Star Wars
When George Lucas's Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was in production, CGI didn't exist yet. Instead, the Industrial Light & Magic VFX team—the same company who worked on The Irishman decades later—pioneered animation techniques using detailed miniature models filmed close-up. However, the film served to pave the way for the future of CGI.
Star Wars visual effects supervisor John Dykstra invented a computer-manipulated motion camera system, dubbed the "Dykstraflex". This allowed a spaceship model to be filmed against a blue screen while the camera circled around it, effectively creating the illusion of movement.