{"id":2120102,"date":"2026-08-30T18:50:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T15:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2120102"},"modified":"2026-08-30T18:50:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T15:50:48","slug":"animator-phil-tippett-retired-and-closed-his-studio-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2120102","title":{"rendered":"Animator Phil Tippett Retired and Closed His Studio This Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/08\/phil-tippett-hed-1200×675.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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Update<\/strong>(8\/31\/2026 @ 7AM ET):<\/strong> On Facebook, Tippett Studio clarified its status, saying it\u2019s \u201cevolved our physical footprint and production approach.\u201d While its Berkely office is shut down and its materials sold off, its Toronto office still continues operations and the studio\u2019s VFX and animation work. Notably, the Toronto office is \u201cin active production on a large feature film\u201d\u2014potentially\u00a0Sentinel<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cStop-motion remains an important part of our creative capabilities, but maintaining a large permanent physical footprint is no longer necessary for our current requirements,\u201d wrote Tippett. The company will use external buildings whenever it needs to for a project requiring \u201cdedicated stages\u2026motion-capture photography, or other specialized infrastructure. [\u2026] As we move forward, we remain focused on the work ahead, continuing to collaborate with our clients, creative partners and artists on current and upcoming productions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Original story: <\/strong>Phil Tippett, the animator famous for Star Wars\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Jurassic Park,\u00a0<\/em>announced he\u2019s been forced into retirement and shutting down his namesake studio.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, he\u2019s sold off the majority of his and his studio\u2019s stop-motion work and signed memorabilia. From signed posters to storyboards and models, to even studio tools, 273 items were up for grabs in an \u201ceverything must go!\u201d fire sale. (Save for the Oscars Tippett won for Return of the Jedi <\/em>and the original Jurassic Park<\/em>; he understandably told Berkleyside he\u2019d keep those.)<\/p>\n

Phil Tippett co-founded Tippett Studio in 1984 with his wife, Jules Roman. Originally focused on stop-motion animation and its go-motion variant style, the studio expanded into building props for live-action films like the Robocop\u00a0<\/em>trilogy and computer-generated imagery. Where Phil went, his studio often followed, with Starship Troopers <\/em>and\u00a0Tippett\u2019s debut feature Mad God<\/em> among their many shared credits. Separate from its leader, Tippett Studio\u2019s long career ranged from Bicentennial Man\u00a0<\/em>to more recently Star Wars: Skeleton Crew\u00a0<\/em>and Black Adam<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Tippett Studio filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy following its acquisition by PhantomFX. After completing some stop-motion work on Alien: Romulus,\u00a0<\/em>Phil was to lead his studio as director and writer of the stop-motion feature Sentinel<\/em>. By his admission, \u201ca lot of painful decisions were made\u201d preceding the studio\u2019s closure and sale. Much as it\u2019s likely bringing together anyone attending the sale who loved Tippett and the movies he and his studio worked on, this is a sad end for a man and studio whose work was so important to 40 years of western filmmaking.<\/p>\n

This story has been updated and clarified with additional information from Tippett Studio.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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Update<\/strong>(8\/31\/2026 @ 7AM ET):<\/strong> On Facebook, Tippett Studio clarified its status, saying it\u2019s \u201cevolved our physical footprint and production approach.\u201d While its Berkely office is shut down and its materials sold off, its Toronto office still continues operations and the studio\u2019s VFX and animation work. Notably, the Toronto office is \u201cin active production on a large feature film\u201d\u2014potentially\u00a0Sentinel<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cStop-motion remains an important part of our creative capabilities, but maintaining a large permanent physical footprint is no longer necessary for our current requirements,\u201d wrote Tippett. The company will use external buildings whenever it needs to for a project requiring \u201cdedicated stages\u2026motion-capture photography, or other specialized infrastructure. [\u2026] As we move forward, we remain focused on the work ahead, continuing to collaborate with our clients, creative partners and artists on current and upcoming productions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Original story: <\/strong>Phil Tippett, the animator famous for Star Wars\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Jurassic Park,\u00a0<\/em>announced he\u2019s been forced into retirement and shutting down his namesake studio.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, he\u2019s sold off the majority of his and his studio\u2019s stop-motion work and signed memorabilia. From signed posters to storyboards and models, to even studio tools, 273 items were up for grabs in an \u201ceverything must go!\u201d fire sale. (Save for the Oscars Tippett won for Return of the Jedi <\/em>and the original Jurassic Park<\/em>; he understandably told Berkleyside he\u2019d keep those.)<\/p>\n

Phil Tippett co-founded Tippett Studio in 1984 with his wife, Jules Roman. Originally focused on stop-motion animation and its go-motion variant style, the studio expanded into building props for live-action films like the Robocop\u00a0<\/em>trilogy and computer-generated imagery. Where Phil went, his studio often followed, with Starship Troopers <\/em>and\u00a0Tippett\u2019s debut feature Mad God<\/em> among their many shared credits. Separate from its leader, Tippett Studio\u2019s long career ranged from Bicentennial Man\u00a0<\/em>to more recently Star Wars: Skeleton Crew\u00a0<\/em>and Black Adam<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Tippett Studio filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy following its acquisition by PhantomFX. After completing some stop-motion work on Alien: Romulus,\u00a0<\/em>Phil was to lead his studio as director and writer of the stop-motion feature Sentinel<\/em>. By his admission, \u201ca lot of painful decisions were made\u201d preceding the studio\u2019s closure and sale. Much as it\u2019s likely bringing together anyone attending the sale who loved Tippett and the movies he and his studio worked on, this is a sad end for a man and studio whose work was so important to 40 years of western filmmaking.<\/p>\n

This story has been updated and clarified with additional information from Tippett Studio.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/08\/phil-tippett-hed-1200×675.jpg”] Update(8\/31\/2026 @ 7AM ET): On Facebook, Tippett Studio clarified its status, saying it\u2019s \u201cevolved our physical footprint and production approach.\u201d While its Berkely office is shut down and its materials sold off, its Toronto office still continues operations and the studio\u2019s VFX and animation work. Notably, the Toronto office is \u201cin active […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,53],"class_list":["post-2120102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-gizmodo-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2120102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2120102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2120102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2120102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2120102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2120102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}