That’s one reason why it’s so interesting to me that films like Solo use rear-projection for the cockpit scenes instead of blue-screens.

Lucas tried using that exact method on the first film back in 1976 and it didn’t work at all. ILM supplied hardly any usable footage beforehand and what they did give was too fast-paced for the actors to react well against. Blue-screens were a backup used out of necessity.

Same with the lightsabers on the first film. Rotoscoping was added only because the original idea - an “in-camera” effect using glowing sticks with electric cords hidden up the actors’ sleeves - looked absolutely terrible. Plus it severely hampered the actors’ range of motion in the duel. If they’d gone with the rotoscope idea from the beginning the Vader/Obi-Wan Death Star deul could have had stunt doubles and been as spectacular as the ones in ESB and ROTJ.

And now we’ve come around all the way back to glowing sticks again. Funny how that works. But a lot of the OT’s use of post-production effects work was driven by practical on-set alternatives simply being unviable back then. That probably was why Lucas learned to rely on optical and then digital effects so heavily.