Pete Kozachik, the Oscar-nominated visual effects artist who contributed his stop-motion expertise to such films as The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, Corpse Bride and Coraline, has died. He was 72.

Kozachik died peacefully Tuesday in hospice care in his Northern California home of complications from primary progressive aphasia, a rare form of Alzheimer’s, his wife, Katy Moore-Kozachik, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Kozachik also operated a stop-motion camera on Ghostbusters II (1989) and served as director of miniature photography on Starship Troopers (1997) and as a visual effects cameraman on Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones (2002).

At Industrial Light & Magic, he worked on films including Howard the Duck (1986), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Innerspace (1987) and Willow (1988) before rejoining frequent collaborator Phil Tippett on the RoboCop sequels released in 1990 and ’93.

For director Henry Selick, Kozachik was director of photography on The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), James and the Giant Peach...