Inside Indiana Jones' Computer-Generated Jungle

SAN FRANCISCO — In these hallowed halls, Indiana Jones almost seems out of place. A banner with a two-dimensional cutout of the swashbuckling archaeologist swings through the lobby of Industrial Light and Magic, where life-size replicas of Darth Vader and Bobba Fett from "Star Wars" stand guard. The home of George Lucas' visual effects company is a high-tech temple to everything from the dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park" to the talking robots in "Transformers." But Indy can't take credit for the digital wizardry for which ILM has become famous over the last couple of decades. Not yet, anyway. That's because he hasn't been around for 19 years, a time in which special effects has mostly migrated from soundstage to server. The first three Indy films were gritty, sweaty and tactile affairs, largely because everything onscreen physically existed somewhere. Not so with "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" _ though that was almost the case. When first approaching the ... (link)