This report comes from the Official
Star Wars Site!
Answered by: Gavin Bocquet
Since
you started way back in Episode I, have there been any new building
materials or processes developed that makes your job easier?
Over the past 10
years there haven't been any great leaps in the technology of
building materials and processes, although each year there are small
improvements and advances in all areas. This can range from
materials themselves, like improved casting materials, or larger
sheets of MDF (medium density fiberboard), to basic improvements in
tools and machine technology.
The film business is,
by its nature, a low-volume production business, and therefore we
are not able to make use of techniques normally used in industry. If
we were making 1,000 of the same object, then we could use these
pieces of equipment, but we are more craft-orientated than mass
production-orientated, with the need to make only small numbers of
any given object.
The world of CAD
drawing in the Art Department had seen a big advancement over the
last 10 years, and this has a direct input into the Construction
Department, as we can often feed the CAD information directly into
various machine tools, like the router, or 5-axis cutter, which will
cut shapes and elements straight from the digital information out of
a variety of materials.
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