10 Movies That Pushed The Boundaries Of Visual Effects

5. Jurassic Park (1993)

Initially the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park were intended to be stop-motion animated, but this idea was soon put to bed when CGI emerged as a better option. And the result was some of the most realistic creations ever to appear on the big screen. There's only about 15 minutes of actual dinosaur screen time in Jurassic Park, but audiences would never forget scenes like the Tyrannosaurus Rex attacking the tour car, or the Velociraptors stalking Lex and Tim in the kitchen. The dinosaurs were created with a mix of computer imagery, animatronics and good old fashioned men in suits. The animatronic Tyrannosaurus weighed over 9,000 pounds and featured a number of hydraulic systems to create movement: there weren't any motor systems powerful enough to achieve the desired motion. The motion base on which the model was placed was the same type used in F-16 fighter flight simulators.

The CG Tyrannosaurs was created by using laser scanning to create a 3D image which was then manipulated by computer. Another groundbreaking use of technology was the mix of live action actors with CGI in the Gallimimus stampede scene, which culminated with the CG Tyrannosaurus taking a bite out of one of them.

The most impressive feature of the dinosaurs was in their detail: textured skin, eyes and teeth looked incredibly realistic and showed that CGI could now be used to make anything possible.