In part 2 of From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga, we learn about the genesis of the Jabba’s Palace sequence and creature creation in Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. George Lucas says that he was disappointed with the cantina scene from Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. He wanted it to have more exotic creatures, but production problems and a lack of funds prohibited this. Jabba’s Palace — “The monster rally of George’s dreams” as described by narrator Mark Hamill — gave him another chance. It featured more than 80 creatures, including the Max Rebo Band (designed by Phil Tippett), which was more monsters than had ever been assembled for a single movie. They all began life as maquettes, sculpted over and over until the designs were right, and then built into full-scale puppets and masks. Muscles controlling expression were accomplished with either wire cables or air tubes hidden inside the masks, giving aliens like the Gamorrean Guard the ability to emote.
Lucas made frequent visits to the creature shop, and is seen in the documentary advising on how the Sy Snootles puppet could convincingly work for the film. Ultimately, it took three puppeteers — two below, one above — to bring the singer to life.
*Part 5 of the Empire of Dreams: Making of Star Wars documentary from the Star Wars Trilogy 2004 DVD set.
An in-depth making of documentary about the original Star Wars trilogy, covering the productions of the three films and their impact on popular culture.
*Please note this is a trailer for the Documentary, not the full length version.
From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga is the classic documentary chronicling the creation of the original Star Wars trilogy.
Narrated by Mark Hamill, it features rare behind-the-scenes footage from Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, and is officially available on YouTube for the first time.
In part 1 of From Star Wars to Jedi, Hamill explains the main plot of the saga and the story of Luke Skywalker, a Tatooine farmboy who discovers his Jedi destiny. On his journey across the galaxy, Luke would confront evil in the form of Darth Vader, Sith Lord; learn from Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda; and discover both the dark side and light side within himself. Princess Leia, Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, and other companions would join Luke — but he would face the ultimate villain, the Emperor, alone. Filming of the original Star Wars began in Tunisia in 1975, with George Lucas serving as writer/director; Irvin Kershner helmed The Empire Strikes Back; and Richard Marquand was behind the camera for Return of the Jedi. As seen in the video, Lucas was heavily involved in all the films, including effects sequences like the Death Star attack and Hamill’s costume fitting from Return of the Jedi. In an interview, Lucas explains that creating the world in A New Hope was a big hurdle. With that done, he was free to tell bigger and better stories with its sequels…
*Part 4 of the Empire of Dreams: Making of Star Wars documentary from the Star Wars Trilogy 2004 DVD set.
An in-depth making of documentary about the original Star Wars trilogy, covering the productions of the three films and their impact on popular culture.
*Please note this is a trailer for the Documentary, not the full length version.
*Part 3 of the Empire of Dreams: Making of Star Wars documentary from the Star Wars Trilogy 2004 DVD set.
An in-depth making of documentary about the original Star Wars trilogy, covering the productions of the three films and their impact on popular culture.
*Please note this is a trailer for the Documentary, not the full length version.
*Part 2 of the Empire of Dreams: Making of Star Wars documentary from the Star Wars Trilogy 2004 DVD set.
An in-depth making of documentary about the original Star Wars trilogy, covering the productions of the three films and their impact on popular culture.
*Please note this is a trailer for the Documentary, not the full length version.
R2-D2: Beneath the Dome is a 2001 mockumentary short originally created for starwars.com starring R2-D2 in a fictionalized life story of the droid from the Star Wars film series.
*Part 1 of the Empire of Dreams: Making of Star Wars documentary from the Star Wars Trilogy 2004 DVD set.
An in-depth making of documentary about the original Star Wars trilogy, covering the productions of the three films and their impact on popular culture.
*Please note this is a trailer for the Documentary, not the full length version.
R2-D2: Beneath the Dome is a 2001 mockumentary short originally created for starwars.com staring R2-D2 in a fictionalized life story of the droid from the Star Wars film series.
In part five of Ralph McQuarrie, Star Wars Concept Artist: Tribute to a Master, concept artist and illustrator Marc Gabanna, Industrial Light & Magic’s Scott Farrar, and others continue their discussion of the industry giant’s work, from his personal style to the wide-ranging impact of his paintings.
R2-D2: Beneath the Dome is a 2001 mockumentary short originally created for starwars.com staring R2-D2 in a fictionalized life story of the droid from the Star Wars film series.
This is an excerpt from the Ralph McQuarrie tribute “Dreams and Visions Press” produced for Star Wars Celebration VI in 2012, drawing from interviews conducted for a feature length documentary on Ralph McQuarrie that is currently in production.
