the past day we aimed to try and do as
much as we can in camera the reality is
there are always going to be short
sequences or big moments that are going
to need visual effects and on a film
like this it's a Star Wars movie we we
ultimately ended up with over two
thousand effect shots in the film you
have too much it took almost a year to
get to the final look of Snoke and it's
it's an organic process we start with
the maquette we copied that we scanned
it we digitized it brought it in started
to paint textures started to build the
internal controls and anatomy of that
character and then as the editors Ryan
and Bob were working together they
brought together the sequences only
using Andy's reference and he had this
incredible powerful performance a very
resonant voice it was I the amazing
thing about Andy is he's incredibly
skilled at doing this and he's unafraid
of the technology so we were able to
suit him up in an active motion capture
suit so that we could actually film with
infrared cameras from the ceiling of the
set that allowed him to walk around of
the forum unhindered we also put a
helmet on his head with four HD cameras
so we could get very clear definition on
his face and then as we started to do
animation tests and early dailies on the
material we got a few weeks into it and
Ryan actually came to me and said I'm
not sure that the voice is actually
matching the anatomy of the character
that we've designed and we realized
there was an issue there the the initial
design made it look like a very fragile
frail older character and Andy's voice
is this booming resonant wonderful thing
so we actually had to open up the chest
we had to take some of the scoliotic
distortion out of his spine and we
actually made him another foot and a
half taller so he's about eight eight
and a half foot the final character as
soon as we did it we knew we'd we'd hit
the right combination and we could move
forward
the bombing run was in the original
script almost exactly as you see it in
the film we did bids how to execute the
bombing run as a piece of miniature
photography with motion control and
bring all the layers in in composite
than practical pyrotechnics and
everything and the the schedule and cost
of that was just too prohibitive but the
important thing for me is when working
with the director like Ryan is is to
communicate that we can make our CG look
like any particular style of thing at
the moment we can make it look like a
balsa wood model a very shiny modern
sort of CG looking ship we have that
control over the way that we can render
things now and after a time Ryan became
confident in what we could do and
actually it was a liberation we could
achieve anything and the explosions and
pyrotechnics that we've achieved in the
bombing run I think pushed us to a new
level of believability
we've gone right into the ships and we
model rather than modeling the outside
first we actually model from the inside
out so all as you destroy a ship you're
actually opening up holes and the viewer
can see in the audience can see him it
was really exciting to do and I think it
took the destruction to a new level I I
think our contributions to films are
getting more and more invisible in
certain cases but when they're not
invisible because you know they can't be
real they're getting more believable
globally the visual effects techniques
are so advanced now that it's now
important to tell a good story and it's
now important that that story has good
ideas and creative challenges that push
us to create visuals that have never
been seen before
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