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Hal T. Hickel is a visual effects animator forIndustrial Light & Magic.

At the age of 12, Hickel wrote a letter toLucasfilm, outlining his ideas for a sequel to the originalStar Wars movie (now known asStar Wars Episode IV: A New Hope), and received a polite rejection letter from producerGary Kurtz. The letter now hangs on the wall of Hickel's office at ILM. Twenty years later, Hickel found himself working onStar Wars after all, as a lead animator onStar Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

A native ofBailey, Colorado, Hickel joined the Film Graphics Program atCalArts in 1982. He worked at An-FX from 1982 until 1988, and then joinedWill Vinton Studios, working in stop-motion andmotion control.

Hickel began his animation career atPixar in 1994, where he worked onToy Story and theTHX promos, as well as some of Pixar's short films. Hearing that a newStar Wars trilogy was in pre-production, Hickel applied for a transfer to ILM on the chance that he might get to work on the prequels. He was first assigned as an animator onThe Lost World: Jurassic Park, but was eventually assigned to work onThe Phantom Menace, and later its sequel,Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, where he was responsible for the unique movement of theDroideka destroyer droids.

His other credits include:A.I. Artificial Intelligence,Space Cowboys,Dreamcatcher andVan Helsing. In 2007, Hickel won theBAFTA and theAcademy Award for Best Visual Effects along withJohn Knoll, Charles Gibson andAllen Hall, forPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. He also received an Academy Award nomination for his work onRogue One: A Star Wars Story.^[1]

• Hal T. Hickel atIMDb
• Rolling Out Droids - An Interview with Hal Hickel, Starwars.com, May 12, 2000.
• Visual-effects masters put the magic in ILM,ZDNet, January 25, 2007.

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