Digital Archive of Tippett Studios' Animated Materials Launched Online

The stop motion work of Phil Tippett and the now-closed Tippett Studios is being preserved in a free-to-browse online archive. In August 2026, Tippett Studios, the Berkeley-based animation and effects house founded by Phil Tippett, announced its closure due to ongoing financial difficulties. The studio closed its doors on August 28, 2026, leading to a two-day auction of decades of props, memorabilia, and art. Concerns arose that much of the studio's art would be lost to private collections. Phil Tippett is known for his work on films such as Star Wars, RoboCop, and Starship Troopers. An anonymous individual at the auction acquired a folder of CD-ROMs and other discs and subsequently uploaded the contents to the Internet Archive. The donor, who identifies as 'TippettFan', stated, "I quickly realized that some of this information wasn’t available online and might not ever be in the future in such high resolution." The archive includes .ISO image files of 90 key, non-duplicated discs from Tippett’s archives, featuring behind-the-scenes images from various films, including test clips of CGI creatures and an interview with Phil Tippett from 2008. The archive contains gigabytes of files, and it is expected to take time for historians and fans to explore the material. The donor's contribution has been acknowledged for preserving this significant film history.