Reddit reviews Industrial Light & Magic: The Art of Special Effects

If you like these it's really worth getting Industrial Light & Magic: The Art of Special Effects and the three Art of Star Wars books- the original movie concept art books. A lot of great stories about the ILM matte painters and they're what inspired me to get into the visual effects industry. Some are working in digital matte painting today. Mike Pangrazio, who I think was in his early 20s when he did his matte paintings of Hoth on Empire, works at Weta.

Edit: Mike Pangrazio's wiki page says he was lacking any experience before he was trained by Ralph McQuarrie, but that should say professional experience. I might be getting some details wrong but I recall in the ILM book they tell a story about how he was about to flunk a high school art class for slacking off. The teacher told him to paint something to bring up his grade and he came back after the weekend with an amazing piece and he got an A.

Visual Effects: The History and Technique

Pretty much what it says on the tin, and what you're mostly looking for as a broad overview. It isn't completely up to date -- a lot has changed just in the six years since its publication -- but as far as history and lineage goes, it's the gold standard.

There are also some books focusing on particular major houses that also contain solid general background:

Industrial Light & Magic: The Art of Special Effects

Industrial Light & Magic: Into the Digital Realm

Industrial Light & Magic: The Art of Innovation


Digital Domain: The Leading Edge of Visual Effects


The Winston Effect: The Art & History of Stan Winston Studio


For the most up-to-date state of the art and industry, you can't go wrong with Cinefex, and as far as history lessons go, get a hold of as many backissues as you can. The entire catalog is coming to iPad early next year.

Warning, long read - I'm a vfx artist for movies and always wanted to be.

My stepfather was a sci-fi geek and collected Starlog Magazine when I was little. I used to look at those and other special-effects books and when I was 8, he got a copy of this book and I almost immediately took it away from him and read it cover-to-cover. It dawned on me that people could make a living doing special effects for movies. Everything I did from that point on was to make my own special effects. My first project was to use Lego train rails, tin foil, and my humidifier to recreate the minecar chase sequence from Temple of Doom, which was featured prominently in that book. My parents bought a VHS camcorder around that same time and I stole that from them too, constantly making short films with all sorts of effects, from the simple to the elaborate. Fast forward several years and I found out there was a digital effects school opening in Hollywood and used credit cards to pay for classes (no financial aid for that back then) and got an internship at a small game company after a few months. The hours were long and the pay terrible, but I LOVED EVERY SINGLE MOMENT OF IT. Fast forward 12 more years and I'm still at it, working on big-budget films and having worked with several heroes of mine from that ILM book. I still have that book sitting on my desk, with many signatures in it of people I worked with. I sometimes get frustrated to the point of quitting; sometimes I have to take a lot of time off after a particularly long or difficult film, but at the end of the day I can't imagine doing anything else.

As far as finding out what your passion/purpose in life is, here's my suggestion. Look at your day-to-day life. What do you love to do more than anything? You mentioned documentaries; have you considered making one of someone you know and find interesting? Even if it's 5 minutes long, if it's interesting put it on YouTube and see what happens.

Here's another suggestion: Take a LONG roadtrip somewhere. By yourself. Sleep in your car. Wake up in unfamiliar territory. Meet new people. Find yourself. Sounds lame but I've done that and it was always a rewarding learning experience.

Is this it?

https://www.amazon.com/Industrial-Light-Magic-Special-Effects/dp/0345322630