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    Cinefex 003 PDF

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    cinefex the journal of cinematic illusions Ce og eee Soe oa es Se Se Robert P. Everett eas pool) ee eee OCs re eee entre tes etree Tere tg issues ~ $15 surface: $19 airmail. Return postage must rere en eee ae a ee ea er Coleen eee genera ens oer eee Nn TROT NTT Hornia. Contents copyright 1980 by Don Shay. All ene net ne ene Erne Tee een Lae? A Ce nee nee type setups to modern motion control technology. the special effects Reenter eae eer ee es eRe eee ea eee ee Pees eet eects d ere er cee a een eee ae Pere CR em Walter Murch — Making Beaches Out of Grains of Sand. oer) Re ee ee eee ee eee eerste emer ere Walter Nureh, the virtuoso whose work figures prominently in some of Peni aa tet ane invisible art of sound ~ from the recording of single Isolated audio tack tothe monumental mixing oF hundred or more at once. Article by ae Se eee Co) ea ee ec ae en ‘no alien invades, no unleased technological horrors just ants. Bat not ordinary ans. Ants with geometric patterns emblazoned on their foreheads ants unafraid to engage a praying mantis in bate: ants that Pee Ne ance eet en eer er ne a eas Cinematographer Ken Middleham discusses the creation and photog ‘raphy of these uncharacteristic ant behaviors, Infroiew by Don Shay FRONT COVER — Lake Skywalker astride his tuntaun in The Empire Strikes Back ee eee Sam Comstock Ken Ralston Mike Fulmer TAUNTAUNS LVALKERS S&S PROBOTS creating stop-mn ‘The Emer ‘George Lucas wasn't too fond of stop motion animation be: fore the chess sequence in Star Wars” revealed Dennis Muren, effects rector of photography for The Empire Strikes Back, “Ne Feit that inthe lms hed seen the results didn’t look real and the technique wouldn't work for some ofthe ideas he had in mind.” Later when Empire evolved, Lucas was determined to have a fall stop-motion department at Industrial Light and Nagle The irony is blatant but a5 Dennis Muren wil tll you, George Lucas intial response was typical. Stop motion animation the nly special effect that seems to sustain love hate relationship with cities and producers. tis the one technique that ap- Dreclated and despised with equal fervor ~ there i virtually no ‘middle ground. Remarked one technician atlLM. "There was one revlew out where someone actually made the remark thatthe tauntaun was a jumpy version of aRay Harryhausen type crea rel incredible ecause exactly the oppesite struc.” Silin ‘speeders and TIE fighters are accepted without hesitation ‘but a hybrid animal galloping across an alien tundra evokes Decullar sense of awe. like a gasp that gets caught in one's fat Interestingly the process has remained immune to high technology, oblivious tothe credibility factor that motion co ‘uot hardmare can provide, The makersof Empire sought to erase that barter and di Ray Harryhausen and Wills O'Brien had aiays used dimen Sonal animation as thet ims’ raison aetre, and while there's nothing reprehensible about that approach. the Empire ilusion {stssaw things diferenty Rather than relyingon stopmotion to any the superstructure, the process wastreated as ay to pro ide story points and spectacular vistas. Animation fans may ‘thapsodizeover the tauntaun andsnow walker shots, but Empire ‘animator Phil Tippet remains staunchly pragmatic about I Stop motion wasustone technique —one ofmany that worked well under certain situations. Itjust depends on what the inte tion of he fiimmaket In Lucas case. it wasto propel the story forvard The technique was applied to thesituaton and not just ‘sed for own sake, That's how all the stop-motion shots were approached.” Foralits animated virtuosity, the frente pace of ‘the snow walker sequence was generated solely by rapicuting, petipheral speeder elements, rotoscoped laser eflects and pyro {echnis. And the tauntaun was literally a vehicle for the two mmaln chatacters ~ no more, notes. In ha sense speaks well, for the intention ofthe animators that thelr work integrates ise effortlessly without pointing to technique. ‘Oddly enough, rumor Rad I that George Lucas approached Ray Harryhausen early in the game to mastermind the anima tion sequences for Empire. The news sounded sketchy ~ almost