In the summer of 1993, a movie hit movie screens and changed it forever. the way of watching and making films. That movie was, of course, Jurassic Parkdirected by the legendary Steven Spielberg. With its impressive combination of special effects, acting, direction and an exciting plot, the film became in a cultural phenomenon and a resounding box office success. But what may surprise many is that, despite being known for its dinosaurs, these majestic creatures They only appeared on screen for a mere 15 minutes of the film’s more than two-hour duration.
When Jurassic Park hit theaters, it quickly became an unprecedented box office success in a move that we could call metatextualbecause if the claim of Jurassic Park, the creation of millionaire John Hammond on a paradise island, was that of see real dinosaursthe claim of Spielberg’s film was to see it on screen dinosaurs that almost looked real. The film raised more than a billion dollars throughout the world, becoming the highest-grossing film of its time and leaving an indelible mark in the history of cinema. But beyond its financial success, Jurassic Park also represented a historic milestone in the film industry when it came to special effects.
At the time, digital visual effects (CGI) technology was in its early stages. Although movies like Terminator 2 had experimented with digital animation for specific effects, no one had yet managed to make these effects look believable on movie screens, especially when it came to replicating creatures that looked like real living organisms. Spielberg, known for his track record of success in special effects films such as Jaws, ET and Indiana JonesI wanted the Jurassic Park dinosaurs to look as real as possible.
The jump from traditional animation to CGI
Spielberg had originally considered using practical and animatronic effects to bring the film’s dinosaurs to life. However, everything changed when the production company Kathleen Kennedy saw test footage of a CGI Tyrannosaurus Rex at Industrial Light & Magic’s visual effects studios. It was then that it was decided to combine computer-generated dinosaurs with live-action scenes, marking a milestone in the film industry, with the latter creations being the ones that would carry the greatest burden of creature effects in the film.
CGI technology allowed studios to create creatures that looked astonishingly real, and this opened up new possibilities for telling stories on the big screen. Although Jurassic Park only contains about 15 minutes of dinosaur visual effects, of which approximately four minutes were made digitallyits impact endures to this day.
The process of creating the visual effects for Jurassic Park was a monumental technical achievement. It began with detailed designs and prosthetics of the different dinosaurs, including the iconic T-Rex. These models were scanned and dumped as digital models for use in digital animation. A crucial step in this process was creating a digital skeleton for each dinosaur, which were later animated by hand, allowing them to move realistically on screen.
For each digital effects frame of the film ILM invested approximately 10 hours to calculate and render the image final, which allows us to get an idea of the immense amount of technical work that was required to achieve the visual quality that Spielberg was looking for. The result was a set of sequences that left the audience amazed and amazed.
Master Phil Tippett with the original velociraptor model for stop-motion animation
The legacy of Phil Tippett and the work of ILM
This significant change in the way visual effects were created had collateral damage: that of the artisans and artists responsible for creating the animations manually, as had been done since the times of king kong in 1933. The legendary entertainer Phil Tippettknown for his work in films such as Star Wars and RoboCopwas initially hired to supervise the animation effects stop motion traditional in the movie. His contribution was valuable in the initial stage, but the advent of CGI technology changed the direction of production.
Despite advances in CGI, Tippett and his team’s work in creating models and stop-motion animation laid the foundation for future CGI technology. His experience bringing moving creatures to life and his deep knowledge of dinosaur anatomy were invaluable in the process of creating the film’s visual effects. Tippett himself, after seeing the first test animations of the creatures for the film, confessed to Spielberg that he and his fellow veteran effects specialists They were “extinct”. Spielberg liked the phrase so much that he wanted to pay tribute to Tippett by including it in a dialogue in the film.
Mad Dreams and Monsters: The Art of Phil Tippett
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Today, 30 years after the release of Jurassic Park, the visual effects and dinosaurs created by ILM They continue to be a reference in the film industry. Recent films such as the sequel series Jurassic World have continued to use CGI technology to bring these prehistoric animals to life, and the magic of the big screen continues to amaze audiences around the world.
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