Phil Tippett closes his Berkeley studio, four decades of animation history goes...

The creatures are leaving the workshop. Phil Tippett closed his Berkeley studio over the last weekend of August, and nearly everything inside went to auction. For 35 years the building held the physical record of stop-motion and visual effects: puppets, armatures, cameras, mold-making gear, storyboards, and props from films that trained an entire generation of animators.

Tippett built the studio with his wife Jules Roman in 1984. He had already worked on the original Star Wars, where his creatures, including the Dejarik chess pieces, still play out their hologram fight in the Falcon. He went on to develop go-motion, a technique that added motion blur to stop-motion so the beasts could move like living weight instead of twitching toys. Then Jurassic Park happened. Tippett was hired to build dinosaur puppets, and his team found itself translating decades of physical animation instinct into early computer graphics. The skills crossed over, and the industry followed.

The sale list reads like a century of monster history. Models and sketches from Mad God, his handmade stop-motion epic that took 30 years to finish and opened at Locarno in 2021. An artist-proof AT-AT from The Empire Strikes Back. Miniatures from Starship Troopers. Costumes, prototypes, an entire effects infrastructure of 3D printers, welding rigs, drill presses, and toolboxes with every screw named. Two exceptions stayed home. His Oscars, for Return of the Jedi and Jurassic Park, are not for sale. "They were the most significant moments in my journey," the 74-year-old told CBS San Francisco.

The closure ends a long run, but not the name. PhantomFX, the Indian VFX company, completed its acquisition of Tippett Studio in July 2025 after a Chapter 11 reorganization, and the new owners keep using the name. What disappears is the Berkeley workshop itself, the room where four decades of creature work happened. "We had almost a 40-year run. It was a good run," Tippett said. He does not sound retired. "I will die with my sword in my hand."

Read the full account at Cartoon Brew: https://www.cartoonbrew.com/auctions/tippett-studio-closing-auction-266120.html

■ ■ Filed from The Bestiary: the Animals, Earth wing of the city.: the Fern, Fire wing of the city.