The Artists Behind Iconic Sci-Fi Films

George Lucas, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, and James Cameron are familiar names to even the most casual of sci-fi movie fans. And they should be; collectively, this crew has mounted some of the most iconic movies in the history of the genre. But behind the scenes, there are scores of visual effects artists who play an essential role in creating these worlds set in a galaxy far, far away whose names you likely don't know. Until now.

As the X-Men battle Godzilla for this summer's box office domination, we're paying tribute to The Artists Behind Iconic Sci-Fi Films.

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Year released: 1995

Born in France and based in Brazil, Seb Caudron is a preeminent artist on the world cinema stage. As a digital artist, he was responsible for more than 200 shots on Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s acclaimed The City of Lost Children, including its many striking dream sequences.

Year released: 1979

Though he won his first and only Oscar (for Best Visual Effects) for 1966’s Fantastic Voyage, Art Cruickshank’s groundbreaking work on The Black Hole, where he directed the miniature photography, found him in great company. He was nominated for a second Oscar alongside fellow visual effects luminaries like Peter and Harrison Ellenshaw for his work on the 1979 film.

Year released: 2002 and 2003

As the director of Weta Digital, one of the world's best-known digital effects companies, Joe Letteri has had the pleasure of supervising the visual effects of some of today's most visually groundbreaking films, including Avatar, The Hobbit series, Man of Steel, and the upcoming The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. But his most impressive work happened as the visual effects supervisor on the franchise that really brought Weta into the spotlight: The Lord of the Rings.

Year released: 2014

Jim Rygiel has been at the forefront of the digital effects industry for more than 30 years. Nearly 10 years after getting his start at Pacific Electric Pictures, a pioneer of computer animation technology, Rygiel was charged with establishing a computer animation department for Boss Film Studios, where he supervised such films as Starship Troopers, Species, The Last Action Hero, Batman Returns, and Alien3. He has remained one of the industry’s most in-demand visual effects artists. Most recently, he acted as the visual effects supervisor of Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla reboot.

Year released: 1997

A member of the new school of visual effects artists, Eric Barba’s greatest success may have come with David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, for which he earned an Oscar. But in the sci-fi realm, his work as a digital artist on Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element is what really stands out.

Year released: 2013

For more than 25 years, visual effects veteran Tim Webber has been a key member of the Framestore family, where he has overseen the visuals on films like Children of Men, The Dark Knight, Where the Wild Things Are, and Avatar. In 2013, he landed what may have been his most challenging gig yet when he was tasked with supervising the complicated 3D visuals of Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity. But the challenge paid off; the set-in-space film earned Webber his first Oscar.

Year released: 1982

Today, digital technology makes pretty much anything possible when it comes to creating deeply textured and authentic-looking visuals, but back in the day, matte photography was the more frequently employed technology. Neil Krepela has the enviable job of overseeing that department at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), where he brought the landscape of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to life.

Year released: 1986

After paying his dues as a member of the visual effects teams on The Empire Strikes Back, Dragonslayer, and The NeverEnding Story, Brian Johnson was offered the chance to be in charge of the final—and frightening—stages of James Cameron's Aliens, on which he served as the post-production visual effects supervisor.

Year released: 1982

Harrison Ellenshaw couldn’t have asked for a better mentor; his father, Peter Ellenshaw, spent more than 50 years as one of Hollywood’s premiere matte artists (more to come on him later). While the younger Ellenshaw originally followed in his father’s footsteps, working as a matte artist on Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Black Hole, he eventually switched gears to become a visual effects supervisor, beginning with Steven Lisberger’s groundbreaking TRON.

Year released: 1987

Inspired by legendary visual effects artist Ray Harryhausen, Phil Tippett began his filmmaking career as a stop-motion animator on movies like Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Howard the Duck. His dedication to this art form extended into the RoboCop series, where he created the sequences with the ED-209 on all three original films.

Year released: 1976

Following in the footsteps of his father, L.B. Abbott began his career in film as a cameraman at the age of 18. In 1943, his professional path took a slight turn when he was put in charge of the Special Effects Camera Department at 20th Century Fox, where he oversaw the visual effects on such classic films as The Sound of Music, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Planet of the Apes. In 1977, Abbott won his fourth Oscar as the special visual effects designer on Logan’s Run.

