Miniature effect

Lore & Background

The use of scale models in the creation of visual effects by the entertainment industry dates back to the earliest days of cinema. French director Georges Méliès incorporated miniatures in his 1902 film Le Voyage dans la Lune, along with double-exposure, split screens, and stop-action. The 1933 film King Kong made extensive use of miniature effects including scale models and stop-motion animation of miniature elements. From 1900 to the mid-1960s, influential visual effects films such as Metropolis (1927), Citizen Kane (1941), Godzilla (1954), and The Ten Commandments (1956) employed miniatures.

From the mid-1960s, the use of miniatures in 2001: A Space Odyssey was a major development, with the film in production for three years and representing a significant advancement in creating convincing models. In the early 1970s, miniatures were often used to depict disasters in films such as The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Earthquake (1974), and The Towering Inferno (1974). The resurgence of science fiction in the late 1970s saw miniature fabrication rise to new heights in films including Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Star Wars (1977), Alien (1979), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), and Blade Runner (1982). Iconic sequences such as the tanker truck explosion from The Terminator (1984) and the bridge destruction in True Lies (1994) were achieved through large-scale miniatures.

Where a miniature appears in the foreground of a shot, it is often very close to the camera lens, as when matte-painted backgrounds are used. Since the exposure is set to the object being filmed so the actors appear well-lit, the miniature must be over-lit to balance the exposure and eliminate any depth of field differences. This foreground miniature usage is referred to as forced perspective. Another form of miniature effect uses stop motion animation.

Reader's Guide

The release of Jurassic Park (1993) was a turning point in the use of computers to create effects for which physical miniatures would have previously been employed. While computer-generated imagery (CGI) has largely overtaken their use since then, miniatures are still often employed, especially for projects requiring physical interaction with fire, explosions, or water. Films such as Independence Day (1996), Titanic (1997), Godzilla (1998), the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999–2005), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003), Casino Royale (2006), The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010), and Interstellar (2014) are examples of highly successful films that have utilized miniatures for a significant component of their visual effects work.

The legacy of miniature effects is carried forward by notable model-makers and companies. Model-makers such as Brick Price (The Abyss), David Jones (Star Wars, The Hunt for Red October), Grant McCune (Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: The Motion Picture), Greg Jein (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Next Generation), Ian Hunter (The Dark Knight, Live Free or Die Hard, The Chronicles of Narnia), Leigh Took (The Da Vinci Code, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus), Lorne Peterson (Star Wars Episodes 1–6, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Battlestar Galactica, War of the Worlds), Mark Stetson (Blade Runner, Die Hard, The Fifth Element, The Lord of the Rings), Matthew Gratzner (The Aviator, The Good Shepherd, Pitch Black, Alien Resurrection), Michael Joyce (The Terminator, Independence Day), Patrick McClung (The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies), Richard Taylor (The Lord of the Rings, Master and Commander), and Steve Gawley (Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark) have contributed to the field. Miniature effects companies include Vision Crew Unlimited, Weta Workshop, and WonderWorks. Howard and Theodore Lydecker are noted as miniature effects pioneers.