DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Nope, those 30-year-old Terminator 2 bullet effects weren’t CGI, they were practical effects

Nov 15, 2021 by John Aldred Add Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

When 1991’s Terminator 2 was first released, it was an effects marvel, in terms of both Special Effects and Visual Effects. The two terms are essentially differentiated by their use of computer graphics, and Terminator 2 was pretty groundbreaking in terms of the latter. But it still contained a lot of practical effects – and that included the bullet hits on the mimetic polyalloy (“liquid metal”) T-1000 Terminator, portrayed by Robert Patrick.

A recent post to the Stan Winston School Instagram account recently shared a behind the scenes clip along with an excerpt from The Winston Effect: The Art and History of Stan Winston Studio by Jody Duncan. It demonstrates and explains how the bullet impacts were created using “vacumetalized” latex, foam and a spring-loaded mechanism triggered by an RC controller.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by StanWinstonSchool (@stanwinstonschool)

There was, undoubtedly some CG when those “bullet wounds” seemed to magically heal back up, but for the impacts themselves, they were done entirely as a practical effect that took a lot of testing and planning to get a perfect execution on screen. And perfect they were, with the impacts appearing to look far more realistic than the CG healing sequences!

Terminator 2 also played a big hand in the early days of Adobe Photoshop. ILM employee, John Knoll teamed up with his brother Thomas, a PhD student at the University of Michigan to come up with a new piece of software that could edit the graphics of the movie and resolve some CG issues. That new piece of software was to become known as Photoshop 1.0.

Even now, I think bullet wounds like these on a running moving subject would be difficult to pull off realistically. Certainly not impossible, but definitely difficult. Chances are, rather than just mapping the fake bullet impacts onto footage of a real person, they’d just replace the entire subject with a CG human.

[via Hackaday]

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Here’s how to combine practical effects with CGI in videos Scandinava makes insane practical VFX that look like CGI Using the Chronos high speed camera with motion capture rig for bullet time effects These epic Formula 1 photos were made with model cars, household items, and practical effects

Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: practical effects, special effects, Stan Winston, Terminator 2, visual effects

John Aldred: from diyphotography.net

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

« Adobe kicks off their Black Friday sale early with up to 70% off Creative Cloud plans
Don’t trust a photographer with dirty glasses »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Here’s a bullet time video booth you can build yourself
  • Ricoh has discontinued the HD PENTAX-DA 21mm F3.2AL Limited silver lens
  • This “stellar flower” unravels the twilight’s evolution in 360 degrees
  • Strobes vs Continuous LEDs – Which is right for you?
  • Wave goodbye to Apple’s My Photo Stream next month

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy