Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Pre-release)

[Laspector]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Also, as I recall, the rancor was actually a puppet, operated by Tippett himself from below the stage. There might've been some stop-motion done, but the rancor was mostly a puppet, I think.

Yes, I do believe so, too. Regardless of what it was, the matte lines in the original version were SO BAD, those alone were enough to make it look awful!

 

[Solo4114]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

The thing is, yeah, the matte lines looked off, but they "fit" within the rest of the film. The technology level is appropriate for its time, and within context, was pretty damn remarkable.

 

[Darth Lars]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

If they don't bring Burtt back, they're shooting themselves in the foot.

He said in his talk at CEII that he is involved in Episode VII.

 

[Riceball]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Other than the ships having that shiny look that CG has, I didn't have any big problems with the Prequel effects. The only CG that was extremely bad, were the ninja vampires in Blade II when they are fighting Blade in his HQ. They just move unrealistically. Someone mentioned stop motion, and I've thought it looked off ever since I was a kid. I just accepted it because I figured that's the best way they could do it.

That shiny look isn't something that's inherent with CG, it's all a matter of the textures/shaders assigned to the model and the parameters you set for the materials. Early CG like in the B5 days had some problems with that but now a days the better studios, running the better software, have full control of their materials and if they wanted to they could easily make something like the Death Star look it was made from cotton sheets or the Millenium Falcon like it was made out of dirt. Of course the more detail and the more realistic you try to make things look in CG the more the time it takes both to create the materials as well as render time and that time is probably why you often see CG not looking completely photo real, in an effort to save time and/or money many studios/directors will go for good enough instead of the best they could get/do because doing so works best for their budget and/or their schedule.

 

[Larry T]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

STAR WARS EPISODE VII Set To Start Filming Next Month; Production Title Revealed

 

[Bryancd]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Revenge of the Foodles!

 

[Edwardowan]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

the least they coulda done was called it Green Harvest™

 

[Edwardowan]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

some whirlwind casting must have happened and kept very secret if they are indeed filming next month... but filming could mean a lot of things.... no one has even officially revealed casting yet... At this point other than IMDB updates for casting, I think I'm going to try to stay as spoiler free as possible until the first teaser trailer hits. getting excited!

 

[rodneyfaile]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

STAR WARS EPISODE VII Set To Start Filming Next Month; Production Title Revealed

Revenge of the Foodles!

 

[Bryancd]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

some whirlwind casting must have happened and kept very secret if they are indeed filming next month... but filming could mean a lot of things.... no one has even officially revealed casting yet... At this point other than IMDB updates for casting, I think I'm going to try to stay as spoiler free as possible until the first teaser trailer hits. getting excited!

As excited I am for this film, I think this rumor is bunk.

 

[Edwardowan]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

As excited I am for this film, I think this rumor is bunk.

ya, I'm thinking you may be right.... especially with the Foodles food pic you posted me thinks this is some kind of hoax. could even be a rumor test to see who is leaking what and to where... Blue Harvest rules! :thumbsup

 

[seelsa73]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Yea, could have sworn they weren't filming until 2014 (jan, feb?)

 

[rodneyfaile]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Can even JJ keep this thing secret? Star Wars fans are crazed!

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I have a hard time believing this will be out in 2015. Even when Lucas was filming the Prequels, with all that digital stuff they did, it took three years between movies. Now if they really are going to use more practical effects and locations, I don't know how they will get done, unless they have already been filming for a while.

 

[seelsa73]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I have a hard time believing this will be out in 2015. Even when Lucas was filming the Prequels, with all that digital stuff they did, it took three years between movies. Now if they really are going to use more practical effects and locations, I don't know how they will get done, unless they have already been filming for a while.

I think if they stick with their guns and do a combo of practical and CGI, they can offset those times used on the prequels where almost every frame was enhanced with some form of CGI or another. If they can do 70/30 cgi to practical, they can make it just fine. But then again idk how all this stuff works so i could be totally wrong.

 

[Bryancd]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Yeah, Disney has resources even beyond that of LFL and the motivation to pay.

 

[Jedi-72]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Lucas kind of pinched the pennies while pushing the boundaries, which is one of the reason that I think the final product suffered, at least visually.

The technology has matured immensely since the prequels. I'm sure more can be done in less time, but also, there may be far less interest in filling every inch of the screen with nonsense that doesn't do anything other than distract. Couple that with a less broad, more focused scope to the story and the volume of needed cg can decrease substantially.

 

[Solo4114]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Lucas kind of pinched the pennies while pushing the boundaries, which is one of the reason that I think the final product suffered, at least visually.

The technology has matured immensely since the prequels. I'm sure more can be done in less time, but also, there may be far less interest in filling every inch of the screen with nonsense that doesn't do anything other than distract. Couple that with a less broad, more focused scope to the story and the volume of needed cg can decrease substantially.

Actually, taht weird imbalance even exists within the story, too. It's both overly broad, and too focused. You have the too-broad stuff with the senate maneuverings and trade embargos in the first film, people running all over from place to place only to run right back to where they started, then you get the second movie which can't decide if it's a detective film, western, or war movie, and then by the time you hit the third one, you're both WAY too focused on "Anakin is SAD" and occasionally going to the broader scale stuff abotu how the Republic is crumbling, all without having shown any of the stuff leading up to this or WHY it happened this way.


I think a balance could've been struck between breadth and focus, even when you're dealing with larger-scale events like the crumbling of a Republic and the rise of a dictatorship (the show Rome did this just fine), but you've gotta try to tie those elements together, and examine why any of the things that are happening matter. Frankly, I think Lucas just had a whole bunch of ideas, and stuck them all up on the screen without regard to how or if they fit. It's why the PT feels so uneven in many different ways.

 

[Solo4114]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Lucas kind of pinched the pennies while pushing the boundaries, which is one of the reason that I think the final product suffered, at least visually.

The technology has matured immensely since the prequels. I'm sure more can be done in less time, but also, there may be far less interest in filling every inch of the screen with nonsense that doesn't do anything other than distract. Couple that with a less broad, more focused scope to the story and the volume of needed cg can decrease substantially.

Actually, taht weird imbalance even exists within the story, too. It's both overly broad, and too focused. You have the too-broad stuff with the senate maneuverings and trade embargos in the first film, people running all over from place to place only to run right back to where they started, then you get the second movie which can't decide if it's a detective film, western, or war movie, and then by the time you hit the third one, you're both WAY too focused on "Anakin is SAD" and occasionally going to the broader scale stuff abotu how the Republic is crumbling, all without having shown any of the stuff leading up to this or WHY it happened this way.


I think a balance could've been struck between breadth and focus, even when you're dealing with larger-scale events like the crumbling of a Republic and the rise of a dictatorship (the show Rome did this just fine), but you've gotta try to tie those elements together, and examine why any of the things that are happening matter. Frankly, I think Lucas just had a whole bunch of ideas, and stuck them all up on the screen without regard to how or if they fit. It's why the PT feels so uneven in many different ways.

 

[seelsa73]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

They don't look like they've been going to the gym at all. I suppose they still have 6 months or so, but still.