Post

Starship Troopers (1997): Arachnid Warrior Bug, animatronics testing by Amalgamated Dynamics

An effective use of the full range of tools available at the time: animatronics, practical models, CGI, stop-motion... The DID (Dinosaur Input Device) armature by @tippettstudio.bsky.social enabled stop-motion animators to produce computer animation without learning animation software programs.

How it works? Like Harryhausen, but with 1997 tech. Btw that Nolan's Odyssey actually makes me want to track down all the Harryhausen movies, so I can watch all those extraordinary classics again. 🗡️🦴

It's also one of the last great films featuring plenty of practical spaceship models. If you're interested, I've written all about it here:

This infamous "Bug Test" by @tippettstudio.bsky.social was used to pitch the effects to producers. It was shot by cinematographer John Hora (Gremlins) on July 21 1994 in Vasquez Rocks, California, and allowed to determine the overall size of the warrior bug. Not final effects ☝️

Then there was a dream creative team. Brain Bug, art by Steve Burg ↖️

King Phil Tippett (on the right).

Port Joe Smith on the planet Dantana, art by Jim Martin↙️

↙️ YOU ARE HERE

And since you loved Amalgamated Dynamics (Studio ADI)' animatronics test for the Arachnid Warrior Bug, here's another one:

This is the perfect time to post this:

It also echoes the tests conducted by Stan Winston Studios to create the Alien Queen a decade earlier. This prototype was nicknamed Alien "Trash Bag" Queen. Because it really was. Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis also worked on Aliens (1986); they founded Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. (ADI) in 1988.

Filming the Rodger Young bridge at the Battle of Klendathu. A rare opportunity to see how a camera movement, combined with a play of moving lights, enhances the sense of motion.

"But instead of photographing the puppet (as in the conventional stop-motion animation of say, King Kong), sensors on the armature’s joints fed information directly into a computer, where the movements of a wireframe dinosaur on a monitor exactly duplicated those of the real-world DID armature."

"There were 3 animators using the DID, and they could do pretty tight performances. We put a lot of effort into getting most of the bug parts on the DID armature; some secondary animation had to be done to add the various smaller attack claws. It usually took a couple of days to animate a shot.”

Just a reminder that the CGI in this movie is just as impressive as the animatronics. And the fact that it comes from the early years of CGI, combined with the art of stop-motion, really makes these scenes timeless.

Troops go up in the dropships, art by Jim Martin↙️ This scene↘️ is actually an elaborate composite utilizing miniatures — the carrier’s upper body — with live-action elements photographed on the Sony Studios stages in Culver City. (ASC)

Dropship render of the same scene by Jim Martin.

Easter egg: The secret Falcon on the Rodger Young conning tower. (It's impossible to see, but it's in this scene.)

Way more easter eggs & secrets in sci-fi there 🚀

↙️That was the time I saw a practical model of the Roger Young in Paris, from the ScienceFictionArchives collection. ↘️This massive model, nearly 6 meters long, was built by Boss Films. It is the work of a team led by model makers Bruce MacRae and Greg Jein.

Director Paul Verhoeven went to take a look at the animatronic creature.

I love the Fleet Battlestation Ticonderoga. Not only for its design—↙️art by Jim Martin—but also for its splendid model. Here↘️, visual effects co-supervisor George Murphy and visual effects art director Alex Jaeger strike a pose in front of the model.