June 2022

Tried-and-True Style for RoboCop

Phil Tippett's exceptional stop-motion animation work in the low-budget megahit RoboCop was a most welcome surprise to the visual effects assemblage of 1987. Working on an extremely tight budget and time schedule with long-term Industrial Light & Magic cronies Harry Walton, Randy Dutra and Tom St. Amand, Tippett managed to create the menacing character of RoboCop's nemesis, the ED-209 robot, in true quick and clean Ray Harryhausen style by animating his puppet against a rear screen-projected background, which saved on costly and time-consuming compositing. This article originally ran in AC, July 1988. Some images are additional or alternate. Tippett emphasizes credit to director Paul Verhoeven, who insisted that each of the effects shots...more