In part three of this retrospective on Ralph McQuarrie, concept artist of the original Star Wars trilogy, George Lucas, Dave Filoni, and others discuss his influence on Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Ralph McQuarrie, concept artist of the original Star Wars trilogy, was essential in bringing the characters, ships, and locales of a galaxy far, far away to life. In part two of this special tribute, Star Wars designer Doug Chiang, concept artist and illustrator Marc Gabbana, and Fan Relations Advisor Steve Sansweet weigh in on the daunting task of following in Ralph’s legendary footsteps and his work’s lasting impact on the Star Wars universe.
Ralph McQuarrie, concept artist of the original Star Wars trilogy, was essential in bringing the characters, ships, and locales of a galaxy far, far away to life. In this special retrospective, Star Wars creator George Lucas, Industrial Light & Magic effects legend Dennis Muren, and many others discuss the impact of McQuarrie, his artistic gifts, and his legacy.
Working closely with the Costume and Make-up Departments, Chief Hairdresser Sue Love was responsible for one more of the crucial elements that work their magic to bring to life the characters of Episode I.
“I’ve always been a hairdresser, always wanted to be a hairdresser,” begins Love, whose career in the movies began around the time Star Wars opened. “I had done everything in the salon, had gone as far as I could. And in the 70’s, when blow drying came in, it all became very boring. So I made some contacts in the film business, and when I was given a chance, I took it.” Love has been at it ever since, weaving her hairdressing spell in such productions as Braveheart and The Fifth Element. “My very first project was a movie called Arabian Adventure,” she recalls. “I then worked on a British television series called The Professional, and I went on from there.” With her daughter Sarah in tow, Love was unwittingly planting the hairdressing bug in her family lineage. “I used to follow mom around,” says Sarah, “and I eventually ended up training as a hairdresser myself. I then worked in the theater industry for a couple of years before moving to films.” Over the years, mother and daughter collaborated on a few projects, including The Fifth Element. They were reunited once again when Producer Rick McCallum hired them to work on Episode I.
Sculpting hairstyles on the set requires a broader range of abilities than what might be expected in the salon, and proper training is key. “You just need to have an all-around knowledge of hair and hairdressing,” explains Sue Love. “I was fortunate in my training during the 60’s, because you got that, you did everything. Nowadays they just don’t do it anymore, they pretty much just do the cutting and the drying. But for all the period work, you have to know how to do the different hairstyles, you have to master the different techniques, the wigs and everything.” The approach to movie hairstyling can also be very different than standard hairdressing, both in terms of the techniques involved and the expected results. “First of all, there’s not as much worry about permanency,” says Sue Love. “You can sometimes use temporary techniques, because you know that hair only needs a lifespan of a few hours.” This allows hairdressers to create complex hairstyles that, if required to last for any significant period of time, would be impossible to achieve. “Then there is the fact that you know your work is going to end up onscreen,” Love continues, “and that your tiny mistake will be magnified and appear on a 40-foot wide head. So you’ve got to be extra careful.”
On Episode I, Sue and Sarah Love had one month to prepare before principal photography began. Armed with concept art and tapes of the original Trilogy, they started planning. “We spoke to George, and he gave us directions,” says Sue Love. “He’s very clear and definite in what he wants, but of course he leaves the methods of achieving those results to us. And he always listens when we tell him that something is impossible.” But the Loves were determined not to let this happen often, no matter how complex the designs of Concept Artist Iain McCaig proved to be. But concept art only covered hairdos for the main characters, and for all the others who wore hair, it was up to Sue and her daughter Sarah to give them convincing hairstyles. “We didn’t do all the rest,” points out Sue Love. “There are quite a lot of creatures in this movie, and we didn’t work on those for obvious reasons. And we didn’t work on the digital characters either.” That still leaves a large population that needs hair care. “In order to prepare for the job,” continues Love, “we watched all three original movies. We spent a whole day just watching the movies, rewinding scenes and watching them again, over and over again.” The Loves played the movies in chronological order, but also watched them in reverse, so that they could somehow “devolve” the hairstyles from Return of the Jedi to A New Hope, and all the way down to Episode I. “We had to grasp not only the differences between the people from Tatooine and the people from Naboo, but also the variations in the way they wear their hair from one timeframe to another,” says Sarah Love. “From one movie to another, the characters are all related in some way, and we wanted to preserve that continuity.”