The Empite strikes Back photographs copyright © 1960 by Lucasfim Lid. All rights reserved. Special effects unit stil ‘Photography by Terry Chosiner and Howard Stein. Conceptual ‘ustrations by Joe Johnston. Incredible Infact — considering Harryhausen was already em rolled in ptepodction for Clash of the Tans and was way behind schedule, Nonetheless here was kernel of truth tothe report, as reveaied by Phil Tipe. “Lucas approached him bout doing some work on it. They went out to lunch and dis ‘assed it. Because ofthe schedules, they couldn't get together fn it.” Dennis Muren offered additonal Insight into the matter "Ubelieve that meeting happened in the ealy part of 1978. Thing{s Ion tthink they ever expected Ray toactally take the jj, George and Gary really wanted to meet Ray, and that was Sart ofa way todo it Despite the Harryhausen meeting, Jon Berg and Pil Tippett ‘became Lucas’ prime consideration fr executing al the stop ‘motion effets fr Empire The animated eddies cooked up by {his team forthe chess sequence in tar Wars had been sheet ‘throwaway, a uke that developed when Berg and Tippet pre: stnted cas and hurt wth small sculptures as design eas or additional cantina creatures. No one was more exuberant than Lucas over the reception ofthe chess sequence, inspiring hm to ‘consider more serious applications ofthe process forthe next episode, (Lucas early reluctance seems even more ironic when ‘oe considers that his fist alempt a flmmaking asa teenager ‘contained sequence in which apie of plates was made todisap- Dear rom a kitchen table frame by frame, much to his delight) Though the encore employmentof Berg and Tppet would pre sumably involve the sow walker and tauntaun shot. no one vas certain about what technique would be used to realize those Sequences during the months that preceded the spring of 1978. "The'eeling atthe time.” recalled Muren.” wasthat he walker cor taun shots wouldresortto another technique. then other stop ‘motion work would have been dreamed up for Jon and Pil. just, to get the department going and experiment with mew ideas.) frst contacts on the film probably occurred in Apil 1978. We had the frst meetings with George and Gary ad I Kershner in ay ot June. believe Jon and Phil were brought into the project atthat time With pay sales arranged and contracts signed, the migration began rom Los Angeles to San Rafal, where ground was being broken for the new Industrial Light and Magic. Unlike the old Facil, which had been converted from an abandoned ware house in Van Mays under the baton of John Dykstra, the Empire headquarters had to be bullt fom scratch. Less than twenty of the original IL team were retained: ll were laced in ky tall positions. Richard Edlund, who shared the Star Wars motion onto! work with Dennis Muten, advanced to a supervisory pos tion which entailed the overseeing ofthe building and monitor Ing the work ofthe various departments. Ealund's primary task was o design and build a sophisticated beam splitter printer for ‘compositing the awesome network of elements and to design and Construct the Empirefex motion control camera and its high Speed sister camera. Muren’s responsibilities consisted of shep- heeding the entie stop-motion operation. designing lighting plans ad supervising and co-iming the space sequences Joe article by Paul Mandell ‘A major batten the ice planet Hoth was an early feature of The Empire Strikes ‘Back serie. Design consultant ‘Ralph McQuarrie designed the Two-sealer armored snow: ‘speeder sed by the reel forces, while design ofthe Imperial assault vehicles fell largely to effects art director ‘he Johnston. Johnston's earliest concepis were directed tocardaleizing army fark which the producers planned to procure rom the Ronsegian govern ‘ment. 7 When the option f0 use stop-motion animation ‘came under consideration “Johnston devised a gant armored walking machine swith multiple aser Banks and “animale characteristics. This early walker concept ‘went through numerous ‘modifications and refinements ‘before being finalized. Johnston resumed his postion as effects art director, and Peter iKuran assistant to the late Adam Beckett, took charge ofthe rotoscope department. Finally, Jon Berg and PB Tppet, who had previously tolled in thelr