Why The Most Important Effect In Movie History Is Nearly Extinct Today

"No one has actually seen a space station or ship blown to smithereens. This is still true today. While astronomers have observed supernovas (as a speck of light), and nuclear weapons have been detonated in low Earth orbit, and of course, actual spacecraft have exploded during launch, the notion of something like a moon-sized space station blowing up from the inside is the kind of thing that only exists in movies or TV series that rely heavily on VFX."

"You have to have a background and understanding of not only film, and be intimate with lenses and cameras, and you also have to understand physics, chemistry, and mechanics to be able to build the miniatures that will look good on screen. That's John Dyskstra, famous ILM VFX pioneer, speaking in July 1977, just a few months after the release of the original Star Wars."

"Today, nearly all spaceship sci-fi explosions in movies (or TV shows) are handled digitally, which is, of course, much safer than blowing up plastic or wood or fiberglass models inside a warehouse. And, for on-set explosions, like the decimation of Blofeld's base in the 2015 James Bond film Spectre, you still need to set off real explosions."

Creating realistic space explosions presents unique challenges since no one has witnessed actual large-scale space station destruction. Historically, filmmakers used miniature explosions—scaled-down practical effects filmed with specialized techniques—to depict spacecraft destruction. Star Wars pioneered this approach through ILM's innovative work. Creating convincing miniature explosions required expertise spanning film, physics, chemistry, and mechanics. Modern filmmaking has largely transitioned to digital VFX for safety and efficiency, though large-scale practical explosions still occur on film sets. Despite this shift, miniature explosions remain a foundational technique that enabled the sci-fi genre's visual development, demonstrating how practical effects artistry evolved into contemporary digital filmmaking.

Read at Inverse