The leading VFX and animation studio delivered 150 shots across multiple episodes on the Lucasfilm series, working on destroyed cities, security droids, elephantine character Neel, and futuristic ‘gold’ currency.
When George Lucas came up with the concept for Star Wars, he was inspired by his inner child who loved watching Saturday matinee adventure serials. So, it’s appropriate that Christopher Ford and Jon Watts channeled a Goonies-vibe into the franchise with Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
Now streaming on Disney+, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew follows the journey of four kids who make a discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, then get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy. Finding their way home will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined. The live-action series stars Jude Law as the mysterious Jod Na Nawood.
Brought on to oversee the digital wizardry was Production VFX Supervisor John Knoll as well as an alliance of visual effects vendors that included DNEG, who provided 150 shots across three episodes involving futuristic currency (gold credits), destroyed cities, security droids, atmospherics, and the elephantine principal character Neel.
“I grew-up watching Star Wars, Goonies, and Amblin; all those films were given to us as key references for Skeleton Crew,” states Chris McLaughlin, VFX Supervisor, DNEG. “It was exciting to be brought into that world.” Some of the practical techniques from Lucas’ original trilogy were utilized. “John Knoll was driving the visual effects to the point that I believe he had his own motion control rig and shot some the spaceship miniatures himself,” McLaughlin continues. “John comes from that mindset and was very clear about achieving the filmic look. The way that our work was critiqued, it was about something that was filmic and photographic. There was a lot of discussion about contrast ratio and how light was defocused correctly. As we went through the project, John shared shots from ILM and Hybride, so we could visually see what was going on in the rest of the show and match the look.”
“My favorite shot of ours is the spaceship landing on At Achrann in Episode 104,” remarks McLaughlin. “It comes out of this fog into a dusty environment. The engines are gunning with smoke and sparks flying into the camera.” At Achrann is populated with villages that have been ravaged by war. “There were some on-set pieces of destroyed buildings that we had to model and match,” he adds, noting that the buildings’ construction had to be kept in mind. “But then we built up a kit of destroyed building pieces and scattered that around. It was mostly a CG environment. We considered, is it reenforced concrete and steel beams? As for the texture, you have to give it a story of how it got destroyed. Was it a bomb that went off? Is there an area that looks burned because that is where the explosion impacted? They discover what is clearly a school that is destroyed and if you look at that you can make out exactly where all the missiles hit. You get an idea of what has gone on there.” Atmospherics were an important component. “We added a lot of rolling mist and volumetrics,” McLaughlin says. “A lot of that is simulated and constantly moving. It gives a lot of texture and is a lighting tool. We had a library of clouds with different simulations that we would scatter throughout the scene.”
Another major series environment is the Mint, which can be found in Episodes 107 and 108. According to McLaughlin, The Mint can be broken down into three main areas. “The spaceship lands on this grassy knoll, which opens up. They are actually on top of a lift platform that starts to move down under the ground. We had to build that massive spaceship lift shaft. As they’re going down, they see on one side the credit maker, which is a massive machine that makes the currency which the galaxy uses. They stop at the bottom, come out, and go into one of 1,130 vaults filled with stacks and stacks of these credits, which were key props. The moment when Jod Na Nawood walks up to a pile of credits, picks one out, and that pile starts to crumble, falls apart, and flows through his hand, all of those credits were completely CG. There were also a few little set pieces like the ramp that came down from the spaceship and the grounds of the platform. But pretty much everything there was bluescreen. We had to fill a lot in with CG.” Extensive work went into conveying a sense of scale for the vaults. “The door was heavy and made of thick, solid steel,” adds McLaughlin. “The space inside there was cavernous and dusty. We looked at numerous references of huge spaces. The Boeing Everett Factory was a key reference for us.”
Par for the Star Wars course, there is no shortage of alien species and droids. “In Episode 104, the army walking through has these four-legged horse-like creatures with them called eopies,” states McLaughlin. “That asset came from ILM. We had a few of those marching through and then also the security droids in Episode 107. What was cool about the security droids was on-set in a lot of shots they have a full-size security droid manned by puppeteers standing behind them. When the puppeteer walks, the foot and leg movement of the droid matches their movement; their arms and head were operated by rods. In animation, we had to match their awkward, shuffling style of walking. In several of our shots there are three or four droids. One of them is real, so you have a perfect reference to match. You know when it’s right. You have to give them a little bit of life and ambient movement even when they’re standing and guarding. You can’t have them completely static.”
The majority of the shots with Neel were accomplished practically. “That is a young actor with an animatronic elephant head that is puppeteered by people offscreen,” reveals McLaughlin. “There is a little panel on the front that he can see out of, which we took out on every shot where you could see it. That was a straightforward job. But when he had to do things like run down a spaceship ramp, he couldn’t see that well. For his safety, we would take it off and completely replace the head in CG. We had to match the animatronic completely.”
“ILM was leading on that asset, so we ingested their asset and had to match their textures and shaders,” McLaughlin continues. “We tracked the actor tightly around the neck and shoulders so that we got a good lock on the head. We made sure the animation rig had the same capabilities as the animatronic. No more, no less. We had a lot of reference to match that performance. Then the color matching was tricky. It’s a complex mixture of colors. It’s blue but also has grey and pink.” Noting that certain facial nuances were digitally enhanced, McLaughlin concludes, “We ran a skin and hair simulation to give us deformation and get some swinging of the ears and trunk. But we couldn’t go over the top because then your shots start to stand out. We couldn’t make them look too perfect! And in the end, you would struggle to tell what shots are CG or just the animatronic.”
Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer best known for composing in-depth filmmaker and movie profiles for VFX Voice, Animation Magazine, and British Cinematographer.