own garages and in small pace cordoned of from one of the old LM stages, were glven afl: Nledgea stop-motion department in which to develop new equlp- ment ana Ideas ‘Because ofthe unusual requirements on the craft end ofthe animation model work, altonal expertise was enlisted. Tom ‘St Amand had been toling superior ball socket armatures for Dave Allens The rimevals when preproduction ground toa halt inJuly 1978 dueto cash ow problems. st. Amand’s capabilites ere vital tothe realization of the walker and tauntaun arma {ures, Ken Ralston was animating lizard man and Dave Carson had been sculpting a dinosaur for that same picture when the shutdown occured: Ralston. a veteran of tar Wars, washed by the Empire team as an animator an effects cameraman; Caso Joined the ILM model shop. "We'd worked together successful Before,” sald Muren. "We all worked for years together at Cascade Pretues. So the communication was there. When You ‘an get a group of people who can workin harmony and speak the Same language I's great.” ‘Setting up shop was hardly a plcnic. Muren recalled the raw beginnings: "When we arrived the ILM building was stil under ‘onstruction. Walls were beng set, equipment was being shipped Uup fom Los Angeles, storyboards were being redone, and the Script was in its final stage. There was no eectrity In the bullding. Although we moved up therein September, we couldn even turn ona stage light untl February! We only had regular ‘ork lights That was long ime, And we only had two cameras ‘Up until August of 1979 to shoo wth ~ the Dykstralex andthe old Technirama, When weinally got the Emprefex working, we Started the stop-motion work. 1 think It took eight months to complete the facil ‘Complicating matters were several disasters on the egular production which extended themselves into the stop-motion ‘operation, Aside tom a brutal fron an EMI soundstage and the ‘demise of production designer John Bary, the crew ming the ice planet scenes In Norway hat ight the worst winter weather {naif a century. When the footage was shipped to Marin County and scrutinized, ILM technicians were groaning. Backgrounds intended for composting wit speeders and animation models ‘were unstable and photographically uneven. Then screenwriter Leigh Bracket met her untimely death Before completing final, ‘raft onthe script. Lucas contracted Larry Kasdan to eplce her and though the walker and tauntaun sequences were sory> boarded, the entre screenplay needed heavy reorientation. ‘racket’s draft had to be extensively rewlten by George Lucas,” Dennis Muren pointed out. "The witers supplied the ‘dialog and contsbuted tothe sor, but George was picking the ‘moment the direction, andthe accent of each scene — what the Durpose ofeach scene was, and who or what was being show asd.” Several weeks of recovery brought the scenario Back in- to equilibrium. A massive period of design and engineering work lay ahead, beginning In the auturn of 1978 and extending into the sum: mer of 1979, Mure’ fst concern was organizing the logics ‘of the effects scenes. while the others devoted thet time to the ‘raving board. “Pl hadn't designed the tauntaun yet te was coordinating his work with the Britsh crew, sending his designs ‘over and getting them back with suggestions. Jon Berg was de Signing the snow walkers with Joe Johnston. They were onthe payroll and were keeping busy by constantly improving thelr fesigns. They continuously aded things unt they came up With what you see on the screen. While Jon was working onthe walker armature, Pil was doing tess ofauntaun motion wth a Dractice amature, The thrust of that period was Just geting back nt the swing f stop-motion. When thetime could ome to do a sho, Jon and Pil would feel comfortable most ofthe ob- Stacles would have been removed.” The lok ofthe snow walker Was the result of some inspired thinking on the part of Its designe, Joe Johnston. "George [useas and Gary Kurtz knew a the outset hat there was going to beasnow battle. and they knew we were going to have armored speeders. But they hadn realy decided on what kindof vehicles the Empire would have or how they were going to dot At ist ‘hey considered using existing miltar tanks fom the Norwegian any, redressing them to make ther ook allen dda