For practical reasons, a movie is usually shot out of sequence, which means that hair management can become a complex puzzle at times. Unlike make-up artists, hairdressers can’t afford the luxury of erasing a mistake and starting over. Once the scissors have thinned or shortened an actor’s hair, there is no turning back. Wigs can help up to a certain point, but they remain far from being an ideal remedy. The character of Obi-Wan Kenobi, among others, required some wizardry on the part of the Loves. “We had to cut Ewan’s hair quite short and give him a braid on one side,” explains Sue Love. “But then George thought a pony tail at the back of the head would look good, which is of course we couldn’t do since the hair was gone! So we shuffled around, found some hair that matched Ewan’s, and attached it. And George was right: it worked beautifully.”
Stunt doubles also carry with them their load of practical problems for hairdressers, because the transition from one performer to the other, on screen, must be accomplished seamlessly. “At first we tried dyeing the hair of Ewan’s stunt double, but it didn’t quite work,” Sue Love says. “So we had to use a wig. It worked well, but you still have to be extremely careful and really pay attention, because the better the match between actor and stunt double, the closer the camera can go on the double.” For obvious reasons, stunt doubles are often shot from a back angle; this makes hair is one of the main elements, along with the costume, that allow audiences to readily recognize the character. “So it should be really exact,” comments Sue Love.
As is the case for make-up artists, the job of the hairdressing team doesn’t stop once the actors leave their reclining chairs. On the set, and especially when shooting an action-packed movie like Episode I, Sue Love and her team have to stand ready to spring into some action of their own. “There’s always some piece of hair that has moved where it shouldn’t have, and you need to bring it back to where it was in the previous shot,” explains Sue Love. “So we work closely with the Continuity Supervisor, and it’s really helpful. On Episode I, Jayne-Ann Tenggren helped a lot in keeping all the tiny details straight.” There are never too many pairs of eyes paying attention to the subtleties of hair placement – or displacement, as it often happened during the action scenes of The Phantom Menace. The hairdresser is also required to be on set to perform the many transformations the actors’ hair might need during the day, as the characters move from one location to another, and emerge from one adventure only to plunge back into the next. “The hair’s got to be wet, dry, messy, tidy…and you need to keep track of it all,” laughs Sue Love. “We take a lot of reference pictures.” Rick McCallum felt confident that every single detail would be attended to with the utmost professionalism. “Sue did the most outstanding job during the production,” McCallum says. “It was a real pleasure to have her with us on this project.”
While a character’s hair obviously has to work with his or her make-up, the match between hair and costume is no less important. On Episode I, with elaborate costumes worn by Queen Amidala and other characters, the delicate fusion between the hair and the cloth required skill and imagination. “We usually like to see the costume first,” explains Sue Love, “and then do something, with the hair, that will fit that costume.” Governor Sio Bibble, played by Oliver Walpole, is a case in point. He wears the elegant garments of a Naboo politician, and needed a haircut to match. “With short hair it just didn’t look right.” says Sue Love. “So we opted for the period, longer hair, and it all came together.” In the case of hairstyles that had been previously designed, almost as part of the costume itself, by Iain McCaig, the Chief Hairdresser’s job didn’t lose any of its complexity: bringing a fantasy hairdo into the real world can be quite a challenge. Queen Amidala, in particular, proved to require special attention, and had the Loves use their full range of skills to create the intricate, royal hair designs. “It was indeed complicated,” says Sue Love, “but in the end it looked absolutely spectacular. So it was worth the effort, especially since Natalie Portman made it so easy for us. She never complained about the head pieces being too hot or too heavy – and some of them were hot and heavy. She was great.”
Hairstyles are one of the many elements that define the identity of the Star Wars saga. And like everything else, they have to be just right for their influence to blend perfectly with the tone created by the costumes, the make-ups, the props, the sets…. So how do you conjure up a Star Wars hairdo? Above the funky, otherworldly twists present in many of the coiffures of Star Wars characters, one quality reigns supreme: timelessness. To achieve this, George Lucas has relied on influences that are already considered classic and will therefore never feel outdated, no matter where in time – or in space – they end up being positioned. So the Loves have followed Lucas’ lead. “There is very little that’s futuristic in Episode I”, says Sarah Love. “Pretty much all the costumes and hairstyles are period, classic.”
And so the wheel keeps turning. By the time moviegoers witness the conclusion of Episode III, the various costume and hairstyle designs will have been brought to a point where they connect with what exists in the original Trilogy. Ironically, the influence will still be a classic one, because those Episode III designs will be tapping into material that appeared in Episodes IV, V and VI, and which was made classic by the equally timeless quality of the original Star Wars movies.
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.
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.
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.