Year released: 1982

Albert Whitlock is, was, and always will be one of Hollywood’s best-known matte artists, having contributed to more than 500 movies and television shows. With a background in painting, Whitlock began his career as a set builder, grip, and sign painter. In addition to a lifelong collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock, Whitlock got the chance to put his creative stamp on John Carpenter’s The Thing, for which he created some of the special visual effects.

Year released: 1980

As a key member of George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) team, Richard Edlund’s many contributions to the now-legendary franchise cannot be overlooked—specifically for his visual effects work on the series’ second entry, which earned him his second Oscar just three years after winning his first (for Star Wars, of course). But those films were only the beginning for Edlund. In 1983, he founded Boss Film Studios, a visual effects company which earned an additional 10 Oscar nominations over its 14-year life for projects like 2010, Ghostbusters, Die Hard, and Alien3.

Year released: 1987

It would be easy to cite Jonathan Erland’s work as a model builder with the miniature and optical effects unit on Star Wars as one of his greatest achievements. But the fact that he would utilize his experience on the set of the granddaddy of all sci-fi films to spoof it with Spaceballs a decade later (he worked as a visual effects matte technician) makes that latter film—which was also his final film—the greater achievement.

Year released: 1982

For more than 40 years, Matthew Yuricich enjoyed a reputation as one of the industry’s most talented matte artists, the kind of pro who could solve even the toughest of creative dilemmas. The variety of his credits (there are 70 of them in total) is a testament to Yuricich’s well-earned reputation as an artist who could truly do anything. Forbidden Planet, North by Northwest, Ben-Hur, Mutiny on the Bounty, The Poseidon Adventure, Soylent Green, The Towering Inferno, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Ghostbusters, and Die Hard are just a handful of the films to which he lent his creative expertise. But his most challenging and impressive project is the intricate world illustrated in Blade Runner.

Year released: 1954

Like son, like father. Harrison Ellenshaw took a page out of his dad’s book when he entered the world of visual effects, and he had quite a pair of shoes to fill. The elder Ellenshaw had been working steadily since the mid-1930s as a matte artist who broke new ground with the release of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Year released: 1979

In a way, John Dykstra has Douglas Trumbull to thank for his long and illustrious visual effects career (which began in 1972 and is still going strong). When George Lucas was toying with the idea of setting up ILM, he approached Trumbull about working with him, but Trumbull was already committed to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Trumbull suggested Dykstra for the job, who eventually became one of the first members of the ILM team. Shortly thereafter, Dykstra formed his own company, Apogee, which led to his supervision of the special photographic effects on Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Year released: 1977

Like many of the artists on this list, Dennis Muren got his start on Star Wars as a cameraman and visual effects supervisor. Work on the next four films in the franchise (through 2002’s Attack of the Clones) followed. Muren worked his way up the ILM ladder, all the way to creative director. He has contributed to a host of the company’s other projects, including Dragonslayer, Willow, The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Jurassic Park, and Paranormal Activity 4.

Year released: 1968

With a visual effects filmography that includes work on The Andromeda Strain, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Blade Runner, choosing which one of Douglas Trumbull’s films to highlight is no easy task. But even the three-time Oscar nominee would likely agree that it’s hard to argue with the pure visual artistry of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, for which he supervised the special photographic effects.

In a 2012 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Trumbull said, “I think 2001: A Space Odyssey has still never been beat as a complete, standout, unique, one-of-a-kind movie, that broke all of the rules, and it was very successful, and it’s a classic movie. It’s not a disposable summer blockbuster that everyone’s going to forget. It’s a movie that everyone will remember, and that’s the kind of thing I’d like to make. I’ve tried to do that with every project I’ve ever touched, by trying to do at least sequences in it that are so stunning that the movie rises to another level and gets remembered and revered—and I think that’s great. That’s what I do."

Year released: 1981

The film world lost a true pioneer and icon last year when Ray Harryhausen passed away at the age of 92. Of all the artists mentioned here, his name is the one with which you’re probably most familiar. That’s because Harryhausen worked with and/or inspired scores of Hollywood’s most talented filmmakers.

It was the original King Kong that inspired Harryhausen to begin experimenting with stop-motion animation. In order to fully understand the craft, he studied both graphic arts and sculpture. From the get-go, Harryhausen’s mastery was evident in films like Mighty Joe Young and Jason and the Argonauts. It was his final film, Clash of the Titans, that cemented his reputation as Hollywood’s foremost visual effects artist, so much so that, upon its completion, Harryhausen retired. Though it may seem dated by today’s special effects standards, Harryhausen’s stop-motion Greek tragedy proved to be years ahead of its time.