The very first major project that Tippett Studios was hired for was "Starship Troopers". The movie itself was an adaptaion by Paul Verhoeven from Robert A. Heinlein's Sci-Fi novel "Starship Troopers." Tippett then brought together more than 100 animators, model makers, technicians, computer artists to expand his all-CGI facility/crew. Not only was Tippett involved with creating giantic, vicious alien arachnids, he co-directed many of the large-scale battles, pre-visualizing the creatures. The high quality work produced by the crew's work and Tippett's direction lead to a 1997 Academy Award nomination.
From 1997 and 98, Tippett supervised effects and animation for Univeral Studio's "Virus" and Disney's "My Favorite Martian". Then in 1999 worked with Craig Hayes on supervising the visual effects on Dreamwork's "The Haunting".
Films Tippett Studios has worked on since (click on film name to see fx reel or other) :
*Digital doubles/worlds*
Hellboy
Blade 2
Hollow Man
Starship Troopers 1 & 2
The Matrix Revolutions
The Haunting
*Creatures/Animals*
Cats and Dogs
Evolution
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Enchanted
The Golden Compass
Charlotte’s Web
Bedtime Stories
Men In Black 2
*FX Animation/Robots*
The Stepford Wives
Robocop 1 & 2
*Commercials*
Sav
Concept Art/Sculptures for Tippett Studios:
And here's a quick demo reel of Phil Tippett Studio. Please click here.
III. Conclusion
Tippett is not only innovative within his craft, what makes him stand out is his belief in working on his craft and skill. He is not dependent on the technology or tools, but uses it to further extend his art.
Here's a long quote about Phil Tippett and what drives his creativity and inspiration:
“Probably, to be frank, it grew out of being a child that liked to play and have imaginative scenarios that you would put together that would help you figure out other things in your life. It was using those props and effigies to create narratives. Then that gets more complicated, and you need more detail in the narrative. And you get inspired. A lot is inspired by other peoples’ work and imaginations. Like lightning rods, you never know where they are going to come from. Like inspired by the work of Harryhausen, and not knowing how that stuff was created, but just viscerally identifying with it and thinking it was just so wonderful, and learning on your own. It’s like writing. No one can tell you how; you figure it out on your own. It’s not a career path, it’s not a bunch of systems and procedures you follow to arrive at something, it’s just this really icky mess that’s kind of like the unconscious and that’s how you pull stuff together.”
- Phil Tippett