bunch of sketches using the tanks a8 a bal Then Ian across a nerox ‘hata fiend of mine had It was apromational brochure put out by US. Steel Inthe early Slties and contained a whole slew of, {al-olo paintings inalcatin ‘what see wil be used for inthe futute The paintings were done by Syd Meade (Star Trek con: ‘eptual arts) Interestingly enough, one of te paintings showed ‘a fourlegged walking truck Thats where the initial walker idea ame from. Iwasa very nique design. eade'srenderingrellected the rch imagery ofthe science tion pulps and could have easily been a sureal version of a Popular Mechanics cover. Johnston took that sign and started riltariing it giving it guns and a separate head, He also used pls of some design sketches by Ralph McQuarrie as an added Influence. During the selection process, Lucas, Kurtz, McQuarrie and Johnston gathered in a room. Lucas would extract a few ‘Sketches rom the batch and comment onthe design features he desired. Eventually the final design ofthe snow walker was el: Taed. It was more of less let up to me.” said Johnston. “It amounted toa few sketches, Raph, at that time. was going to ‘England to do some paintings and fll-sie sets so he was ttoo Involved inthe end ofthe design phase. The walker you see on thescreen Is basically my design. wth some borrowed elements ‘fom the original painting” ‘When the mundane idea of using full scale tanks was dlcar 4, stop-motion became the Immediate consideration a 1M. ‘There would be no other way to doit successfully." believe that hen George sald there would be fll stop mation department for Empire the walkers had alteady been decided on for st0P motion,” Muten remarked. "We're not sure exactly what George had in mind earir on: I's mostly supposition on our pat. | remember. though thatthe chess game n Slr Wars seemes to be an ideal opportunity fr him to tr stop-motion, because the figures wee supposed tobe holograms and anything could nap pen ~ they could ook funny: thelr movements could have tat fd look. The same thought process applied to the walks." ‘ended up being cheaper todo than using real tanks, which would have requlred models anyway for the special eects Shots," added Johnston. "As it tured out, we didnt have to Dull any fulscale walker sets, excep fora small section ofthe Underbelly and the fot twas something that hadnt been done before in animation. It wasa perfect typeof puppet because the Jerkiness thats inherent in stop-motion realty lent itself to that ind of machine. | thought it Rada lot of things going frit sas a great oy How the entire walker sequence evolved was somewhat bizane Johnson recalled the unorthodox development. "George would ‘ome inandsay:tHe. we're going tohavethisgiant bate lar doing some storyboard. But there was noscript! And George ‘ould say, Don't wory about that: jst do storyboards The pro ess then was to lay out random shots and pick out some tht ‘would conceivably work. George would work on the script a home while would be working onthe boards During our meet Ing, he would pick out shots that he felt looked promising and rite them in. Iwas avery unusual evolution” When the script vas finalized, Johnston went back and redid the whole se «quence. In fact, it was redone several times by bath Johnston and an assistant whom he hired in September 1978. "The walker Sequence always changed. OnStar Wars, we generated about {housand storyboards Maybe Tour-hundred and fly were used Theft vetson of any sequence fs Bound to change many times ‘over shots get tansposed and eliminated. Youust have (keep itrough.” Im arder to devise the proper gat ofthe walkers and the taun taun, the stopmotion crew photographed specific animals to help understand how their movements related to fm. Pil Tippett and Jon Berg used this asa qulde and setup a situation similar to Eadweard Muybridge’s Animals n Motion (a bible for Animators) in oder to Break down running cycles and examine ‘anima ilosyncracte. “We studied a lot of reference footage about a year prior to the shooting ofthe actual elements that ‘ent into the lm,” said Tippett. "Ken and did extensive tests {o-see fit would work. We spent several months doing that.” or the huge lumbering walkers, an elephant was chosen, Ralston and company went to Marineland's