Van Helsing gave us the opportunity to create a gallery of reinvented monsters from classic horror, and to bring to the screen a spectacular landscape they could inhabit. Together, the visual effects crews created over 1,100 shots for the film. In addition to my colleagues Scott Squires and Daniel Jeannette and the crew at ILM, I’d like to acknowledge the contributions of Syd Dutton and Illusion Arts, Joe Letteri and Weta Digital, Digiscope, Pacific Title & Arts, Zoic Studios, CIS Hollywood, BUF Compagnie, Cobalt FX, Howard Anderson Company, yU+co and Perpetual Motion Pictures. I’d especially like to acknowledge the spectacular on-set effects work by special effects teams led by Tom and Scott Fisher in L.A. and Gary Elmdorf in the Czech Republic.

Bringing Van Helsing to the screen required the best existing computer graphics creature technology together with techniques developed specially for the film. These included new tools for hair styling and simulation to deal with a great variety of computer graphics hair requirements; new muscle and flesh simulations to meet the challenges of Mr. Hyde and the Dracula Hellbeast; and new approaches to animation, match-animation and combining live action with computer graphics. Our team at ILM also created many synthetic environments to supplement the splendid matte paintings by Illusion Arts. We developed new techniques for stormy skies and atmosphere, more abstract effects like magic portals and lifecreating electricity, and got to kill off our creatures in horrible ways by explosive decay and computer-generated goo. We used the skills of ILM’s model shop, stage and miniature pyrotechnics teams for creating (and sometimes destroying) Dracula’s fortress and a classic horror windmill. (Ben Snow)

Scott Squires (US) has developed a number of breakthrough techniques including the “Cloud Tank Effect” used in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In 1979, Squires co-founded Dream Quest Images and was a visual effects supervisor, as well as the company’s president, for six years. He has received Oscar nominations for best achievement in visual effects for The Mask, Dragonheart and Star Wars: Episode I “The Phantom Menace.

Ben Snow (AU/US) studied computing and film at the University of Canberra. He joined Industrial Light & Magic in 1994, where his first project was to help create the three-dimensional computer graphics image of the “Enterprise B” for Star Trek: Generations. Snow has been instrumental in the research and development required for Twister, Deep Impact and Pearl Harbor. He has twice been honored with Academy Award nominations for visual effects for his work on Pearl Harbor and Star Wars: Episode II “Attack of the Clones”.

Daniel Jeannette (US) joined Industrial Light & Magic’s computer graphics department in 1994 to work on Casper, the first digital “star” in a feature film. While supervising the animation of 101 Dalmatians, Jeanette experimented with motion capturing real-live puppies. This technique was later perfected for use in of the highly successful Mummy feature films.