Go motion is a variation of stop motion animation,^[1] and was co-developed by Industrial Light & Magic and Phil Tippett.

History[link]

Tippett and Industrial Light & Magic created the go motion technique for the first time for some shots of the tauntaun creatures and AT-AT walkers in the 1980 Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back.^[2] After that, go motion was used for many other movies: for the dragon in Dragonslayer (1981),^[3] the dinosaurs in the prehistoric documentaries Prehistoric Beast (1984)^[4] and Dinosaur! (1985), the lord demon creature in Howard the Duck (1986), the winged satan character in The Golden Child (1986), the Eborsisk dragon in Willow (1988), the RoboCop franchise (1987–1993) and Coneheads (1993). Other minor sequences using go motion appeared in films like the three first Indiana Jones installments (1981–1989), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) or the first Jurassic Park film (1993) among a few others. In 1993, with the Jurassic Park release, the Tippet Studio abandoned go motion and fully converted its teams and equipments to CGI (computer-generated imagery).^[5] The last film showing a go motion made sequence was Coneheads (the Jurassic Park release dates from June 11, 1993 but Coneheads was first released on July 23, 1993).

Technical explanation[link]

Stop motion animation can create a disorienting, and distinctive, staccato effect, because the animated object is perfectly sharp in every frame, since each frame of the animation was actually shot when the object was perfectly still. Real moving objects in similar scenes of the same movie will have motion blur, because they moved while the shutter of the camera was open.

Go motion was designed to prevent this, by moving the animated model slightly during the exposure of each film frame, producing a realistic motion blur. The main difference is that while the frames in stop motion are made up by images of stills taken between the small movements of the object, the frames in go motion are images of the object taken while it is moving. This frame-by-frame, split-second motion is almost always created with the help of a computer, often through rods connected to a puppet or model which the computer manipulates to reproduce movements programmed in by puppeteers.

Methods for creating motion blur[link]

Vaseline[link]

This crude but reasonably effective technique involves smearing petroleum jelly on the camera lens, also known as vaselensing, then cleaning and reapplying it after each shot, a time-consuming process but one which creates a blur around the model. This technique was used for the endoskeleton in The Terminator. This process was also employed by Jim Danforth to blur the pterodactyl's wings in Hammer Films' "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth", and by Randal William Cook on the terror dogs sequence in "Ghostbusters".

Bumping the puppet[link]

Gently bumping or flicking the puppet before taking the frame will produce a slight blur, however care must be taken when doing this that the puppet does not move too much or that one does not bump or move props or set pieces.

Moving the table[link]

Moving the table the model is standing on while the film is being exposed creates a slight, realistic blur. This technique was used by Aardman animation for the train chase in The Wrong Trousers and again during the lorry chase in A Close Shave. In both cases the cameras were moved physically during a 1-2 second exposure. The technique was revived for the full-length Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

Go motion[link]

The most sophisticated technique was originally developed for the film The Empire Strikes Back and used for some shots of the tauntauns and was later used on films like Dragonslayer and is quite different from traditional stop motion. The model is essentially a rod puppet. The rods are attached to motors which are linked to a computer that can record the movements as the model is traditionally animated. When enough movements have been made, the model is reset to its original position, the camera rolls and the model is moved across the table. Because the model is moving during shots, motion blur is created.^[3]

A variation of go motion was used in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to partially animate the children on their bicycles.^[6]

Go motion today[link]

Go motion was originally planned to be used extensively for the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, until Steven Spielberg decided to try out the swiftly developing techniques of computer-generated imagery instead.

Today, the mechanical method of achieving motion blur using go motion is rarely used, as it is more complicated, slow, and labor intensive than computer generated effects. However, the motion blurring technique still has potential in real stop motion movies where the puppet's motions are supposed to be somewhat realistic. Motion blurring can now be digitally done as a post production process using special effects software such as After Effects, Boris FX, Combustion, and other similar special effects commercial software.

See also[link]

• Stop motion
• Phil Tippett
• Tippett Studio

External links[link]

• Explanation Stop Motion Works site with images and brief description of a Go motion mover used for the stop motion dragon puppet in the movie Dragonslayer (1981)
• Phil Tippett on “go motion” and how it is shot

References[link]

Look up motion in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Motion may refer to:

• Motion (physics), any movement or change in position or place
• Motion (legal), a procedural device in law to bring a limited, contested matter before a court
• Motion (democracy), a formal step to introduce a matter for consideration by a group
• Motion (parliamentary procedure), a formal proposal by a member of a deliberative assembly that the assembly take certain action
• Motion (American football), a movement by an offensive player prior to the start of a play
• Motion, the connecting rods and valve-gear of a steam locomotive

Graphics and software' '

• Motion (conference), the annual conference on animation, motion graphics and visual effects
• Motion (software), a motion graphics software application by Apple Computer, or a term for Motion graphics generally
• Motion (surveillance software), a software motion detector surveillance system for Linux

Music

• Motion (The Cinematic Orchestra album), 1999
• Motion (Lee Konitz album), 1961
• Motion (EP), a 1997 EP by The Mayfield Four
• Motion (Eduardo Falaschi song), Eduardo Falaschi
• "The Motions", a 2009 song by Matthew West
• "Pete Nischt and the Motions", a band from Akron, Ohio

People

• Andrew Motion (born 1952), English poet laureate

See also[link]

• Self-motion (disambiguation)
• Move (disambiguation)
• All pages beginning with "motion"

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Phil Tippett (born 1951) is a movie director and an award-winning visual effects supervisor and producer, who specializes in creature design and character animation.^[1][2]

Early career[link]

Tippett was born in Berkeley, California. At the age of seven, Phil saw Ray Harryhausen's special effects classic, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and his life's direction was set. Phil completed a bachelor's degree in art at the University of California, Irvine, and went to work at the animation studio Cascade Pictures in Los Angeles.

