June 2022

Tried-and-True Style for RoboCop

At top, RoboCop's mechanical advisary, the ED-209. 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...more