Alien Worlds via Visual Effects

How do artists use new animation technology to bring Star Wars to TV?

May/June 2021

George Lucas and the other creators of the Star Wars films work with huge budgets. They travel to exotic locations to film the alien-looking landscapes in the Star Wars universe. And they spend years working on each movie. So when they decided to add a live-action TV series—The Mandalorian—to the franchise, they wondered how they would be able to present believable settings with a smaller budget and less time. The answer? A high-tech film studio, animation, and a lot of creativity!

Making a Star Wars movie costs a lot of money and takes time. The crew travels to film in places that look like alien worlds. They spend years working on each movie. Filmmakers have less time and money to create the live-action Star Wars TV series, The Mandalorian. Instead, they used new animation technology to make the show’s alien worlds.

Problem Solved

For the Star Wars movies, filmmakers used a variety of techniques to create the now-iconic alien landscapes. Sometimes the crews used green screen technology, which means they add the backgrounds after filming. They also traveled to film in real places and built elaborate sets. These approaches would have been too expensive and time-consuming for the quick turnarounds and tighter budgets of TV production. In season one alone, the Mandalorian visits five planets and multiple space stations.

Lucas collaborated with Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), a visual effects company he founded. After years of research, artists and engineers had an out-of-this-world idea. They built a large room, shown above, in a hemispherical shape—half a sphere—in a studio in Southern California. Called the Volume, the nearly enclosed space is 75 feet wide by 21 feet tall. The walls and ceiling are covered in more than 1,300 high-definition LED screens showing animated alien landscapes. As the actors and cameras move, the images shift in response.

For the Star Wars movies, the crew sometimes used green screen technology. This means they added backgrounds after filming. They also traveled to film in real places. But TV shows are made too quickly to film this way. They also have smaller budgets. The creators needed a new plan.

To create The Mandalorian, the crew worked with Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), a visual effects company. They came up with an out-of-this-world idea. They built a large room, shown above, in a studio in Southern California. It’s shaped like half a sphere. The space is called the Volume. It’s 75 feet wide and 21 feet tall. The walls and ceiling are covered in more than 1,300 LED screens. The screens show animated alien landscapes that change as the actors move within the space.

Virtual Worlds

The Volume’s revolutionary animation creates the illusion that actors are on a strange planet. “You’d think people could walk off into the distance when they’d really just walk into a wall,” says Richard Bluff, a visual effects expert at ILM.

Artists achieve this effect by rendering animated backgrounds, like the example above, on a computer. They use photos of real places, like mountains or oceans, as a starting point. They also make three-dimensional models of spaceships and other set pieces. Then they scan the forms into a video game engine, software used to create interactive games in which players can look up at the sky or down at the ground and navigate digital worlds. “You don’t have to store lots of physical sets,” explains Bluff. “You can store them in the computer. We can return to the same environments over and over again.”

The animations on the screens create the illusion that actors are on a strange planet. To make digital animated backgrounds like the one below, artists start with photos of real places. They scan them into a video game engine. This software is normally used to create games with images that move as players look in different directions.

“You don’t have to store physical sets,” says Richard Bluff, an expert at ILM. “You can store them in the computer. We can return to the same environments over and over again.”

Sparks Fly

To understand how much time the Volume saves creators, look at the Mandalorian himself in the image above. His metallic armor reflects light. If the show were filmed using green screens, visual effects teams would have to carefully add every reflection to blend reality with digital fiction. The LED screens provide real light sources that reflect off the helmet.

“If actors and filmmakers feel immersed in an environment, they’re not questioning where they are,” says Bluff. “They’re in the moment. You’ll get a better performance, a better frame, and a better show.”

The Volume saves creators a lot of time. Look at the Mandalorian character in the image above. His armor reflects light. If the crew used green screens, visual effects teams would have to carefully create each reflection on a computer after filming. But the LED screens provide real light sources. They reflect off the helmet in a realistic way.

The animations on the screens also help the actors feel like they’re in an alien world. “They’re in the moment. You’ll get a better performance, a better frame, and a better show,” Bluff says.