Phil Tippett is the founder and namesake of Tippett Studio. His varied career in visual effects has spanned more than 30 years and includes 2 Academy Awards, 6 Academy Award nominations, 1 BAFTA, 4 BAFTA nominations, 2 Emmys and the advent of modern digital effects in motion pictures.   As a child of seven, Phil was profoundly inspired by Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion classic, ‘The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad’ and by Willis O’Brien’s classic character ‘King Kong’. His subsequent devotion to the creation of the fantastic creatures in film has become his raison d’etre. As a kid, and then as a student always drawing, sculpting and making animations he developed his skills in a broader context first with a Fine Arts degree from University of California, Irvine, then as an animator at the commercial house, Cascade Pictures, Los Angeles. As a young adult Phil sought out teachers and mentors establishing connections and friendships with Ray Harryhausen and Ray Bradbury. BEGINNINGS At Cascade, in the early ‘70s, traditional effects: hanging miniatures, stop motion animation, rear screen projection, forced perspective were used to enhance a variety of commercials: Pillsbury Doughboy, Jolly Green Giant etc. It was there, in the playful atmosphere of that rough workshop/stage in the center of Hollywood, that Phil Tippett, Dennis Muren and Ken Ralston cut their teeth in the world of VFX, inspired and egged on by Tex Avery the great animator, and their boss and mentor Phil Kellison. At the time of this apprenticeship visual effects was a little regarded wing of the motion picture business but it was to become one of the most influential and game changing aspects of filmmaking. In 1977 Phil was approached by Joe Dante and Jon Davison to create the viscous fish for Roger Corman’s, ‘Piranha’. It was a lesson in low budget, seat of the pants filmmaking and cemented a bond between Phil and Jon. STAR WARS In 1975 George Lucas hired Phil Tippett and Jon Berg to creat...