ACM SIGGRAPH 2016 convention just ended at the Anaheim convention center. For those who don’t know, ACM SIGGRAPH is a convention for people whose core values help them to catalyze the innovation and application of computer graphics and interactive techniques. Basically a con for the latest in graphic design, animation, VR, special effects, etc. The last panel of the convention was Industrial Light & Magic’s Visual Effects of Star Wars The Force Awakens. While we weren’t allowed to photo or video anything during the presentation so sorry no video from it. However I took some notes. For one I think they are the unsung heroes of the movie. Many of them even came up with concepts for some of our favorite scenes in the movie. As someone who is very passionate about Star Wars, this was one of the best panels I have ever been to. I wish they had panels like this at comic cons. During the panel they showed how shots were made and how some things were suppose to look like and how scenes changed over time. I took some notes and learned a lot of new things. Some things people may already know some things you may not know. So below are my pictures and selfies with the crew. @SteveSievers
I learned that the falcon flies into a Super Star Destroyer. This one I feel kinda dumb. I thought it was just a bunch of Star Destroyers lined up that they were flying through. Which was the case when they were designing it, well flying through one Star Destroyer. But the team learned that if the Falcon flies 700 plus miles per an hour, it could quickly fly through a Star Destroyer. Personally I thought there was only one Super Star Destroyer just for Vader, which we all saw get destroyed in Return of the Jedi. But hey if there can be more then one Death Star, why not have more then on Super Star Destroyer.
I learned that you can see the tie fighter pilot ejected and survived. The animators added that and also hopes that there will be a short about how the pilot survives on Jaku. Nice touch by the animator team! Also I noticed for the first time that you see a rebel transporter ship down in the sand behind the Falcon in this shot. I like to think that it is the first transporter to escape Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. I also learned that they shared their aspects of the graveyard scene with EA for making the Jaku map in Star Wars Battlefront video game.
They showed some early animation test of BB-8. Some of them had him have these spider legs come out of him so he could climb up or go upstairs. However it made him look more scary and less cute. Another one had him blowing air to go up stairs but it just looked like BB-8 was farting. I’m glad they went with his cables he shoots like in the photo here.
Kylo Ren’s lightsaber was originally more fire like. They showed animation test of the many different ways Kylo Ren’s lightsaber was going to glow. The out of control fire glow in early tests was to show his angry alive inside his lightsaber. Some of those elements made it in his final version. But I thought it was more because his crystal in his lightsaber was cracked. Either way, his lightsaber rules!
The rathtars originally had eyes on top of their head that looked funky. A lot of early test never had them rolling in balls, they crawled and at times walked up on two legs. They showed us the walk cycles of these. While many us got giant ball Indiana Jones reference in the film, I learned in this panel that it was JJ who came up with the rolling ball concept. Thanks JJ! Also the first animation test showed the rathtar violently dragging a guy on the ground and basically eat the guy’s legs off. Of course this was 2 violent and was taken out of the film.
When Finn & Poe escape in the tie fighter, a storm trooper commits suicide. Now this one I couldn’t find when I watch the scene when I got home. Maybe it didn’t make the final cut. But in the panel they showed this footage of the lay out of hanger. Just like the hanger in New Hope, there is a randomly giant hole in the floor or as the animators called it the giant abyss. We did see in New Hope that it was used as an elevator for storm troopers. When Finn is firing from the tie fighter at stormtroopers, one jumps out of the way of the lazer blast but accidentally jumps into the hole on the floor. Also learned that the tie fighers pilot load in area was inspired by a pez dispenser. They even showed animation of how all the tie fighters fly out of it but was never showed in the film. The animators brought up a good point that many die hard Star War fans thought, why does the empire have tie fighters load in from the ceiling. They didn’t want that in Force Awakens so we get pez dispenser instead. Pretty awesome!
I always thought of this but now I have confirmation. Starkiller base planet gets turned into the sun it sucked up. The star it sucked to have power to destroy planets does turn back into a sun. Now it shines on as beacon of hope for the resistance all around the galaxy.
There are new walkers in the film. I brought up these “headless walkers” in the film that both showed quickly. You can see in the left during the First Order speech scene and quickly below when Fin, Han, & Chewie are running on Starkiller base. When I asked about them they said not many people have notice them in the film and unfortunately don’t have an official name for them. I asked if they would make a toy about them and they said you never know. I brought it up that the first order snow transport toy was made even thought the chase scene was cut from the film. They showed other animation test of the scene and orginially the amount of troops lined up was like triple the number now but JJ thought it was 2 many. Also in the first animation test there were a big line of AT-STs in the shot but they were removed.
