The 7 greatest CG aliens of all time

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Once upon a time, movie aliens were little more than actors with their faces painted green. Then from the 1970s onwards, advances in prosthetics led to the creation of a series of iconic and entrancing extra-terrestrial beasts in films such as Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), ET (1982) and Predator (1987).

But while plastic and rubber can be combined to create believable looking aliens, making them move, speak and interact with other characters in a realistic fashion could only really happen with the rise of CG. It's a trend that's reaches a kind of milestone with current hit Guardians of the Galaxy, where a sentient tree and a talking raccoon steal the show under the noses of the human actors.

So in tribute to Groot, Rocket and the rest, here we bring together the biggest CG aliens of all time...

Which CG aliens did we miss off our list? Let us know in the comments below!

Register for HP today!

This content has been brought to you in association with HP ZED, a 'pop up shop' for creatives in London's Soho from 29 September - 10 October 2014.

With talks, tutorials and creativity sessions brought to you by top experts from leading studios like Framestore, Double Negative and MPC, as well as HP, Intel and Nvidia, it's going to be a must-attend event for anyone working in motion graphics, animation or 3D. Find out more here!