Wow, unexpected…I, personally, was looking forward to the original air date of August 31st but it seems the release has now been pushed back to September 21st. Announced in a new trailer and confirmed by starwars.com, it was a surprise to be sure.
Still, it looks great and we will just have to wait that little bit longer.
Watch the new trailer for #Andor, a Star Wars original series, streaming only on Disney+. Experience the three-episode premiere September 21.
On-site at Skywalker Ranch is a small group of artists using computer-generated movies called animatics to pre-visualize the imaginative sequences of Star Wars: Episode I. George Lucas and his editors rely on this team to fine-tune the Episode I vision, re-working shot composition and the movie’s flow through the animatics before the finalized versions are sent out to Industrial Light and Magic as blueprints for finished effects. Leading the animatics department is animator-artist David Dozoretz, who brings to his work not only a specialized knowledge of technology, but an appreciation for filmmaking and visual storytelling.
While he is best known around here for his computer expertise, Dozoretz got his degree from film school rather than in computer science. His heart is clearly with the art of film, and his skills are a means to an end. “We are striving to be filmmakers and not just technicians up here,” he says.
Dozoretz had become an Assistant Art Director at ILM by 1993, doing conceptual art and rendering computer-generated elements for feature films (including Dragonheart, Disclosure, Star Trek: Generations, and Forrest Gump) and commercial projects for companies such as Intel, Dreamworks and THX. This work led to a special assignment on a film called Mission: Impossible.
“The studio was not too excited about the helicopter-train chase sequence at one point,” Dozoretz recalls. “They were having reservations about it.” Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll had the idea that ILM could demonstrate the potential of the sequence using simple computer-generated animatics with stick figures to convey the excitement and flow of the scene. Dozoretz’ expertise with computers, especially with three-dimensional programs, made him a natural choice for the job.
“In four weeks we put together about a hundred low-resolution shots,” Dozoretz says. “It was the first time CG animatics had been used to pre-visualize an entire sequence.” Dozoretz’ Mission: Impossible animatic helped sell the sequence to Paramount, to star Tom Cruise, and to the filmmakers themselves. The visual communication of the animatic allowed everyone involved to share enthusiasm based on a common understanding. The animatic shots were very closely followed for the final footage in the film, resulting in one of the most thrilling cinematic chase sequences in recent years. The animatics concept had proven itself.
Dozoretz first put his animatics experience to work for Star Wars when ILM was creating new footage and effects for the Star Wars Special Edition. His animatics helped George Lucas refine his direction for new shots of stormtroopers in the Tatooine dunes, as well as map out the newly-generated CG scenes such as the closing celebrations in Return of the Jedi.
Then Producer Rick McCallum saw the Mission: Impossible animatic. “I immediately said, ‘Who did this? We have to have this person on Episode I!’ John Knoll gave me David’s name. I called Jim Morris, president of ILM, and got the OK to steal him.”
In July 1995, Dozoretz became the third artist hired for Episode I – and its first computer artist. He took an office at Skywalker Ranch and had his first meeting with George Lucas at age 24. Speaking the language of film was a major assist for Dozoretz in communicating with his new boss. “Having some background that is not just technical has made a real difference,” Dozoretz says. “Not enough people know the language and history of cinema. But this is really about filmmaking, not just technique, and all that legacy is very important. In the work we do, understanding Eisenstein and David Lean is as vital as knowing the latest software.”
When he was brought on board, Dozoretz was immediately introduced to the principal action sequence of Episode I. “It was clearly a very dynamic concept,” Dozoretz noted. “And George had these terrific storyboards worked up. But the sequence is inherently about speed and dynamism, and you need motion to communicate that fully.” George first used a crude form of animatics on Star Wars 20 years before, using World War II documentary footage to simulate the fighters in the end battle. He refined the technique in Empire and Jedi using traditional animation. Building from the Episode I storyboards, Dozoretz brought in animatics on the new project to represent some of the more complex shots, and “just kept going,” he says. “The whole sequence originally had something like four or five hundred storyboards done. The storyboards were fantastic visions, and they served as absolutely vital starting points.” But as George got into doing animatics, and playing around with the possibilities in motion, we left many of them behind.” As the role of animatics grew, so did the animatics team, and Dozoretz became the supervisor of his own independent department. The team prides itself on being able to respond immediately, giving George Lucas and the editors lightning turnarounds – often within mere hours – when shot changes are requested.
“Frankly, I was shocked when I first met him,” says McCallum. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, who is this kid?’ But I was amazed, instantly, to see how quickly he responded to the situation, and I have depended on him so much in the production of this film. He has taken his work to a whole new level and made it possible for me to communicate clearly with the art department, with Leavesden, with everyone involved.”
The main thing that has struck Dozoretz during his work on Episode I is that “It’s not about technology, it’s about filmmaking. George knows what filmmaking tools work for him, and animatics are one of those tools.” And how does Dozoretz feel about playing such a large role in creating compositions that will appear, often verbatim, on the big screen in Star Wars: Episode I? “Are you kidding?” he says. “It’s the coolest thing in the world.
Here you’ll find a collection of old features pertaining to various articles to do with the movies, in front & Behind-the-Scenes at SW.Com
Today, we have a small collection of thumbs from the Art of Revenge series in which the teasing got worse for, what we thought at the time was the final Star Wars movie. Check out the small gallery.
The Star Wars universe is filled with countless species, each with its own unique appearance. Several departments work together to create these otherworldly looks, and make-up is one of them. Chief Make-Up Artist on Episode I, Paul R. A. Engelen brings to life the faces of the heroes and villains of the new Star Wars movie.
“It goes back to 1970,” says Engelen, “when I first started in art school. I thought I would perhaps end up being a designer, but it turned out differently. A good friend of mine with whom I was in college persuaded me to go with him watch his father, who was doing the make-up on the play Oliver Twist. I ended up working myself, on the crowds, doing hair and things like that. Then Thomas Nick, another great make-up artist, asked me if I would like to assist him on a film shoot, and I jumped at it. So I did my apprenticeship when I started working,” says Engelen with a smile.
This unexpected debut was the beginning of a career that would allow Engelen, over the years, to explore different aspects of his art, from period work like Much Ado About Nothing and monstrous effects in Frankenstein, all the way to the action-packed adventures of Robin Hood Prince of Thieves and the elegant simplicity of Seven Years in Tibet. “Producer Rick McCallum actually called while I was working on Seven Years in Tibet,” says Engelen. “Right out of the blue – it was my first contact with Lucasfilm. We discussed the upcoming movie, and I was brought on board.”
Episode I was an interesting mix of challenges for Engelen. The sheer number of characters demanded a wide variety of make-up designs, and the presence of alien creatures meant that unorthodox techniques would apply. “My background allows me to be comfortable with both bare skin and prosthetics,” says Engelen, “and I like to be involved in both sides of make-up. But when the prosthetics are done and the shooting begins, I prefer to concentrate on the actors. I love to be on the floor with them. Fortunately, there are those, like Nick Dudman, who are able to immerse themselves completely in the prosthetics side of it. We made a good team.” This type of collaboration would prove to be helpful in the realization of the many make-up designs produced by the art department. Some of those designs, very imaginative, required careful planning and creative thinking to be brought to life.
The make-up of Darth Maul was one of the more complex designs. “I have not seen anything that looks remotely like the Darth Maul character,” says Engelen. “And that’s fascinating.” Every day that Darth Maul was required on set, Engelen had to accurately reproduce Maul’s tattoo design on Ray Park’s face and head. He also had to make sure that it would withstand the intense activity the martial artist-actor would engage in. “I just had to make sure that somehow we could keep this design on,” Engelen says. “There was so much activity and fighting going on, that the heat was a constant threat. We tried different things, and I ended up using a paint mixed with a rubber solution, which adhered nicely to the skin. [A close-up on Darth Maul]It worked well, up to a point. As long as you didn’t push it too much, it didn’t run or bleed away like normal make-up would have done.” No matter how good the make-up held, it had to be removed each night and put back on the next morning, and Engelen needed to make sure that his markings would look exactly the same each time. “For the head, I used a stencil,” he says. “But for the face, it couldn’t be that easy. I had to note the marks on his face – a little mole here, a wrinkle there – and use these as sort of landmarks from which to draw the various shapes of the design.”
The various make-up designs for the Queen, although not destined to bear the pressure of lightsaber combat, were still very delicate to realize. “Many influences were combined for the overall look of the Queen,” says Engelen, “but I’d say that most of the time it’s an Eastern look. The costumes and the headdress designs were all very intricate and elaborate, creating strong images.” Engelen explains that while the make-up has to go in the same direction as the rest of the elements that compose the Queen’s look, it also needs to take away some of the heaviness of the whole design, and underline the features in a very light way, acting as a kind of counter weight. “It was an almost white base color, very oriental-looking,” Engelen continues. “An almost naïve kind of markings. Red dots on the cheek, a very accentuated red mouth, and some black eyes. I think it worked: it ‘pops’ the face amongst all of this incredible, ornate headdress and costume. It all seems to balance quite well.”
Engelen’s job goes beyond making up the actors every morning. Someone needs to remain on the set, brushes ready, and keep an eye out for any character that might require some touching-up — and Engelen loves to take care of that himself. “It’s basically a question of maintaining the actors’ looks from one shot to the next,” he says, “and making sure they look the same in the afternoon as they did in the morning.” However, to Engelen, being on the set serves another purpose as well. “I think seeing the actors work their characters out really helps me. It allows me to be conscious of the character’s personality as I make the actor up, and maybe change a few little things to better match that personality. They’re really small touches, and they don’t make a marked difference. But they’re important to me.”
Engelen’s mastery of various make-up techniques allowed him to meet the different challenges that awaited him on Episode I. However, a new technique is emerging: digital make-up. More and more, computer artists can re-create make-up effects with touch-less strokes from their virtual brushes. “The computer effects are much more acceptable and believable nowadays,” says Engelen. “The range of distortions and additions that they can do now with faces – with my area – is impressive. I have to admit it’s a bit alarming. But elaborate make-ups are inconveniences for the whole production, not least of which the actors.” While computers might solve certain problems and provide a few welcome short-cuts, nothing will quite be able to completely replace the touch of a human hand weaving a delicate tapestry on bare skin. “I think there will always be a place for people like myself,” concludes Engelen. And his work is an eloquent testimony to the fact that, indeed, there will always be a need for the human element.
Watto’s Character Development – From Concept to CG
Described as a cranky curmudgeon, a shyster, and a crooked salesman by his creators in the Lucasfilm Art Department and at ILM, Watto may not be the noblest character Episode I has to offer, but he certainly has a strong personality. Watto is a pudgy blue alien with a wide girth, elephantine snout, and hummingbird-like wings. His love of money is rivaled only by that of gambling. His short leathery wings propel him about his Mos Espa junk shop as he yells orders in Huttese to his slaves.
“George knew exactly what he wanted for this character,” said Design Director Doug Chiang. However, says Doug, the strange combination of physical traits that George requested threw them off for a time. They went through a few rounds of concept designs before getting Watto just right. The designers were used to George talking more in terms of concepts than specifics and he often gave the art department a lot of freedom in creating initial designs. So, thinking in these terms, Doug and artists Terryl Whitlatch and Iain McCaig came up with a several variations on the Watto theme. Terryl’s interpretation of Watto was of a very pudgy parrot with full wings and an impressive waistline. Iain’s rendition was a hefty four-armed beast puffing a cigar.
When these concepts did not earn George’s stamp of approval, Doug decided to give him quite literally what he asked for. “I took a head from a previous creature design that George liked, put it on this funky body and gave it hummingbird wings and George came in and said, that’s it!” Watto’s costume came easily says Doug, who dressed him in a vest and toolbelt loaded with gadgets. George approved the design and requested only that Watto be given webbed feet and a pair of pants. “Watto was this conglomeration of odd things that really didn’t fit, but that in the end gave him a very unique and powerful personality,” says Doug.
When Watto moved from concept art to ILM’s CG modelers, a whole set of new issues arose. It was their job to realize Watto as a fully CG character. Modeling Supervisor Geoff Campell said that at first he was a bit skeptical. “It just didn’t seem logical that this old chubby alien was going to be propelled by wings.” But viewing Watto by our principles of physics just wasn’t going to work. So, they thought in terms of Watto’s alien environment and imagined him filled with a kind of gas. His wings became a means to propel him versus supporting his weight.
Watto was modeled by Modeler Steve Aplin, who spent about four weeks creating a library of his movements and facial expressions. “We had Steve use a variety of sources to create speech patterns for the bilingual alien,” said Geoff. Steve had video footage of Watto’s voice actor speaking, photos of ILM animator Rob Coleman doing his impersonation of Watto, and he also used a mirror to examine how his own face moved while speaking Watto’s lines.
The biggest problem, though, were Watto’s large tusks which gave him personality but prevented the alien from completely closing his mouth. For speaking the letters ‘B’ and ‘M’, for example, the modelers couldn’t achieve proper lip movement and they played with the idea of reducing or doing away with Watto’s teeth altogether.
A few other bits and pieces of Watto had already been lost in the modeling process because of complications, like a hat that would have kept Watto’s face in perpetual shadow, and a nose ring which created skin stretching problems.
But, Doug refused to back down on Watto’s teeth. “I felt very strongly that we needed those teeth because they really added to his personality. His other attributes that were lost weren’t critical to his character.” The end result was to actually add more than they took away. “As a compromise, I suggested that we break one tooth which would allow him to close one side of his mouth to give him an asymmetrical way of talking,” says Doug. In the end, Watto was given a war wound and a speech impediment which added to his mean-old-curmudgeon persona.
In this episode of Star Wars: The High Republic Show, Krystina takes a look back at the entirety of Phase I, checks out some amazing High Republic Cosplay from Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, and reveals some sweet exclusive reveals including the brand new crawl for Phase II. Plus, we sit down with Zoraida Córdova, George Mann, and Tessa Gratton to chat about their new books coming to Phase II. Have questions about Star Wars: The High Republic? Tweet them to us using the hashtag #THRSQuestions and your question might get answered in the next episode! Learn more about The High Republic at http://www.starwars.com/thehighrepublic
The all-new animated special from Lucasfilm and the LEGO Group and the newest entry in the popular signature branded cross-saga storytelling series that began with “LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special” and continued with “LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales,” will premiere August 5, 2022, exclusively on Disney+.
“LEGO® Star Wars Summer Vacation,” which is set shortly after the events of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” features the voices of “Weird Al” Yankovic, Yvette Nicole Brown, Kelly Marie Tran, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, and returning cast members from previous “LEGO Star Wars” specials, and includes “Weird Al’s” new original song, Scarif Beach Party.
There’s a distinctive red Mitsubishi Eclipse parked at Skywalker Ranch: that means Kevin Baillie is on the scene. Arriving early and staying late, Kevin Baillie works in the Art Department, behind locked doors in a special aerie workshop of creativity.
