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Archived News
September 2003
Week 2
Saturday September
13, 2003
What does one need to
study... |
This report comes from the Official
Star Wars Site!
Answered by: Gavin Bocquet
What
does one need to study to become a Production Designer?
In theory, one can
study many different areas of art and design, before deciding to
specialize in Production Design. However, depending on what
country you live in, these days you will often find many levels of
courses specializing in Production Design, so if you feel strongly
enough you can decide to specialize straight away.
Other people may
decide to do a general art and design course first, maybe looking
at Graphics, Architecture, Product or other areas, and then decide
to specialize in Production Design at a later stage.
Again, depending on
what country you are based, you can find graduate courses that
specialize in Production Design for people who have already done
preliminary courses in other areas of design.
In general, there
are quite a few ways to proceed if you want to become a Production
Designer, but initally, doing an art and design course of some
sort, is a good way to start.
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Posted:
by Jedi
Power
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Thursday September
11, 2003
Craig Burt's Blockade
Runner |
Craig Burt has provided another great new painting to the Featured
Artist section! He feels we may see a Blockade Runner
in Episode III, so he created this new piece to reflect those
thoughts. This piece reminds me a lot of the Ralph McQuarrie art.
Thanks Craig! Also, be sure to see his outstanding gallery of work
with Craig
Burt's Paintings and also Craig
Burt's Cartoons! You can find other great work at the Featured
Artists section. Enjoy!
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Posted:
by Jedi
Power
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Thursday September
11, 2003
Jedi Academy Demo |
New Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy Demo is now available for download
at Fileplanet.com. And according to the site the game will
be in stores by September 17!!!! That’s 6 days kid. This game is
going to be wonderful with character customization, lightsaber
customization. And when I mean custom light saber I mean anything,
from the handle to the color of the blade or blades… That’s
right this time you can have a Darth Maul style double-bladed
saber or duel sabers, sounds pretty good to me ;). You can be your
own character this time. Kyle Katarn was cool but now you get to
make your own bad jedi ;) nice aye? Well that’s all for me ill
see you guys later with more gaming new J buh bye for now. O ya
and if anyone plays SWG look me up on the Bria server. My name is
Sokkito. Thanks again all see ya.
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Posted:
by Wookiee
Jedi
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Wednesday September
10, 2003
Dan Gregoire Chat
Highlights |
TF.N
has provided some highlights
from last night's Hyperspace Chat with Dan Gregoire, the
previsualization effects supervisor for Episode III. Spoilers
- Highlight
to read:
- There are
animatics for a scene in which there are clonetroopers on
speeder bikes, but the scene may not be in the final film.
- The opening
space battle in terms of scale and scope is bigger than
anything we've seen.
- Episode 3 is
more action oriented, dark and moody.
- There's an
entire environment that will be bigger than anything seen in
any Star Wars film that will be primarily digital.
- Yoda will be
featured in a "spectacular action sequence".
- The animatics
for the Episode 3 space battle were more challenging because
it's a journey rather than a single event.
- The Wookiees in
action is "something to see".
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Posted:
by Jedi
Power
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Tuesday September 9,
2003
Nowadays, is there any
real reason... |
This report comes from the Official
Star Wars Site!
Answered by: John Knoll
Nowadays,
is there any real reason to use blue or green as the color of a
background? Could you just as easily have orange-screens or
red-screens?
The main reason we still use blue and green is
that those colors have the greatest contrast with skin tones and
most of the wardrobe we need to shoot in front of those screens
(think of the Jedi robes, for example). The way blue and
greenscreens work is that the computer looks for differences in
color between the foreground and background. Since skin tones have
a lot of red in them, if we shot redscreen, it would be much
harder for the computer to tell what was skin and what was the
screen. That said, we also have to work with objects that are blue
or green, so we alternate between blue and green depending on
what's in the foreground. For example, we shoot R2-D2 in front of
a greenscreen because of his blue panels. Sometimes George puts
blue and green stuff in a shot, and we have to decide which is
most important to choose the screen color. Objects that are the
same color as the screen can't be extracted automatically, and
have to be hand-rotoscoped.
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Posted:
by Jedi
Power
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Monday September 8,
2003
Homing Beacon #93 |
The latest Homing Beacon has arrived, and today we get to talk
about Episode III costumes. Many of the elements of Episode III
are harbingers of things to come in the original trilogy. The
Costume Department has worked diligently to not only foreshadow
future events, but also give the final Star Wars chapter
its own distinct style. Though the film is the most visually
diverse of the saga, spanning the largest number of locales and
cultures, there will definitely be costumes that look familiar.
"There's a link of characters between Episodes III and
IV," says Trisha Biggar, Costume Designer. "In terms of
quality, there will always be a difference between how things look
in Episode III and Episode IV, just because we have a great deal
more time to achieve things than the people in Episode IV did. But
there's always a mind to keep the flow from III into IV, and
that's been achieved in color and feel and referring back to
Episode IV for the characters who have continuity, rather than
trying to copy exactly any particular costumes from Episode
IV."
For Obi-Wan Kenobi, his role as a Jedi pretty much defines his
overall look, but there is room for subtle progression from The
Phantom Menace to A New Hope. "We started in
Episode I with a younger version of the costume from Episode IV.
We kept that for Episode II. For Episode III, a couple of years
have passed, and we changed his costume to blend into Episode IV.
We changed the color of his undershirt and the color of his
trousers, so he's very slightly becoming a little more like the
old Obi-Wan."
Anakin Skywalker clearly has the most profound transition from
the prequel to the original trilogy, but the evolution of his Jedi
robes from Attack of the Clones to his garb in the new
installment is more understated than his future look of dark
armor. "We changed his cloak shape, and gave him a new
slightly more Jedi-like cloak this time," says Biggar.
"We changed his colors, and we darkened them all down,
hinting at what he's going to become. Although he was quite dark
brown before, there were some lighter aspects. This time, we've
really taken shades of dark brown to give him a dark outline even
though he's still a Jedi."
Though Senators Padmé Amidala and Bail Organa are absent from
the original films, they continue to evolve Episode III, building
upon their looks from the previous chapter. "In Episode I,
Padmé was very formal and very ceremonial, and that became
slightly relaxed for Episode II. In Episode III, we see her in a
couple of business-like -- but not heavily ceremonial -- costumes,
so generally her look is softer, and we get a chance to see her in
a more relaxed state. I think even more relaxed now than she was
in Episode II -- softer, more feminine," explains Biggar.
"Though we saw Bail Organa in Episode II as a Senator,
George wanted him to look slightly more high tech in a way,"
she says. "We ended up using more metal pieces in his
costumes. He has a high-tech metal comlink, and his ceremonial
Senate costume has a beautiful metal collar piece."
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Posted:
by Jedi
Power
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Monday September 8,
2003
When Luke is dropped
on the ground... |
This report comes from the Official
Star Wars Site!
Answered by: Ben Burtt
When
Luke is dropped on the ground by the Tusken Raiders in Episode IV,
I swear I've heard that crunchy gravel sound before. Where is it
from?
That is an old body fall effect used in many
movies since the 1940s. You can hear it in some Bogart films like Passage
To Marseille and many westerns.
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Posted:
by Jedi
Power
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