Industrial Light & Magic

Infobox_Company
company_name = Industrial Light & Magic
company_
company_type = Subsidiary
company_slogan =
foundation = May 1975
location = Letterman Digital Arts Center,
Presidio of San Francisco, California, United States
key_people = George Lucas
Dennis Muren
[http://www.lucasfilm.com/inside/bio/chrissieengland.html Chrissie England]
num_employees =
parent = Lucasfilm Limited
industry = Visual effects, computer-generated imagery
products =
revenue =
operating profit =
homepage = [http://www.ilm.com/ ILM.com]

Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is a motion picture visual effects company that was founded in May 1975 by George Lucas and is owned by Lucasfilm. Lucas created the company when he discovered that the special effects department at 20th Century Fox was shut down after he was given the green light for his production of "". The studio originated in Van Nuys, California, later moved to San Rafael, and is now based at the Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio of San Francisco.

History

Lucas wanted his 1977 film ' to include visual effects that had never been seen on film before. He first approached Douglas Trumbull, famous for '. Trumbull declined, but suggested his assistant John Dykstra. Dykstra brought together a small team of college students, artists and engineers who became the Special Visual Effects department on "Star Wars". Alongside Dykstra other leading members of the original ILM team were Dennis Muren, Ken Ralston, Richard Edlund, Joe Johnston, Phil Tippett, Steve Gawley, and Jeff Mann.

When making "", Lucas reformed most of the team into Industrial Light & Magic in Marin County, California. They have since gone on to produce special effects for over two hundred films, including the "Indiana Jones" series, the "Harry Potter" franchise, the "Jurassic Park" franchise, the "back to the Future" trilogy, many of the "Star Trek" films, "Ghostbusters II", and the 2007 live-action "Transformers" movie.

In addition to their work for George Lucas, ILM also frequently collaborates with Steven Spielberg for nearly all films that he directs, and for many that he produces as well. Dennis Muren acts as Visual Effects Supervisor on these films.

Additionally, the company has created less noticeable effects - such as widening streets, digitally adding more extras to a shot, and inserting the film's actors into famous photos - in movies such as "Schindler's List", "Forrest Gump", "Snow Falling on Cedars", "Magnolia", and several Woody Allen films.

ILM established their use of Computer-generated imagery when they hired Edwin Catmull from NYIT in 1979. John Lasseter worked for ILM in the early 1980s as a computer animator. The computer graphics department, now known as Pixar, was eventually sold to Steve Jobs, which went on to create the first CG animated feature with "Toy Story".

As of 2006, ILM has received 16 Best Visual Effects Oscars and 20 additional nominations. It had also received 22 technical Oscars.

Milestones

* 1977: Resurrected the use of VistaVision; first use of a motion control camera ("")
* 1982: First completely computer-generated sequence (the "Genesis sequence" in "")
* 1985: First completely computer-generated character, the "stained glass man" in "Young Sherlock Holmes"
* 1988: First morphing sequence, in "Willow"
* 1989: First computer-generated 3-D character, the pseudopod in "The Abyss"
* 1991: First partially computer-generated main character, the T-1000 in ""
* 1992: First time the texture of human skin was computer generated, in "Death Becomes Her"
* 1993: First time digital technology used to create a complete and detailed living creature, the dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park", which earned ILM its thirteenth Oscar
* 1994: The cartoon-like effects in "The Mask"
* 1995: The first fully synthetic speaking computer-generated character, with a distinct personality and emotion, to take a leading role in "Casper"
* 1995: First computer-generated photo-realistic hair and fur (used for the digital lion and monkeys) in "Jumanji"
* 1996: First completely computer-generated main character, Draco in "Dragonheart"
* 1999: Used motion capture to create the undead form of the character, Imhotep in "The Mummy".
* 1999: Second completely computer-generated main character, Jar Jar Binks in ""
* 2002: First feature film completely shot and exhibited in digital HD video in ""
* 2003: Used most extensive projects and animation techniques yet to create a large, human-like, green monster in "Hulk"
* 2006: Develops "iMocap" system, which uses computer vision techniques to track live-action performers on set. Used in the creation of "Davy Jones" and ship's crew in the film ""

ILM Selected filmography

Upcoming films:
* "Jurassic Park IV" (2009)
* "Star Trek" (2009)
* "Star Wars" (TV) (2009)
* " "(2009)
* "Endhiran "(2010)

Recent films

ILM worked on three major 2005 releases, George Lucas' "", Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" and Warner Bros. Pictures' "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". "Revenge of the Sith" featured over 2,000 visual effects shots created over a three year span (By stark contrast, the groundbreaking blockbuster "Jurassic Park" had just over 50 effects shots). "War of the Worlds" was completed on a much faster timetable, with Dennis Muren supervising. ILM was also the effects studio utilized to work on "Eragon" which was released in December 2006.

Industrial Light & Magic also worked on battle creatures for '; the wave and underwater effects for "Poseidon", a remake of "The Poseidon Adventure"; the majority of (invisible) effects for ' and "Eight Below"; and most of the creature effects for "Lady in the Water". ILM also created the visual effects and animation in the "Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy", "Transformers" and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" among others.

Trivia

It was in the late 1980s when Adobe Photoshop made its first appearance on the world stage. It was used at the Industrial Light & Magic studios as an image-processing program. Photoshop was created by ILM Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll and his brother Thomas as a summer project.

External links

* [http://www.ilm.com/ Official ILM website] (with [http://www.ilm.com/pdf/infopacket.pdf detailed information] in PDF format)
*
* [http://www.ilmfan.com/credits/ Alternative credits list] from the Unofficial ILM site
* [http://www.lucasfilm.com/divisions/ilm/ Small entry at Lucasfilm's site]