Computer Graphics World: The challenge for the filmmakers working on Lucasfilm's television series The Mandalorian was in creating the look and feel of the Star Wars universe. The same look and feel as the blockbuster feature film audiences have viewed for 40 years. But on a television series budget and with an eight-chapter schedule. Eight chapters with approximately 3,800 visual effects shots.
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After reading this article, I am blown away by the amount of work that went into The Mandalorian TV series. Animators, sculptures, puppeteers, prop builders, CGI artists, rendering artists, and many more were needed to create the virtual and physical world that The Mandalorian takes place in. What is so incredible about the amount of work that went into this TV series was that it was a short TV series, not a blockbuster movie. The amount of time they spent working on this project was akin to working on a full-scale movie in half the time. The combination of virtual reality and physical building is incredible too. Pre-visualization software’s and CGI renderings and animation have come a long way from the first Star Wars movie. The dedication to the accuracy of the characters and backgrounds is amazing and a testament to the success of the show. I only wonder how much money was spent total on this show, and how much money they have since gained back.
I love the technical work behind The Mandalorian show! I thought it was very impressive when I watched to notice that it did not feel like a Star Wars TV show in terms of visual style. The time constraints and lower budget were not reflected in the final product and that definitely is a testament to the creativity that was done by the people working on the television show. One of my favorite techniques is the 360 display of digital environments to emulate which then means the digital environment does not have to have the live action elements composited in later in post production and also has the huge benefit of casting the light on the live action subject. It makes me wonder why methods like this were not used when it comes to Star Wars Episode 9 The Rise of Skywalker which involved a desert chase that was filmed in Jordan but in front of a green screen, just for lighting reasons.
The amount and quality of visual effects on this show are really impressive, and are really working to blur the lines a bit more between the production processes of television vs of movies. The point near the beginning of how on this show they were basically trying to create multiple movies on the timeline of half of one really stuck with me, and seeing the uniqueness of their technology helped me understand how what they’re doing is even possible. I wrote a comment months ago about their real-time LED room that works as essentially real-life VR, and I still think it’s just the coolest thing and can definitely see it being brought into regular use in movie production now that so much of so many movies are shot essentially entirely in green screen. I liked his point about how it made the process smoother and easier on so many groups of people - the actors find it easier and more natural to not have to imagine where they are, the directors love being able to make real time changes to the environment, and the VFX artists are able to drastically cut down on their workload, even from things like not having to fix the lighting and shadows on every character, not to mention the lack of need to apply backgrounds to a green screen and shift them based on camera movement.
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