At ILM, it's lights, camera, magic

San Francisco company Industrial Light & Magic hopes to take home an Academy Award for its digital-effects mastery in Pirates of the Caribbean. Plus: Lucasfilms' state-of-the-art computing gear.

Inside the Lucasfilm data center

George Lucas' film operations open up the doors to an impressive array of servers and storage devices.
January 26, 2007

Video: The making of a villain

Two digital artists describe how they created the character Davy Jones for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
January 26, 2007

Photos: The computing power behind ILM's magic

State-of-the-art Verari servers are just some of the 2,000 systems that help keep the filmmakers going.
January 26, 2007

Visual-effects masters put the magic in ILM

Fresh off two Oscar nods, Industrial Light & Magic lifts the curtain on the tech that may earn it a first Academy Award in the category it pioneered.
January 25, 2007

Video: Meet ILM animator Hal Hickel

As a kid, Hickel submitted a plot idea to Lucasfilm. It was politely rejected. Now he's the grown-up animation supervisor for the Pirates movie series.
January 25, 2007

Video: Photoshop, in the beginning

ILM's visual effects master John Knoll and his brother built Photoshop as the result of a hobby. Knoll looks back on how the program came to be.
January 25, 2007

Video: ILM's brilliant pirate master

Knoll got an Oscar nod for overseeing the gruesome characters and supernatural transformations in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. CNET spoke to Knoll the day after his nomination was announced.
January 25, 2007

Photos: The magic behind ILM

Two animation specialists at Industrial Light and Magic give a look at the awe-inspiring effects that earned them Academy Awards nods for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
January 25, 2007

Photos: In the shadow of 'Star Wars'

One of the best things about ILM's studios in San Francisco is that scattered throughout are posters and props from films the company has worked on.
January 25, 2007

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Lucasfilm gets fancy new digs

Big names in art, technology and politics joined in San Francisco on Saturday to toast the opening of Lucasfilm's new campus.June 27, 2006

Photos: Lucasfilm's new home

Art, technology and politics intersected in San Francisco as big names from each world feted the new home of "Star Wars" director George Lucas
date format: June 27, 2006