He’s an animatics artist, constructing moving blueprints for the shots that ILM will fashion for Star Wars: Episode I. Kevin composes shots, places spacecraft at their most interesting angles, calculates trajectories, and builds whole landscapes in the computer, all for the constantly – evolving prototype sequences that “previsualize” the final footage of Episode I.
He’s easygoing and down-to-earth, despite the extraordinary work he performs and the company he keeps with such Oscar-winners as Ben Burtt and Dennis Muren. Kevin fits in well with the unusual crew of artisans assembled in the Episode I Art Department – they are all good company and confident of their abilities. But Kevin is only 18, and that does make him stand out, even around here.
Harnessing the energy and creativity of youth is nothing new in the world of Star Wars production. To create the innovative sights and sounds of Star Wars years ago, George Lucas drew upon the talents of many young people fresh out of film school or at the beginnings of their careers. For Episode I, that recipe is in force again, only this time it includes some people fresh out of high school. Sometimes talent and dedication make age irrelevant.
Living in Seattle, Kevin and his friend Ryan Tudhope began working with the computer modeling program 3D Studio during their freshman year. Together the two pushed each other to learn and create with computer tools, until they were attracting attention with their expertise. They created architectural visualizations for work on the Space Needle in their spare time, and ended up working for Microsoft on a CD-ROM project. The two friends then appeared in a George Lucas Educational Foundation documentary on learning programs at their high school, and that’s when they were spotted by notorious Episode I Producer Rick McCallum. The quality of their work brought them an invitation to Skywalker Ranch to meet Rick, George Lucas, and the Art Department, and to hear about the ways in which previsualizations and computer modeling were mapping out the route to Episode I’s final form.
Kevin and Ryan were “amazed at it all,” and the visit had its unspoken but intended effect: “From that day on,” Kevin says, “we were determined to do the best we could to impress them.” Over the next year they logged countless hours in front of their monitors, creating scenes and effects, overlying CG elements on video footage, making computer-movie projects for classes from science to creative writing. “We worked to improve ourselves and our skills as much as we could. We’d stay at school until the alarms made us go home. We learned so much! We hardly had any life for all that time, but we drew on everything in our classes to make our movies better – art, physics – it all went into improving our work. We just banged our heads into it, encouraging each other and pushing each other to keep advancing.”
From time to time their packages would arrive at Rick McCallum’s doorstep, but what chance was there that two high school seniors would get picked for the Star Wars project? “It seemed impossible,” Kevin admits, “but we did everything we could to stand out with our work.” And this past summer, it was enough. They were brought on board for Episode I.
Now Kevin is an integral member of the animatics team, contributing along with five other artists. These team members and the story of their vital role in making Episode I will appear here on starwars.com in several future profiles and features.
“My age was actually an asset for me,” Kevin says, “not a liability. It’s so much easier for a young person to stand out. Adults are impressed when you take the initiative to go out and do what you love.”
And while there was some good fortune in being at the right place and time to get noticed, it wasn’t luck that got him his job. It was consistent focus and effort. “If you want to get somewhere really badly,” Kevin says, “it makes you work as hard as you need to. That’s what can get you into even a tough field. I really believe that anything is possible for a person who’s willing to dedicate himself.” In Kevin’s case, the results speak for themselves.
Back in 1976, Ben Burtt coined the title “Sound Designer” with his award-winning work on Star Wars. Before that watershed, no one had pushed the creation and development of sound to the extremes explored by Burtt. His work gave birth to a whole aural universe, complete with characters expressing themselves almost exclusively through sound effects — and that earned Burtt a Special Achievement Award at the Oscars ceremony of 1978. He then refined his art through several major projects, including The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and all three Indiana Jones movies. [Chewbacca growls]Since then, Burtt has gone on to explore much more than sound in the world of filmmaking, but fans will be glad to know that he is lending his special talent to Star Wars once more, as Sound Designer for Star Wars: Episode I.
Burtt left Lucasfilm in 1990 to pursue other interests as a freelancer: writing, directing, editing. Although he always kept in touch with his former colleagues — doing work on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, for instance — he never really came back to Luke Skywalker’s universe until Producer Rick McCallum asked him to sit in the Sound Designer’s chair again for the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition. “I was the only one who could remember where most of the stuff was, where the tapes were, what we had done,” he says with a smile. “It was exciting to go back and get in touch with the picture again, the old friends who were there. R2-D2, and the lightsabers.” Following the Special Edition project, McCallum made Burtt “an offer he couldn’t refuse” and so Burtt stayed on board for Episode I.
Even though he could draw from an extensive library of sounds, including those used in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies, for the Episode I project Burtt went out to record new samples. He also drew upon the large collection of sounds he has recorded during the last decade. In all his travels, from his back yard to the far reaches of an exotic country, Burtt has carried his recording equipment with him, capturing everything and anything on digital tape. “You have to be constantly ready,” he says, “because good sounds often come to you by accident: lightning storms, strange vehicle noises, glaciers breaking apart…it can happen anywhere.” These recordings, most of them never used before, have provided Burtt with fresh raw material to mold into new Star Wars sounds.
While creating innovative atmospheres, Burtt takes great care to stay true to the original Star Wars ambiance. “There are things we will reuse, of course,” he says. “We’ve got [Laser fight from Episode I]lightsabers, we’ve got lasers, we’ve got so many signature effects which reoccur in this movie, and I think it’s only appropriate to touch on those because they’re familiar to the fans.” Indeed, one of Burtt’s goals had always been to establish a set of sounds which could stand the test of time. “I think we’ve achieved that with Star Wars,” he says. “We’ve created a ‘world of sounds’ that’s coherent and can endure the passage of time…it’s been over 20 years, and Star Wars still has a distinct sound to it.”
One of those distinct and memorable sounds is the voice of R2-D2. “R2 was, on the first film, the most difficult sound project,” Burtt recalls. “He appears again in this film, and he is very much in character, as he always is.” The old lightsaber sounds also appear in Episode I, though Burtt is reworking them to fit the faster fighting sequences that take place in the new movie. Each of the new lightsabers will also have its own signature sound, slightly different from the others. “I always try to match the sound of a unique weapon with the personality of the character who wields it,” Burtt says. “The Jedi lightsabers have a warm, almost musical sound, while the villain’s lightsaber sounds a lot more dangerous and nasty, a little like a buzz-saw. It sounds like the guy who uses this is truly evil.”
These sounds have been assembled into a rough mix to accompany the rough cut of Episode I. “We’ve already got all the basic ships and explosions and ambiances in it,” Burtt says. “It’s a continuation of the pre-visualization process achieved through animatics, except it’s done with sound. ‘Pre-auralization’, if you will.” At first, all of the effects are temporary. Then, as the final sounds are developed and perfected, the trial sound effects are slowly replaced by their permanent, official counterparts. “On the first movie, we had several experimental mixes of the picture. They were all temporary versions, of course, and some of them were rather sloppy. But we could sit down and run the picture from beginning to end and, with sound added, it would seem complete,” Burtt explains. This process allows everyone to critique the film’s sound based on a close approximation of the final version.
The digital revolution has made manipulating sound and sound mixes much easier than it was when Star Wars began twenty years ago. “Since we’re working with computer files now,” Burtt says, “it’s technically easier to manipulate the sounds and move them around. Adding sound to a movie that’s still being edited is just like applying paint to a house that’s being constantly modified and rebuilt. If someone adds a balcony or removes a wall, you have to start over, and that’s the way it was with sound back then.”
But with today’s technology, the computer can keep track of everything, which makes such dynamic sound designing and editing less of a headache. “Now we can build a very complex temporary mix, which is so much richer and deeper,” says Burtt. The translation from temporary sound tracks to final mix has also become less problematic. “It used to be that when the final cut of a movie was decided upon, you would scrap the temporary sound mix and start building the final tracks. But now, you get to keep everything, because it’s all digital and can be handled much more easily. So I’d say roughly 80% of the temp mix will end up in the final one.”
However, all of these technological advances don’t necessarily mean that sound work is easier now than it was twenty years ago. “The creative process is just as big and just as hard,” says Burtt, “but technology allows a smaller crew to tackle the challenge, and to do it in a more effective way. The sound crew on Episode I is about a third of what it was on Return of the Jedi, even though the task is just as complex.” The extensive use of new technology allows for more freedom in the exploration and creation of sound, enabling the crew to concentrate more on art than on technical considerations.
Much of Burtt’s time lately was spent finishing the sound mix for the Episode I teaser trailer. Despite the fact that it’s much shorter than an actual movie, a trailer presents unique and interesting sound challenges. “During the last few years, the trend has been to build trailers with very short shots, tightly linked together, maintaining a very quick pace,” Burtt says.
“This trend is hard on sound, because while the brain can process visuals this way — a quick succession of different images — it can’t do the same thing with sound. Short samples of sound take a longer time for the brain to decipher. If they’re bundled together too tightly, they don’t make any sense at all.” The sound can’t be as choppy as the stream of images, but at the same time it must follow the action and move at the same pace. Burtt and his team strive to get just the right balance of clarity and speed. “The team is new, and we’re still learning to work together. We’re getting a sense of what we can do, what we cannot do, and just how far we can push ourselves before our concerted efforts start losing effectiveness. So the work we did on the trailer is a great shakedown for us. We’re sort of gearing up for the final mix of the actual movie.”
George Lucas has often said that sound is 50% of the movie experience, and Ben Burtt fully intends to continue pushing sound development to the limit for Episode I. “This film is so filled with activity, people, and places,” he says. “There’s always something going on in the foreground, the middleground, the background — even off-screen. It’s a wonderful environment in which to let the sound go wild, expand, and completely fill all this world.”
In part 1 of this story, we covered the history and development of “animatics” as used in Star Wars movies. Animatics are visual place-holders in the rough cut of a film, moving “sketch” versions of shots that will eventually be completed as final film footage. Episode I has made extensive use of computer-generated animatics created by a small team working at Skywalker Ranch. Our interviews with animatics supervisor David Dozoretz and team members Evan Pontoriero and Kevin Baillie have described some of the crew’s work for Episode I.
To demonstrate how the animatics team creates a typical animatic shot, we’ve put together a demo shot made just for the Web. We have thrown in an Episode I Battle Tank to spice things up, but THIS IS NOT A SHOT FROM EPISODE I, nor is it necessarily anything like one. This is just a demonstration to show how many of the real Episode I animatics were cobbled together quickly from various sources, including both CG elements and live action footage of handy personnel dashing around like space heroes for a day in front of home video cameras. For mock-up lightsaber battles the players have sometimes had broomsticks in hand, but we’re not showing you anything that chintzy.
The point here is to illustrate how different elements combine in an animatic to make a useful shot, even when some of the elements are only quick approximations, like sketches or improvised video footage. In the end, this combination of elements helps George Lucas and editor Martin Smith decide how to cut a scene. It also helps producer Rick McCallum schedule and budget needed shots.
Animatics: The Moving Storyboards of Episode I – Part 2
We start with a storyboard, drawn by Art Department artist Jay Shuster, who has created many of the real Episode I storyboards. Jay’s artwork illustrates the different elements of the shot and indicates movement by an arrow and the placement of the soldier figure at both his starting and ending positions. The shot is a pan to the right, so Jay’s storyboard is stretched to include the camera’s start and finish positions.
When it comes time to edit the scene in which this shot appears, if the editors need something immediately, we may provide them with a brief video clip of the storyboard itself. We simply pan across the drawing to approximate the final shot. This introduces the dimension of time to the storyboard, giving it duration for use in the rough cut. But the dynamics and movement of the shot remain to be worked out.
An animatic can pick up where the storyboard approximation leaves off, adding the elements of full movement to help the editors tell how the shot will feel when it is complete. An animatic also may suggest additional aspects or elements that will improve the shot.
The Background Plate
We begin our animatic by going out and filming a stand-in going through the necessary motions. Animatics team leader David Dozoretz is our director and cameraman–he knows what he needs out of the shot, so he just grabs a camera and a stand-in and goes out to shoot it. To make the stand-in look the part, we’ve called on Gillian Libbert, our Costume Appearance Manager, to dress our soldier with a uniform made out of items from the Archives.
Some of the costume elements are from Star Wars movies and some are from the Indiana Jones pictures, but for the time being the costume will just blend the figure in the shot better than his street clothes. The simple shot “may not look like much,” but it will be the basis of the animatic to come: as crude as it is, it is our shot’s “background plate,” the image to which other elements will be added.
Outside, we select a location that will place the Battle Tank farther away from the soldier than shown by Jay’s storyboard. Things can look different once you translate them from drawings to real life, and in the analysis of shot director David Dozoretz, “our soldier is gonna be instant toast if he’s that close to the tank.” We prudently put our man at enough distance to give him an even chance before he’s blasted.
While we are out doing the mini-shoot, David comes up with an idea to add more life and motion to the shot. He directs the actor to slow down and look up at one point – before he crouches and takes aim – to see ships flying overhead that will be added later. This kind of concept development is a key part of the value of animatics.
The background plate serves as a canvas that animatics artists can “paint” on using their computers. Colors will be corrected, sharpness adjusted, and the sky will be brightened and enhanced.
Match Lenses
With our background plate in the can, it’s now up to the animatics boys. For our typical animatic shot, computer-generated elements will have to be carefully combined with the live-action photography in our background plate. The live-action footage is digitized into the computer, and a computer world is then set up to match the world seen in the video, so that all the elements will mesh correctly. We start by matching the computer’s virtual lens to the camera lens, ensuring that perspectives and angles will look the same for the CG elements as for the real shot. In this case, we knew that our lens was a 50mm, and so that is quickly programmed into the computer.
Match Move
Our live-action shot featured camera movement: a pan to the right. We now create a camera move in the computer to match the camera move on the set. To help with this, animatics artist Kevin Baillie notes landmarks in the plate shot, then creates generic CG shapes (such as a sphere or a cube) as placeholders to mark their counterparts in the virtual set. In a case such as ours where there are no landmarks to speak of, a specific patch of grass or any other fixed reference point can be used.
Then, by aligning the placeholders to the real reference points over a series of key frames, Kevin marks out the camera move and the computer does the rest, following these markers. The result is a matched camera move. The placeholders can then be switched off.
Create Model: Battle Tank
Our Battle Tank will appear as a CG model. When a ship, building, or character must be created from scratch, the animatics team are experts at creating quick models that closely match the final film designs, even wrapping them in texture maps to give them realistic colors and finishes. In the Star Wars animatics department, CG models are kept on file for use in later shots, and when a new one needs to be created, any member of the team is capable of carrying out the work. In this case, we already have a Battle Tank CG model lying around in memory, and we will re-use that one.
Light the CG model
The CG tank model must be lit in the same way that our real set was lit in order for it to blend into the scene. David Dozoretz examines the fall of shadow on the actor to determine where the sun is in the sky. He adjusts the placement of his CG light source accordingly, until the tank model is lit just as if by the same sun.
Sophisticated lighting consists of a complex of different lights, including the principal (“key”) light, fill lights that make shadows less harsh, scattered ambient light, and so on. For outdoor shots the key light is normally the sun. However, scattered light plays a large role in lighting as well. Enough of this must be matched in the CG world to blend the animatic and real elements.
