John Charles Dykstra, A.S.C. (; born June 3, 1947) is an American

special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...

s artist, pioneer in the development of the use of

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

s in filmmaking and recipient of three

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

, among many other awards and prizes. He was one of the original employees of

Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began pro ...

, the

s and

computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great de ...

division of

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is best known for creating and producing the ''Star Wars'' and ' ...

. He is well known as the special effects lead on the original ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'', helping bring the original visuals for

lightsaber A lightsaber is a fictional energy sword featured throughout the ''Star Wars'' franchise. A typical lightsaber is depicted as a luminescent plasma blade about in length emitted from a metal hilt around in length. First introduced in the or ...

s, space battles between

X-wing The X-wing starfighter is a name applied to a family of fictional spacecraft manufactured by the Incom Corporation from the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Named for the distinctive shape made when its s-foils (wings) are in attack position, the X-win ...

s and

TIE fighter The Twin Ion Engine (TIE) fighter is a series of fictional starfighters featured in the '' Star Wars'' universe. TIE fighters are depicted as fast, agile, yet fragile starfighters produced by Sienar Fleet Systems for the Galactic Empire and b ...

s, and

Force In physics, a force is an influence that can change the motion of an object. A force can cause an object with mass to change its velocity (e.g. moving from a state of rest), i.e., to accelerate. Force can also be described intuitively as a p ...

powers to the screen. He also led special effects on many other movies, including ''

Batman Forever ''Batman Forever'' (on-screen title is simply ''Forever'') is a 1995 American superhero film directed by Joel Schumacher and produced by Tim Burton, based on the DC Comics character Batman by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. The third installment of W ...

'', '' Batman & Robin'', ''

Stuart Little ''Stuart Little'' is a 1945 American children's novel by E. B. White. It was White's first children's book, and it is now widely recognized as a classic in children's literature. ''Stuart Little'' was illustrated by the subsequently award-winnin ...

'', '' X-Men: First Class'', ''

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...

'' and ''

Spider-Man 2 ''Spider-Man 2'' is a 2004 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi and written by Alvin Sargent from a story by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar and Michael Chabon. Based on the fictional Marvel Comics character of the same name, it is the ...

''.

Education and early career

Dykstra was born in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

. After studying

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...

California State University, Long Beach California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...

(where he was a member of

Phi Kappa Tau Phi Kappa Tau (), commonly known as Phi Tau (), is a collegiate fraternity located in the United States. The fraternity was founded in 1906. As of November 2022, the fraternity has 161 chartered chapters, 79 active chapters, 6 Associate chapte ...

fraternity), in 1971 he landed a job working with

Douglas Trumbull Douglas Hunt Trumbull (; April 8, 1942 – February 7, 2022) was an American film director and innovative visual effects supervisor. He pioneered methods in special effects and created scenes for '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', ''Close Encounters o ...

on ''

Silent Running ''Silent Running'' is a 1972 American environmental-themed apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic science fiction film. It is the directorial debut of Douglas Trumbull, and stars Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin, and Jesse ...

'' filming model effects, when Trumbull hired recent college graduates due to the film's low budget.

''Star Wars''

In 1975, when

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairm ...

was recruiting people for the special effects work on ''

'', he approached Douglas Trumbull, but he was unavailable as he was about to start working on

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...

's ''

Close Encounters of the Third Kind ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' is a 1977 American science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut. It tells the story ...

''. Trumbull pointed Lucas towards Dykstra. Lucas formed his own special effects company,

(ILM), based in warehouse premises in

Van Nuys Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1909, t ...

, and appointed Dykstra to supervise the new team. This led to the development of the

Dykstraflex The Dykstraflex was the first digital motion control photography camera system, named after its primary developer John Dykstra. Numerous people actually created the camera, with the critical electronics being created by Alvah J. Miller and Jerry ...

motion-controlled camera, which enabled many of the film's groundbreaking effects to be produced. The system was made possible by the availability of off-the-shelf integrated-circuit

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

at relatively low cost and secondhand

VistaVision VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35 mm motion picture film format which was created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954. Paramount never used anamorphic processes such as 2.55: 1, CinemaScope but refi ...

cameras. However, tensions arose between Dykstra and Lucas, the latter complaining that too much time and money was spent on developing the digital camera systems and that the effects team did not deliver all the shots that he had wanted causing the production to run behind schedule. These tensions would reportedly culminate with Dykstra's dismissal from ILM following Lucas' return from principal photography in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Regardless, following the release of ''Star Wars'', Dykstra and his team won

for best special effects and special technical achievement.

''Battlestar Galactica''

After ''Star Wars'', Dykstra began working on ''

Battlestar Galactica ''Battlestar Galactica'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The franchise began with the Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series), original television series in 1978, and was followed by a short-run sequel se ...

