Well, so I have a way to kill time in the age of COVID-19, on 12 Beran 0 A.C.V. local time, I figured I might as well do some actual work on the effects. For example, I was hoping to include an option for viewing parts of the opening sequence, i.e. most shots that take place in outer space, in IMAX, kind of like how IMAX redid that part of the film for a Nova documentary on special effects. For the time being, of course, I’m going to have to do the IMAXified shots in Blender, and since I feel I’m going to need some guidance for such a large-scale effort to recreate the shots in IMAX in a way that meshes well with Rogue One and the sequel trilogy, I’ll do a gradual breakdown of the sequence.

Linked below for the next week is my Blend file in its 1.0 state. No animation, just an initial attempt to get Tatooine and its moons in a good position for where the very first shot finishes up.

ETA: Forgot to mention, there are also no textures in this incarnation; I figured I’d ask for input on the texturing before I applied anything. However, there is an initial rendition of the IMAX starfield, which I created using this tutorial.