Cheat the Model to 2D if possible
Since the tank does not rotate or move in this shot, it can be approximated for the animatic much more easily using a 2D still image rather than an animated 3D model. This works on the same principle as “flats” in real photography. In Star Wars: A New Hope, it was too expensive to build multiple full-size X- and Y-wing fighters for the Rebel Hangar scenes, so for background ships the crew constructed flats, which were near life-size cutout paintings of additional spacecraft.
Savvy animatics artists “cheat” and use 2D stills wherever possible, since it is much quicker and easier than rendering animated 3D models.
Animate Models: The Fighters Overhead
While 2D approximations work for many applications, David’s spacecraft flying overhead will have to be modeled and animated, since they race dynamically through the shot. They are lit by the same light source developed for the Battle Tank, and they fly through the same virtual set, tracked by the virtual camera pan. For the ships, we use a design which will not appear in Episode I.
One of these is quickly modeled by animatics team member Evan Pontoriero, and then placed by David into a trajectory using key frames. David specifies start point, end point, and key points along the way, and the computer interpolates the rest. David meanwhile specifies how much motion blur he wants on the ships, which contributes to the photo-realism of the ships.
Compositing: Add the city. In fact, add everything else.
According to Jay’s storyboard, we have a city that needs to appear in the background.
We will just incorporate a bit of his art to represent the city. Animatics often include everything from finished-looking elements to very sketchy portions. Their job is only to convey the overall editorial content of the shot, and, for most purposes, it would be a waste of time to create a complex and detailed image of the background city.
In addition to the city, we’ll also need laser bolts, as the soldier fires at the Battle Tank and the tank shoots back at him. Animatics artist Ryan Tudhope fixes these up to look good for the shot, including some blast flares. David Dozoretz decides to add a few trees in front of the city, and shadows from the fighters overhead as well, which are even made to appear on the soldier as he runs toward the tank. While assembling the composite layers, David notes that the guy with the gun ducked slightly toward the end of the shot. This gives David the opportunity to link something to the actor’s move by adding a stock explosion at that point, as well as a virtual boulder to help protect the soldier from the blast. So our man survives the confrontation with the tank after all.
All these elements, and the CG models as well, become individual layers within the shot. These must be assembled into one image, or composited, using a popular compositing program. Compositing blends all the layered elements together in one final video image.
In this process, David must specify which layers go behind or on top of others. The city is fitted in-between the trees in the foreground and the sky in the background. The tank is layered over the urban background but under the laser bolts searing the air in front of it, and so on. In the end, even for this example animatic shot, there are about 40 layers involved!
Final Animatic
This short movie shows a pan across Jay’s storyboard, then our unmodified background plate shot, and finally the final animatic shot, fit to wide-screen proportions and filled with all the additional elements that animatics have added. Sound is occasionally added to convey an even fuller impression of the finished shot for the editors.
When all of the components are “rendered out” to a movie file, the shot is sent directly to the editing team over an Ethernet. At this point what usually happens is that every aspect of the shot is discovered to need a change, and the revision is needed immediately. George, Rick, and Martin request an updated version, and they need it in a half-hour. Rick comes up to tap his foot or look over their shoulders…or Martin calls, again, to ask if they have made any progress, and off the team goes on another run.
About 1500 Episode I shots have been pre-created as animatics. The team can hammer out about two shots per person per day on average, and may total up to 75 in a day if they’re easy ones. David Dozoretz’ world record is 54 finished Star Wars animatic shots in a single week. The team works fast. Very fast. But it is in their speed and flexibility that they become of such value to George Lucas and Rick McCallum. After all these years, George can finally “sculpt” the film itself just as he has approached sculpting the story, or the art designs of the movie. Through animatics, the film has become a responsive medium, and as a result Episode I will be closer than ever to the Star Wars movie that George really wants to see.
Release Date: May 25, 1983 (original); March 14, 1997 (Special Edition)
Synopsis: (4 years after Episode IV) In the epic conclusion of the saga, the Empire prepares to crush the Rebellion with a more powerful Death Star while the Rebel fleet mounts a massive attack on the space station. Luke Skywalker confronts his father Darth Vader in a final climactic duel before the evil Emperor. In the last second, Vader makes a momentous choice: he destroys the Emperor and saves his son. The Empire is finally defeated, the Sith are destroyed, and Anakin Skywalker is thus redeemed. At long last, freedom is restored to the galaxy.
Opening Crawl:
Luke Skywalker has returned to his home planet of Tatooine in an attempt to rescue his friend Han Solo from the clutches of the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt.
Little does Luke know that the GALACTIC EMPIRE has secretly begun construction on a new armored space station even more powerful than the first dreaded Death Star.
When completed, this ultimate weapon will spell certain doom for the small band of rebels struggling to restore freedom to the galaxy…
Awards: Academy Award Winner: Special Achievement in Visual Effects. Academy Award Nominee: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Sound, Best Original Score.
BAFTA Award Winner: Best Special Visual Effects. BAFTA Nominee: Best Make Up Artist, Best Production Design/Art Direction, Best Sound
Saturn Award Winner: Best Actor, Best Costumes, Best Make-Up, Best Science Fiction Film, Best Special Effects. Saturn Award Nominee: Best Actress, Best Director, Best Music, Best Supporting Actor, Best Writing.
Cast
Luke Skywalker
Mark Hamill
Han Solo
Harrison Ford
Princess Leia Organa
Carrie Fisher
Lando Calrissian
Billy Dee Williams
See Threepio (C-3PO)
Anthony Daniels
Chewbacca
Peter Mayhew
Anakin Skywalker
Sebastian Shaw
The Emperor
Ian McDiarmid
Yoda
Frank Oz
Voice Of Darth Vader
James Earl Jones
Darth Vader
David Prowse
Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi
Alec Guinness
Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2)
Kenny Baker
Moff Jerjerrod
Michael Pennington
Admiral Piett
Kenneth Colley
Bib Fortuna
Michael Carter
Wedge
Denis Lawson
Admiral Ackbar
Tim Rose
General Madine
Dermot Crowley
Mon Mothma
Caroline Blakiston
Wicket
Warwick Davis
Paploo
Kenny Baker
Boba Fett
Jeremy Bulloch
Oola
Femi Taylor
Sy Snootles
Annie Arbogast
Fat Dancer
Claire Davenport
Teebo
Jack Purvis
Logray
Mike Edmonds
Chief Chirpa
Jane Busby
Ewok Warrior
Malcom Dixon
Ewok Warrior
Mike Cottrell
Nicki
Nicki Reade
Star Destroyer Controller #1
Adam Bareham
Star Destroyer Controller #2
Jonathan Oliver
Star Destroyer Captain #1
Pip Miller
Star Destroyer Captain #2
Tom Mannion
Jabba Puppeteers
Toby Philpott
David Barclay
Mike Edmonds
Puppeteers
Michael McCormick
Simon Williamson
Swim Lee
Richard Robinson
Deep Roy
Hugh Spirit
Michael Quinn
Ewoks
Margo Apostocos
Ray Armstrong
Eileen Baker
Michael H. Balham
Bobbie Bell
Patty Bell
Alan Bennett
Sarah Bennett
Pamela Betts
Dan Blackner
Linda Bowley
Peter Burroughs
Debbie Carrington
Maureen Charlton
William Coppen
Sadie Corrie
Tony Cox
John Cumming
Jean D’agostino
Luis De Jesus
Debbie Dixon
Margarita Fernandez
Phil Fondacaro
Sal Fondacaro
Tony Friel
Dan Frishman
John Gavam
Michael Gilden
Paul Grant
Lydia Green
Lars Green
Pam Grizz
Andrew Herd
J.J. Jackson
Richard Jones
Trevor Jones
Glynn Jones
Karen Lay
John Lummiss
Nancy Maclean
Peter Mandell
Carole Morris
Stacy Nichols
Chris Nunn
Barbara O’laughlin
Brian Orenstein
Harrell Parker Jr.
John Pedrick
April Perkins
Ronnie Phillips
Katie Purvis
Carol Read
Nicholas Read
Diana Reynolds
Daniel Rodgers
Chris Romano
Dean Shackenford
Kiran Shah
Felix Silla
Linda Spriggs
Gerald Staddon
Josephine Staddon
Kevin Thompson
Kendra Wall
Brian Wheeler
Butch Wilhelm
Mime Artists
Franki Anderson
Ailsa Berk
Sean Crawford
Andy Cunningham
Tim Dry
Graeme Hattrick
Phil Herbert
Gerald Home
Paul Springer
Stunt Performers
Bob Anderson
Dirk Yohan Beer
Marc Boyle
Mike Cassidy
Tracy Eddon
Sandra Gross
Ted Grossman
Frank Henson
Larry Holt
Bill Horrigan
Alf Joint
Julius Leflore
Colin Skeaping
Malcom Weaver
Paul Weston
Bob Yerkes
Dan Zormeier
Crew
Directed By
Richard Marquand
Screenplay By
Lawrence Kasdan
George Lucas
Story By
George Lucas
Produced By
Howard Kazanjian
Executive Producer
George Lucas
Co-Producers
Robert Watts
Jim Bloom
Production Designer
Norman Reynolds
Director Of Photography
Alan Hume B.S.C.
Edited By
Sean Barton
Marcia Lucas
Duwayne Dunham
Visual Effects
Richard Edlund
Dennis Muren A.S.C.
Ken Ralston
Costume Designers
Aggie Guerard Rodgers
Nilo Rodis-Jamero
Mechanical Effects Supervision
Kit West
Make-Up And Creature Design
Phil Tippett
Stuart Freeborn
Sound Design
Ben Burtt
Music By
John Williams
First Assistant Director/ Second Unit Director
David Tomblin
Casting
Mary Selway Buckley
Location Director Of Photography
Jim Glennon
Additional Photography
Jack Lowin
Production Sound
Tony Dawe
Randy Thom
Supervising Music Editor
Kenneth Wannberg
Music Recording
Eric Tomlinson
Orchestrations
Herbert W. Spencer
Chief Articulation Engineer
Stuart Ziff
Production Supervisor
Douglas Twiddy
Production Executive
Robert Latham Brown
Unit Production Manager
Miki Herman
Assistant Production Manager
Patricia Carr
Associate To Producer
Louis G. Friedman
Conceptual Artist
Ralph McQuarrie
Art Directors
Fred Hole
James Schoppe
Set Decorators
Michael Ford
Harry Lange
Property Master
Peter Hancock
Chief Hairdresser
Patricia McDermott
Stunt Co-Ordinator
Glenn Randall
Stunt Arranger
Peter Diamond
Production Controller
Arthur Carroll
Production Accountant
Margaret Mitchell
Second Assistant Directors
Roy Button
Michael Steele
Chris Newman
Russell Lodge
Production Assistant
Ian Bryce
Production Co-Ordinator
Lata Ryan
Co-Ordination Assistants
Sunni Kerwin
Gail Samuelson
Script Supervisor
Pamela Mann Francis
Location Script Supervisor
Bob Forest
Location Casting
Dave Eman
Bill Lytle
Assistant To Mr. Kazanjian
Kathleen Hartney
Assistant To Mr. Bloom
John Syrjamaki Ross
Assistant To Mr. Lucas
Jane Bay
Assistant Art Directors
Michael Lamont
John Fenner
Richard Dawking
Set Dresser
Doug Von Koss
Construction Manager
Bill Welch
Assistant Construction Manager
Alan Booth
Construction Supervisor
Roger Irvin
General Foreman
Bill Iiams
Construction Foremen
Greg Callas
Guy Clause
Doug Elliott
Stan Wakashige
Paint Foreman
Gary Clark
Sketch Artist
Roy Carnon
Scenic Artist
Ted Michell
Decor And Lettering Artist
Bob Walker
Set Draftsmen
Reg Bream
Mark Billerman
Chris Campbell
Production Buyer
David Lusby
Construction Storeman
David Middleton
Operating Cameramen
Alec Mills
Tom Laughridge
Mike Benson
Focus Pullers
Michael Frift
Chris Tanner
Assistant Cameramen
Leo Napolitano
Bob La Bonge
Second Assistant Cameramen
Simon Hume
Steve Tate
Martin Kenzie
Michael Glennon
Gaffers
Mike Pantages
Bob Bremner
Aerial Photography
Ron Goodman
Margaret Herron
Helicopter Pilot
Mark Wolfe
Key Grip
Dick Dova Spah
Best Boy
Joe Crowley
Dolly Grip
Chunky Huse
Reg Hall
Matte Photography Consultant
Stanley Sayer, B.S.C.
Rigging Gaffers
Clark Garland
Tommy Brown
Chief Make-Up Artists
Tom Smith
Graham Freeborn
Make-Up Artists
Peter Robb King
Dickie Mills
Kay Freeborn
Nick Dudman
Hairdressers
Mike Lockey
Paul Le Blanc
Assistant Articulation Engineer
Eben Stromquist
Armature Designer
Peter Ronzani
Plastic Designer
Richard Davis
Sculptural Designers
Chuck Wiley
James Howard
Key Sculptors
Dave Carson
Tony McVey
Dave Sosalla
Judy Elkins
Derek Howarth
Chief Moldmaker
Wesley Seeds
Moldmaker
Ron Young
Creature Technicians
Randy Dutra
Kirk Thatcher
Dan Howard
James Isaac
Brian Turner
Jeanne Lauren
Richard Spah, Jr.
