Special effects artists on the original Jurassic Park initially planned to use stop-motion animation for the wide dinosaur shots before a rogue animator secretly rendered a digital skeleton walking across a screen.

A closer look

Special effects artists on the original Jurassic Park initially planned to use stop-motion animation for the wide dinosaur shots before a rogue animator secretly rendered a digital skeleton walking across a screen. When Steven Spielberg saw the smooth computer-generated movement, he instantly scrapped months of expensive practical modeling and birthed the modern era of overwhelming CGI blockbusters in a single afternoon. The guy who spent his entire career mastering the intricate art of claymation was famously quoted as saying he felt totally extinct, which is arguably the most brutal workplace realization ever captured on film. One incredible technological breakthrough simultaneously gave us the greatest dinosaur movie ever made and ensured that every future blockbuster would look like a weightless video game cutscene. The relentless march of digital progress is incredible, provided you do not care about the thousands of practical artists left completely unemployed