The year, 1993. A rudimentary generated by the computer T. rex-a reptile skin that stretched over a wire frame on a loop in a computer at Industrial Light & Magic in California. Three film legends – VFX -Supervisor Dennis Muren, Animator Phil Tippett and director Steven Spielberg – were silent while the implications sank. “Cinema history changed,” says Rob Bredow in his April 2023 TED Talk, that has just published on YouTube. Tippett, a stop-motion pioneer, said dry to Spielberg: “I feel that I am going extinct.” As most film lovers know, that line landed in Jurassic Park. However, Tippett’s fear turned out to be unfounded.
The legendary securities company felt the stop-motion puppet show of Tippett with budding CGI, using a “dinosaur entry device”-a decorated anchor with movement coders-from frame-by-frame animation. The result? A seismic shift that the Tools Kits of the artists worldwide and opened a new era in filmmaking.
Bredow was only 19 when that happened. Now, as an SVP of creative innovation for Lucasfilm and Chief Creative Officer of ILM, he sees a direct parallel with the current artificial intelligence debates. “The headlines say:” AI comes for our lanes, “he says in the Ted Talk. From the Dykstraflex-The Computer-Controlled Motion Camera that Enabled Star Wars’s Iconic Dogfights-to the Stagecraft-270 AAo Led Curvede Hyperreistic Shows and movies-Bredow Argues That ILMs 50-Year History is a demonstration of how technological Leaps Redefine, Rather Than Replace, Artistry.
Stop-Motion transformed and combined with 3D effects. That did physical models, full-size sets and matte paintings too. Just as it happens now with AI. “Innovation thrives when old and new technologies are mixed,” Bredow argues.
ILM was too late at the AI game. This became painfully clear when the securities company created a rejuvenated version of Mark Hamill for the final of season 2 of the Mandalorian (Despite the cheer of fans On the return of Luke Skywalker to the screen). Done with traditional computer -face -tracking and 3D models –The same technique Used to create Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin and Princess Leia – Return of the Jedi Luke was closed because he was unrealistic. Then called a Star Warsfan and AI Aficionado called Shamook re -made with the scene with AI. The first lasted hours. The last lasted weeks. There was no doubt about which looked more realistic.
The difference was so clear that the company realized that it had to act: ILM has adopted Shamook Days after the DeepFake remake was released. He worked on Indiana Jones and Destiny’s dial, where ILM generative AI merged, trained on the earlier versions of Harrison Ford, with a carefully handmade CG model to beat the actor. The AI recorded the micro expression of Ford; Artists have matched subtleties, such as eye moisture and skin texture. Ford himself said it was pretty good and really when he felt. Because it did.
[Screenshot: ILM]AI is just another tool in the toolbox
The ethos that now leads its AI integration has since its origins in the DNA of ILM. It was what George Lucas led to link engineers to artists to resolve visual story challenges. “We are designed to be creative beings,” says Bredow. “We like to see technology and creativity working together.”
Bredow hinted on ILM’s Embrace of AI tools in a fast business interview in August 2024: “I see a path ahead with a combination of the algorithmic tools that we have had and some of the Machine Learning-based tools that we already have or can suggest, that will really help accelerate artist workflows.” Now he has made it clear that AI has reached a point where it is just another toolbox in the ILM toolbox. His position on technology is one that I have seen more and more since the independent filmmaker Paul Trillo, one of the pioneers in the use of generative AI for his shorts, told me the same years ago. Trillo believes that AI Indie projects will enable Blockbuster-Grade VFX to reach: “It is just a powerful tool in the arsenal of a creative.”
It is just a shame that the example that Bredow presented in the Tedtalk was so overwhelming: a video that shows some uninspired SCI-Fi animals that looked like photoshop-made images that were quickly changed into video with the help of Kling, a commercial AI-Videohouishhouishhou. He described it as ILM’s ‘Moving Mood Board’, but it doesn’t work what you would expect from the mother of all VFX houses.
But his points and the lesson from ILM’s half century of visual innovation standard. The Dykstaylex did not kill cinematography – it has born a new process and visual language. CGI -Dinosaurs have not erased animators – they just demanded hybrid skills. Now, as AI VFX reforms, Bredow says that we witness another T. Rex moment: a true artists, armed with generative tools, tell stories beyond the current borders.
Adjustment is not negotiable. New tools must be embraced as long as they do not benefit unethically from the artwork of others. “The next game changer,” he said, “will light up screens worldwide.” The credits will not fade on human creativity. Hordes of the names of people keep rolling. At least for a few more years.
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