Ethan Wiley
Creature Consultants
Jon Berg
Chris Walas
Production/ Creature Co-Ordinator
Patty Blau
Latex Foam Lab Supervisor
Tom McLaughlin
Animatronics Engineer
John Coppinger
Wardrobe Supervisor
Ron Beck
Costume Supervisor
Mary Elizabeth Still
Wardrobe Mistress
Janet Tebrooke
Shop Manager
Jenny Green
Jeweler
Richard Miller
Creature Costumers
Barbara Kassal
Edwina Pellikka
Anne Polland
Elvira Angelinetta
Assistant Property Master
Charles Torbett
Property Supervisors
Dan Coangelo
Brian Lofthouse
Property
Holly Walker
Ivan Van Perre
Propmakers
Bill Hargreaves
Richard Peters
Master Carpenter
Bert Long
Master Plasterer
Kenny Clarke
Master Painter
Eric Shirtcliffe
Supervising Rigger
Red Lawrence
Supervising Stagehand
Eddie Burke
Sail Co-Ordinators
Bill Kreysler
Warwick Tompkins
Sails Engineering
Derrick Baylis
Peggy Kashuba
Assistant Film Editors
Steve Starkey
Conrad Buff
Phil Sanderson
Nick Hosker
Debra McDermott
Clive Hartley
Sound Effects Editors
Richard Burrow
Teresa Eckton
Ken Fischer
Dialogue Editors
Laurel Ladevich
Curt Schulkey
Bonnie Koehler
Vickie Rose Sampson
Assistant Sound Editors
Chris Weir
Bill Mann
Gloria Borders
Suzanne Fox
Kathy Ryan
Nancy Jencks
Mary Helen Leasman
Re-Recording Mixers
Gary Summers
Roger Savage
Ben Burtt
Randy Thom
Re-Recording Engineer
Tomlinson Holman
Boom Operators
David Batchelor
David Parker
Sound Assistants
Shep Dawe
Jim Manson
Audio Engineers
T.M. Christopher
Catherine Coombs
Kris Handwerk
K.C. Hodenfield
Howie
Tom Johnson
Brian Kelly
James Kessler
Susan Leahy
Robert Marty
Scott Robinson
Dennie Thorpe
John Watson
English Lyrics
Joseph Williams
Huttese Lyrics
Annie Arbogast
Ewokese Lyrics
Ben Burtt
Special Effects Supervisor
Roy Arbogast
Special Effects Foreman
William David Lee
Special Effects Floor Controller
Ian Wingrove
Senior Effects Technician
Peter Dawson
Chief Electronics Technician
Ron Hone
Wire Specialist
Bob Harman
Location Special Effects
Kevin Pike
Mike Wood
Choreographer
Gillian Gregory
Location Choreographer
Wendy Rogers
Production Accountant
Colin Hurren
Assistant Accountants
Sheala Daniell
Barbara Harley
Location Accountants
Diane Dankwardt
Pinki Ragan
Transportation Co-Ordinator
Gene Schwartz
Transportation Captains
John Feinblatt
H. Lee Noblitt
Studio Transportation Managers
Vic Minay
Mark La Bonge
Location Contact
Lennie Fike
Still Photographers
Albert Clarke
Ralph Nelson, Jr.
Unit Publicist
Gordon Arnell
Assistant Publicist
June Broom
Research
Deborah Fine
Minature And Optical Effects Unit
Industrial Light And Magic
Art Director-Visual Effects
Joe Johnston
Optical Photography Supervisor
Bruce Nicholson
General Manager, Ilm
Tom Smith
Production Supervisor
Patricia Rose Duignan
Matte Painting Supervisor
Michael Pangrazio
Modelshop Supervisors
Lorne Peterson
Steve Gawley
Animation Supervisor
James Keefer
Supervising Visual Effects Editor
Arthur Repola
Effects Cameramen
Don Dow
Michael J. McAlister
Bill Neil
Scott Farrar
Selwyn Eddy Iii
Michael Owens
Robert Elswit
Rick Fichter
Stewart Barbee
Mark Gredell
David Hardburger
Assistant Cameramen
Pat Sweeney
Kim Marks
Robert Hill
Ray Gilberti
Randy Johnson
Patrick McArdle
Peter Daulton
Bessie Wiley
Maryan Evans
Toby Heindel
David Fincher
Peter Romano
Production Co-Ordinators
Warren Franklin
Laurie Vermont
Optical Printer Operators
John Ellis
David Berry
Kenneth Smith
Donald Clark
Mark Vargo
James Lim
Optical Line-Up
Tom Rosseter
Ed L. Jones
Ralph Gordon
Philip Barberio
Lab Technicians
Tim Geideman
Ducan Myers
Michael Moore
Production Illustrator
George Jenson
Matte Painting Artists
Chris Evans
Frank Ordaz
Matte Photography
Neil Krepela
Craig Barron
Stop Motion Animator
Tom St. Amand
Chief Model Makers
Paul Huston
Charles Bailey
Michael Glenn
Fulmer
Ease Owyeung
Model Makers
William George
Marc Thorpe
Scott Marshall
Sean Casey
Larry Tan
Barbara Gallucci
Jeff Mann
Ira Keeler
Bill Beck
Mike Cochrane
Barbara Affonso
Bill Buttfield
Marghi McMahon
Randy Ottenberg
Head Effects Animators
Garry Waller
Kimberly Knowlton
Effects Animators
Terry Windell
Renee Holt
Mike Lessa
Samuel Comstock
Rob La Duca
Annick Therrien
Suki Stern
Margot Pipkin
Visual Effects Editors
Howard Stein
Peter Amundson
Bill Kimberlin
Assistant Visual Effects Editors
Robert Chrisoulis
Michael Gleason
Jay Ignaszewski
Joe Class
Supervising Stage Technician
Ted Moehnke
Stage Technicians
Patrick Fitzsimmons
Bob Finley Iii
Ed Hirsh
John McLeod
Peter Stolz
Dave Childers
Harold Cole
Merlin Ohm
Joe Fulmer
Lance Brackett
Pyrotechnicians
Thaine Morris
Dave Pier
Supervisor-Still Photography
Terry Chostner
Still Photographers
Roberto McGrath
Kerry Nordquist
Electronic System Designers
Jerry Jeffress
Kris Brown
Electronic Engineers
Mike Mackenzie
Marty Brenneis
Computer Graphics
William Reeves
Tom Duff
Equipment Engineering Supervisor
Gene Whiteman
Machinists
Udo Pampel
Conrad Bonderson
Apprentice Machinists
David Hanks
Chris Rand
Design Engineer
Mike Bolles
Equipment Support Staff
Wade Childress
Michael J. Smith
Cristi McCarthy
Ed Tennler
Administrative Staff
Chrissie England
Laura Kaysen
Paula Karsh
Karen Ayers
Sonja Paulsen
Karen Dube
Production Assistants
Susan Fritz-Monahan
Kathy Shine
Steadicam
Garrett Brown
Plate Photography
Ultra High Speed Photography
Bruce Hill Productions
Color Timers
Jim Schurmann
Bob Hagans
Negative Cutter
Sunrise Film, Inc.
Additional Optical Effects
Lookout Mountain Films
Pacific Title
Monaco Film Labs
California Film
Visual Concepts Engineering
Movie Magic
Van Der Veer Photo Effects
Special Edition Crew
Producer
Rick McCallum
Editor
T.M. Christopher
Sound Designer
Ben Burtt
Re-Recording Mixer
Gary Summers
First Assistant Editor
Samuel Hinckley
Assistant Editor
Robert Marty
Assistant Avid Editors
Mike Jackson
Robin Lee
Sound Editor
Teresa Eckton
Assistant Sound Editor
Lisa Storer
Re-Recordist
Ronald G. Roumas
Digital Mix Technician
Gary A. Rizzo
Archivist
Tim Fox
Optical Supervisors
Phillip Feiner
Chris Bushman
Film Restoration Supervisor
Pete Comandini
Color Timer
Robert J. Raring
Negative Continuity
Ray Sabo
Negative Cutter
Bob Hart
Special Edition Digital Remastering Provided By
Skywalker Sound A Lucas Digital Ltd. Company
Film Restoration Consultant
Leon Briggs
Optical Restoration
Pacific Title
Film Restoration By
Ycm Laboratories
Industrial Light And Magic
Visual Effects Supervisor
Dave Carson
Visual Effects Producer
Tom Kennedy
Computer Graphics Supervisor
Tom Hutchinson
Visual Effects Art Director
George Hull
Visual Effects Editor
Michael McGovern
Color Timing Supervisor
Bruce Vecchitto
Visual Effects Coordinator
Lisa Todd
Digital Effects Artists
Don Butler
Michael Conte
Howard Gersh
Marshall Krasser
Tia Marshall
Stuart Maschwitz
Julie Neary
Ken Nielsen
Eddie Pasquarello
Ricardo Ramos
Tom Rosseter
Lawrence Tan
Paul Theren
Hans Uhlig
Li-Hsein Wei
Ron Woodall
Digital Matte Artists
Ronn Brown
Eric Chauvin
Brian Flora
William Mather
3d Matchmove Artist
James Hagedorn
Digital Paint & Roto Artists
Lisa Drostova
Heidi Zabit
Chief Creature Maker
Howie Weed
Model & Creature Makers
Carol Bauman
Don Bies
Giovanni Donovan
Wendy Morton
Anne Polland
Mark Siegel
Steven Walton
Sabre Group Supervisor
Daniel McNamara
Sabre Artists
Rita Zimmerman
Chad Taylor
Mary McCulloch
Grant Guenin
Caitlin Content
Software Research And Development
David Benson
Jim Hourihan
Zoran Kacic-Alesic
Florian Kainz
Jeff Yost
Digital Scanning Supervisor
Joshua Pines
Digital Scanning Operators
Randall Bean
Michael Ellis
Earl Beyer
Negative Supervisor
Doug Jones
Negative Line-Up
Andrea Biklian
Tim Geideman
Projectionist
Tim Greenwood
Digital Plate Restoration
Melissa Monterrosa
Mike Van Eps
Wendy Hendrickson
Assistant Visual Effects Art Director
Alex Laurant
Assistant Visual Effects Editor
John Bartle
Video Editor
Angela Leaper
Animatic Artist
Jonathan Rothbart
Digital Effects Technical Assistants
Okan Ataman
Peter Chesloff
Joshua Levine
Dawn Matheson
Daniel Shumaker
Digital Effects Resource Assistant
Daniel Brimer
Visual Effects Production Staff
Julie Creighton
Joshua Marks
Video Assistants
Dawn Martin
Wendy Bell
Production Engineering
Ken Beyer
Ken Corvino
Gary Meyer
Aerial Camera System By Wesscam Camera Systems (Europe)
Aerial Cameraman
Assistant
Ron Goodman
Margaret Herron
Helicopter Supplied By Dollar Air Services Limited
Pilot
Mark Wolfe
Cloud Plates Photographed With
Astrovision(c) By Continental Camera Systems Inc.Snow Vehicles Supplied By
Aktiv FischerR2 Bodies Fabricated By
White Horse Toy CompanySpecial Assistance From
Giltspur Engineering And CompairPhotographed On The Hardengerjekulan Glacier, Finse, Norway
And At Emi – Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, EnglandMusic Recorded At
Anvil Studios, Denham, EnglandRe-Recording At
Samuel Goldwyn Studios, Los Angeles, CaliforniaSpecial Visual Effects Produced At
Industrial Light And Magic, Marin County, California
BOSSK SNEAKS ABOARD IN MARVEL’S STAR WARS: HALCYON LEGACY #5 – EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW
THE BOUNTY HUNTER INTERRUPTS A PLEASURE CRUISE TO REMIND A TRAVELER ABOUT HIS UNPAID DEBT.
The pirate gang tormenting the Halcyon‘s crew and passengers is running out of patience.In the final installment of Marvel’s Star Wars: Halcyon Legacy miniseries, logistics droid D3-09 has one more story to tell to distract and invigorate the captives. In the tale, R’Tess and Stolak are traveling on the elite vessel at the dawn of the New Republic. But Stolak’s romantic gesture is interrupted by his past when Bossk tracks them onboard…
THE SIX-PART DOCUMENTARY SERIES ON THE HISTORY OF INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC IS NOW STREAMING ON DISNEY+.
When Dennis Muren first read the script for the original Star Wars in 1976, the technical wizardry required to tell the story on the screen hadn’t yet been created. Simply put, the man who would go on to win nine Academy Awards for his work as a visual effects supervisor saw George Lucas’ vision and thought, “This is impossible.”It wasn’t. For nearly five decades, Muren and many other legends of filmmaking have pioneered technological advancements at Industrial Light & Magic, the special visual effects, animation and virtual production division of Lucasfilm, leading to the new documentary series Light & Magic, now streaming on Disney+.
Directed by acclaimed writer and director Lawrence Kasdan, the six-part story delves into the personal and professional history of these pioneers of modern filmmaking — whose work inspired the entire industry of visual effects — with unparalleled access, new interviews, and never-before-seen footage and photos including home movies.
The series was created in collaboration with Imagine Documentaries, recently founded by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. “I suggested a history of visual effects, because even though I had been around visual effects throughout my career, it occurred to me that I didn’t know much about them,” Kasdan says of the project…
Animatics: The Moving Storyboards of Episode I – Part 1
After directing Star Wars (Episode IV) in 1976, George Lucas stepped away from the director’s role for subsequent films. For Episode I, Lucas returns to the director’s chair for the first time in 21 years.
Lucas is able to craft his vision of this story and its new characters with greater creative control than ever before, thanks to some of the technological innovations that have broadened his storyteller’s toolkit. Animatics are one such tool, and they are being used extensively to fine-tune every shot of Episode I to match the story in Lucas’ imagination.
Part One of a Two-Part Series
In the editing rooms at Skywalker Ranch, George Lucas and his editing team assemble the footage of Episode I, fine tuning sequences for nuance and dramatic effect. Martin Smith stares at the AVID monitors, re-cutting and revising to achieve exactly the story flow he wants from a dramatic scene. But it can be difficult for Lucas and his editor to judge the effectiveness of some of these scenes, because so many are full of holes.
A scene of two Jedi knights having a dramatic confrontation may be very hard to edit without the cityscape, Tatooine cliffside, or moving spacecraft that are meant to fill the space behind them-the actors may have been filmed standing in front of nothing more than a blue screen. All the missing elements are visual effects to be added later by ILM. But until the scene is cut to best advantage, Lucas cannot be sure which effects must be ordered. This chicken-and-egg problem is being solved for Episode I by the extensive use of animatics, or “sketch” versions of the missing scenes and elements. Animatics are conceptually a kind of storyboard. Traditional storyboards are cartoon-like sketches of movie scenes, meant to guide the creators of a film as a kind of pre-visualization, or blueprint. Changes can be easily made to the sequence and composition of storyboards before expensive filming is undertaken, which makes storyboards a useful tool.
For the editing team at Skywalker Ranch, one way to get around the problem of missing or incomplete scenes is to intercut storyboards which illustrate shots that will later be created as visual effects. These can be helpful, but for a movie filled with motion, storyboards are insufficient place-holders for the editors fine-tuning their scenes. Movement is key: camera movement, spacecraft movement, anything in the scene moving. Storyboards cannot illustrate this vital dimension, but animatics can. Animatics are moving storyboards.
Star Wars: World War II
Animatics: The Moving Storyboards of Episode I – Part 1George Lucas first used moving pictures as storyboards for the Death Star assault sequence in Star Wars.
Lucas cut together 16mm camera plane footage from World War II to develop the flow of the space battle sequence and to communicate to the effects team the speeds and some of the shot compositions he had in mind. The aerial combat between X-wings and TIE fighters was meant to recall historical dogfights of planes like Corsairs and Zeroes.
Animatics: The Moving Storyboards of Episode I – Part 1
This use of “moving storyboards” demonstrated Lucas’ vision that the space combat scenes of Star Wars would show audiences dramatically faster and more dynamic spaceship movement than cinema had ever realized before.
Empire: Hand-Drawn Animatics
George Lucas first had his team generate their own original animatics for the snow battle sequence in The Empire Strikes Back. Hand-drawn sketches were roughly animated to give a sense of how the extraordinary battle scenes would flow, and many of these were later translated into live-action shots. The animatics assisted in the conception of the scene, and, like the WWII footage used in Star Wars, gave Lucas a way to communicate with his effects personnel, to say more precisely, “I want exactly this.”
