used to shift actors to different films and edit dialogue.

Lucas also got Sony to develop a high-depth digital camera that could take 24 frames per second. Lucas' eager adoption of digital technology alienated the Camera Guild, who were afraid of losing their jobs. For Attack of the Clones, Lucas got Panasonic to develop an advanced digital camera that allowed him to shoot the movie digitally.

Lucas also lobbied cinemas to incorporate digital projectors for the Prequel Trilogy films, which he envisioned as digital films. Eventually, half of American cinemas had digital theatres. In February 2006, Chrissie England and George Lucas received the National Medals of Science & Technology from US President George W. Bush for their contributions to digital film-making technology.

Beyond the Prequels[]

Jon Favreau talked about how his initial distrust in digital effects changed after working on the Iron Man movie. Hal Hickel, the animation supervisor for 'Iron Man, recalled Robert Downey Jr. initially wore a practical suit but substituted them for "pajamas" since they were heavy and cumbersome. The movie utilized a mixture of practical and digital effects, with Favreau saying he was not able to tell the two apart.

Another former ILM employee Barry Jenkins talked about working with ILM on producing The Underground Railroad. He initially didn't want CGI trains and tunnels but was impressed by ILM's work in generating realistic CGI trains, tunnels and scenery.

Hickel and Favreau described The Mandalorian TV series as an opportunity to build CGI on a large scale. They used motion capture technology and also built a large motional capture wall out of numerous individual screens. Hal says that this replaced green and blue screen technologies. Rachel Rose explain that a motion capture wall has numerous cameras that track the main camera and auto-correct images. Rob Bredow said the motion capture wall allows them to mix practical effects. Deborah Chow talked about wearing a digital headset to get the hang of the motion capture wall technology. Doug Chiang talked about combining both practical models and digital effects. They also built a 3D model of Din Djarin's Razor Crest and an accompanying rig.

Favreau praised the film-makers for looking to both past and the future. Kathleen Kennedy talked about George Lucas inspiring their digital effects technology in The Mandalorian. Luas was impressed to see digital effects technology being carried out in the way he envisioned it. The episode ends with several ILM veterans including Dennis Muren, Lynwen Brennan, Doug Chiang, Phil Tippett, Ken Ralston and Phil Tippett praising ILM’s culture, values and creativity. J.J. Abrams likened working with ILM to working with Marlon Brando.