Galactic News

Friday April 4, 2003
Homing Beacon #82

The latest Homing Beacon has arrived, and today we get to talk about early editing for Episode III. Not a single frame of Episode III's opening sequence has been shot, and yet some of it is being edited. How is this possible? Thanks to animatics, the lines between pre-production, production and post-production are blurred. The video-resolution computer-animated action serves as a moving storyboard, establishing a template for live action and final animation to follow when assembling the finished movie.

Previsualization Supervisor Dan Gregoire leads the team of 11 computer artists envisioning and exploring Episode III in animatic form. A veteran of Episode II, Gregoire is applying the lessons learned from previsualizing such dynamic sequences as the Clone War and the droid factory in his approach to Episode III.

"We're taking what we learned in terms of developing assets first and getting those loaded up and as well defined as we can early into the process. Then we go about animating the shots," says Gregoire. "It lends a lot more continuity to the sequence, visually and creatively, and kind of streamlines the entire process."

An asset in this case is any computer model or element that will be animated in the shot. This includes preliminary versions of characters, vehicles and props. This early stage is marked by broad experimentation, as nothing is yet locked. This means that not only can the sequence and length of shots be edited, but so too can the models used in a given shot.

"When you start to see the assets come together in proximity and scale, decisions get made, and occasionally things change," says Gregoire. "We've sometimes had to redevelop some assets, or at least edit the way they are being displayed and animated, and of course define more specifically how these shots are put together," says Gregoire.

Some of the shots being developed are also first explored by Ben Burtt, who at this early stage is acting as an editor without any footage. Burtt is assembling the Art Department's storyboards into a rough sequence. "He's cutting those together with pans and motion and turns, and whatever else he can do in the Avid in terms of translating them and timing them out," says Gregoire.

"He's even putting in his own dialogue, reading it himself in the sequence, and cutting in temporary music and some basic sound effects to get a base underlying soundtrack," explains Gregoire. "As the shots progress, the animatics artists have a tremendous amount of control over what they put into it, as long as they stick with the essential essence of what is supposed to be happening."

An interview with Dan Gregoire, entitled "Beyond the Storyboard," will be available in Star Wars Insider #68, shipping to subscribers on May 16, and hitting newsstands on June 3.