Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Stan Winston

History Timeline
Career
He studied painting and sculpture at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville from which he graduated in 1968. In 1969, after attending CSU Long Beach, Winston moved to Hollywood to pursue a career as an actor. Struggling to find an acting job, he began a makeup apprenticeship at Walt Disney Studios. After completing a three-year makeup apprenticeship program at Walt Disney Studios in 1972, Winston established Stan Winston Studio in the garage of the small house in Northridge.
1970s
In 1972, Winston established his own company, Stan Winston Studio, and won an Emmy Award for his effects work on the television film Gargoyles. Over the next seven years, Winston continued to receive Emmy nominations for work on projects and won another for 1974's The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Winston also created the Wookiee costumes for the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Specials.
1980s
In 1982, Winston received his first Oscar nomination for Heatbeeps, by which time he had set up his own studio. However, his ground-breaking work with Rob Bottin on the science fiction horror classic The Thing that year brought him to prominence in Hollywood.
In 1983, Winston designed the Mr. Roboto facemask for the American rock group Styx.
Winston reached a new level of fame in 1984 when James Cameron’s, The Terminator premiered. The movie was a surprise hit, and Winston's work in bringing the titular metallic killing machine to life led to many new projects and additional collaborations with Cameron. In fact, Winston won his first Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 1986 on James Cameron's next movie, Aliens.
Over the next few years, Winston and his company received more accolades for its work on many more Hollywood films, including Tim Burto’s Edward Scissorhands, John McTiernan’s Predator, Alien Nation, The Monster Squad and Predator 2.
In 1989, Winston made his directorial debut with the horror movie Pumpkinhead, and won Best First Time Director at the Paris Film Festival. Although the movie was released to limited theatrical release, Pumpkinhead has since become classic of the genre. His next directing project was the child-friendly A Gnome Named Gnorm (1990), starring Anthony Michael Hall.
1990s
James Cameron drafted Winston and his team once again in 1990, this time for Terminator 2: The Last Judgement, premiered in the summer of 1991, and Winston's work on this box office hit won him two more Oscars for Best Make Up Effects and Best Visual Effects.


Academy Awards
• 1982: Oscar Nomination For Best Makeup: Heartbeeps
• 1987: Won Oscar For Best Visual Effects: Aliens
• 1988: Oscar Nomination For Best Visual Effects: Predators
• 1991: Oscar Nomination For Best Makeup: Edward Scissorhands
• 1992: Won 2 Oscars – Best Visual Effects & Best Makeup: Terminator 2: The Last Judgement
• 1993: Oscar Nomination For Best Makeup: Batman
• 1994: Won Oscar For Best Visual Effects: Jurassic Park
• 1998: Oscar Nomination For Best Visual Effects: The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• 2002: Oscar Nomination For Best Visual Effects: A.I.

Stan Winston/Animatronics

Stan Winston/Animatronics

Visual effects supervisor, makeup artist and film director.

Known to work on the Terminator series, Jurassic Park, Aliens, the Predator, Iron Man and Edward Scissorhands.

Started off as a makeup artist at Walt Disney Studios to working on makeup effects/visual effects with Tim Burton and James Cameron.

Stan Winston and his team created a Stan Winston Studios. It ran along for over 30 years, creating characters, creatures and monsters for motion pictures and television.

The studio works on films, television, commercials and music video.

Stan moved to Hollywood in 1969.

Animatronics is the use of electronics and robotics in mechanized puppets to simulate life.

It is usually used in movie making.

It brings advantages to CGI and stop motion.

Before digital effects, animatronics was the start. For example, Jaws and E.T. was created through animatronics.

Spinosarurus, an animatronic dinosaur created for Jurassic Park III by Stan Winston Studio.

Most of the animatronic dinosaurs used in "Jurassic Park III" are new. For example, the Velociraptors were redesigned to more closely resemble what paleontologists think a Velociraptor looked like. The Tyrannosaurus rex was redone too, but is no longer the star of the franchise. That distinction now passes to Spinosaurus, a monster that dwarfs even the mighty T. rex. This is the largest animatronic creature SWS has ever built, even bigger than the T. rex that Winston's team built for the original "Jurassic Park"!

Stan Winston Studio

Alien Animatronic Mask