The Verge: Star Wars: The Last Jedi scored a handful of Academy Award nominations this year, including one for best Visual Effects. As it did last year with Rogue One, Industrial Light and Magic has released a pair of behind-the-scenes clips that showcase how the film’s special effects came together.
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With films like Star Wars, it's so easy to slip into the action and forget or never even know how much work goes into all these different aspects of a movie. Things you would never think a live action film would use even with CGI, like storyboard or layout artists, and such cool tricks that make the 3D modeling blend seamlessly into the rest of the set. In films like these, mainly science fiction and fantasy films but superhero movies as well, set and actual location is getting used less and less in favor of less expensive CGI that not only saves the cost of traveling with actors or building whole worlds and locations, but also allows for impossible things to become real, like planet-sized cities and huge hangar bays that would have been billions of dollars to create in reality. CGI is such an amazing tool, and it's really incredible that ILM is putting out 'behind the scenes' videos and clips. I love seeing the process and contrary to what some people might think, seeing the underpinnings of the film doesn't make it less interesting. In fact, especially for creative types like those in theater and design, seeing how something is made just makes us more fascinated when we watch it again.
ILM really can do some amazing things with their technology. Their ability to seamlessly meld live shots with animations is truly impressive. These completely realistic shots are difficult to really imagine, but what I think is more impressive are the paintings that were done for some of the earlier movies in the franchise instead of visual effects. Huge oil paintings of hangers or battlefields that were filmed and then had actors and what not superimposed onto them that can completely fool the viewer into thinking that it is actually there. Their ability to make magic happen on camera is incredible. Their use of practical effects in things like this are also quite astounding. The models that they build for some of their sets are simply incredible. The level of detail that is possible with things like this just does not seem to make sense in my mind. It is funny that we still call this type of filming "Live action" when there is almost as much animation as an actual cartoon.
I really must say that ILM is probably one of those companies that I would consider to be a dream job for me as someone interested in scenic and production design and conceptualization. Their impeccable work is truly on the cutting edge of the industry, as showcased in the article. The way that ILM has made such a historic impact on film from the very first Star Wars movie, which revolutionized special effects storytelling in movies, all the way up through the most recent movie which was stunning in its own right. The company has just done amazing things and I would love to dip my toe in that highly accomplished and imaginative world. It would really be a childhood dream come true to work on the design of Star Wars or Planet of the Apes, movies which sparked my love for theatrical storytelling through imagery in the first place.
Jeepers! I am always floored by the level of detail that goes into massive productions like the most recent Star Wars movie. Although I figured at least some of that scene was animated, I never could have told you where the line between reality and animation was. Even with the video, I still probably couldn't tell you where that border is. What impresses me even more is how Industrial Light and Magic has remained the industry leader in special effects since the original Star Wars trilogy. Going back and comparing Episode IV: A New Hope to the newest installment in the Star Wars series shows just how far special effects technology has progressed in the past forty one years since 1977. Back then, it was usually pretty clear what was animated or otherwise a scenic trick to produce a visual illusion. Today, though, CGI and similar technologies have progressed so far as to literally be photorealistic. With the right production team and a large enough budget, the entire movie probably could have been animated and we would NEVER have noticed! At least, I probably wouldn't.
I am always blown away but how real and believable start wars movies are. I think if I could start all over I would add some animation to my background. It is so impressive and compelling. You never really realize how much of a move is animated these days. I would a film shout to day must be vastly different than how it use to be. I think being on the lot has become less and less informative to the people working there. What I mean is no one who are in the studio to shoot the film actually see how the show will look in the end. So much of the movies these days are created on a computer. I think these two videos really illustrate that leap in animation influence over the years. I am also not sat that this is a bad or good thing. To be honest I’m not sure what the right answer to that is right now. Either way it is a good time to be a digital animator and in the movie business at all.
This is really impressive and an absolutely fantastic job done by ILM for the visual effects on The Last Jedi. No matter how I feel about the movie itself, the visuals were absolutely stunning as always and i was completely blown away. I do lament, however, the loss of all the practical special effect tricks of old, the matte painting, the scale model, the transparencies. In particular, it's sad to see the art of intricate model making lose its hold on the special effects industry. The craft involved in making the incredible details of a star destroyer or the death star is truly breathtaking, and while I don't want to denigrate the skill and time involved in the design of 3d models and their integration into real filmed footage, I find there is often a sort of simple elegance in the art of forced perspective and transparency that is lost in the making of these movies.
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