Hi, everybody!
Adywan, I have a humble suggestion for the Sarlacc. I agree; as the years have ground on, I also found it to not be terribly frightening. But the SE’s addition of that cgi beak was beyond awful. I actually laughed out loud when I first saw it! It looked as though Audrey II from “Little Shop of Horrors” was down there, trying to snatch people! It was utterly horrendous in how ridiculous it was.
My idea for making the Sarlacc more intimidating and menacing is the following: Similar to how you animated the facial features of the creatures in the cantina in ANH: Revisited, animate the Sarlacc’s mouth. Make it snap its mouth shut, make its gullet convulse and gulp. Show the teeth champing together, almost like a shark does. That, added with some suitable sound effects, would make it spookier. Part of the problem is that it was just a rubber hole in the ground. We need to believe it really IS a giant, hungry mouth!
And finally, I’d add a few more tentacles. I know it might be a bit tricky - depending upon how it’s done, it has the danger of looking a little hokey and/or unintentionally funny. But you also have the advantage of being able to see the movements of everyone else in the scene. Perhaps one or two shots of the tentacles taking a swipe at some of the figures fighting on the skiffs, grabbing at them? At least enough to suggest that they’re not entire safe up there - that’s all you’d need.
I’ve no idea how difficult it might be to do this. And you might have decided to go in a different direction altogether. But if you are still considering what to do with the Sarlacc, then that’s my two pennies’ worth for a suggestion.
Thank you - your work is nothing short of phenomenal!