When Special Effects Artists Were Stars

By Darryl Mason

Back in the days before CGI, movie monsters and creatures had to be sculpted, cast, assembled and built.

Two great videos from the early 1980s follow, on the artists who made the monsters and creatures. And to fans of magazinese like Fangoria, Starlog and Cinemafastique back then, these guys were indeed true artists. These creature and special make-up effects created achieved a level of fame and legend that no CGI artist today has attained.

Carlo Rambaldi, Dick Smith, Rick Baker, Rob Bottin. Special effects freaks like me used to go see movies solely because they made the monsters, and their names were nearly always featured in the opening titles, alongside the producer, director and writer(s).









CGI artists don't seem to generate anything like that kind of idolisation. Must have been an 80s thing.