'' for

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

. Supervising the special effects for the three-hour pilot episode (which was also released theatrically), Dykstra formed his own effects company called Apogee, Inc. which included several ILM employees who had worked on ''Star Wars''. Dykstra was also given a Producer credit for the pilot of the television series. As Universal then opted to make ''Galactica'' into a weekly series, many of Dykstra's effects shots were recycled and used repeatedly throughout the show's single season run. After ''Galactica'' aired, Lucas and 20th Century Fox began legal proceedings against Universal claiming that they had plagiarised ''Star Wars'', a matter not helped by the similar effects and design styles (artist

Ralph McQuarrie Ralph Angus McQuarrie (; June 13, 1929 – March 3, 2012) was an American conceptual designer and illustrator. His career included work on the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy, the original ''Battlestar Galactica'' television series, the film '' ...

had also contributed to ''Galactica''). Lucas was also reportedly unhappy about Dykstra using the equipment (that had been developed and paid for from the ''Star Wars'' budget) on a production that was essentially a competitor. When Lucas relocated ILM to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

from

to commence work on ''

The Empire Strikes Back ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back'') is a 1980 American epic film, epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based o ...

'', several members of the Apogee team (including

Richard Edlund Richard Edlund, (born December 6, 1940) is an American visual effects artist and inventor. He was a founding member of Industrial Light & Magic, having already founded Pignose amplifiers, and later co-founded Boss Film Studios and DuMonde VFX. H ...

and

Dennis Muren Dennis Muren, A.S.C (born November 1, 1946) is an American film visual effects artist and supervisor. He has worked on the films of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and James Cameron, among others, and has won nine Oscars in total: eight for Bes ...

) would return to ILM but Dykstra was not invited to join them. He continued to work under his Apogee brand name and subsequently went to work on the effects for ''

Avalanche Express ''Avalanche Express'' is a 1979 Cold War adventure thriller film starring Lee Marvin, Robert Shaw, Maximilian Schell, and Linda Evans and produced and directed by Mark Robson. The plot is about the struggle over a defecting Soviet general. The ...

'' and '' Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' (on which he was reunited with Douglas Trumbull).

''Firefox'' and the 1980s

Dykstra's next major achievement was the effects work on ''

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...

'' in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

. Here, he took on the same challenge that Lucas had set with ''The Empire Strikes Back'' of combining miniature effects with actual backgrounds and matte work on white backgrounds using

reverse bluescreen Reverse bluescreen is a visual effects technique pioneered by Jonathan Erland of Apogee Inc.(John Dykstra's company) for shooting the flying sequences in the film ''Firefox''. Its objective is to enable the matting of subjects that confound the con ...

. The film secured further awards but was only a modest

box office A box office or ticket office is a place where ticket (admission), tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a Wicket gate, wicke ...

hit. In 1985, Dykstra produced the special effects for the sci-fi horror film '' Lifeforce'' which was made in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He followed with work on the 1986 remake of '' Invaders from Mars'' and ''

My Stepmother Is an Alien ''My Stepmother Is an Alien'' is a 1988 American science fiction comedy film directed by Richard Benjamin, and starring Dan Aykroyd, Kim Basinger, Jon Lovitz, and Alyson Hannigan. Its plot follows Celeste, an extraterrestrial woman sent on a secr ...

'' (1988). Apogee Inc also did the effects for the spoof comedy

Spaceballs ''Spaceballs'' is a 1987 American space opera parody film co-written, produced and directed by Mel Brooks. It is primarily a parody of the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy, but also parodies other sci-fi films and popular franchises including ...

(1987). In the late 1980s Dykstra was asked by Nissan Motor Company of Japan to work on special effects for a commercial for the introduction of the Nissan R32 Skyline. He stated in an interview that ran before the commercial that he got out his "Special Effects Atlas" to provide a world that "not only looked different" but also had some "very unusual inhabitants"; the "Space Fish". The Space Fish can be seen following and then examining the new Skyline during the ad.Video on Youtube of the Dykstra R32 Skyline commercial

Comic book films

In the mid-1990s, Dykstra was supervisor for the special effects of ''

'' and '' Batman & Robin''. He was also Senior Visual Effects Supervisor for ''

''. Dykstra was the visual effects designer on the first two ''

'' films, and received an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...

for Best Visual Effects for his work on ''

''. He acted as the visual effects designer on '' X-Men: First Class'', ensuring the six effects companies involved delivered all the shots required despite the tight schedule.

Video games

In 1987, Dykstra directed the full-motion video game ''

Sewer Shark ''Sewer Shark'' is a first-person rail shooter video game, and is the first on a home console to use full motion video for its primary gameplay. It was originally slated to be the flagship product in Hasbro's Control-Vision video game system, w ...

'', originally intended for

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...

's VHS-based

NEMO Nemo may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Games * ''Nemo'' (arcade game), a 1990 arcade game by Capcom based on ''Little Nemo'' * NEMO (video game console), an unreleased console Music * Nemo (American band), an indie rock band * Nemo ...

console. When Hasbro abandoned the project, the system's creator Tom Zito acquired the rights to the game. In 1992, ''Sewer Shark'' was converted to the

Sega CD The Sega CD, released as the in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. It was released on December 12, 1991, in Japan, ...

by Zito's

Digital Pictures Digital Pictures was an American video game developer founded in 1991 by Lode Coen, Mark Klein, Ken Melville, Anne Flaut-Reed, Kevin Welsh and Tom Zito. The company originated from an attempt to produce a game for the failed VHS-based NEMO (vid ...

