Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Pre-release)

[DARTH SABER]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I must respectfully disagree. I remember Chiang saying in interviews that when he saw Star Wars as a kid that the ships and things didn't look quite right to him and that this was his chance to make things look the way that he thought they should. THAT, I have a huge problem with because the visual of style of Star Wars, not the prequels, but Star Wars, was well established and beloved for very good reason....it was PERFECT. It didn't need improving. And, the aesthetic of the prequels rather proves that. Was there one, even one iconic design from the PT trilogy? Once iconic ship?

Chiang may be a talented artist, but his attitude toward "improving" something that did not need improving, and at which he failed, shows an arrogance and disrespect for the artist/s who defined the visual language and style of the OT. What's needed are people who understand that language and who can pick it up and continue to speak it fluently.

sorry, despite what Chang said i highly doubt that. ive been in the concept art biz for over ten years and inhave yet to hear a director or art director in a video game project, commercial project or motion picture project say "ok, do whatever you want with the design"

thang may hav put his own spin in the pre mandated designs but thats about it. i doubt he got free reign on the designs especially from Lucas.

Changs may have simply been playing good PR

chang also didnt "improve something that didnt need improving"...the OT ship designs are still the same.

he worked on the ship designs for the prequels which take place some 40 or 50 years bofore the OT.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Doug Chang and Iain McCaig are among the top concept artists in the film industry.

I agree. But that doesn't make them necessarily right for the job.

 

[Darth Lars]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

[You are] under the assumptionthat chang and McCaig had free reign to create whatever they wanted. at the end of the day GL was the one mandating what the the style should look like.

Not at all. I know that GL told them what to design and that he choose which of their designs to use, but Chiang and McCaig still did the designs.

he worked on the ship designs for the prequels which take place some 40 or 50 years bofore the OT.

He designed a whole lot more than ships. The interiors of ships, the look of the Jedi temple interior, Coruscant, Battle Droids, Droidekas, Pod racers, stuff on Tatooine, lightsabers that look like penises, the Gungan city "Ooto Gunga", etc.
Chiang's style of doors and interior panels is very characteristic of his style.
Doug Chiang added an organic element to most things that he designed that is very alien to how things looked in the old Star Wars.
For instance, if you remove the pods and Anakin from his Pod Racer, the pod racer looks like a Vorlon ship from Babylon 5!

 

[jme3]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

The designs for the prequels were radically different than those for the OT, but were so by design at the direction of George Lucas. GL wanted things different to reflect the differences in the political and social climate of the time, a dichotomy between the prequel era and OT era supposedly resulting
from the austere and oppressive regime of the Imperials post Ep.III. Somebody here recently pointed out that even in the OT things were supposed to
have been hi-tech, at least to the degree the late 70s, early 80s could muster, and that's probably true. But GL has always spun things a bit like he liked
to tell it at the time. I can buy that the prequel era flourished with artists, designers, engineers, craftspeople, etc., who did things a lot differently due to
the freedoms of the time. The Bauhaus of the Weimar republic was very different from that of the Nazis, in fact it no longer existed after 1933 because of the Nazis...

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I didn't really have any problem with the Prequel ships, I thought they fit provided the reason they looked that way. The real crime Doug Chiang is responsible for is this monstrosity that he foisted upon the EU: Virago - Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki Now there is a ship that doesn't look like it belongs to the SW Universe! It looks like something from an anime show.

 

[LMFAOSchwarz]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

This whole design thing is important, in ways both blatant and subtle.
One of the things that turned me off to the Star Trek reboot was the look. Being based on a '60s tv show, I was hoping that the movies' style could have reflected that, even if it went as far as hiring retired designers who, by nature, have a 'dated' aesthetic to their work. I would have loved that look being fully realized on film with newer technology, a: reflecting the 'futuristic' 60's mindset of the series and b: giving the movie an absolutely unique and individualistic look, to set it apart from the cookie-cutter movie designs of today.

 

[clancampbell]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I never liked Chiang's designs, nor his production paintings. I hated the whole using Africa as inspiration in TPM, nothing against Africa, but big vehicles that look like elephants, battle droids that look like mice with short dreads.....no, didn't work for me. And yes, i fully understand that the director has final say.....i always felt Chiangs paintings were static and lacked life and movement. (look at his Obi/Slave 1/Kamino painting....it's like a still frame. While technically proficient, his designs lacked....excitement... none of them made me tingle like the OT stuff ALWAYS did, (oops, apart from the A wing.....)

