Raiders 30th Anniversary Q&A With Spielberg & Ford

Never-Before-Seen Color Production Slides from Star Wars (Lucasfilm / ILM)

These ILM slides are great and the images are huge! Wish we could get all 550 slides scanned ha ha

Heritage Auctions
A Large Collection of Never-Before-Seen Color Production Slides from "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back." 20th Century Fox, 1977, 1980. Approximately 550, all housed in a black binder, all with various stamps and dates and photo credits such as "Photo By: / Joe Viskocil" on the cardboard frames, depicting dozens of great behind-the-scenes shots of the two now classic films being made, emphasis is on both the outdoor and indoor sets as well as on the various spaceships, a few of the characters (like "R2D2"), and the production crew -- really compelling and detailed images that must be seen in person to appreciate the scope!
Each Slide: 1" x 1 1/2"; In Cardboard Frame: 2" x 2" Estimate: $1,800 - up.
Internet Bidding Ends:     Apr 18, 2015 at 10:00 PM CT

Massive Gallery of Vehicle Models Build by ILM for Star Wars Trilogy (1977-1983)

140 up-close photos of ship and vehicle models constructed by ILM for the Original Star Wars Trilogy (1977-1983)

The State of Practical Special Effects in Filmmaking

TESTED sits down with Fon Davis to discuss the state of visual effects in film, the resurgence of interest in practical effects. Fon is a visual effects veteran who has worked on films like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline, Galaxy Quest, Star Wars, Mission: Impossible III, among many others.

Making of 'Forest Gump'

Making of 'The Hunt for Red October'

ILM - Realtime Facial Animation With On-the-fly Correctives (SIGGRAPH 2013)

More info here: Hao Li -  Realtime Facial Animation With On-the-fly Correctives

 Published on Apr 19, 2013

SIGGRAPH 2013 Paper Video: We introduce a real-time and calibration-free facial performance capture framework based on a sensor with video and depth input. In this framework, we develop an adaptive PCA model using shape correctives that adjust on-the-fly to the actor's expressions through incremental PCA-based learning. Since the fitting of the adaptive model progressively improves during the performance, we do not require an extra capture or training session to build this model. As a result, the system is highly deployable and easy to use: it can faithfully track any individual, starting from just a single face scan of the subject in a neutral pose. Like many real-time methods, we use a linear subspace to cope with incomplete input data and fast motion. To boost the training of our tracking model with reliable samples, we use a well-trained 2D facial feature tracker on the input video and an efficient mesh deformation algorithm to snap the result of the previous step to high frequency details in visible depth map regions. We show that the combination of dense depth maps and texture features around eyes and lips is essential in capturing natural dialogues and nuanced actor-specific emotions. We demonstrate that using an adaptive PCA model not only improves the fitting accuracy for tracking but also increases the expressiveness of the retargeted character.:

Star Trek II - Wrath Of Khan: Visual Effects Featurette

More on the Making of Star Trek here

From Star Wars to Star Wars: The Story of Industrial Light & Magic (1999)

The Making of 'Terminator 2'

Longer extended version
The vid is located here if it's not playing properly Making of Terminator 2

Raiding The Lost Ark: A Filmumentary

Jamie Benning has pulled together over 2hrs of documentary film footage and commentary from the making of Raiders!

Also checkout his Star Wars series 'Star Wars Begins'

'Classic Creatures' Return of the Jedi (1983)

This 1983 PBS behind the scenes look at the creatures of 'Return of the Jedi' is an awesome glimpse into the ILM model shop during it's prime. There's lots of footage of work in progress puppets and stop-motion rigs from the film.

The Kerner Collapse

There are some interesting details emerging about the fall of Kerner last August. Check out these articles. 

 From CineSource Magazine:

 The Kerner Collapse: Hubris, Hustle or Outright Scam?

Straight Shooter: Rose Duignan and the Kerner Closing












Thanks for the heads up Webster!

American Masters George Lucas: Heroes, Myths and Magic (1993)

From Star Wars to Jedi - the Making of a Saga (1983)

Kerner Optical, LL Closes

This is really sad news. Read the statement letter here: Kerner Optical Letter


"...It is with the deepest sadness and regret that I write this letter. Effective immediately, Kerner Optical, LLC is closed for business..." -- Eric Edmeades
Managing Partner

Battlestar Galactica: Behind the Scenes (1978)

 

ILMVisualFX Channel on YouTube

ILM has a channel on YouTube now. They've uploaded a variety of interviews and behind the scenes clips from various movies.

ILM YouTube Channel

NOVA: The Magic of Visual Effects (1984)

A 1984 documentary on FX for "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" , "Explorers", "Return of the Jedi", and "2010: Odyssey two"

 

Walter Cronkite Visits Industrial Light and Magic (1981)

Walter Cronkite visits ILM during the making of 'Empire Strikes Back'.