Amalgamated Dynamics

Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. (ADI) is an American special effects company specializing in animatronics and prosthetic make-up, headquartered in Chatsworth, California. It was founded in 1988 by Stan Winston alumni Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis who hails from Phoenix, Arizona. Notable work includes Death Becomes Her, for which they won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, Starship Troopers, which was also nominated for an Oscar, and the practical creature effects seen in the Alien franchise from Alien 3 onward. Woodruff also portrays creatures in the films ADI works on, such as the Alien. In 2013, Amalgamated Dynamics successfully ran a Kickstarter campaign to fund their independent horror film titled Harbinger Down, which was directed by Gillis and produced by Woodruff Jr. The film was released in August 2015 and features exclusively practical creature effects. The impetus for the project began when ADI were frustrated that their practical effects for The Thing, which tried to follow closely the ones featured in the original 1982 film, had been mostly digitally replaced with computer-generated imagery by order of the studio. During 2022 it was revealed through social media that Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. would part ways with Alec establishing Studio Gillis and the two pursuing separate endeavours.