To say that Episode I makes extensive use of digital effects is an understatement. About 95 percent of the film has digital effects in it. Much of the supporting cast is digital.
The effects are so good that it is hard to tell what is live action and what is digital. Based on published sources, we survey the various effects used in Episode I and how they were achieved. Sources for specific information are noted in the bibliography.
Revision History
1999 Jun 26 - Very rough draft.
Rendering for a film like Episode I is very compute intensive. During the day, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) had several SGI machines to work with. This included several 32-processor Origin 2000s, two 16-processor R10000 Power Challenges, and four 256 MHz Challenges. In the evening, another 200 SGI O2s -- normally used by artists, animators, and others -- were added to the render farm. [1999ROBa]
It is common practice now to utilize data from live action and incorporate it into character animation. The data acquisition process is known as "motion capture." There are two variations of this technique, both of which were used in Episode I:
Using digital techniques for major characters in a live action film has heretofore been impossible. Problems that need to be solved include:
Given that the digital characters are part of a live action film, they must reflect real world physics.
In Jar Jar's case, his long ears must move with his head, and must wrap around accordingly. The ILM animation team moved his head, but were assisted by addtional software to simulate the dynamics of his ears. [1999ROBa]
Jar Jar was the first digital character to be developed for the film. Work actually began in 1996, with heavy emphasis on facial expressions. [1999ROBb]
He has a nose like an elephant trunk and small wings like a hummingbird's. Watto, the junk dealer, flies high enough to meet Qui-Gon literally face to face. It is hard to believably imagine such a create in flight. (Perhaps he partially levitates.)
Watto's wings are a blur. The wing motion and blur are built using Pixar's Renderman software. As he changes direction, his shoulders move, changing the angle of the wings accordingly. [1999ROBa]
The voice behind Watto is actor Andy Secomb. But the shape of his mouth comes from animation director Rob Coleman. The animation team had him pose, took snapshots of his mouth, and used that for models of Watto speaking.
The voice and mannerisms of Boss Nass, however, belong to actor Brian Blessed. According to Robertson [1999ROBa],
When the Jedi Knights slice thru the battle droids, the droids come apart, with parts bouncing against the ground according to the laws of physics, with special software written to make this possible.
The model for all the Gungans is Jar Jar. The wire mesh model of Jar Jar is deformed as necessary to create the other characters. In some cases, the character mesh includes clothing, such as pants. In others, often upper garments, this is added separately and must hang and move in response to movements of the characters.
Early in the film, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan encounter an animal stampede in a Naboo forest. There are 61 animals from 6 different species, all computer-generated. Each animal has facial expressions and the skin jiggles as its feet hit the ground.
These effects originally debuted in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, whose effects were also done by ILM.
There are 150,000 spectators at the pod race, with 4000 to 5000 of them moving about at the front of the stands. According to Robertson [1999ROBa],
A June 1999 televised special about ILM described the spectators
as 150,000 Q-tips. Robertson says that they are digital people
which were cloned into 150,000 sprites.
[1999ROBa] Robertson, Barbara. 1999. "Star Wars: using digital tools to handcraft a fantastic world" in Computer Graphics World, vol. 22, no. 6 (June 1999).
[1999ROBb]
Robertson, Barbara. 1999.
"Star Wars: super models"
in Computer Graphics World, vol. 22, no. 7 (July 1999).