Visual effects mastery

Decades before CGI, effects artist Douglas Trumbull used inventive analog techniques to create the film’s futuristic world.

The mind-bending “Star Gate” sequence was achieved using slit-scan photography, a process involving hand-painted artwork, sheets of glass and a custom-built camera rig moving along a track.

Trumbull said the process created “two seemingly infinite planes of exposure,” producing the psychedelic visuals that astonished 1960s audiences.

The groundbreaking effects earned the 2001: A Space Odyssey a Special Academy Award - remarkably, the only Oscar Kubrick ever won.