, and released as a launch title for the system.

Academy Awards

Two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects

* 1978 ( 50th): for Best Visual Effects for ''

'' (1977), shared with

John Stears John Stears (25 August 1934 – 28 April 1999), known as the "Dean of Special Effects", was a British two-time Academy Award-winning special effects expert. He created James Bond's lethal Aston Martin DB5, Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder, the Jedi Kn ...

, Grant McCune, and

Robert Blalack Robert Blalack (December 9, 1948 – February 2, 2022) was a Panamanian-born American mass-media visual artist and producer. One of the founders of Industrial Light & Magic, he received the Visual Effects Academy Award for his work on the origi ...

* 2005 ( 77th): for Best Visual Effects for ''

'' (2004), shared with

Scott Stokdyk Scott Stokdyk (born October 16, 1969) is an American visual effects artist who is best known for his work on the films ''Spider-Man (2002 film), Spider-Man'' and ''Spider-Man 2''. Oscar history Stokdyk has won the Academy Award for Best Visual ...

Anthony LaMolinara Anthony LaMolinara is an American film director, producer and special effects artist. Oscar history LaMolinara has won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects once, with one other nomination. Both of the following are in this category: ...

, and

John Frazier John Frazier (born September 23, 1944) is an American visual effects supervisor. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. He has 11 Oscar nominations, with one win for ''Spider-Man 2'' at the 77th Academy Awards. He shared the award with John Dykstra ...

One Academy Award for Technical Achievement

* 1978 ( 50th): "''for the development of the Dykstraflex Camera''" for ''Star Wars'' (1977), shared with Alvah J. Miller and Jerry JeffressDykstra was granted for the development of the Dykstraflex Camera and Alvah J. Miller and Jerry Jeffress were both granted for the engineering of the Electronic Motion Control System.

Other awards

Saturn Awards

* 1978: for Best Special Effects for ''

'' (1977), shared with John Stears * 1980: for Best Special Effects for '' Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' (1979), shared with

and

Richard Yuricich Richard Yuricich (born December 1942) is a special visual effects artist. He is the brother of Matthew Yuricich, also a special effects artist. Yuricich is of Croatian descent. He has been nominated for an Academy Award three times. Oscar Nomin ...

* 2005: for Best Special Effects for ''

'' (2004), shared with Scott Stokdyk, Anthony LaMolinara, and John Frazier

Primetime Emmy Awards

* 1979: for Outstanding Individual Achievement and Creative Technical Crafts for the pilot episode (''

Saga of a Star World "Saga of a Star World" (or "Battlestar Galactica") is the pilot for the American science fiction television series of '' Battlestar Galactica'' which was produced in 1978 by Glen A. Larson. A re-edit of the episode was released theatrically as '' ...

'') from the 1978 ''Battlestar Galactica'' TV series, shared with Richard Edlund (director of miniature photography) and Joe Goss (mechanical special effects)

Hollywood Film Awards

* 2004: for Visual Effects of the Year for ''

'' (2004)

OFTA Film Awards

* 2005: OFTA Film Award"OFTA" stands for "Online Film and Television Association". for Best Visual Effects for ''Spider-Man 2'' (2004), shared with Scott Stokdyk, Anthony LaMolinara and John Frazier

Sitges Award for Best Special Effects

* 1986: Caixa Catalunya Award for Best Special EffectsThis award (presented annually) is the Special Effects Award attributed by the

Sitges Film Festival The Sitges Film Festival ( ca, Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya, links=no) is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Spain, specialized in fantasy and horror films, of which it is considered one of the world's foremost in ...

(located in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

), but its name has changed among years, depending on different sponsors. In 1986 it was called "''Premio Caixa Catalunya a los Mejores Efectos Especiales''" ("Caixa Catalunya Award for Best Special Effects") because that year the sponsor was

Caixa Catalunya CatalunyaCaixa () was the trading name of Catalunya Banc S.A., a Spanish bank with headquarters in Barcelona and owned by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), and absorbed by it in 2016. Its area of influence is located mainly in Catalonia. It ...

, a local bank. for '' Lifeforce'' (1985)

Golden Satellite Awards

* 2000: for Best Visual Effects for ''

'' (1999), shared with Jerome Chen, Henry F. Anderson III and Eric Allard

Visual Effects Society Awards

* 2007: Honorary Membership Award * 2014: Lifetime Achievement Award

Notes

External links

*
"Miniature and Mechanical Special Effects" (July 1977)
- an article written by Dykstra for th

concerning his work on ''

''
2006 IMNO Interview with John Dykstra
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dykstra, John 1947 births Living people People from Long Beach, California Best Visual Effects Academy Award winners Visual effects supervisors California State University, Long Beach alumni American people of Frisian descent Special effects people Emmy Award winners Industrial Light & Magic people