AN 'EMPIRE' AT 45: MARCH OF THE AT-AT'S!

Taking the stop motion legacies nurtured and developed by the iconic Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen to the next level, the ILM team's work creating/filming the Walker sequence for The Empire Strikes Back, headed by Phil Tippett and Jon Berg, shot one painstakingly slow and dedicated movement of the time, would inspire a new generation of fans and wow cinemagoers within the epic Battle of Hoth.

Enjoy this selection of behind the scenes images... 

Construction begins on the first AT-AT Walker, so as to determine how it will move in stop motion.

Joe Johnston takes reference footage of the developing Walker model.

Joe Johnston checks the Walker cockpit at ILM.

Phil Tippett with one of the all-time stop motion greats in the Walker.

Stop motion animation begins for a Walker at ILM. This may have been a test sequence or something later reshot. Note the Hoth background painting does not appear in the film.

Emergent from his underset position, work begins again for the next motion captures.

Filming the Snowspeeder dive attack angle against the Walker.

A far placement Walker stands alone!

Preparing an explosive charge inside a Walker, with pyrotechnics expert Joe Viskocil kneeling.

Steve Gawley makes some model adjustments.

A fallen Walker on the ILM stage.

Tippett checks the monitor for the ongoing single frame stop motion movements.

Jon Erland works on a Walker model, whilst Tippett makes adjustments to a background Walker cutout.

Various sized Walkers from foreground to background.

Miniature Walkers, presumably for far background shots.