Empire BIG SCREEN : Queues gathering at the entrance

Industrial Light & Magic Presentation for Star Wars™

     Despite feeling let down by George Lucas and having to come to terms with the fact that Star Wars™ is now for another generation I have more Star Wars™ merchandise than any grown man should have and I still cling to my childhood memories of how the original Star Wars™ trilogy swept me away and my thoughts of how I could not believe that someone actually made a film that so completely transported me away to “a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away” and created a world with a history and mythology that enveloped me. Also the most expensive book I bought myself while still making my bones was Industrial Light and Magic: Art of Special Effects, which was ridiculously expensive back in the 80s in the old country but was a source of much inspiration .

     So how could I resist listening to Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) host an ILM Star Wars™: Industrial Light & Magic discussion with Digital Artist John Goodson and Visual Effects Supervisor Bill George as well as preview the Star Wars™: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray?

     While waiting for the session Imperial Stormtroopers from the 501st UK Garrison ensured that the queue remained orderly, but a big surprise for me was meeting the original Boba Fett - Mr. Jeremy Bulloch. I see Bulloch at many conventions but this was the first time I have had the opportunity to chat with him. This impromptu moment alone was worth the trip to the O2 and I could happily gone home at that point had it not been for this moment a couple of minutes later. Which I would have missed had I gone home (obviously).



Key points from the Industrial Light & Magic Presentation For Star Wars™

Anthony Daniels started with a great little tale of how when he was working on Star Wars™ A New Hope, he was so embarrassed he kept the details of his work very quiet. How things have changed.

As the ILM Digital Artist John Goodson and Visual Effects Supervisor Bill George have come through practical special effects to computer generated effects Anthony Daniels was curious about the pros and cons of both.

The team pointed out that one of the first CG effects ever created was actually in the first Star Wars™ A New Hope film.



John Goodson saw Star Wars™ A New Hope on opening day and 31 times in total that year.

Bill George Visual Effects Supervisor Bill George started at ILM in 1981 and conceded that back then creating an effect was different as you didn’t know how you would create an effect. All the departments would get together to figure it out; sometimes it would solved by building a miniature, sometimes it would be a matte painting, sometimes it would be solved through the costume department. You just never knew.

These days as John says, it is all solved by the computer. You have this clay in the computer and every solution is derived from that. And it kind of takes a little bit of the fun out of it.

With Star Wars™: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray release this will be the first time that the first Star Wars™ trilogy will be seen at this high a resolution. And hopefully not too many errors will be popping out.

ILM Digital Artist John Goodson: Yea, the problem was the best part of the model shop. If someone came in and said they wanted a plane to crash into a rice paddy at night. You would have to figure out how big the plane was, what it was made of, how you make the rice paddy, how does it interact with the water in the rice paddy and those type of problems. So all this problem solving.

Using computers I always say anything from an artichoke to an aircraft carrier, you kind of do it the same way. How long does it take to model? How long to rig it? How long to paint it? It’s kind of like a conveyor belt.

We then looked at some of the restored 40 Hours of previously unseen footage of an All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT) walker being pushed over by a stick and a hand on a miniature set from The Empire Strikes Back.

John Goodson: About 4-5 Feet

John Goodson: As with any models, there were a lot of different Death Stars used and presumably some of them have been destroyed but no the Death Star is in a museum in Seattle and I have seen it.

Then Bill George explained the difference between matte painting and digital compositing.

This is fairly common knowledge but if you would like to know more, below is a phenomenal 60 minute documentary on ILM history and techniques called ILM - Creating the Impossible narrated by Tom Cruise.




John Goodson: Concept models are made by the Art Department. Then we would build large 1/8 scale models and they were used for a couple of different things; there are shots in the pod race hangar where we had all of them in there and we dress the whole set and vehicles. They are also photographed and those photos are used by the Digital Department to map onto the digital pod racers [so you get the real paint job and textures match on the digital models perfectly].

So we had full size set pieces, we had miniatures; we had the digital versions that were used for the flying shots.

The digital models are more complex because they can incorporate all the moving features, it can have all the interior components and you animate every single component of it. Which would be much harder to do with a practical model.

This was a nice segway into looking at the incredible high resolution detail of some of the models on the Star Wars™: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray as well as explore the menus.

John Goodson: The original foam latex puppet has a shelf life and won’t last for ever.

John Goodson: The original foam latex puppet has a shelf life and won’t last forever.

Bill George : No, we touched up the colours and not much else at all.

John Goodson: The old everything and the kitchen sink space method? That tennis shoe is actually in Producer Howard Kazanjian’s office. Yea, the Naboo City miniature set was about 40-60 feet big and made in such amazing detail. Including those green gardens. I thought someone would have to mow those lawns. So I added a tiny guy with a lawnmower and over the next couple of weeks I noticed him being moved around with the set.

John Goodson: His feet were actually on the floor. But there is something we have called Uncanny Valley, as the human brain is too adept and there are too many subtle nuances for us to accept to some effects, like a computer generated human face. Subconsciously we reject them even though visually they are correct.

Bill George : Also there is an assumption that because we are ILM, but we don't have unlimited resources and are often under pressure to meet deadlines so sometimes good enough is OK.

Anthony Daniels: Apparently the 30 - 40 scenes will be one of the special features accessed via the menu and one hour of the 40 hours of film of the Star Wars™: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray.

And that brought the Industrial Light & Magic Presentation For Star Wars™ session to an end.

Apart from Anthony Daniels letting us watch the Star Wars™ The Complete Saga on Blu-Ray Trailer. And I don’t care how jaded you are when you hear the music and see those visuals the magic happens all over again.


STAR WARS™: THE COMPLETE SAGA will be available on Blu-ray from September 12, 2011

Star Wars The Complete Saga [enlarge]

The Establishing Shot: EMPIRE BIG SCREEN ARRIVAL & INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC PRESENTATION FOR STAR WARS™