Special effects artists are rapidly becoming key figures in the Hollywood movie industry.
Animex, Teesside's annual animation festival, this year attracted animation special effects guru Ken Bielenberg. Ahead of his Teesside visit, reporter MATTHEW PARDO talked to him about animation, special effects and changes within the movie industry.
LOVED by audiences and loathed by actors, special effects have been a cornerstone of movies since the industry's earliest days.
Once audiences had adapted to the spectacle of moving images on a giant screen, they soon wanted more.
And when Georges Melies stunned the world with his 'A Trip To The Moon', audiences were rightly astounded.
Since then film-makers have strived to take the cinema experience to the next level.
From Willis O'Brien's work on King Kong to Industrial Light and Magic, the company set up by George Lucas to create special effects for Star Wars, movie makers have continued to push the boundaries.
These days much of the pioneering work on special effects is done on computers.
That means computer generated animated films, such as Toy Story, Shrek and forthcoming feature Monsters Inc are where much of the field's most forward-thinking work is done.
And one of the animators at the forefront of that is Ken Bielenberg.
His work on special effects has seen him become a linchpin at Dreamworks - the studio set up by Stephen Spielberg.
To date he's been involved in three of the studio's biggest ventures.
He headed up the special effects team on Antz and Shrek, which is the biggest selling DVD in Britain, and he's currently working on the follow-up Shrek 2.
He also oversaw a section of a Simpsons Halloween special when cartoon character Homer Simpson leaps into a parallel 3D universe and is eventually sucked into our reality.
It's all a far cry from his first stab at animation aged just 12.
That was when he bought himself a super 8 movie camera - the first industry link many movie people have - and started to make animated films using clay, cutouts, and models.
His enthusiasm continued through university but was sidelined in favour of computing.
But he could not stay away from animation.
"I took as many film and animation classes as I could and, after graduation, I kept going by taking another linked course," he said.
"I moved to California to pursue a career in computer animation - which nicely blended the computer programming and film-making aspects of my interest.
"In 1987 I applied to the animation firm I'm with now and almost got a job. But they decided I didn't have the experience which, at the time, was extremely difficult to get."
He, reluctantly, returned to computer graphics.
After a while he returned to the company which had turned him down for a job and asked, 'What do I have to do to get a job?'
"They told me about an opening for a production assistant and after some deliberation, I decided to take it," he said.
"I did grunt-level tasks like stocking the shelves, taking packages to Fedex for delivery, and getting lunches for clients.
"But while I was doing that I spent nights and weekends learning the company's animation system and produced a piece that ended up on a demo reel."
He climbed the career ladder and four months later switched to production. Since then he has worked his way up to visual effects supervisor.
"I supervised the effects department on Antz and we provided work on over 900 shots in the film," he said.
"Many of the effects were somewhat subliminal (like dust), but others were much more 'in-your-face' such as the big flood sequence in the film's climax.
"Also, I've always been a big Woody Allen fan, so it was a real thrill to work on Antz where he provided the voice for Z.
"During Shrek, I was visual effects supervisor.
"I helped the directors and production designer realise their vision on the screen."
Despite all the high profile work, he is eagerly looking forward to his visit to the Animex animation conference.
"The conference sounds amazing," he said.
"The quality of the speakers they've been able to attract, myself excluded, is quite remarkable.
"I heard about it from my acting coach, Ed Hooks, who taught classes last year and is back again this year.
"He raved about it. Also, I love being able to interact with students.
"And if I can pass on some industry knowledge or hopefully be inspirational in some way, I'll be happy.
"When I started at PDI, virtually no one was hired directly out of college, but that's not the case at all today.
"And, it's incredibly rewarding to look around at the people that I hired and see they've become major talents!
"Animation has a great future.
"Computer animation in particular is maturing rapidly. The advances in technology are opening the creative floodgates of stories that can be told."