Phil Tippett
- Visual Effects
- Producer
- Director
Phil Tippett is the founder and namesake of Tippett Studio. His varied
career in visual effects has spanned more than 30 years and includes
two Academy Awards; and six nominations, one BAFTA award and four
nominations, two Emmys and the advent of modern digital effects in
motion pictures.
As a child of seven, Phil was profoundly inspired by Ray Harryhausen's
stop-motion classic, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Willis O'Brien's
classic character King Kong. His subsequent devotion to the creation of
the fantastic creatures in film has become his raison d'etre. As a kid,
and then as a student always drawing, sculpting and making animations,
he developed his skills in a broader context first with a Fine Arts
degree from University of California at Irvine, then as an animator at
the commercial house, Cascade Pictures in Los Angeles. As a young adult
Phil sought out teachers and mentors establishing connections and
friendships with Ray Harryhausen and Ray Bradbury.
A huge turning point came in 1975 when George Lucas hired Phil and Jon
Berg to create a stop motion miniature chess scene for Star Wars: A New
Hope. Phil also had a hand in many other aspects of the Star Wars
films, including modeling and casting alien heads and limbs for the
busy Cantina scene in the first film. By 1978 Phil lead the animation
team at Industrial Light and Magic that would launch his career
bringing life to the sinister Imperial Walkers and the alien hybrid
Tauntaun for The Empire Strikes Back.
In 1982, building upon insights from 'Empire', the same ILM team
developed a stop-motion process that they comically christened as 'Go
Motion' that produced a startlingly realistic beast for Dragonslayer
and won Phil an Academy Award; nomination. And in 1983, as head of the
ILM creature shop, he began work on Return of the Jedi, designing Jabba
The Hut and the Rancor Pit Monster as well as animating the two legged
Walker and later winning the Oscar; for Best Visual Effects.
In 1984 Phil left ILM to create a 10-minute short film, Prehistoric
Beast. The newly formed Tippett Studio, then operating out of Phil's
garage, drew upon Phil's wealth of experience with stop motion and his
expertise in anatomical modeling and rigging. He and Tippett Studio
went on to create top-notch stop motion animations for various
television and film projects including Dinosaur!, Willow, Honey, I
Shrunk the Kids, and the Robocop trilogy.
In 1991, Steven Spielberg, learning of Phil's expertise in dinosaur
movement and behavior, selected him to supervise the dinosaur animation
for Jurassic Park. When Phil learned of the choice to go with the
computer generated dinosaurs, instead of stop motion, his initial
reaction was, "I think I'm extinct!" It was this project that was
responsible for Tippett Studio's transition from stop-motion to
computer generated animation and for which Phil was awarded his second
Oscar®.
Phil's next major challenge came in 1995 when Paul Verhoeven, again
with producer Jon Davison, asked Tippett Studio to create the swarms of
deadly arachnids for the sci-fi extravaganza, Starship Troopers.
Leading a team of 150 computer artists and technicians, earned Phil a
sixth Academy Award; nomination in 1997. Starship Troopers firmly
planted Tippett Studio (and Phil) into the digital age of filmmaking.
In the following years Phil has been a guide and mentor for the Tippett
Studio VFX supervisors and crew as they create monsters, aliens and
appealing creatures for the numerous films that wind their way through
the Tippett pipeline.
Partnering with associate, writer Ed Neumeier (Starship Troopers and
Robocop scribe), the two created the story for Starship Troopers 2:
Hero of the Federation, which Phil went on to direct in 2004 for
Screengems.
Recently, Phil oversaw the design and creation of the wolf pack in
Summit Entertainment's New Moon and Eclipse, the second and third film
installments based on the Twilight series of novels by Stephanie Meyer.
