News & Features
ILM to Open New Studio in Australia
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the visual effects division of Lucasfilm Ltd., announced today that the company would be expanding its global footprint to Australia. The studio is opening a new studio in Sydney to better serve its clients and complement its current operations in San Francisco, where the company is headquartered, Singapore, Vancouver, and…
How Seven Samurai Inspired A Shot in Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Today, ILM Senior Compositor, Charmaine Chan explains her visual inspiration for the Kylo and Luke confrontation after the Battle of Crait in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. These days, majority of blockbuster films are shot in front of a giant green/blue screen. Taking an actor in front of a screen and grounding them into a…
OpenEXR Joins Academy Software Foundation Projects
OpenEXR, a widely-adopted HDR image file format, and OpenCue, a recently launched render manager, join the growing roster of Academy Software Foundation projects. We’re thrilled to announce that the Academy Software Foundation (ASWF), a neutral forum for open source software development in the motion picture and media industries, today announced that OpenEXR and OpenCue have…
Creating the Blockade Runner Engine Look for Rogue One
Today our guest writer is Todd Vaziri, Lead Artist at ILM who chronicles how the Blockade Runner engine shot from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story went from idea to reality: I was thrilled to get to work on this shot with my friend and frequent collaborator, ILM lighter Tom Martinek. (Leia’s Blockade Runner escapes,…
John Knoll, Thomas Knoll, and Mark Hamburg Accept Sci-Tech Award
ILM’s Chief Creative Officer, John Knoll was among those honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at this year’s Sci Tech Awards. Watch David Oyelowo present Scientific and Engineering Awards to Thomas Knoll and John Knoll for the original architecture, design and development, and to Mark Hamburg for his continued development and…
ILM Nominated for Three Academy Awards
Early this morning the Academy announced the nominees for the 91st Oscars and we’re so excited that ILM artists worked on three of the five films in the Achievement in Visual Effects Category. AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR Dan DeLeeuw Kelly Port Russell Earl Dan Sudick READY PLAYER ONE Warner Bros. Pictures Roger Guyett Grady Cofer Matthew…
ILM Employee Spotlight: Carol Payne
In today’s employee spotlight we’re highlighting Color & Imaging Scientist, Carol Payne from our San Francisco studio.
ILM Garners 17 Nominations for the 17th Annual VES Awards
The Visual Effects Society released the nominations for the 17th Annual VES Awards this morning, and we’re thrilled to have been nominated for seventeen awards for our work in 2018. We’d like to congratulate all the nominees and thank our teams for their hard work. Our nominations include: Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature…