{"id":1035347,"date":"2026-08-31T18:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T18:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1035347\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T18:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T18:09:18","slug":"visual-effects-artist-phil-tippett-shutters-berkeley-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1035347\/","title":{"rendered":"Visual effects artist Phil Tippett shutters Berkeley studio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Phil Tippett, the visual effects<\/a> artist who crafted aliens in \u201cStar Wars\u201d and dinosaurs in \u201cJurassic Park,\u201d is shutting down his Berkeley-based studios after more than 40 years of business.<\/p>\n

The closing was marked by a weekend liquidation sale, where fans purchased memorabilia from movies like \u201cStar Wars,\u201d \u201cJurassic Park,\u201d \u201cRoboCop\u201d and \u201cStarship Troopers.\u201d The sale included models of Imperial Walkers from \u201cThe Empire Strikes Back,\u201d \u201cStarship Troopers\u201d miniatures, signed posters and equipment like computers and 3D printers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have recently decided to evolve our physical footprint and production approach, and to exit our longtime Berkeley facility,\u201d said the company in a statement on social media. \u201cAs we make this transition, Tippett Studio continues its visual effects and animation work across film, television and entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The closure follows Tippett\u2018s sale of a majority stake in the company to PhantomFX, an India-based VFX studio, in 2024 and the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that followed. PhantomFX has completed the acquisition of Tippett Studio and will operate the studios under the same name.<\/p>\n

Tippett and his wife, Jules Roman, founded the studio in 1984, by which point he\u2019d already made his name in the world of visual effects through his work on the original \u201cStar Wars\u201d trilogy. He was instrumental in doing the stop-motion miniature chess scene in \u201cStar Wars: A New Hope,\u201d bringing the Imperial Walkers to life and creating aliens like Jabba the Hutt and tauntauns.<\/p>\n

Under his own studio, he became best known for the dinosaurs in Steven Spielberg\u2019s \u201cJurassic Park,\u201d using computer generation to animate the prehistoric creatures. He also worked on effects for \u201cThe Matrix\u201d films, \u201cHellboy\u201d and the \u201cTwilight\u201d franchise.<\/p>\n

Tippett had occupied the 6,200-square-foot Berkeley facility for 35 years, but as technology evolves, the studio no longer needs the large space.<\/p>\n

\u201cStop-motion remains an important part of our creative capabilities, but maintaining a large permanent physical footprint is no longer necessary for our current requirements,\u201d wrote Tippett Studios. \u201cWhen projects require dedicated stages, fabrication, motion-control photography or other specialised physical infrastructure, we will work with appropriate external facilities to meet the needs of each production.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company\u2018s Toronto studio will keep running and is \u201ccurrently in active production on a large feature film,\u201d per the same statement.<\/p>\n

The downsizing comes amid a particularly challenging stretch for film and TV productions in California.<\/a> Following Covid-19, labor strikes and the flight of major Hollywood productions to other states and countries, many specialty businesses such as prop houses and VFX<\/a> studios are struggling to stay afloat.<\/p>\n

Despite the sale, Tippett told CBS News<\/a> he isn\u2019t giving up or planning to retire. He does not have plans to retire. \u201cI will die with my sword in my hand,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had almost a 40-year run. It was a good run.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phil Tippett, the visual effects artist who crafted aliens in \u201cStar Wars\u201d and dinosaurs in \u201cJurassic Park,\u201d is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1035348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[61272,414288,1582,276,638,18689,1020,414289,414291,23996,2961,414292,224,5337,414290,8662,344947,14398,305861,413691],"class_list":["post-1035347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-alien","tag-berkeley-studio","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-company","tag-computer","tag-film","tag-imperial-walkers","tag-india-based-vfx-studio","tag-jurassic-park","tag-la","tag-longtime-berkeley-facility","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-phantomfx","tag-sale","tag-same-name","tag-star-wars","tag-starship-troopers","tag-tippett-studio"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1035348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}