Jurassic Park

The film Jurassic Park is an amazing example of the merging of practical effects with visual effects. The film was one of the first to popularize the use of computer generated imagery in filmmaking. Jurassic Park used ground-breaking visual effects to supplement its use of practical effects, which truly brought the dinosaurs to life on the screen. To begin we must discuss the practical effects present. The film contained many impressive props such as entire dinosaur skeletons, prop cars, and Jurassic Park uniforms. It also contained the use of simulated blood such as in the scene where Dr. Sattler finds the cut off arm of Ray Arnold after he was attacked by raptors. There was also use of make up effects such as the scratches and wounds the characters receive throughout the movie along with the mud and dirt covering them. In addition to make up effects there was also use of pyrotechnics when Dr. Hammon’s grandson was shocked by the electric fence causing it to spark and smoke. The greatest practical effects present were the movie’s animatronic dinosaurs. The major dinosaur animatronics that appeared throughout the film were the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, Brachiosaurus, and Dilophosaurus. The Brachiosaurus animatronic consist of the neck and head. This was used in the scene where the children and Dr. Grant interact with it while it eats from the tree they are in. The scene was shot to only show the head and neck of the dinosaur which prevents the audience from seeing the supports of the animatronic. The animatronics for the Triceratops and Dilophosaurus were constructed differently because they were full body animatronics, not just heads as the Brachiosaurus had been. According to the Stan Winston School of Character Arts the Dilophosaurus was operated by puppeteers from a trench underneath it with its spit actually being shot out from underneath the tongue by a paintball mechanism. The Triceratops animatronic contained no hydraulics and was instead operated by cables and pulleys with a post in the chest moving up and down to simulate breathing. There was also make-up effects on the triceratops as they added puss and saliva to its mouth to simulate illness. The Tyrannosaurus Rex  was a mixture of both computer generated imagery and an animatronic. The animatronic of the T-Rex was the largest one they had created at thirty seven feet long. According to the Stan Winston School of Character Arts it was made by attaching plywood to an aluminum speed rail which was covered by chicken wire and fiberglass for them to apply clay to. This animatronic was used for scenes showing an up close view of the T-Rex such as the scene where it attacks the kids in the car. On the other hand, the scenes showing the T-Rex running or full body shots were computer generated. CGI was used during the jeep chase scene and during the attack on the tour vehicles. Those scenes involving the CGI T-Rex were often rainy or during nighttime which helps to mask the lower quality skin texture, which was an issue for CGI at the time. Techniques used to mask the lower skin quality texture were used for other scenes too, such as the scene when Dr. Grant and the others see the dinosaurs for the first time. They see a Brachiosaurus and several other dinosaur herds, but they are all seen from a distance which had the same masking effect as the rain. The shot was made by combining two different shots, one of the actors and one of the dinosaurs in the background. According to Business Insider the way they did CGI was they took a laser scan of the dinosaur models and uploaded it to a computer where they added joints and skin to the scan. They would then render each frame at 12 hours a frame before doing a composite shot of the dinosaurs and the actors. All in all the process took a year for all the CGI, which shows the overwhelming dedication the filmmakers had towards the project. Overall the film Jurassic Park displays the dedication in its extensive use of practical and visual effects. The fusion of animatronics and CGI brings extinct animals back to life on the screen.