Before CGI, before green screen: the visual effects technology as old as film itself.
A matte artist reveals how matte paintings were used to create an entire galaxy in the original Star Wars trilogy in the late ’70s / early ’80s (via Flicks And The City):
Matte painting also made this breathtaking “stunt” possible in Charlie Chaplin‘s Modern Times (1936) (via Hulot & Wilder Associates):