Star Wars: Episode VII to be directed by J.J. Abrams **NON SPOILER THREAD** — Page 42

http://badassdigest.com/2013/08/02/new-star-wars-might-use-more-elegant-fx-for-a-more-civilized-age/

Several interesting tidbits:

The last paragraph pretty much confirms this will be shot exactly as the OT and TPM were, complete with actual film. Like I said in previous posts, I just hope Abrams can do with Lucas on Ep7 what he did with Spielberg on Super 8.

In the comments, someone mentions they were at some event with Phil Tippett and he mentioned he was working on some super secret project that in all likelihood is Ep7.

There's also a particularly interesting story someone heard from "a friend at lucasfilm" that kinda takes the idea of George having limitless control and flips it on its head. Worth reading.

Every time this comes up, some prequelhead starts screeching about how many models were built for the prequels, as if the volume of model building is the actual criticism, not the fact that the models are swimming in a cartoon digital sea.

Baronlando said:

Every time this comes up, some prequelhead starts screeching about how many models were built for the prequels, as if the volume of model building is the actual criticism, not the fact that the models are swimming in a cartoon digital sea.

To be fair to unabashed prequelheads, you couldn't write that paragraph without referring to CGI as a cartoon digital sea, as if the volume of CGI is inherently a problem. I don't understand why people refer to CGI as cartoony or video-game like, though I suspect it's because it looks like CGI, and people would rather not say what it actually looks like, so instead they say something that kinda sorta could be said to be similar to it, but in reality has no valid comparison.

I will endeavor to be more respectful of cartoons and not-cartoons and or whatever.

Go Motion should never have been abandoned.

I disagree with your "sadly", because I think Chiang is a great designer. His artwork and style is heavily inspired by Joe Johnston and Doug McQuarrie (he mentioned them as his biggest influences during his career at CEII), and he definitely can design in the classic OT style. After all it was George's idea to go more streamlined with the designs in the prequels, and the designers had to do that. But if you look at the prequels' "Art of Star Wars" books, there are still so many great designs in there, that all we have to worry about is Abrams' taste ;)

I always liked Doug Chiang's work on the prequels. Didn't he left Lucasfilm before episode 3 because he was upset of seeing his great ideas being used poorly on screen or something like that?

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

Thanks - so, in other words, it could be done, but currently isn't being done?

I suppose it's not done because filming movies with the various iris, focals and lens that directors usualy use would be a headache. Maybe it would be simpler to achieve with full CGI movies, I don't know.

I don't like the Starfighter designs for the Prequels with their impossible droid slots, not sure if Doug Chiang was completely responsible for the logic (or lack of) behind them.....maybe a designer with more respect for RALPH McQuarrie & Joe Johnston.....Doug Chiang has said when he first saw Star Wars, he went home and redesigned the X-wings etc....the way they should have been done

J

Jaitea said:

I don't like the Starfighter designs for the Prequels with their impossible droid slots,

Well, X-Wings are not particulary more designed for droids; You need to have a machine to put the astromech droids on the fighter anyway, as seen in SW 77. It's just that in the prequels they invented flying R2 units that are looking silly when they jump out of the ship.

TMBTM said:

Jaitea said:

I don't like the Starfighter designs for the Prequels with their impossible droid slots,

Well, X-Wings are not particulary more designed for droids; You need to have a machine to put the astromech droids on the fighter anyway, as seen in SW 77. It's just that in the prequels they invented flying R2 units that are looking silly when they jump out of the ship.

It's not really how they get in or out its how they dont fit inside them....Ok to get round it in AOTC the Starfighter has a built in droid, but the Naboo Starfighter the ship has no droid slot from above so it needs access  from below....but if you look at the ship, it has a raised collar which is the diameter of the droids dome.....what happens to the raised areas of the droids head like the holoprojectors etc,....also the raised collar has no provision for the droids shoulders/legs......to get by this problem they explained (and you can see in the technical cut-away drawings) that the droid's head expanded away from its body (like inspector gadget).....but if you do the maths, there still isn't enough room for the droids body in the thickness of the ship......

The Jedi Starfighter in AOTC is even more amazing....it has a dimension warping device to swallow up R2's body into nothingness, as the ship isn't even remotelly deep enough for a droid....a quarter of the droid should be hanging out the bottom.....hmmm

J

Re: the whole 3D discussion,

I recall seeing a comparison between the 2D and 3D blu-rays of one of the Ice Age movies. Everything was in focus on the 3D version, while the 2D had depth of field.

This is a whole lot simpler when everything's being rendered in the computer to begin with. You simply do separate renders. But when we're talking about actual photography in the real world, it's a bit more complicated.

Fang Zei said:

Re: the whole 3D discussion,

I recall seeing a comparison between the 2D and 3D blu-rays of one of the Ice Age movies. Everything was in focus on the 3D version, while the 2D had depth of field.

This is a whole lot simpler when everything's being rendered in the computer to begin with. You simply do separate renders. But when we're talking about actual photography in the real world, it's a bit more complicated.

You just need really thin glass and a very narrow f-stop (f32).  It wouldn't be that hard.  Standard compact digital cameras have very thin and have virtually no depth of field.  However, those cameras can't have f-stops narrow enough to make everything perfectly in focus.  i know it is possible, just not sure if an equivalent professional end lens is out there for any of the professional cameras used to shoot films.

And even for rendering, they are adjusting all the camera settings inside the software shot-for-shot just as they would converting no-depth 3d to 2d with depth.

While I admittedly like the sleek aesthetic of the Naboo starfighter, so it's not an issue for me, it was Lucas who insisted in the "sleek and chrome retro visuals". Still, most of the stupid decisions for the non-functionality are again his. This is Doug Chiang's original N-1 concept:

Originally he wanted to have that "bulge" behind the cockpit precisely to accommodate the R2 unit, and to have machinery put it in place. Lucas insisted it looked ugly and decided it should be "streamlined". Seriously, watch an Ep. I making-of, I've seen it on film. Doug Chiang looked very disappointed.

From what I've read on the Ep. II Jedi starfighter, Lucas again insisted on putting an astromech droid in a ship that was not designed to house it. So, again, he's to blame.

Personally, I'm happy for this. Ep. I looked different the OT, but at the same time it too was also magical and took you to a galaxy far away. Ep. III looked bland and unispired with its copycat designs.

So far we've got:

-Michael Kaplan as costume designer. He's not only worked with Abrams on Star Trek '09 and the sequel, he also did the costumes for Blade Runner!

-Chiang and McCaig coming back as concept designers.

-Williams doing the music, which should've always been a foregone conclusion.

We're still awaiting confirmation of who the production designer and the cinematographer will be.

ray_afraid said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

Where is this the full quote (In context) that keeps getting trotted out about young Doug wanting to redesign the X-Wings? Because it sounds to me exactly the sort of thing a young excited artistic kid would rush home and do after seeing Star Wars. I know I used to design and redesign SF stuff in my sketchbook for fun.

It was in an interview on the Ep. 1 Behind the Magic cd-rom. I don't remember the full quote, but I do remember him saying that he thought the spaceship designs in Star Wars were weak/lame/whatever.

I used to sketch alternatives back then, but I was in awe of the original designs, thats likely why I'm in the job I do now.

There were some fantastic ships in the prequels.....some cool designs, I liked the idea of the same design shape connecting the AOTC Starfighters to the OT Star Destroyer, and the ROTS Starfighters wings opening to show the evolution to the TIE....giving a hint that the Republic's military designer will be the Empire's.

J