Phil's roots in stop motion, modeling and practical effects and his
ability to use this foundation in conjunction with developing
technologies has made him one of a handful of artists whose careers
have spanned the transition of visual effects from largely practical to
digital. In this way he is a great teacher and mentor to the crew
passing on the tradition of mentorship given to him in the early part
of his career.
career in visual effects has spanned more than 30 years and includes
two Academy Awards; and six nominations, one BAFTA award and four
nominations, two Emmys and the advent of modern digital effects in
motion pictures.
As a child of seven, Phil was profoundly inspired by Ray Harryhausen's
stop-motion classic, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Willis O'Brien's
classic character King Kong. His subsequent devotion to the creation of
the fantastic creatures in film has become his raison d'etre. As a kid,
and then as a student always drawing, sculpting and making animations,
he developed his skills in a broader context first with a Fine Arts
degree from University of California at Irvine, then as an animator at
the commercial house, Cascade Pictures in Los Angeles. As a young adult
Phil sought out teachers and mentors establishing connections and
friendships with Ray Harryhausen and Ray Bradbury.
A huge turning point came in 1975 when George Lucas hired Phil and Jon
Berg to create a stop motion miniature chess scene for Star Wars: A New
Hope. Phil also had a hand in many other aspects of the Star Wars
films, including modeling and casting alien heads and limbs for the
busy Cantina scene in the first film. By 1978 Phil lead the animation
team at Industrial Light and Magic that would launch his career
bringing life to the sinister Imperial Walkers and the alien hybrid
Tauntaun for The Empire Strikes Back.
In 1982, building upon insights from 'Empire', the same ILM team
developed a stop-motion process that they comically christened as 'Go
Motion' that produced a startlingly realistic beast for Dragonslayer
and won Phil an Academy Award; nomination. And in 1983, as head of the
ILM creature shop, he began work on Return of the Jedi, designing Jabba
The Hut and the Rancor Pit Monster as well as animating the two legged
Walker and later winning the Oscar; for Best Visual Effects.
In 1984 Phil left ILM to create a 10-minute short film, Prehistoric
Beast. The newly formed Tippett Studio, then operating out of Phil's
garage, drew upon Phil's wealth of experience with stop motion and his
expertise in anatomical modeling and rigging. He and Tippett Studio
went on to create top-notch stop motion animations for various
television and film projects including Dinosaur!, Willow, Honey, I
Shrunk the Kids, and the Robocop trilogy.
In 1991, Steven Spielberg, learning of Phil's expertise in dinosaur
movement and behavior, selected him to supervise the dinosaur animation
for Jurassic Park. When Phil learned of the choice to go with the
computer generated dinosaurs, instead of stop motion, his initial
reaction was, "I think I'm extinct!" It was this project that was
responsible for Tippett Studio's transition from stop-motion to
computer generated animation and for which Phil was awarded his second
Oscar®.
Phil's next major challenge came in 1995 when Paul Verhoeven, again
with producer Jon Davison, asked Tippett Studio to create the swarms of
deadly arachnids for the sci-fi extravaganza, Starship Troopers.
Leading a team of 150 computer artists and technicians, earned Phil a
sixth Academy Award; nomination in 1997. Starship Troopers firmly
planted Tippett Studio (and Phil) into the digital age of filmmaking.
In the following years Phil has been a guide and mentor for the Tippett
Studio VFX supervisors and crew as they create monsters, aliens and
appealing creatures for the numerous films that wind their way through
the Tippett pipeline.
Partnering with associate, writer Ed Neumeier (Starship Troopers and
Robocop scribe), the two created the story for Starship Troopers 2:
Hero of the Federation, which Phil went on to direct in 2004 for
Screengems.
Recently, Phil oversaw the design and creation of the wolf pack in
Summit Entertainment's New Moon and Eclipse, the second and third film
installments based on the Twilight series of novels by Stephanie Meyer.
Phil's roots in stop motion, modeling and practical effects and his
ability to use this foundation in conjunction with developing
technologies has made him one of a handful of artists whose careers
have spanned the transition of visual effects from largely practical to
digital. In this way he is a great teacher and mentor to the crew
passing on the tradition of mentorship given to him in the early part
of his career.