Visual effects are expensive, and it is not practical to film many variations and let the editor choose from amongst them later, as is often done with live-action photography. Animatics were one solution to making sure the effects artists were only creating what Lucas wanted and what would edit well into the film.
Jedi: Return of the Animatics
For Return of the Jedi, standard storyboards could not effectively convey the action of the famous high-velocity speeder bike chase, and so in order to mock up sequences of this chase, quickly-made models were videotaped and moved on sticks like puppets.
These sequences could be rough-cut together to test how well the scene was flowing, and again served as a guide to the people doing the final effects.
A similar approach was taken with parts of Jedi‘s final space battle, using a mix of simplified models, explosion footage, and hand-drawn artwork.
The rough animatics of Empire and Jedi were helpful but only of limited use, because there were so many ways in which they did not actually match the final footage that would be shot: camera lens types, angles of view, and depth of environment, for example. Also they were not especially flexible media: they could be revised, but not with enough ease to make the work productive.
Special Edition Animatics
For the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition, Lucas brought in computer-generated (CG) animatics, to assist in communicating his ideas for the new sequences, such as those in the Tatooine dunes (covered in more depth in our Anatomy of a Dewback feature). Simple CG animatics using stick figures, electronically composited with other picture elements such as “plate” background shots, also had the virtue of being easily revised to meet the director’s concerns, and Lucas found the technique very promising for future use in Episode I. When Rick McCallum saw the animatics work of David Dozoretz, done for the train chase sequence in Mission: Impossible, he knew he had the right man for the job of leading the animatics work that would need to be done on Episode I.
Episode I: A New Beginning
For Episode I the creative challenges are far more complex than those faced before. Many aspects of the film must be created as visual effects, leaving the rough cut of the film filled with holes, both missing shots and shots in which the actors are filmed with little more than bluescreen, where backgrounds or even important alien characters may be missing from the shot. These incomplete shots prevent the editors from knowing exactly how well the scene is working. And, as before, the visual effects crew still needs to know exactly what Lucas wants.
To fill these gaps and guide both the editors and effects artists, elaborate computer-generated animatics are being created for Episode I, building on the creative traditions stretching back to the very first Star Wars movie. Hundreds of shots-in fact whole sequences-are being created as CG animatics, using three-dimensional modeling programs. Computer compositing is bringing together disparate picture elements, including CG models, filmed stage and location footage, and even flat artwork standing in for elements yet to be realized in 3-D. A small but dedicated team of computer artists is working late hours to build these motion blueprints for the final effects, and they are, in fact, pre-creating a considerable portion of Episode I. Most importantly, David Dozoretz and his animatics team are giving director Lucas a whole new level of creative control over the way his vision is realized on film.
In Part 2, we’ll follow the path a shot can take from storyboard to moving picture.
Who’s ready for a relaxing vacation adventure? Stream LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation, an original special, on @disneyplus August 5.
The all-new animated special from Lucasfilm and the LEGO Group and the newest entry in the popular signature branded cross-saga storytelling series that began with “LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special” and continued with “LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales,” will premiere August 5, 2022, exclusively on Disney+.
“LEGO® Star Wars Summer Vacation,” which is set shortly after the events of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” features the voices of “Weird Al” Yankovic, Yvette Nicole Brown, Kelly Marie Tran, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, and returning cast members from previous “LEGO Star Wars” specials, and includes “Weird Al’s” new original song, Scarif Beach Party.
The Art of Visual Storytelling Ryan Church and Erik Tiemens
Previsualizing Lighting, Mood and Color
A common notion is that when a film is as deep in its post-production phase as Episode II is, the concept art work has long been completed and the Art Department sits empty. That is not the case for Erik Tiemens and Ryan Church, two talented artists that were brought in late last year to offer their talents in developing Episode II’s rich palette of color and mood.
“We provide key-frame production illustrations that are the link between the concept work that Doug [Chiang] and his group did, and the final work that the ILM matte painters and the effects crew will be doing. It’s kind of previsualizing lighting, mood and color schemes,” describes Church.
“Studying footage that has been shot in Australia, London and elsewhere, we are sometimes dealing with lightly constructed sets and lots of blue-screen captured on digital plates,” says Tiemens, “Our job is to take that blue-screen void and make it come to life as environmental landscapes via production paintings. This provides a method of blocking out scenes, quickly giving George Lucas a flexible template in the editing room. In collaboration with the animatics artists’ 3-D work, we can deliver a complete rough cut to ILM as a reference guide.”
“Some of the colors we’ve been working with are very bright reds and oranges,” describes Church, “very passionate and luminous, hearkening back to historical illustration. There are foreboding color schemes and atmospheres that go with the story as well. It’s all very dramatic.”
The heightened dramatic potential drew Tiemens to the project. “I was delighted to hear that [Producer] Rick McCallum and George wanted to intertwine a feeling of drama and moodiness as often seen in turn of the century American landscape painting, like that of Thomas Moran and Albert Bierdstadt. When I see a stormy sky over the bay, with one little glowing pocket of sunlight glittering near the horizon, I am struck by the emotions it carries –- something mysterious and hopeful. Observing different lighting conditions, colors and how you frame the subject matter are all crucial to the visual storytelling process.”
In addition to quick yet detailed color studies, the two have delved into concept designs tied to specific shots and camera angles, as well as conceptual work on new elements that have popped into the evolving storyline. “There are a couple of major sequences that weren’t completely fleshed out. Erik and I have had a chance to get into it, and design it from the ground up,” says Church.
The two artists bridge the Art and Animatics Departments, working to produce illustrations keyed to specific animatics camera angles. “It’s designed for a shot,” explains Church of some of his work. “It examines an environment that was roughly designed by Doug’s group. What does that environment look like with this specific plate? What does it look like in this shot?”
Once the artwork has been completed and approved, usually on a very tight schedule, the digital art is carefully composited into the animatic to fill in the empty blue and green-screen currently throughout Episode II. “The animatics demands are so heavy that often we’ll get something in the morning that will be due at the end of the day,” says Church. “Erik and I did 14 paintings in two weeks of the end battle, and they got all approved by George. That means we were really on the same page, conceptually, because we kind of went crazy. We were kind of pushing things.”
“We have a quick turnaround rate,” concurs Tiemens. “I think that’s good, because as artists we can be overly precious with details in artwork. It’s refreshing to me. You are literally working at a gut level response. If George wants a rich, moody sunset in a decrepit warehouse district, you may not have the time to explore the idea with various color thumbnail sketches, but rather you just get it done on that one final.”
For scenes that will be entirely computer-generated, like some of the epic vistas seen in the last quarter of the film, Church and Tiemens have produced rich, colorful production paintings envisioning these important events. These paintings serve as valuable reference for the finished shots that will be delivered by Industrial Light & Magic.
“It’s like doing a digital feature,” says Church. “Doing these all digital environments where you have to design everything about it. You’re building, and designing and lighting everything. This is more similar to that than a typical live action show.”
The two artists, though traditionally trained in hands-on brush and paint, use digital tools to mimic the look. “It’s for the time-constraint,” explains Church. “We’re working over digital files that are sent to us by the Animatics Department. It’s always quicker to work on the computer. You’ve got the flexibility that you don’t have with a traditional painting. It stays within the digital realm instead of having to go back out and be scanned and taken back in and adjusted. It just saves a lot of steps.”
“The software we use bridges the gap between digital art and my preference for sketch painting outdoors using gouache and pastels,” explains Tiemens. “You can bring some of that spontaneity into the digital medium with these programs. A quick pencil layout can be scanned in the computer, providing a base for a digital painting. We also send digital files to Animatics and see how lighting on the actors holds up with our backgrounds, to see if we are getting a match.”
“I was the last person to ever want to touch a computer as far as art is concerned,” recalls Church. “I studied transportation design, and it was all markers and pens and tracing paper and hands-on. But you really can’t argue with the power of a computer for commercial artwork like we’re doing, where there’s going to be a lot of revisions anyway, and the deadlines are so tight.”
Artistic Backgrounds
Church grew up surrounded by artistic influences, as his father is an industrial designer. Citing such inspirations as Syd Mead and the original art of Star Wars, Church began down the path of commercial art with the intent of being a car designer. “I was pretty focused in car design all the way until about fifth term of school when I started doing real car design, as opposed to fun, splashy concept car design. I realized that the entertainment art industry offered a lot more fun stuff to work on, instead of designing a functional product like door handles all day.”
Following the freedom that movie concept work promised, Church eventually found himself working in the Digital Features department of Industrial Light & Magic. From there, he was contacted by Iain McCaig of Episode II’s Art Department. “Iain said that they were looking for painters, illustrators and designers, and he used the term ‘Ralph McQuarrie-types.’ He said I should submit my stuff. So I did, and got a call a while after that, to come up and join the team. This is obviously the realization of a lifelong dream, since looking at the Joe Johnston sketchbooks,” recalls Church. “That’s the stuff I copied when I was a kid.”
Also inspired by Star Wars and classic movies in his youth, Tiemens studied traditional drawing and painting at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, graduating with Distinction in 1990. “I developed a deeper appreciation for the arts there, especially 19th century painting. The learning there has brought references into my film work. In the digital medium where we need to invent new things, like environments, it’s always nice to create a link to the visual past. I believe if we’re only looking at what’s been done in the past few years or so, it gets tiring to the audience. To look back on the layers of history, early photography, sculpture, painting and the arts in general gives us a more rewarding experience.”
Specific to Tiemens are influential painters like John Singer Sargent and muralist Frank Brangwyn. “They are a rich source of inspiration for me not only in their amazing skill but sense of spirit in their works, something always alive there. I can only hope to aim in that direction.”
Tiemens, too, was recommended by Iain McCaig from work the two did on an ILM project. Tiemens’ previous experiences included such films as Forrest Gump, Jurassic Park, Contact, Star Wars: Special Edition and the Emmy award-nominated effects in the opening title sequence from Star Trek: Voyager.
“Last fall I was in Europe for a couple of months on a painting trip, seeking out inspiring locations,” recalls Tiemens. “I think it’s always good for artists to go out and recharge your batteries, creatively speaking. Traveling about in southern Italy at the time I found a café to check my email. I was astonished to get an email from David Dozoretz. He asked if I was interested in working on Episode II; they were looking for someone to produce dramatic environmental landscape paintings for the film.” Rick McCallum and George Lucas took a look at Tiemens’ portfolio on his personal website, and from that invited him to join the Episode II production.
Visiting five planets, the film has a lot of territory to cover in its allotted running time, and Star Wars films are not known to dawdle about in any one given location. “We’re visiting a lot of places from Episode I, but we get to see a lot more of them,” reveals Church. “We’re literally going below the surface of these locations. And there are these new worlds, just like the other Star Wars movies, with color schemes that seem to be very deliberately picked by George to reflect and mirror the story. It’s very subjective visual storytelling that supports the script.”
Artistically, Church and Tiemens are in a unique position of being able to touch the whole story — from beginning to end — with their art. “We’re covering a lot of ground,” says Tiemens. “Typically, a matte painter would spend maybe two weeks — at the shortest — or about a month or two on a complex shot. They may have a few very important shots in the film at a high degree of detail, but we’ve had the rare opportunity to go over the entire film. We view it from a global perspective in a rather short amount of time, touching on most of the environments through production illustrations. Abstract color and lighting themes are closely kept in mind.”
Concludes Tiemens, “Working on this project is similar to designing a digital feature; you try to look at the overall, in each reel, and ask yourself, ‘does this time of day support the story? How does the character feel right now? Can a busy sky with clouds compete with the actor’s somber lines?’ A million puzzles like these come up all the time. That makes for a challenge experience, full of surprises.”
Although many of the alien species to be seen in Episode II will be all-digital creations painstakingly animated and rendered by Industrial Light & Magic, there is still a place for practical creatures. This is where Jason Baird, Live Action Creature Effects Supervisor, enters the Episode II picture.
“That involves all the creature heads and paws,” explains Baird of his responsibilities, “as well as the animatronic creature heads and also prosthetic characters. It also involves organizing the workshop, and getting the prosthetics ready for on-set use.”
A 12-year veteran of the field, Baird ran his own company, crafting various creatures and prosthetic make-up effects for film and television. In March of 2000, Baird was recruited for the latest chapter of the Star Wars saga, with short time to prepare for one of his biggest assignments to date.
“It’s a real buzz. It took a long while for it to sink in that we’re actually working on Star Wars. It happened so quickly. Only when you see some of the big names on set, with your creatures, does it really hit you,” says Baird.
“When we first got the contract to do Star Wars it didn’t seem, from the way they were explaining it, like such a huge job,” recalls Baird. “But we quickly learned that there was quite a bit of creature and prosthetic stuff that needed to be addressed, more so from the prosthetics side because we inherited many of the Episode I creature heads. When we found that out, we had start building the crew.”
Baird’s crew grew to 12-15 artists working around the clock to deliver the required make-up effects. “The most challenging thing has been the organization — getting everything to click and be delivered in working order on time. It’s such a short time-span, because we’ve only really had, after getting set up, five weeks of pre-production. Three of those weeks were trying to get our workshop space into a workable environment. That left us only two weeks to start producing the prosthetic pieces and getting everything ready. It was a really tight timeline, but we managed.”
Among the featured creations of Baird and his crew are two new heroic Jedi alien characters. One male, one female, both these characters are prosthetic make-up creations with distinctly different builds and profiles. Both have the commanding presence of Jedi Knights and exotic alien looks.
“He’s a combination of mottled greens and browns and blacks, so I think it’ll look very cool,” says Baird, describing the alien color palette. “The female has horns as well as tentacles. She’s a combination of grays and whites and red. She should look quite stunning too.”
The decision to produce the two alien Jedi came pretty late in pre-production. For the male, Baird and his crew had three weeks to complete the character. “When you’re talking about a complicated prosthetic character, that’s a pretty short timeline.”
Prosthetic make-up creation is a painstaking process. Plaster-like life-casts must be made of the performers slated to play the role, so that the foam latex prosthetic pieces — called appliances — will conform perfectly to the contours of a his or her features. The make-up artists then glue the appliances onto the performer, adding additional elements such as teeth, horns or tentacles, and then the whole creation is painted.
Since many different appliances are pieced together for one prosthetic effect, the art of ‘seaming’ is an important one. “Once you get your foam pieces, you end up with an edge where they join,” explains Baird. “Seaming is basically trimming that edge off, and then using fillers to make those lines disappear. That way, you end up with a nice smooth surface to paint over, and you don’t see the line where the seams were. It requires practice and experience to seam properly, because if you can see a seam line on a character on film, you know you haven’t done your job. Makeup effects artists who know what to look for usually can see them. But most people can’t, because they’re usually hard to pick out.”
Makeup can be grueling to a performer, who must undergo hours of application and testing to get the perfect look. “We’d work out an initial test fitting with the prosthetics to make sure that they actually fit the actor. If they require special teeth, we take teeth casts. If they’ve got special eyes, we send them to an optometrist and they get their eyes measured and tested so that they’re safe to wear contact lenses. Then, we do our first test makeup, to make sure that all the pieces glue down right and that gets painted. We do a test fitting with teeth and contacts. This is so when we get on-set, we don’t run into any little problems that we didn’t see coming.”
