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Flight of the Navigator | VFXcool

Flight of the Navigator | VFXcool on HackerTube: recommended by 3 Hacker News commenters across 3 separate months, 2021–2025.

Captain Disillusion

documentary · evergreen

Open on YouTube

Captain Disillusion's VFXcool episode, led by Alan Melikdjanian, takes a 41-minute nostalgic look at how the visual effects of Flight of the Navigator were made. It covers early computers, motion control, in-camera effects and practical crafts.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Strongly recommended as a detailed, entertaining history of 1980s CGI and film techniques, including the role of the Foonly F1.

people recommended it
3
separate months
3
strong recommendations
3
discussed on HN
2021–2025
“I highly recommend this video on the making of Flight of the Navigator.”
— dTal, Oct 2021, in “One-of-a-kind computer systems of which only one unit was ever produced”

What HN commenters said

6 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

askiiartJan 2023Strongly recommends

See also: Flight of the Navigator | VFXCool - Captain Disillusion A fantastic video detailing the VFX of Flight of the Navigator. ▶ this video

in “The Foonly F1 Computer (2011)” · View on HN

dTalJan 2023Strongly recommends

This comprehensive video on the special effects of Flight of the Navigator, including the role of the Foonly F1, is one of the most fascinating things I have ever seen on YouTube. I cannot recommend it enough: ▶ this video <edit: I see that someone else has already posted this video. However, I'm going to leave this comment up because holy shit watch it >

in “The Foonly F1 Computer (2011)” · View on HN

dTalOct 2021Strongly recommends

Missing from this list: the Foonly F1, used to create the animations in Tron (1982) and later to render the spaceship in Flight of the Navigator (1986) - of note as the first use of reflection mapping in a motion picture. I highly recommend this video on the making of Flight of the Navigator. Apart from being highly entertaining, it also goes into stunning detail on all the special effects, in particular how exactly one goes about putting CGI into film in the 1980s (as the narrator points out - Final Cut Pro hadn't been invented yet!). ▶ this video

in “One-of-a-kind computer systems of which only one unit was ever produced” · View on HN

lowdestJun 2021Recommends

Slightly off topic, but Captain Disillusionment did a great video recently on Flight of the Navigator: ▶ this video

in “Rest In Peace, John. I was lucky to know you so deeply” · View on HN

KyeNov 2025Cites it

For Flight of the Navigator (1986) they sent renders of the ship directly to film because the system could only hold one frame at a time. ▶ this video

in “The 'Toy Story' You Remember” · View on HN

Noumenon72Apr 2025Cites it

The pylon holding up the ship out of frame reminded me of the Captain Disillusion video on how they did the ship in Flight of the Navigator. ▶ this video

in “Hunt for Red October 1990 (2016)” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Animation & visual effectsFilm analysis & criticismvfxflight of the navigatorcgi historymotion controlfilm