rica, U.S.A, south of San Francisco, and singled outa particular pachyderm. "1 believe it was the same elephant that Was used a the bantha in ‘Siar Wars. The trainer made Ito all sorts ftrcks and we shot Ina lotofaiferent ways.” Much of the elephantine influence shines through inthe walker animation. Joe Jobnston’s idea. though. was to design something slightly oomorphic without having i lse ls mechanical qual, There isa certain logic to camerexs 7 PPO OOM F % GQIITATATA AE SII STS an CA 0C 2 i 4 * ei Be asa: t,t pil ait) ts almost camel ike profit since theft ce plains of Hoth sug est a vista similar to that ofa desertke tera. Surprisingly, Johnston stinking gravitated toward a most unlikely animal It kind of moves like a cat to me have aca she hind of walks that way at times — stiFlegged. head down. There Is nothing particularly eine bout the walker’ appearance, ut of ll the Animals. reminds me more of acat than anything es, Ahorse seemed to relate best othe tauntaun since it had to gallop for several shots and rear up for one. Ralston and crew {rove to nearby Stinson Beach and photographed i. "We knew {hisall who hada horse. We placed markers inappropriate spots and had her run the horse using diferent paces We filmed it fom te side and every angle the horse had jumped. Phil used that to get the feel of how the tauntaun would move. During animation, he added his own chatacterzation to Jon Berg anatomized Joe Johnston's walker design and spent Uhree full months laboring on an original prototype. there was one person responsible for geting the walkers on the seren.” Johnston affirmed. "twas Jon Berg. He developed the entre amature working rom usa couple of my rough sketches, ‘And he managed to integrate alot of experimental ideas which ‘worked realy well. Jon would always ask me fhe was doing Something that | would object to, or he woul be stepping on Im toes. Of couse, he wast He has a great sense of design, | think. He sometimes worked fourteen hoursadayon that walker prototype is effort onthe ting was realy incredible. The only timee changed something rom my sketches was when there was a mechanical problem ~ minor changes just to make it animatable ‘here were a lot of design elements in the walkers tha employing the techniques used before. there would have been ro way to have itopetae asa stop motion puppet.” Pil Tippett added. Jon broke It all down and figured it out. twas a minor Iiracle of engineering The walker leg was particularly challenging. After careful study and experimentation, Berg developed a unique mechanism ‘employing a system of pistons and cams. "Jon designed the ‘ams o work unison with those tiny pistons,” Tom St. Amand explained. "The cam mechanism ft inside the leq which was hollowed out. I hada ite cover plate over it. so You don't ac tually see the mechanism: But its there. I was avery creative idea. Everything was machined tobe functional. He even engl neered the feet to behave lke shock absorbers, to take the Weight.” Once the basic structure was completed. Berg em bellshed his objet d'art with painstakingly applied detail n ‘lung tiny guns that could be made to recall on interfacing slides during animation. ‘Three primary walker armatures were eventually ulltby Tom St. Amand using Berg's prototype a a model. The contraptions ‘ood eighteen by twenty Inches when completed by the mode! shop. St Amand had to custom-bulld each part from scratch there weren't any availble for purchase. "When I sated the Parts design was al laid out All had to do, balally, was take Animator Jn Bera spent three months contracting 2 functioning prototype from ‘ohnston's walker sketches. / ith his undetaled provtype. Berg was able fo make many tests prior tothe start of axtual animation forthe Sequence. / Using Bera’s prototype as a model, machinist and armature maker Tom St. Amand Custom fabricated enough armature pieces fo buld the itwee eignteen inch walker ‘models needed fr theft. | The cast urethane underbely ofthe waters being fted together inthe ILM madel shop. 1 Meticulous painting ‘by Joe Johnston served to enhance the scale ofthe ‘walking machines and give ‘them an aged appearance ccnerexs = 9 Fe ee eS ee Two walkers — one com pleted and one si under construction ~ positioned for «preliminary test of one of the snow settings used inthe ‘sequence. Only handful of ‘the walker shots employed the bluescren matting “system. Most were slaged in rminiature sets patterned after the orweaian focations used for thetve action shooting orking from transparencies ‘or photographs. artist Mike Pangraio executed a number ‘of highly detaled large sale background pattings. Depending upon the action 10 >be photographed. foregrounds were elher painted by ‘Pangrato. or constructed in ‘miniature under the superasion of assistant art but was incapable of forward ‘motion Siting atid the ‘mechanical tauntaun. Luke ‘Shyoaher (ark aml) Surveys the icy wastelands of Toth. / The stop-motion (aun {aun with ts miniature rider cerexs » 33 Phi Tippett animates the fauntaun om an incline. / One ofthe most dificult shots to ‘achieve was the opening scene of the tauntaun running ‘across the snow. The snowy expanse was sot lv rom a ‘helicopter and the stop- ‘motion miniature had fo be ‘Dhotographed against a buescreen and mated into the constanty shifting back round plate. Phi Tippett animate Rs fauntaun forthe ‘hot in which Han dismount fo search or Luke. / Dennis Maren adjusts the Bue pylon ‘mount for the opening tau aun scene. For this sho. the ‘camera remained locked off oh the entre mode! assembly was sited in position to duplicate the helicopter camera move. For ‘each auntaun move 0 Jrames were exposed — one for the base bluescreen ‘element, and one with 2 white card underneath the ‘model (shou her) forthe shadow effect. The two were (hen separated out in optical ‘onto the ground. Any major bumps or drifts had tobe there, but itis ted down. I the tun stopped halfway through the shot. though, we could see that there wouldbe some instability going ‘om. turmed out atthe time that one ofthe main axes ofthe Ox berry hada lot of playin it. don't think Sam was aware ofthis when he shot But I woul’ repeat exactly. Tis influenced the result and that of other shots in Ue show using the same technique. {The shots Muren alluded to were three matched moves Com: stock dd ofthe cloud city. The aerial shots wee rephotographed ‘om the Oxberry, together with several smal cloud city paintings ‘done by Ralph McQuarrie on acetate cls, using the rontlight/ back light matting techalgue. Comstock’s situation here was similar tothe one in which he realigned a moving pate for com peniting wth the tiny walkers. "Cloud city was areal bea. That Was actly the mos ical matched move odo Just because the move wasn't very pronounced, the tiniest vibration Inthe ‘loud plate made i vious that a city was being added later. ‘And as Dennis pointed out, there was some backlash in the an mation bed which resulted in some minor inaccuracies.) Whife the tauntaun helicopter shot may have gone over the audience's heads (no pun intended} ew could claim oblivious tess tothe scene ofthe animal running straight Into the Ke angat. Tppet's animation Isso Nuid it almost ceases tore semble stop motion photography. The shot i a minor miracle when one stops to consider thatthe tauntaun is mated onto a Background that has everything But hall inthe atmosphere Dennis Mure remembered his own bewilderment when the ‘quest was tossed before him. "Allo asudden there was George ‘Saying Hey, we want a tauntaun trun into thisshot Just ook ing at I. 1 was wondering how it was going to be possible. Brcaise there was haze in there, lens fae was going on there wasn placeto puta splitscreen and where would you pace the ‘ground, and would you use a miniature ground? Also, there Were these wo poolsfight which made iteven more dificult was areal challenge — that andthe helicopter shot. There were. ‘numberof other geat shots bul those to were oustanding My firs thought was don't know how we're goin to do this But ‘noth cases the solution came qichiy. ARer about aay or so thinking about it the answer was there Instrumental othe success ofboth shots was the selection of matting stocks and the sacrifices that Had to be made In order o liminate the mate line. For the most part, 3369 Kodak high ‘conkrast stock was rected In favor of 8302 (Kodak black ana whit release print stok) and 5235 (separation stock) for matte ‘generation. Requirements or individual shots were carefull co Crdiated