Phil Tippett

Phil Tippett is an American filmmaker, animator, and visual effects supervisor. Born in Berkeley, California, he was inspired as a child by Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion effects in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and taught himself animation. After earning an art degree from the University of California, Irvine in 1974, he worked at Cascade Pictures, then joined Industrial Light & Magic in 1975 to create the holographic chess scene for Star Wars. He co-developed go motion for The Empire Strikes Back (1980), animating the AT-AT walkers and tauntauns, and earned his first Academy Award nomination for Dragonslayer (1981). He won an Oscar for Return of the Jedi and later founded Tippett Studio in 1984, where Prehistoric Beast led to the Emmy-winning Dinosaur!. His credits include RoboCop, Jurassic Park, for which he won a second Oscar, Starship Troopers, Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation, and the stop-motion film Mad God.