CHENNAI:At a time when animation has set off a series of larger-than-life animation flicks, Google on Tuesday paid an apt tribute to Japanese special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya on his 114th birth anniversary. An early pioneer in the field in Japanese science fiction movies, his most popular work is Godzilla, which he thought should be more ferocious than King Kong (1954).
Google marked his birthday with a doodle about making a special effect monster movie on their own, with a ten-step guide by him. The steps included gluing building tops, getting the lighting right on monsters, decimating tanks using monsters’ legs, flattening containers, etc.
The doodle also showed the action between his creation Ultraman and the monsters and finally, the Ultraman giving him a hi-five. The doodle is more interactive for mobile users.
Born on July 7, 1901, Tsuburaya began his career in 1919 as a camera man, he was later instrumental in generating war propaganda material for the Japanese during World War II.
Tsuburaya worked on special effects for some of the early sci-fi movies and the first few special effects included men in monster suits, miniature replicas of sets and building, props, etc.
He excelled at creating special effects in a visually convincing manner—the Godzilla’s breath on screen would have you fall over your seat. He also created Ultraman, a meta human character fighting monsters, which he worked on till his death in 1970. Though not a common household name in the Western world, most of his works have inspired series like Pacific Rim and Power Rangers that were based on Tokusatsu or live-action drama.
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