35 Years of Special Effects from George Lucas
This year marks the 35th anniversary of George Lucas' famed visual effects house Industrial Light & Magic. To celebrate the occasion, Encore has produced a new 60-minute documentary on the studio, directed by Oscar- and Emmy-winning filmmaker Leslie Iwerks.
In this gallery are a series of images showcasing many of the nearly 300 films that ILM has worked on, earning 15 Oscars in the process and a total of 40 Academy Award nominations. LM got its start in 1975 when Lucas needed a visual effects department to work on "Star Wars." According to ILM, "The young team at ILM pioneered the use of computers to control and move motion picture cameras. The invention, named the Dystraflex, in honor of its primary inventor, John Dykstra, allowed camera moves to be programmed and repeated time and time again giving effects artists the ability to shoot multiple registered passes of miniatures such as the Millennium Falcon, which would later be optically composited together into a single shot."
You can read the full story at CNET.