The testing phase catches most problems early, though some minor glitches do sometimes occur. “During one take, one of Orn Free Taa’s contacts popped out, and he [actor Matt Rowan] actually caught it in his hand. The contacts were made slightly too flat for the curvature of his eye, which meant that it was slightly misshapen and it caught the little lip of the contact on his eyelid, so when he blinked it just popped out.” After that day’s shoot, Baird and his crew had the contacts remade, and Orn Free Taa’s eyes were restored for the next day of filming.
The Challenge of Volume
To facilitate communication, the creatures crew developed hand-signals for the actors and extras obscured with heavy masks. “They can signal by tapping their head to let us know that they need to get out,” explains Baird. For masked performers with on-screen dialogue, like the radio-controlled Senator Ask Aak or the Neimoidians, Baird has rigged a small radio to allow for communication between the actor, Baird’s crew, the Assistant Directors, and George Lucas. “They can’t talk back,” explains Baird, “but at least they can hear directions. Otherwise, it’s very hard to hear inside the suits. And when they’re up on their senate podiums, it’s very hard for us to get up there too.”
While individual aliens provide their challenges, Episode II also had the challenge of volume. Much like Episode IV’s famous cantina scene, Episode II has a nightclub filled with a variety of alien beings. Creating that exotic atmosphere within the club, as well as in the streets outside the drinking establishment, required a lot of creature masks. Baird’s task was simplified with access to many Episode I masks, but coordinating all those costumed extras was still trying.
“There’s all sorts of returning alien characters,” says Baird, “Rodians, Aqualish, Ishi Tibs, Weequays, Wookiees, ‘Mot Not Rabs’, Neimoidians and such. There’re lots of creatures and we’re doing some interesting things them to make them look like they’re female. We’re adding earrings and eyelashes and slightly different, lighter coloring in their faces, just a bit more colorful for the girls. We’ve added some freaky hairpieces to give them hair that looks a little bit more feminine than the other creatures.”
Though most of the extras’ performances don’t require anything more involved than walking or milling about in the background, wearing a hefty costume and hot, cumbersome mask makes it very difficult.
In between takes, assistants rush to aid the masked extras, offering water (with drinking straws to poke through mask openings) and miniature fans for fresh, cool air. “Keeping them hydrated and keeping their fluids up is very important because in these big costumes you sweat constantly.”
At times, the alien crowds number from 15 to 50 performers. “With 50 people wearing creature heads, you also have to account for how many people we need to look after them.” The shooting scheduled allowed for Baird to test his crew as production ramped up. The first big day required 15 creature extras. The next large assignment had 33. “That was a good test to find out what we needed,” says Baird. “For the 33, we had about 11 to 12 people standing by. It’s about a one-to-three ratio.” The assistants not only ensure the comfort of the performers, but also did quick makeup repair work on any wear-and-tear suffered by the masks.
“The ADs [Assistant Directors] really helped us out on-set,” says Baird. “They let us know when we’re about to break, or when we’re about to start again. When we know that, we know how much time we have to get ready. We’d let them know that certain characters may take five minutes or 15 minutes. We have that time to quickly get everyone’s gear back on and get them ready for camera.”
With the majority of shooting completed, Baird now waits eagerly — like many people — for the completion of the film to see the finished product. “I’m excited now to see how it all is going to come together with the computer generated imagery,” he says, “and to see the rest of the story surrounding the stuff that we shot. There are a lot of holes left to be filled.”
Release Date: May 25, 1977 (original); January 31, 1997 (Special Edition)
Synopsis: Nineteen years after the formation of the Empire, Luke Skywalker is thrust into the struggle of the Rebel Alliance when he meets Obi-Wan Kenobi, who has lived for years in seclusion on the desert planet of Tatooine. Obi-Wan begins Luke’s Jedi training as Luke joins him on a daring mission to rescue the beautiful Rebel leader Princess Leia from the clutches of the evil Empire. Although Obi-Wan sacrifices himself in a lightsaber duel with Darth Vader, his former apprentice, Luke proves that the Force is with him by destroying the Empire’s dreaded Death Star.
Opening Crawl:
It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.
During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.
Pursued by the Empire’s sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy….
Awards: Academy Award Winner: Best Art Direction-Set Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Special Achievement in Sound; Academy Award Nominee: Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, Best Picture, Best Screenplay.
BAFTA Award Winner: Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music, Best Sound. BAFTA Nominee: Best Costume Design, Best Film, Best Film Editing, Best Production Design/Art Direction
Golden Globe Winner: Best Original Score. Golden Globe Nominee: Best Director, Best Motion Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Saturn Award Winner: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Costumes, Best Director, Best Make-Up, Best Music, Best Science Fiction Film, Best Special Effects, Best Supporting Actor, Best Writing, Outstanding Editing.
Cast
Luke Skywalker
Mark Hamill
Han Solo
Harrison Ford
Princess Leia Organa
Carrie Fisher
Grand Moff Tarkin
Peter Cushing
Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi
Alec Guinness
See Threepio (C-3PO)
Anthony Daniels
Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2)
Kenny Baker
Chewbacca
Peter Mayhew
Darth Vader
David Prowse
Voice Of Darth Vader
James Earl Jones
Uncle Owen
Phil Brown
Aunt Beru
Shelagh Fraser
Chief Jawa
Jack Purvis
General Dodonna
Alex Mccrindle
General Willard
Eddie Byrne
Red Leader
Drewe Hemley
Red Two (Wedge)
Denis Lawson
Red Three (Biggs)
Garrick Hagon
Red Four (John “D”)
Jack Klaff
Red Six (Porkins)
William Hootkins
Gold Leader
Angus Mcinnis
Gold Two
Jeremy Sinden
Gold Five
Graham Ashley
General Taggi
Don Henderson
Admiral Motti
Richard Le Parmentier
Commander #1
Leslie Schofield
Crew
Written And Directed By
George Lucas
Produced By
Gary Kurtz
Executive Producer
George Lucas
Production Designer
John Barry
Director Of Photography
Gilbert Taylor, B.S.C.
Music By
John Williams
Performed By
The London Symphony Orchestra
Original Music Copyright 1977
By Fox Fanfare Music, Inc.
Special Photographic Effects Supervisor
John Dykstra
Special Production And Mechanical Effects Supervisor
John Stears
Film Editors
Paul Hirsch
Marcia Lucas
Richard Chew
Production Supervisor
Robert Watts
Production Illustration
Ralph McQuarrie
Costume Designer
John Mollo
Art Directors
Norman Reynolds
Leslie Dilley
Make-Up Supervisor
Stuart Freeborn
Production Sound Mixer
Derek Ball
Casting
Irene Lamb
Diane Crittenden
Vic Ramos
Supervising Sound Editor
Sam Shaw
Special Dialogue And Sound Effects
Ben Burtt
Sound Editors
Robert R. Rutledge
Gordon Davidson
Gene Corso
Supervising Music Editor
Kenneth Wannberg
Re-Recording Mixers
Don Macdougall
Bob Minkler
Ray West
Robert LittMike Minkler
Lester Fresholtz
Richard Portman
Dolby Sound Consultant
Stephen Katz
Orchestrations
Herbert W. Spencer
Music Scoring Mixer
Eric Tomlinson
Assistant Film Editors
Todd Boekelheide
Jay Miracle
Colin Kitchens
Bonnie Koehler
Camera Operations
Ronnie Taylor
Geoff Glover
Set Decorator
Roger Christian
Production Manager
Bruce Sharman
Assistant Directors
Tony Waye
Gerry Gavigan
Terry Madden
Location Manager
Arnold Ross
Assistant To Producer
Bunny Alsup
Assistant To Director
Lucy Autrey Wilson
Assistant To Production Designer
Alan Roderick-Jones
Production Assistants
Pat Carr
Miki Herman
Gaffer
Ron Tabera
Property Master
Frank Bruton
Wardrobe Supervisor
Ron Beck
Stunt Coordinator
Peter Diamond
Continuity
Dan Perri
Titles
Ann Skinner
2nd Unit Photography
Carroll Ballard
Rick Clemente
Robert Dalva
Tak Fujimoto
2nd Unit Art Direction
Leon Erickson
Al Locatelli
2nd Unit Production Managers
David Lester
Peter Herald
Pepi Lenzi
2nd Unit Make-Up
Rick Baker
Douglas Beswick
Assistant Sound Editors
Roxanne Jones
Karen Sharp
Production Controller
Brian Gibbs
Location Auditor
Ralph M. Leo
Assistant Auditors
Steve Cullip
Penny McCarthy
Kim Falkinburg
Advertising/Publicity Supervisor
Charles Lippincott
Unit Publicist
Brian Doyle
Still Photographer
John Jay
Miniature And Opitical Effects Unit
1st Cameraman
Richard Edlund
2nd Cameraman
Dennis Muren
Assistant Cameramen
Douglas Smith
Kenneth Ralston
David Robman
2nd Unit Photography
Bruce Logan
Composite Optical Photography
Robert Blalack (Praxis)
Optical Photography Coordinator
Paul Roth
Optical Printer Operators
David Berry
David McCue
Richard Pecorella
Eldon Rickman
James Van Trees, Jr.
Optical Camera Assistants
Caleb Aschkynazo
John C. Moulds
Bruce Nicholson
Gary Smith
Bert Terreri
Donna Tracy
Jim Wells
Vicky Witt
Production Supervisor
George E. Mather
Matte Artist
P.S. Ellenshaw
Planet And Satellite Artist
Ralph McQuarrie
Effects Illustration And Design
Joseph Johnston
Additional Craft Design
Colin Cantwell
Chief Model Maker
Grant McCune
Model Builders
David Beasley
Jon Erland
Lorne Peterson
Steve Gawley
Paul Huston
David Jones
Animation And Rotoscope Design
Adam Beckett
Animators
Michael Ross
Peter Kuran
Jonathan Seay
Chris Casady
Lyn Gerry
Diana Wilson
Stop Motion Animation
Jon Berg
Philip Tippett
Miniature Explosions
Joe Viskocil
Greg Auer
Computer Animation And Graphic Displays
Dan O’bannon
Larry Cuba
John Wash
Jay Teitzell
Image West
Film Control Coordinator
Mary M. Lind
Film Librarians
Cindy Isman
Connie McCrum
Pamela Malouf
Electronics Design
Alvah J. Miller
Special Components
James Shourt
Assistants
Masaaki Norihoro
Eleanor Porter
Camera And Mechanical Design
Don Trumbull
Richard Alexander
William Shourt
Special Mechanical Equipment
Jerry Greenwood
Douglas Barnett
Stuart Ziff
David Scott
Production Managers
Bob Shepherd
Lon Tinney
Production Staff
Patricia Rose Duignan
Mark Kline
Rhonda Peck
Ron Nathan
Assistant Editor (Opticals)
Bruce Michael Green
Additional Optical Effects
Van Der Veer Photo Effects
Ray Mercer & Company
Modern Film Effects
Master Film Effects
De Patie-Freleng Enterprises Inc.
Special Edition Crew
Producer
Rick McCallum
Editor
T.M. Christopher
Sound Designer
Ben Burtt
Re-Recording Mixer
Gary Summers
Assistant Editor
Samuel Hinckley
Sound Editor
Teresa Eckton
Assistant Sound Editor
Robert Marty
Re-Recordist
Ronald G. Roumas
Digital Mix Technician
Gary A. Rizzo
Archivist
Tim Fox
Optical Supervisors
Phillip Feiner
Chris Bushman
Film Restoration Supervisor
Pete Comandini
Color Timer
Robert J. Raring
Negative Continuity
Ray Sabo
Negative Cutter
Bob Hart
Post Production Executive
Ted Gagliano
Special Edition Digital Remastering Provided By
Skywalker Sound A Lucas Digital Ltd. Company
De-Hiss Processing By
Cedar Dh-1,
Hhb Communications Inc.
Film Restoration Consultant
Leon Briggs
Optical Restoration
Pacific Title & Art Studio
Film Restoration By
Ycm Laboratories
Industrial Light And Magic
Visual Effects Producers
Tom Kennedy
Ned Gorman
Visual Effects Supervisors
Alex Seiden
John Knoll
Dave Carson
Stephen Williams
Dennis Muren
Joseph Letteri
Bruce Nicholson
Second Unit Director & Cameraman
Joe Murray
Visual Effects Art Directors
Ty Ruben Ellingson
Mark Moore
Computer Graphics Supervisor
John Berton
Visual Effects Editor
David Tanaka
Digital Color Timing Supervisor
Bruce Vecchitto
Sabre Group Supervisor
Daniel McNamara
Digital Scanning Supervisor
Joshua Pines
Visual Effects Coordinators
Margaret Lynch
Lisa Todd
Computer Graphics Artists
Karen Ansel
Mark Austin
Amelia Chenoweth
Terry Chostner
David Deuber
Natasha Devaud
Selwyn Eddy Iii
Howard Gersh
Paul Giacoppo
Joanne Hafner
James Hagedorn
Carol Hayden
Matt Hendershot
Guy Hudson
Stewart Lew
Jodie Maier
Greg Maloney
Stuart Maschwitz
Julie Neary
Kerry Nordquist
Scott Pasko
Damian Steel
Danny Taylor
Paul Theren
James Tooley
Chris Townsend
Timothy Waddy
One by one, ILM is completing the Episode I final effects shots, and some of those shots had their genesis in the work of a teenager. Ryan Tudhope is a member of David Dozoretz’s animatics team, which works hard at Skywalker Ranch to provide computer-generated (CG) “pre-visualizations” for most of the shots in Episode I. Brought on to the team in 1997 at age 18 with his friend Kevin Baillie, Ryan enjoyed the unusual experience of walking from high school right into the production team of a Star Wars movie. Producer Rick McCallum had spotted Ryan and Kevin’s high school CG experiments in a documentary, and McCallum kept an eye on the two for the next year. Ryan and his colleague Kevin “worked liked crazy” developing ever-more-sophisticated shots on the computers at their school, sending periodic updates to McCallum and David Dozoretz at the Ranch. Eventually they proved their skill with the Force, and two new Jedi initiates were summoned to Lucas’ headquarters in Northern California.
Ryan wasn’t sure what to expect from his new job. “I figured that David would have us doing only the boring stuff in support of the ‘real’ animatics team. I was all set for that-I would gladly do anything to work on a Star Wars movie!” But it didn’t work out that way. “We were hardly settled into our desks when David had us working on real shots that Martin Smith and George Lucas needed downstairs in the editing suites. I couldn’t believe that we were actually handing our own work straight to the editors. It turned out that we were on the real animatics team.”
“I’d seen their earlier projects,” says animatics leader David Dozoretz, “and when they joined the team we had a ton of shots to produce, ASAP. I didn’t have time for them to mess around. I knew they were capable of really helping and contributing. Rick and I wouldn’t have brought them on board otherwise. I had them doing real shots almost immediately. Once they were settled in with the new software, I threw them into the ‘sink or swim’ production environment. From there on, it was up to them to prove themselves.”
