Career in Creatures: A Stan Winston Art Retrospective

With the sad news earlier this week that special effects master Stan Winston had died, Hollywood lost one of its master creature-makers. Though Winston's studio did do some digital effects, Winston may have been one of the last great artists of the animatronic. With the help of a huge group of artists, sculptors, mechanical engineers, and even (at one point) the Sociable Robotics Lab at MIT, Winston built everything from a life-sized dinosaur for Jurassic Park to the uncannily realistic teddy bear bot for the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence. He also had a hand in some productions you might not have guessed, like 1970s Wizard of Oz remake The Wiz with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson (holy crap I loved that movie when I was a kid). At the time of his death, he was working on James Cameron's upcoming Avatar, and Martin Scorcese's Shutter Island — but despite his association with primo directors, his amazing creations have appeared in more than one cheesy-but-awesome movie, too. Below, we take you on a photographic tour of Winson's career in creatures. More »

Stan Winston, Special Effects Master, RIP

Ain't It Cool is reporting that Stan Winston, the Academy Award winning special effects artist who worked on the Terminator, Predator and Aliens movies, has died. According to the site, Winston, who had won Oscars for his work on Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park, passed away early last night from cancer. [Ain't It Cool]