McCaig's designs were interesting and his art spectacular....with a prod from the right director, in the right direction, he could really shine!

Rich

 

[seelsa73]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

...big vehicles that look like elephants

Kinda like the AT-AT from the OT?

 

[The Terminator]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I can only speak for myself and I really liked the Naboo N1 fighter Doug designed

 

[clancampbell]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

No. Although the AT-AT's are beast like, in that they have a body, 4 legs and a head, they never reminded me of a particular animal, just a massive, mechanised monster machine.

Rich

 

[Reelo]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I think I'll just sum it up by saying knobs and buttons are preferred over touchscreens, as far as control panels are concerned...

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I think I'll just sum it up by saying knobs and buttons are preferred over touchscreens, as far as control panels are concerned...

I agree there though I just chalked it up to the fact that they couldn't really do it that way for the OT. Computer graphics where, of course, hard to come by and expensive then and it sounds like they barely got the targeting screens, Death Star plans, etc. done for ANH.

 

[cboath]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

The graphics you see in ANH were frankly beyond state of the art computer graphics for the time.

Strange, i don't hear anyone saying the bridge of all federation ships should be all buttons and switches as they were in TOS. Same thing applies. That was all the futuristic they could get then.

I didn't mind the control setups in the PT at all. It was a time of high luxury. The empire sucked all that out of existence in it's 20ish years of tyranny. People were having to use substantially older ships than what were seen in the prequels and retrofitting them with whatever possible to make them spaceworthy by the time of ANH.

Contrast it with today. 2013, what tech was there in 1983? Look at how far we've come in 30 years. It's an extreme jump. The sequels will have that same timeframe jump - however, they have the knowledge, know how, and abilities to produce things way beyond what existed in ANH-ROTJ, they just didn't have the means. That's all that was missing. That means should have returned over the past 30 years, so there could easily be a huge tech jump in the SW galaxy in a 30 year span.

Just think where we'd be today if they knew how to build everything we have today in 1950. Even if they couldn't build it in 1950-1980 because of a tyranical overlord, how long would it take them to get it all back in action after 1980?

It's not to say the ANH era stuff would be completely eradicated 30 years later, but i think they'd be far and few between.

 

[Bryancd]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

How about some love for GL for leaving the Death Star trench briefing room animation the same as 1977?

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

How about some love for GL for leaving the Death Star trench briefing room animation the same as 1977?

Normally I'd say "SHHH!!! Don't give him any ideas!" but now that he's done with it I'll give him that. As well as the X-Wing readout screen.

 

[rodneyfaile]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

How about some love for GL for leaving the Death Star trench briefing room animation the same as 1977?

I was really looking forward to seeing the trench run in 3D. I would have even sat through the special edition version again just to see it. Wish those plans didn't get cancelled.

 

[cboath]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Knowing some of the changes that were made going in, i was stunned those weren't changed.

If I had to guess, it's because the briefing room graphics (i think) were historic - first CGI on a feature film. The xwing screens i dunno since they'd have been childs play to ILM in '95

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

The thing that I REALLY wish they had fixed are the matte lines around the TIEs attacking the Falcon when it leaves the Death Star. That really sticks out now.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I was really looking forward to seeing the trench run in 3D. I would have even sat through the special edition version again just to see it. Wish those plans didn't get cancelled.

Have to admit, I think that would have been pretty cool as well. Also my kids getting to see any version of the OT in the theaters would have been nice.

After seeing how well they converted Jurassic Park I think they could have done a pretty good job with all three.

Sent from my SGH-I317M using Tapatalk 2

 

[Laspector]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Speaking of the trench run, have you ever noticed that there is a jump cut in the POV shot of entering the trench? It's kind of obvious if you do a frame by frame. You are above the Death Star surface heading down to the trench, then there is one of those laser blasts hits where the screen goes completely white for just, like, one or two frames, and then you actually enter the trench. It happens on every POV shot of entering the trench. I'm not sure if it's a switch from a landscape model that has a smaller trench to the model that has the larger trench or if it was done for a lens change for focus issues or what. I'm thinking it was a model change of the landscape, but it is definately there. Anybody else ever noticed this?