Was it intimidating at first? “Well, yes!” admits Ryan. “It was such a huge responsibility, and there was so much work to do so quickly. But then I learned that David wanted many of the shots in fairly low detail, and I thought, ‘that will save us.’ At least they didn’t have to be perfect. Making them perfect would be handled by ILM.” Actually, the animatics team ended up doing a great many shots with strikingly high detail in the end. On a small monitor you could mistake some of them for the final film-out effects. But thinking in terms of approximations helped Ryan get through the initial shock.
The wonder of it all didn’t wear off so quickly. “It hit me every day straight in the face, for a long time, what I was actually doing. Working at Skywalker Ranch, being part of such a fantastic team, learning so much and contributing to Episode I in a direct way. Sure, we still have a lot of support work to do, it’s part of the job. But it is the most amazing thing I have ever done.”
The pressure has remained high, to produce a lot, to produce it well. “Learning new software is always a little scary. But being part of a team like this helped me get up to speed quickly and learn what I needed to.” But much of what Ryan had to learn was not about technology, but about the art of filmmaking. “I had worked so hard learning CG techniques in high school,” he recalls. “But when I came to work for Lucasfilm I learned how to use those tools in the service of film. It turned out to be about art even more than technique. We were asked to create shots that were not just slick or sophisticated, they had to work in the context of the film and specifically help to tell the story. That is probably the biggest thing I have learned here. Crafting shots for a film is about telling a story, and that is an art more than a science.”
Ryan was also involved in work for the Episode I teaser trailer recently. He was called upon “in a rush, of course,” to work out various color and flare treatments for the logo that appears out of the flames at the end. In three hours, he, like everyone else on the animatics team, had five different treatments to show. The version seen in the trailer is a composite of team efforts. What kind of storytelling went into that? “Well,” Ryan says, “sometimes it is just about making things look cool.”
Ruling the galaxy requires elbowroom, a neatly organized work environment, and a heck of a view. Audiences got a glimpse of Senator Palpatine’s decorative tastes in his crimson-hued apartment in The Phantom Menace. In Attack of the Clones, Palpatine returns ten years later, as Supreme Chancellor, with surroundings that match his elevated political position.
“Doug Chiang asked me to give Palpatine’s headquarters an all-seeing view onto Coruscant,” recalls Concept Artist Jay Shuster, “It was an ideal theme in that it embodied who and what this man is all about.”
“People’s first impressions of the space may range from ‘Hey, this guy’s loaded,’ to ‘Nice view… that view could be corrupting,’” says Shuster. “Both reactions are valid: the design of Palpatine’s headquarters lends him an air of ‘Big Brother- hood’…as in Orwell’s 1984. Where does an ego like Palpatine’s go after he has an office space like this?”
Upon receiving Shuster’s illustrations, Production Designer Gavin Bocquet and his crew began examining the set in three-dimensions through detailed foam-core and whiteboard models.
“There’s a lot of stuff that goes on in there,” says Bocquet. This set was almost entirely built, as opposed to some of the other environments that consisted largely of bluescreen. “We basically worked almost 360-degrees. George [Lucas] wanted us to leave maybe 10 percent of the wall out on the right as you come in. That did give us an opportunity to move the camera crane in and out through the gap.”
The set, built in Fox Studios Australia, was finished in about seven weeks. “There were a lot of finishes to be done,” explains Bocquet.
The finished textures and details required even more effort than usual thanks to the incredible resolution of the new digital cameras. “It really does pick up a lot of your middle and background detail. It’s much more unforgiving in certain instances than celluloid is. In the film world, we’re always doing things theatrically, in a way that works for the cameras. But if you’re standing there, it might not look right. With the digital camera, we had to be a more careful since things that were in the middle distance were actually showing up more as scenic work than actual finishes. We had to take our finishes a bit further than we did before.”
Set your scanners and check out figures, roleplay items, and vehicles coming soon. starwars.com Team
For those who love The Mandalorian, can’t wait for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and even fans who call Halloween their favorite holiday, you’ll want to clear some space on your toy shelf. Today at San Diego Comic-Con 2022, Hasbro revealed tons of new Star Wars figures and more covering a wide spectrum of the saga, from series to video games, along with plenty of surprises. Check out all the big reveals below! (A skeleton clone trooper? Time to army build.)
Star Wars: The Black Series Darth Vader Force FX Elite LightsaberAvailable Fall 2022
Star Wars: The Vintage Collection Cal Kestis
Available Summer 2023
Star Wars: The Black Series Gaming Greats KX Security Droid
Available Spring 2023
Star Wars: The Black Series Gaming Greats B1 Battle Droid
5/10 reveals and first looks from the San Diego Comic-Con staple.
There’s a conflict brewing on Jedha, a nameless terror lurking in the galaxy, and a new class of Jedi heading to Star Wars: The High Republic later this year.During the Lucasfilm Publishing panel at San Diego Comic-Con this afternoon, creative director and moderator Michael Siglain was joined by eight Star Wars authors — Kristin Baver, Cecil Castellucci, Adam Christopher, Claudia Gray, George Mann, Beth Revis, Cavan Scott, and Kiersten White — reuniting to reveal book and comic covers, comic pages, and interior spreads from Phase II of The High Republic and beyond. Here are 10 reveals and first looks from the hour-long discussion.
1. We got our first look at the cover of Star Wars: The High Republic: The Battle of Jedha.
With a script by George Mann and a cover from artist Grant Griffin, the audio original story will take us back to the moon first glimpsed in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story for a new tale set during the apex of the Jedi Order.
2. But something wicked is plaguing the Jedi.
Mann will also pen the new Dark Horse limited series, Star Wars: The High Republic: The Nameless Terror. The first pages from artists Eduardo Mello and Ornella Savarese, introduce an array of new characters including a Bith Jedi!
3. Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures is returning.
During the panel, the cover of the new issue #1 from Dark Horse Comics was revealed featuring Sav Malagán and the tantalizing question: Padawan…or Pirate? The debut story will reunite writer Daniel José Older and illustrator Toni Bruno, with a cover by Harvey Tolibao.
4. We got our first look at the cover of Marvel’s Star Wars: The High Republic issue #2 and other issues heading to your local comic book shop this November.
Headed to a comic shop this fall, the second issue in the series once again features cover art by Ario Anindito and a story written by Cavan Scott.
And, we got our first look at cover art from Star Wars #29, Darth Vader #29, Doctor Aphra #26, Bounty Hunters #28, The Mandalorian #5, and Han Solo & Chewbacca #7.
5. Beth Revis showed us the rest of that dress from her new book, The Princess and The Scoundrel.
The full artwork from the cover of the forthcoming novel set after the events of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi gives us our first look at Han and Leia’s wedding, including the flowing gossamer gown worn by Princess Organa….
During the lead-up to Star Wars – Episode II : Attack of the Clones, the folks over at starwars.com created a fantastic in universe web site called Holonet News in which we got all kinds of news on the goings-on in the Star Wars universe and on Coruscant.
Here’s my attempt to archive some of the articles posted, including some hilarious ad banners.
Enjoy & Welcome to Holonet News
Mass Aqualish Exodus Expected
WESTPORT, CORUSCANT — Freespan Starlanes Transport has announced plans to double the number of scheduled liner departures for Ando, predicting increased travel from Andoan expatriates wishing to return. Other major starlines, including Romodi Interstellar and Galaxy Tours are expected to announce similar increases.
Already, within hours of the secession, over 500 Aqualish have booked passage off Coruscant. Westport, which handles the bulk of Coruscant’s emigrant departures, has experienced a 6,000 percent increase in traffic since the separatist crisis began.
“It’s clear where home is now,” said a harried Unga Torr, an Aqualish formerly employed as a Senate clerk. He and his family are just one of hundreds at the Westport ticketing stations today.
According to official census records, there are an estimated 145 million Aqualish living on Coruscant right now, most in the Taung Heights region of the city. The local Heights economy, much of it run by — or catering to — Aqualish, is expected to crumble.
Similar repercussions aren’t likely to be as hard-hitting in the Sy Myrthian population, which also declared secession today. There are only an estimated 15 million Sy Myrthians, widely distributed among the various municipalities of Coruscant.
While Westport deals with a mass Aqualish exodus, Eastport continues to take in a non-stop flood of refugees from seceded worlds. “You think this is bad now, wait until those Aqualish who still want to be part of the Republic start spilling in,” said an Eastport security officer who did not want to be identified.
Stark Veterans Blast Amidala
PHELAR, ERIADU — The Stark Veteran Assembly has publicly criticized Naboo Senator Padmé Amidala for statements attributed to her during a Peace Rally on Commenor. SVA Spokesbeing Laslo Dorits called Amidala’s statements “disgraceful, stupid and typical,” during a live interview on the Eriadu talk show, Essence, last night.
“Soldiers are expendable tools for politicians like her, who don’t like to muddy or bloody their hands with the defense of the Republic,” Dorits told host AndroosinLiann. “Yet it was soldiers who liberated her world a decade ago, and now she’s calling us cowards.”
The statement Dorits refers to is one Amidala made to a gathering of University of Commenor students during her planet-hopping Campaign against Republic Militarization. “Warfare is the product of cowardice; it takes bravery to forego easy answers and find peaceful resolutions,” the Senator said.
Amidala, who concludes her series of speeches on Chommel Minor next week, declined comment, but posted the following at the Naboo message exchange on the HoloNet.
“I have a great respect for the men and women tasked to protect their native soil. I too have lived with the specter of war, and will never forget it. What I don’t have respect for is needless warmongering of the type being conducted by alarmist elements in the Senate.”
Nikto Cultists Plague Sisar Run
DNALVEC, SRILUUR – The Bureau of Ships and Services has announced an advisory for travelers near the Sisar Run area of the Periphery, due to increased acts of violence from the Nikto Cult of M’dweshuu.The violent “blood cult” of Nikto followers have found their way off their homeworld of Kintan, and are in the midst of a campaign of scattered violence up and down the Sisar Run. The Cult — believed to be under 100 individuals — has killed 27 travelers in occult mutilations, the latest last week at Nwarcol Point.
The Nikto cult predates the Republic and has been put down by the ruling Hutts on numerous occasions, each time supposedly being wiped out. The Cult once ruled the planet Kintan, necessitating the brutal Hutt annexation of the planet centuries ago.
Local businesses and planetary governments have issued open bounties on free Nikto in the Periphery. Many of these bounties offer rewards of 1,000-5,000 credits “dead or alive.” As such, free Nikto (those not in the employ of Hutts or Hutt enterprises) are strongly advised from travel in the Periphery.
Dorosii the Hutt, Appointed Intermediate to the Senate, has assured Republic officials that they can resolve the cult violence without government intervention. Nonetheless, the Jedi Council is reportedly examining the situation and is likely to dispatch a taskforce.
Datanet Propaganda the Real Deal?
IBC ARCOLOGY, CORUSCANT — The most skilled slicers from MerenData are still puzzled how an IBC data-server was compromised for the spreading of separatist propaganda last week, even after having examined and purged the system.
IBC clients using the bank clan’s datacom-net would have received messages urging secession and Senate reform, with what looked to be a signature from Count Dooku. The Senate Bureau of Intelligence is dismissing the propaganda missives as hoaxes, but MerenData officials don’t readily concur.
“Ordinarily, we’d attribute this kind of vandalism to independent slicers looking to make a name for themselves,” said MerenData’s Security Administrator Gray Tucker. “But to cut into the banking clan’s network suggests that these people had impressive backing.”
IBC officials continue to tell investors that their systems are secure, and point to the fact that only their message-exchange systems were compromised, and not their more tightly guarded transaction channels. “The safety of our clients investment is always our paramount concern,” says IBC Chairman San Hill in a message that accompanies all account statements dispatched to investors this month.
RM&S; Debates Calendar Reform
MENNAA, MRLSST – The Republic Measures & Standards Bureau is debating the issue of calendar reform, prompted by an independent report citing “an impending bureaucratic crisis of disparate timekeeping” in official records. According to the report, there are over 20 different dating schemes in use in various government offices throughout the Republic, all of them “official” in some capacity. “The use of multiple timekeeping schemes was originally to accommodate different cultural backgrounds,” said RM&S; Chair Keelen Ma, “but now it’s just a tangled mess of confusion. We’ve got the Judiciary using the 10-month standard calendar, archivists using the Alderaanian 11-month notation, and infrastructure using a hexidecimal-based system. Researchers are getting tired of needing calendar converters in their pads.” The current debate stems over which zero-point year-notation system is the best, with the Great ReSynchronization of 13 years ago and the Ruusan Reformation of a millennium ago being popular contenders.
Rep. Binks Destroys Ice Statue at Gala Fundraiser
JRADE PLAZA, CORUSCANT — He did it again; Representative Jar Jar Binks (Naboo) accidentally destroyed an elaborate ice statue at a gala fundraiser in Coruscant’s posh Jrade-district last night. The notoriously maladroit Binks apparently had tucked the tablecloth upon which rested the statue into his cummerbund, and he pulled down the intricately-crafted Kime Enanrum-original when he attempted to catch tumbling canapés he had knocked from a passing waiter. This incident echoes a similar one two months ago, when Binks accidentally deactivated the sky dome at the opening of the Endangered Shreebird Aviary. “I knew he was invited to attend,” said a crestfallen Enanrum, “I don’t know what I was thinking even bringing it here.”
Ando, Sy Myrth Secede
QUANTILL CITY, ANDO – Less than two standard hours after this morning’s secession of Ando and Sy Myrth was made official, jubilant anti-Republic protestors filled the streets of Quantill City’s busy Raquish Thoroughfare, celebrating the separation.This morning’s Senate session saw the formal departure of Ando and Sy Myrth from the Republic. The world’s representatives, Senators Po Nudo and Toonbuck Toora, respectively, did not appear in Senate, and instead tendered their resignations via droid proxy.
Aqualish from scattered territories and backgrounds converged in the city square, holding placards denouncing the Republic and celebrating their beloved Senator. At least several Republic Senate Guards were burned in effigy.
“Ando will now determine her own future,” said a proud First Minister Daragi Hoba via hologram to the Andoan revelers. “It is meant to be, given the rampant hypocrisy of Palpatine’s Republic. The current dispute over the creation of a Republic army is just another in a long line of insults to the Aqualish people.”
Hoba was referencing the long history of Republic instituted demilitarization of the Andoan people, which often led to bloody conflicts like the Battle of Raquish, and the Horos Spine Incident.
Senator Nudo was not seen on Ando during the celebration, and is likely in-transit, returning from Coruscant.
The secession of Sy Myrth comes as little surprise to Coruscant insiders. Senator Toora had been absent from duty for over a standard month, and Republic transports destined for Sy Myrth have been declined passage for the past 25 days.
Senator Toora has long been a political opponent to Palpatine. A decade ago, she sided with Trade Federation representatives during the Naboo incident, and she has been a vocal critic of the Republic’s efforts to regulate Commerce Guild operations in the Outer Rim.
