The 90th Oscars: The Visuals of ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’

One of five films to receive a nomination for best visual effects in this year’s race for Oscar gold, ‘Episode VIII’ mixes new characters with those from the 1977-1983 films in wholly new environments.

‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ © 2017 Lucasfilm.

‘The Last Jedi’ represents the final cinematic performance of Carrie Fisher who died soon after completing all of her scenes. For the first time the character of Princess Leia gets to display her mastery of the Force when she dramatically guides herself back to her damaged spacecraft after being tossed into outer space by a massive explosion.
$The Vultpex were inspired by beautiful oily iridescent refractive crystalline structures along with some sculptures. Lighting them was tricky as they picked up not only lighting refractions but also reflections and interreflections of the environment around them. Consequently, the decision was made to replace the physical puppet with a digital version.$
The Vultpex were inspired by beautiful oily iridescent refractive crystalline structures along with some sculptures. Lighting them was tricky as they picked up not only lighting refractions but also reflections and interreflections of the environment around them. Consequently, the decision was made to replace the physical puppet with a digital version.

One of the first shots ever captured was of the robotic hand of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) receiving his lightsaber from Rey (Daisy Ridley). VFX supervisor Ben Morris had no idea how the close the shot needed to be until filmmaker Rian Johnson pulled out his viewfinder and put on a macro lens.

Interaction marks and scoring on the back of the metal plates were created for the CG hand relating to when Darth Vader smashed and burned Luke’s hand. It had to be taken to another level of detail because it fills the entire screen. Technically the robotic limb was difficult to execute because it was a different size and shape from the real hand of Hamill.

Porgs are a hybrid of a baby seal and puffin. Creature shop concept designer Neal Scanlan built a series of different puppets that were articulated in specific ways. A CG version was constructed that was kept close to what could be achieved with practical puppet.

The Caretakers are a cross between lizards and fish; like their Jawa and Ewok predecessors they were entirely practical. The costumed performers had little green legs which were painted out and animated with CG bird-like feet.

Falthiers are majestic short fur creatures with long manes and large ears. The anatomy was inspired by a horse but the legs and bone proportions are closer to a dog or cat. Cheetahs, greyhounds and hunting dogs are able to do quite ambitious movements and the Falthiers needed to be able to do the same.

Filmmaker Rian Johnson wanted Snoke to feel like flesh and blood so a new practical maquette was made with a real skin tone quality. ILM London gave him a powerful jaw line and adjusted the skull slightly to avoid the Force sensitive humanoid looking like a feeble old man.

The lightsabers were refined and less saturated than in The Force Awakens. Proxies consisted of tubes with red LEDS or blue LEDs inside to create interactive lighting. Every object coming into contact with Jedi weapon had to be tracked to account for light sparks illuminating the environment and characters.

Iconic X-wings and TIE fighters are accompanied by a new set of ships such as the Resistance bomber and Dreadnaught, a mothership for the First Order. The Resistance ships are more worn down and grungier than the First Order as well as are aesthetically influenced by what species constructed them.

The duel between Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) and Finn (John Boyega) required extensive CG augmentation. Complicating matters was the highly reflective chrome outfit worn by the First Order officer where parts needed to be replaced so to avoid seeing the whole camera crew on the side of her helmet in a close-up.

The grand finale on the mineral planet of Crait was handled by ILM San Francisco. Plates were shot at the salt flats Salar De Uyuni in Bolivia. Pactical sets were also built on the backlot of Pinewood Studios. SFX Supervisor Chris Colbould worked out some compounds that produced practical red explosions but the vast majority were digitally simulated.

Practical effects were extensively utilized. The splitting rock caused by Rey (Daisy Ridley) channeling the Force was an actual prop built on a stage. The floating rocks were shot with a high-speed camera with pebbles being dropped onto the hand of Ridley with the footage being subsequently reversed.

The casino playground Canto Bight was assembled like LEGO bricks. The city was constructed out of individual pieces representing various styles of architecture. The streets and buildings were designed and structured in a logical manner. Illumination comes from streetlight lamps and window lamps for the nighttime scenes.

As with The Force Awakens, a practical BB-8 was used as much as possible. There are a number of big close-up shots where droid is CG but nobody would be the wiser because of the seamless integration with the real puppet.

The Third Floor collaborated as the dedicated visualization team on Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, working with director Rian Johnson, ILM Visual Effects Supervisor Ben Morris and ILM and departments fromart direction to editing to create previs, techvis and postvis. Key contributions included visualizing choreography and action for large-scale ground and space battles, including the Mega-Class Star Dreadnought attack (pictured here in previs).

Previs shot by The Third Floor. For the battle on Crait, which delivered some of the film’s most dramatic imagery, The Third Floor visualized action, camera and cinematic elements like the red dust trails with the film team, also producing techvis schmatics and mockups to support practical vehicle, stunt and rig shoots.

Greenscreens were replaced with temporary backdrops to create postvis shots for use in screenings and the evolving editorial cut. In post, The Third Floor also temped in digital elements and characters and created previs for new shots being added to the action.

The third Star Wars film since Disney reinvigorated the franchise, Star Wars: The Last Jedi transported legions of fans into new territories while retaining many of the classic tropes which has made Star Wars a cinematic revolution across the past 40 years.

Taking over from J.J. Abrams (Star Trek Into Darkness), filmmaker Rian Johnson (Looper) made his contribution to the Star Wars franchise by writing and directing The Last Jedi. More than 2,000 visual effects needed to be created with the bulk of the work coming from Industrial Light & Magic facilities in San Francisco (Crait), London (Snoke, Canto Bight, Opening Battle), Vancouver (Ach-to, Phasma Fight) and Singapore (Crait, Jedi Academy Flashbacks) as well as six third-party vendors, with The Third Floor providing previs/postvis for the project.

The Last Jedi continues the saga of mixing new characters with those from the 1977-1983 films, all in wholly new environments, save some familiar spacecraft and props. One of five films to receive a nomination for best visual effects in this year’s Oscar race, the film’s effects were overseen by production VFX supervisor Ben Morris, who shares the nod with VFX supervisor Michael Mulholland, special effects supervisor Chris Corbould, and creature shop supervisor Neal Scanlan.

As we march toward the 90th Academy Awards on March 4th, here’s a closer look at some of the biggest effects sequences created for the movie -- many of which are a blend of practical and CG effects -- including light saber battles, the villainous Snoke, and brand-new spacecraft such as Dreadnaught, the mothership of the First Order.

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The 90th Oscars: The Visuals of ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’

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