Sad news as Robert Blalack, a founding member of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and the key architect of their optical compositing workflow, first used on Star Wars: A New Hope, has passed away at the age of 73.
We are saddened to learn of the passing of Robert Blalack, a founding member of @ILMVFX and the key architect of our optical compositing workflow, first used on Star Wars: Episode IV (1977). Robbie’s friendship will be deeply missed, and our thoughts are with his wife and son. pic.twitter.com/447E7m4i5S
— Star Wars (@starwars) February 8, 2022
For those that didn’t know Robert well, here is his bio from IMDB: –
Visual effects wizard Robert Campbell Blalack was a co-founder of Industrial Light & Magic, a division of the production company Lucasfilm. His reputation as a leading pioneer in the field of CGI rests on his collaboration with John Dykstra in designing/supervising the ILM VistaVision Photographic Optical Composite and Rotoscope Animation blue screen production pipeline (notably employed to achieve the glowing lightsaber effect) first seen in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977). For his contribution, the Panamanian-born shared the 1978 Academy Award, adding to this accolade six years later with a Primetime Emmy for his special effects work on the apocalyptic TV movie The Day After (1983). Earlier, in 1980, Blalack had been in charge of visual effects for Carl Sagan‘s groundbreaking documentary series Cosmos (1980).
Robert Blalack graduated with a B.A. in English Literature/Theater Arts from Pomona College and subsequently completed film studies at the California Institute of the Arts. By the time Blalack met Dykstra in 1974 he had already produced several experimental short films and headed his own company (Praxis Film Works, headquartered in North Hollywood). Under the Praxis umbrella, he also directed numerous commercials integrating live action with computer generated effects. His later film work included the ‘cat vision’ optics in Paul Schrader‘s remake of Cat People (1982), as well as special visual effects for The Last Dragon (1985) and Timestalkers (1987).
Later becoming active as an instructor in multi-media, Blalack gave lectures and attended conferences at universities and film schools in Europe and in Asia. He died from cancer in Paris on February 2 2022, aged 73.
Team Jedi News sends our condolences to Robert’s family and friends at this difficult time.