“Since Sy Myrth is largely self-sufficient and quite wealthy, I think the only thing the planet will ‘suffer’ is being released from the burden of Republic taxation,” said Sy Myrthian com-host and political commentator Brookish Boon during his morning broadcast.
The Chancellor’s Office was unavailable for comment, though these latest losses will most likely be addressed during tomorrow’s Senate session.
HoloNet News is Back and Secure
Following the unfortunate slicer attacks of 2:25, the free edition of HoloNet News is now back online and more secure than ever. Our networks now employ MerenData’s latest socketguards and a state-of-the-art Mandalmatrix system security administrator. We will spare no cost in providing you, the readers of the Republic, a fast, accurate and above-all, secure news experience.
We would like to remind readers that only the free-access version of the HoloNet News was affected. The full-subscription edition, available for only 45 credits and filled with up-to-the-minute updates from throughout the regions of the galaxy, was in no way disturbed. Remember, a HoloNet News full subscription makes a great gift!
We have been assured that the Judiciary is investigating the slicing matter. Our recovery applications are busily piecing together or former archives, and we ask for your patience while we recover our previous issues.
– The Editorial Staff of HoloNet News
IA Pulls R5’s Plug
RORDIS CITY, NUBIA — After a year of disappointing sales, Industrial Automaton president Julynn Kentas confirmed that the droid manufacturing giant is canceling production on their R5-series of astromech droids. The droid was originally marketed as an affordable alternative to the higher priced R2. However, cost-cutting measures led to compromises, or what Mechtech Illustrated called “a meter-tall stack of the worst business decisions you could possibly want.” IA hopes to recoup losses by reusing existing R5 shells in their moderately successful line of R2-AG and R4 agromech droids. The highly popular R2, R3 and R4 units will continue to see production.
Duros Dispute Encyclopedia
JYVUS SPACE CITY, DURO — Duros Chief Representative Officer Hoolidan Keggle formally criticized Triplanetary Press, the publishers of Encyclopedia Galactica during his State of the Union address. Calling their work “sloppy and insensitive,” Keggle took offense to the Neimoidian entry, which currently reads “See: Duros.” Said Keggle, “While we do recognize a distant, distant common ancestry, we have since gone very different ways. We simply do not understand how any could confuse our peoples with theirs.”
Podracing Banned on Caprioril
DOOLIS, CAPRIORIL — The efforts of the Ratts Tyerell Foundation have yielded the banning of Podracing on the planet Caprioril. Proconsul Shren Whist announced the closing down the Doolis Podrace Arena, which will be transformed into another facility whose function is yet to be determined. “We don’t want to see any more families torn apart by this unreasonably violent so-called sport,” said the victorious Pabs Tyerell, Foundation spokesbeing and son of the late Podracing champion Ratts, who died a decade ago in competition.
Less Hawk-bats Means Early Summer
WEATHERNET NODE, CORUSCANT — The Coruscant Weather Control Network (WeatherNet) will be switching to summer early this year at the request of the Wildlife Commission. In response to decreasing hawk-bat populations, the Wildlife Commission hopes to extend the hawk-bat mating cycle by making the summer longer for the indigenous birds. Summer temperatures and hours will begin on the 23rd. Autumn’s start date is not affected.
No Frills, No Thrills: The Mobquet A-1 Deluxe
By Clegg Holdfast
It’s hard to tell just what the “Deluxe” in the Mobquet A-1 Deluxe refers to. In an industry where the luxury slice of the consumer pie is quickly being gobbled by SoroSuub, Incom and zZip Motor Concepts, Mobquet Swoops and Speeders have decided to think cheap. The results are, well, on-target.
The Deluxe won’t be winning any awards for performance. Or appearance. Or just about anything else. But, to be fair, what can one expect for 6,500 credits standard?
The Mobquet A-1’s cost: 6,500 credits. Its worth? Well…
It’s a capsule-shaped craft, with pilot and passenger sitting in single file. This, to some, at least suggests the appearance of speed or invokes images of cloud car or suborbital hoppers. But opening the engines all out will only deliver about 160 kilometers per hour of raw speed – hardly the stuff records are made of.
Though not powerful, the engines are sturdy and reliable, the six RS-J24 thruster modules are well-crafted pieces, and the Mobquet A-1 shows ‘em off. In fact, it sacrifices logical ergonomics to do so – to crawl out of the craft, pilot and passenger must show faith in the cooling shrouds, lest they get burned by the exposed engines they have to crawl over!
And speaking of cooling, that’s the Deluxe’s other great flaw. A series of inlet ports on the speeder’s nose draws in air to cool the engine banks. The air channels bracket the engine compartment, but their insulation leaves much to be desired. Not only is noise contamination a problem, exterior odors pour into the cabin as well, making travel on polluted worlds a choking pain.
Mobquet’s Deluxe-1 campaign stresses affordability, but ask yourself – is that all you deserve? A functional speeder at a low cost? The standard model lacks any sort of amenities, including autopilot, entertainment module, and navigation beacon. Sure, they can be purchased as add-ons, but why bother? In its current configuration, the A-1 can only achieve an altitude of about two meters. Mobquet does offer an altitude sled package, but at nearly half the cost of the speeder it clearly isn’t worth it.
I suppose the A-1 is good for Outer Rim and frontier worlds. Now, I don’t know about you, but if I’m stuck on the frontier, I sure don’t want to look the part. At the very least, it’s a good starter kit for the customizing craze that’s sweeping the Core’s youthful speeder crowd.
Data at a Glance Manufacturer: Mobquet Swoops & Speeders Model: A-1 Deluxe floater Type: Landspeeder Length: 7.1 meters Crew: 1 Passengers: 1 Maximum Speed: 160 kilometers per hour Maximum Altitude: 2 meters
Virgillian Jedi Envoy Declared Lost
VIRGILLIAN NODE – The Jedi diplomatic envoy dispatched to broker peace talks in the Virgillian Civil War has been declared lost after having been missing for three standard weeks. Four Jedi — Masters Ludwin Katarkus and Everen Ettene plus their Padawans Danyawarra and Halagad Ventor — left Coruscant last month to try to settle the two-year old conflict between the Virgillian Free Alignment and the Aristocracy. Upon arrival, their transport was attacked and destroyed. The Jedi Temple will be holding services for the fallen protectors tomorrow.
Muja Attacks Junior League Xenoadmissions
ORONT, ELOM – Colorful smashball analyst Kav Muja blasted Elomin junior league officials during the second recess of the Ranphyx’s 4-2 loss to the Corellian Dreadnaughts.”Why are we losing to the worst team in the league?” shouted Muja. “It’s because we trained their best players. The galaxy sends their kids to our smashball schools, so the league turns around and says, `Sorry little Timi Elomin, you can’t learn to play smashball” Nari Naboo took your spot.’ You can’t fly a freighter when you’re chasing a cherfer. It’s a disgrace!”Muja’s tirade unexpectedly turned to interplanetary politics. “I’ve got a message for you planets talking about separating from the Republic. Just leave or don’t, but shut up about it. It’s been years of `we’re leaving” we mean it, we’re gunna go’. Listen! We don’t care, but don’t come back. I don’t want to see you at the Senate door next year.”
Priole Danna Festival Still a Go
GRYLE CITY, LAMUIR IV — Despite increasing tensions throughout the Republic, Lamuirian officials insist that the annual Priole Danna Festival will continue as scheduled.
The 2,345th festival is renowned as an energetic celebration of revelry, parades and dramatic reenactments on an otherwise placid planet, Lamuir IV. The most popular attraction is the Anapolla Musical Splash, which features famous recording artists and talented up-and-comers.
The Festival was in question following statements by last year’s master-of-ceremonies, Diva Arroquitas, to the effect that she refuses to travel during the current separatist crisis.
“Now more than ever people need to concentrate on life, music and love, and that’s exactly what the Priole Danna is all about,” assures Festival Director Eizzam Stachrini. The Festival is scheduled for to start on 13:6:12.
Over at TheDIRECT, in which I feel they give the article a title that could be misinterpreted as if it was going to be critical (for what reason, I don’t know), actor John Boyega gives his opinion on the Disney+ show Obi-Wan Kenobi:
Boyega has spoken often about his time playing FN-2187/Finn in the sequel trilogy, shining a light on the positives of being part of the Star Wars universe as well as some of the negatives. Even having largely felt misutilized in the last couple of theatrical releases, there may be a chance that he returns to the role in the future, but he’s admitted that it would have to be alongside co-stars Daisy Ridley and Oscar Isaac.
Regardless of what his future holds in terms of playing Finn for Disney and Lucasfilm again, Boyega remains up to date with everything that Lucasfilm continues to develop within the Star Wars narrative. Recently, he even shared his thoughts on the franchise’s newest release, Obi-Wan Kenobi, giving fans his honest review of Ewan McGregor’s return to the galaxy far, far away…
Propmaster Brad Elliott discusses linking Jabba the Hutt to the burgeoning Rebel Alliance in the new limited series.
Through the props and costumes of Star Wars, we find a tangible link to connect with the characters from a galaxy far, far away and the stories they inhabit. Inside the Lucasfilm Archive, take a closer look at these artifacts and the stories behind their design.
Nods to previous Star Wars storytelling are scattered throughout the props utilized in the new Obi-Wan Kenobi limited series, with careful study of prequel pieces informing items pulled directly from Kenobi’s time in the Jedi Order and the circular hilts of the Inquisitor lightsabers making the leap from animation.
But among the items that begin to signal a burgeoning rebellion, it’s surprising to find connections to the crime boss Jabba the Hutt and his Tatooine abode.…
Episode I exists in a technological paradox. It is a chapter of the Star Wars story that takes place decades before the classic Trilogy, and yet it was created two decades after the original movie. While some visual effects techniques have changed very little over the years, today’s effects specialists use many tools that didn’t even exist when audiences first sat down in darkened theaters to watch the adventures of Luke Skywalker and the Rebellion go up against the Empire. Many effects are being done far differently at the turn of the century, and onscreen results are better than they ever were. But that usually means that today’s effects also look different than their aging counterparts. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon ignite their lightsabers aboard one of the Federation Battleships.Through their work on The Phantom Menace, Industrial Light & Magic had to achieve a delicate balance between superior technology and movie continuity.
On Episode I, Visual Effects Supervisor Scott Squires and his team were responsible for the lightsaber sequences and everything that had to do with the city of Theed. So part of their work involved dealing with two effects that had been born with the original Star Wars movie: the familiar lightsaber blades, and the holograms, used as visual transmission devices.
“In Episode IV, Princess Leia calls upon Obi-Wan Kenobi for help.George Lucas liked the way the holograms looked in the previous movies,” explains Squires, “so we tried to recreate that look. The basic process involves shooting the holographic persons against either black or blue, and then isolating them. After that, the image is run through special filters to give it some transparency, to create video break-out and make it look like it has been processed.” Whereas visual effects artists normally try to make the process of their work invisible to the spectator’s eye, cleverly covering their tracks, the hologram effect is an interesting example of work done in the opposite direction. “With today’s technology,” says Squires, “ we could also make things look better, perhaps more realistic, but we need to keep it consistent through the whole series.” Seen through the hologram effect, the status of Episode I becomes doubly paradoxical. In Episode I, Darth Sidious often uses holographic projections to communicate with his accomplices. First, ILM uses advanced technology to degrade an image projection instead of enhancing it. And second, the visual effects wizards, whose digital tools would allow them to do an even better “demolition job” on the characters appearing as holograms, had to be careful not to degrade the image too much and run the risk of breaking continuity with the way holograms looked in the classic Trilogy. “Today, the hologram effect is done digitally,” says Squires. “But for the classic movies, the technique was quite different. They would shoot the character, then play the footage on a video screen, and shoot the video screen. This would already create some distortion and noise – but they added to it by having someone loosen the plug or shake the equipment around.” This inventive method made the image on the video screen appear degraded. Which it was.
Another classic effect, that of the lightsaber blades, also had to be kept just the way it had been established in the previous Star Wars movies, despite the leaps and bounds enjoyed by digital technology since A New Hope. “We could have done something much more elaborate, much more exotic,” Squires says, “but once again we simply had to respect continuity.” So even though the blades of the laser swords are no longer painted by hand, one frame after another, the digital artists have done all they could to retain the look and feel associated with the lightsabers of Skywalker father and son and Obi-Wan Kenobi, both at rest and in motion.
Luke ignites his lightsaber for the first time. In the first Star Wars movie, a scene where a lightsaber was ignited needed to be achieved in a least two shots, because the lightsaber handle had to be replaced with another handle fitted with a solid “blade” covered with reflective tape. In Empire and Jedi, lightsabers being ignited would have their blades hand-drawn at the end of the handles, while in Episode I igniting lightsabers were given their blades through computer graphics. The same techniques were brought into play to “doctor” the fighting sequences, were the metal rods used in lieu of laser blades were optically or digitally replaced. The technique used to generate the glowing, diffused light of a lightsaber – and many other visual effects – is called rotoscoping. Rotoscoping has been used throughout the Star Wars saga and is in fact one of the most essential tools at the disposal of the visual effects artists. Moving from the optical realm to the digital sphere, the art of rotoscoping is a perfect example of visual effects technology evolving as it should: right under the spectators’ noses without them noticing any seam in the transition.
Visual effects artists use rotoscoping to track a visual element they need to modify, remove, or add to a sequence. Developed in 1917 by animation pioneer Max Fleischer, rotoscoping remained virtually unchanged for seventy-five years. Traditionally, visual effects artists would use the rotoscope, a high-perched camera/projector combination looking straight down at a flat work surface, to project scenes from a movie, frame by frame. One of ILM’s rotoscopes, as used by artist Barbara Brennan in the early ’80s.On each frame, they would trace by hand the elements to be worked on, creating a series of cells used as guidelines to indicate where the special effects needed to go. For the lightsaber blades, for instance, rotoscoping experts traced the “stick” blade of each prop lightsaber, showing the animators exactly where the blue, red and green glows needed to be positioned. Once the blades had been created as separate elements, they would be optically added to the live-action images.
With the computer, things are different. Now rotoscoping is accomplished within the digital realm, and new tools have been developed to speed up the process. “Nowadays you can indicate to the computer that your elbow and arm are here,” says Squires, “and that you want these two elements traced. Digital rotoscoping then allows you to tell the computer that ten frames later the elements are over there, and the computer will go ahead and generate everything in between the two positions.” Once the guidelines have been established for each frame, computer animators step in and create the effects that will be later added to the original footage. Everything is now digital, but the technique remains surprisingly similar to what it has always been. And through better technology and special effects techniques stepping from the physical world into the virtual one, ILM strives to remain true to the classic look of the Star Wars saga. “For things like the lightsabers, we’ll put in the glow and the shimmer, and when they cross we’ll add a flash and all the other details that fans are used to,” Squires says. “But no matter what the technology is or becomes, we’ll always remain consistent within the Star Wars universe.”
