“Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace – Research and Development Highlights” by Industrial Light & Magic
Conference:
- SIGGRAPH 1999 More animation videos from SIGGRAPH 1999:
Title:
- Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace - Research and Development Highlights
Company / Institution / Agency:
- Industrial Light & Magic
Description:
This compilation illustrates the key in-house technologies used by the hundreds of digital artists at ILM to create the visual effects in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Creation of principal CG characters such as Boss Nass or
Jar Jar Binks is shown in modeling, texturing, and animation sequences. Other sequences feature physically based animation of skin, clothing, or props; motion-capture and rigid-body simulation techniques on Battle Droids; image tracking and compositing on various shots from Tattoine; digital fur on Eopies and Banthas; and specific modeling, texturing, and interactive lighting methods that helped manage the complexity of the Pod Race sequence.
Most images were created from actual screen snapshots of CG applications that were developed by the Research and Development Department at ILM during the two-year R&D period that this movie required. The original music was designed together with the visuals and was generated electronically from real-time input controls. The entire piece was edited in Loupe and is best displayed at 24 fps from the live high-resolution video output of an SGI O2 workstation.
Hardware:
SGI O2 workstation
Additional Contributors:
Concept, Editing, and Music: Christian Rouet
Modeling Sequence: Nicolas Popravka, Geoff Campbell
3D Painting Sequences: Eric Schafer
Animation Sequences: Vishwa Ranjan, Marjolaine Tremblay
Simulation Sequences: John Anderson
Imaging Sequence: Steve Sullivan
Fur Rendering Sequence: Florian Kainz
Motion Capture Sequence: James Tooley
Terrain Sequence: Dan Goldman
Real-Time Layout & Formatting: Vincent Toscano
A very special thank you to the over 350 digital artists and the entire ILM Visual Effects Production Team for their work on Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, and for their great help and support: Vicki Dobbs Beck, Brian Brecht, Matthew Davies, Nancy Luckoff, Yves Metraux, Beth Sasseen.
ILM R&D Department: John Anderson, David Benson, Rod Bogart, John Horn, Jim Hourihan, Zoran Kacic-Alesic, Florian Kainz, Cary Phillips, Nicolas Popravka, Vishwa Ranjan, Christian Rouet, Alan Trombla, Eric Shafer, Steve Sullivan, Vincent Toscano, Jeffrey Yost
