The goal was to make the places and things built for the film seem real by showing them not as shiny and new, but looking well-used. Lucas and his team found a way to use animation, amazingly detailed miniatures and computer-controlled motion photography to generate special effects.Įach object and location physically created in this trilogy was created not only to look impressively futuristic, but to blend old- and new-looking elements. Also, Luke’s land speeder was able to look as if it was gliding across the sand by using wheels hidden with mirrors that reflected nothing but the sand around them. The scenes of Luke in Uncle Owen’s home dug out of the ground were shot in Tunisia, a North African country on the Mediterranean Sea. Right: Yoda puppet.įor example, in the first trilogy, the exploding Death Star was created using cardboard and bits of titanium, and Yoda was an animatronic puppet. Left: George Lucas poking the Death Star’s belly button. In order to achieve a sense of realism to attract viewers, Lucas and his team found a way to use animation, amazingly detailed miniatures and computer-controlled motion photography to generate special effects. In the late 1970’s filmgoers were lining up to see grittier, more realistic films like Taxi Driver no one was ready for a movie with a completely fantastical story set in space that was, in spite of all of that, realistic looking. When Lucas conceived of the Star Wars stories, there was no way at the time to make any blockbuster movie filled with aliens and explosions set in space seem real. Their goal was to achieve the new, higher-level realism Lucas envisioned. During the production period for the movie, ILM-headed by special effects designer John Dykstra- constructed robots and spaceship models from scratch. Computer generated imagery (CGI) barely existed in 1977, and Lucas and his team went on to transform the visual effects industry and set the new standard for the years to come.įor the 1977 Episode IV: A New Hope release, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) was formed. In these first films, much of the visual effects work involved actual physical creation of models, puppets, and sets. So how did they do it? Trilogy I: Episodes IV through VI, 1977 – 1983 In fact, even the visual effects technology to portray this universe was in its infancy. It was an epic challenge, because Lucas had envisioned an entire universe full of creatures, spaceships and technologies that didn’t exist yet. In 1977, George Lucas and his team changed the way we saw and created movies forever. A Star Wars franchise breakdown of special effects
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