with optical supervisor Bruce Nicholson and Warren Franklin on optical inewpThe high-contrast stack produced a hatd edge,” Men explaned. "The other black-and-white socks vere much Detter. Bul the rade off wasthe transparency To get Tid ofthe matt lines in he ice hangar an the helicopter shot te etd for abit transparency. Ldoa't know itis evident in the release print. but inthe orignal negative you could see the lights ghosting through the tauntaun a it runs onto the landing strip. That was ar removed from ahigh-con matte, Had we gone {o that tock those shots would have ben totally unacceptable The tik to the hangar shot wasits brevity: the taun's run-in was Just quck enough to give that impression.” Interestingly, Sam Comstock had orignaly plotted the move of the taun to run In rontothat rocky blemish the helicopter pate to enhance the Credibility ofthe scene. But because ofthe matte's delicacy the ‘move was shifted toa poston above the rock to avo ghosting. ‘Transparency on the lower half ofthe tauntaun was intentional however for the scene oft running up ina lizard and eating ‘up, to mary it etter withthe foreground and background snow fet, ‘Anothe trick was the discriminative use of blurs. Blurs were generally avoided in buescreen situations because of possible mismatch between the mate's edge characteristic and that of the blurted element, "That was violated, though, depending on how dark the background element was. We Blurred the tun for ‘theshotof running into the hangar, despite the fact that it was Diuescreen. We were able to get by on those, because ifwe were getting a matte linet probably would not be as noticeable ast ‘Would be against alight background.” Appropriate difusion twas added to the taun element to make it compatible with the ‘aporous background fled in England. The preceding shot of ‘heanimal entering the hangar in profilewas enhanced via glass art rendered by Ralph MeQuarle. No other taun shot, though ‘ould boast the chutzpah ofthe ice hangar sprint Quite natura iy: Iterulses down the center ofa landing strip replete with spot lights and looks as though ft wee right at home. ‘Sam Comstock was once again engaged to provide a shadow clement forthe eet. "They didn't. the actual shot ats. They put the taun through some dry runs. The puppet was attached to arod and slid along on the motion contro track — there was ‘no stop-motion involved in thisinstance The lighting setup ap Droximated the one that was needed. A white card was placed Unde the taun, and | used that lim asa que to get the shadow's angle and shape. Later on, drew the shadows on ces to match the movements ofthe puppet” Phil Tippett animated several other dynamic taun shots. in ‘ding one where the animal drops dead with the greatest of ease, "We'dgoto dais,” remarked Comstock. “Onceina while 4 tauntaun shot would come up and everyone would get knocked ‘ut of their seats! And this was just a dally ~ it hadnt gone through optical yet. And if you Feally want to look fr detalls Jook at all the tte Bags and packs hanging on the taun — they reall bobbing up and down. Phil ddan amazing numberof Ile details for that thing, Lakes also bobbing up and down as the taun breathes and gallops, Just incredible stuf remember that around the middle of one shot the tauntaun ran behind a hil. Everybody took the opportunity to grab a long lunch break." “inthe earl stages. we didn’t know how well the taun was go {Ing to work, ecauseithad trun "Tippett admitted. “Pushing «puppet that far per fame was ashing an afl lot Many ofthe basic running and body moves were almost an inch and hal. hich would have resulted in avery stroby Image. So we took ‘measures to overcome that strobe by luting the legs of the puppet. Atthe time, we weren'tcertain astohow it would actual 1y work out. Justhow were those blurs introduced? “sa secret.” he ald was usta matter of having an open mind and accesstoequlp- ment.” Nobody would talk specifics, but it was revealed that a series of motors were employed which produced incremental moves during exposures. They were, in eet, motion control Puppets. "The equipment that we ended up using can now be Putchased off the shelf or about four thousand dollars.” Muren

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