In 1978, Phil headed the ILM animation department with Jon Berg for Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (released in 1980). For this film, Tippett co-developed the animation technique called go motion to animate the sinister AT-AT Imperial Walkers and the hybrid alien tauntauns. In 1981 Tippett continued using go motion for Dragonslayer, and received his first Academy Award nomination for the extraordinarily realistic dragon animation. By 1983, Tippett led the famed Lucasfilm creature shop for Return of the Jedi for which he was awarded his first Oscar in 1984.

In 1984 Tippett Studio was born when Phil left ILM and set up a studio in his garage to create a 10-minute experimental film called Prehistoric Beast. The realism of the dinosaurs it depicted and the film's reflection of contemporary scientific theory led to the 1985 CBS animated documentary Dinosaur! Tippett Studio won its first award, an Emmy for Special Visual Effects, for the animated dinosaur sequences.

In 1986 producer Jon Davison hired Tippett to create the animated robot sequences for RoboCop. Craig Hayes was simultaneously hired to design and build the ED-209 robot. This project became the start of a long and successful collaboration between Phil and Craig. He also modeled the Dark Overlord creatures seen in Howard the Duck.

Stop motion animation to CGI[link]

In 1991, Phil was hired to create the dinosaur effects for the Steven Spielberg blockbuster Jurassic Park using his go motion technique made famous in the film Dragonslayer. However, Dennis Muren and his CGI team at Industrial Light & Magic created animated test footage of a T-Rex that Spielberg loved.

When Tippett was told that Jurassic Park dinosaurs would be computer-generated, he was shocked, exclaiming "I've just become extinct" (a line Spielberg borrows and uses in the movie).^[3] Far from being extinct, Tippett evolved as stop motion animation gave way to Computer-generated imagery or CGI, and because of Phil's background and understanding of animal movement and behavior, Spielberg kept Tippett on to supervise the animation on 50 dinosaur shots for Jurassic Park. Phil supervised both the Tippett Studio and ILM animators, resulting in realistic digital dinosaurs that breathe, flex, twitch and react. His effort earned him a second Oscar. Work done on Jurassic Park resulted in the development by Tippett Studio's Craig Hayes of the DID (Digital Input Device) which was pivotal in the transition from stop motion to computer generated animation in bringing creatures to life.

In 1995, Tippett Studio was hired to create the giant, hostile alien arachnids in Paul Verhoeven's adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's classic science fiction novel Starship Troopers. Tippett marshaled a team of 100 animators, model makers, computer artists and technicians and expanded his all-CGI facility. Because of the intensity of his involvement, and his ability to pre-visualize the hoards of teeming arachnids, Verhoeven has credited Phil with co-directing the large-scale battle sequences for the film. The excellence of this work resulted in Tippett's sixth nomination in 1997 for an Academy Award.

During 1997-98, Phil supervised animation and effects for Universal’s Virus and Disney’s My Favorite Martian. In 1998-99 he and Craig Hayes co-supervised the visual effects on Jan De Bont's, The Haunting, for DreamWorks. Under Phil and Craig's lead, Tippett Studio created over 100 complex effects shots that expressed the horrific character of the house and the spirits that live there.

In 2000, Phil joined director Ivan Reitman as the visual effects supervisor on the DreamWorks science fiction comedy, Evolution. In just under a year, Tippett Studio designed, realized and animated over 17 extraterrestrial creatures in 175 shots.

Throughout 2001 and into 2002, Phil changed direction to focus on developing and directing his own movie. Phil achieved this with Starship Troopers 2, by partnering with his long time associates writer, Ed Neumeier, and producer Jon Davison, with whom he worked on the original Starship Troopers and Robocop.

Selected filmography[link]

Visual effects[link]

• The Crater Lake Monster (miniatures builder, uncredited, 1977)
• Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (stop motion animation, 1977)
• Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (go motion animation, 1980)
• Dragonslayer (go motion animation, 1982)
• Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (makeup designer, 1983)
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (effects creative consultant, 1984)
• Prehistoric Beast (go motion, 1984)
• Dinosaur! (go motion, 1985)
• Howard the Duck (go motion supervisor: ILM visual effects unit, 1986)
• RoboCop (ED-209 go motion shots, 1987)
• Willow (two-headed dragon go motion sequence, 1988)
• RoboCop 2 (RoboCain go motion sequences, 1990)
• Jurassic Park (Dinosaurs go motion sequences, 1993)
• Dragonheart (dragon designs, 1996)
• Starship Troopers (creature visual effects, 1997)
• Evolution (visual effects supervisor, 2001)
• The Spiderwick Chronicles (animation supervisor, 2008)
• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1 (visual effects supervisor, 2011)

Director[link]

• Prehistoric Beast (1984, short)
• Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004, full length)
• MutantLand (2010, short)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Phil Tippett at the Internet Movie Database
• Phil Tippett at AllRovi
• Tippett Studio
• StarWars.com Phil Tippett bio