Phil Tippett

Phil Tippett is a stop motion animator and artist known for his work in the film industry. Even if you never heard of him before, you have almost certainly seen his work on the big screen. Phil follows in the footsteps of other pioneers, such as Jim Danforth, Ray Harryhausen and Willis O'Brien.

He was born in Berkeley, California and developed a passion for special effects after seeing Ray Harryhausen's The 7th Voyage of Sinbad at the age of seven. Tippett later studied art at the University of California, Irvine and began working at Cascade Pictures in Los Angeles.

In 1975, Tippett and Jon Berg were hired by George Lucas and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to create a stop-motion miniature chess scene for the original Star Wars film. Tippett went on to head the ILM animation department with Berg for The Empire Strikes Back, released in 1980. For this film, Tippett developed the go motion technique to animate the AT-AT Imperial Walkers and tauntauns. He received his first Academy Award nomination for the dragon animation in the film Dragonslayer, released in 1981. Tippett continued to lead the Lucasfilm creature shop for Return of the Jedi, for which he received an Oscar in 1984.

In 1984, Tippett started his own studio, Tippett Studio, and created the experimental film Prehistoric Beast. The realistic depiction of dinosaurs in the film led to the creation of the CBS animated documentary Dinosaur! in 1985. Tippett Studio received its first award, a Primetime Emmy, for the animated dinosaur sequences in Dinosaur! in 1986. Tippett also worked on the animated robot sequences for the film RoboCop and the Dark Overlord creatures in Howard the Duck.