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Flight of the Navigator | VFXcool

Captain Disillusion · 3.2M views · 2021-05-20 · 41:29

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Overview

Captain Disillusion's VFXcool episode, led by Alan Melikdjanian, takes a 41-minute nostalgic look at how the visual effects of Flight of the Navigator were made. It covers early computers, motion control, in-camera effects and practical crafts.

On Hacker News

Strongly recommended as a detailed, entertaining history of 1980s CGI and film techniques, including the role of the Foonly F1.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2021–2025

Topics

Animation & visual effectsFilm analysis & criticism
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vfxflight of the navigatorcgi historymotion controlfilm

What people said

askiiart · 2023-01 · Strong recommendation

See also: Flight of the Navigator | VFXCool - Captain Disillusion A fantastic video detailing the VFX of Flight of the Navigator. [VIDEO]

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dTal · 2023-01 · Strong recommendation

This comprehensive video on the special effects of Flight of the Navigator, including the role of the Foonly F1, is one of the most fascinating things I have ever seen on YouTube. I cannot recommend it enough: [VIDEO] <edit: I see that someone else has already posted this video. However, I'm going to leave this comment up because holy shit watch it >

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dTal · 2021-10 · Strong recommendation

Missing from this list: the Foonly F1, used to create the animations in Tron (1982) and later to render the spaceship in Flight of the Navigator (1986) - of note as the first use of reflection mapping in a motion picture. I highly recommend this video on the making of Flight of the Navigator. Apart from being highly entertaining, it also goes into stunning detail on all the special effects, in particular how exactly one goes about putting CGI into film in the 1980s (as the narrator points out - Final Cut Pro hadn't been invented yet!). [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Captain Disillusion, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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