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Star Wars is famous for a lot of reasons, but one of the original trilogy’s greatest accomplishments was its masterful incorporation of practical effects. To celebrate May the 4th, we decided to round up a few videos that showcase the unparalleled talents of the Star Wars special effects team.
May 04, 2015 Instead of actually shooting the scene with a camera, you can easily create the rolling titles and planet tilt effect in After Effects. The effect is fairly simple and this quick After Effects Video Tutorial can show you how it’s done. Star Wars Fan Film Files is the 6th tutorial in my Star Wars Tutorial Series.
Traktor 3 pro downloadsmallbusinessever. The original trilogy has been released on home video seemingly a thousand times at this point, and a few of the following videos appear to have been transferred from VHS tapes. So, to paraphrase the Emperor… Let the nostalgia flow through you.
In Jamie’s own words:
Free mp3 cutter joiner online. After interviewing puppeteer Toby Philpott at great length over Skype I decided to go a step further and create a mini documentary about his work on Jabba the Hutt for Return of the Jedi. This led me down many paths. Here is the result.
Keeping with the theme of Large & Fairly Disgusting Creatures… In this video, hollywood effects legend Dennis Muren discusses the challenges he faced when bringing the Rancor to life in Return of the Jedi.
Renowned special effects master Kevin Pike talks about his location special effects work on Return of the Jedi, including participating in the construction of a full-sized AT-ST Scout Walker and Jabba’s sail barge. Which is awesome.
This is easily my favorite video in this roundup. With a couple of segments narrated by Mark Hamill himself, this vintage clip showcases the unbelievable patience and precision it took to create some of the most iconic sequences in film history.
Anybody worried that Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be Prequel-like display of overdone CGI effects can rest easy. Here’s a quote from J.J. Abrams himself, speaking to fans at the 2015 Star Wars Celebration in California:
The thing that struck me, that wouldn’t get out of my head, is just how real you knew and felt Star Wars was when you first saw A New Hope. You couldn’t deny it… It’s Star Wars. There will be an endless number of effects. We needed a standard. You want it to be legitimate and authentic.
And in one of the convention’s most exciting moments, Abrams introduced BB-8, a completely practical and present droid. As BB-8 rolled up next to R2D2, on stage and in front of a live audience, it was as if millions of cynical voices suddenly cried out in relief and were suddenly silenced.
Things have definitely come a long way, but not so far that the lessons of the past are forgotten. It’s refreshing to see the Star Wars legacy in the hands of people who recognize the undeniable emotional pull of tangible practical effects.
If you’d like to see a few more examples of great (and a few pretty not-so-great) special effects, check out these stories from the PremiumBeat blog:
What are your favorite Star Wars practical effects? Are practical effects worth the trouble? How adorable is BB8? Share your thoughts in the comment section!
Star Wars undoubtedly features some of the most iconic visual effects in cinematic history, and while they were groundbreaking initially, many of them have become easier to replicate than you might think. In fact, with these After Effects tutorials, you can have all the skills you need to put yourself in the Star Wars universe.
Where better to start than the signature title crawl that kicks off each Star Wars film? One of the simpler tutorials on this list, this effective introduction to creating a 3D text crawl through space is useful beyond the context of Star Wars – it is also a good way to introduce beginners to text layers and how touse them in 3D space.
This wouldn’t be a complete list of Star Wars visual effects without the inclusion of the lightsaber. Easily the most recognizable effect of the franchise, the lightsaber is an extremely enjoyable visual to create, making the learning process of rotoscoping in After Effects much less tedious. This also doubles as a great excuse to get silly with your friends and bring your own duels to life!
This effect is a bit more universally applicable than those previously mentioned. While holograms are now featured in most science fiction films, Star Wars was among the first to bring them to life on screen. There are presets and plugins available to instantly create this effect, but you can generally achieve similar results with vanilla After Effects, as seen in this detailed tutorial.
Jumping from one part of the galaxy to the next would not be nearly as enthralling without the signature visual effect that Star Wars showcases in each film. Even now, it still provides a sense of wonder and anticipation every time. There are a number of tutorials that can walk you through this process, but this one is especially cool in that it even shows you how to replicate the stunning revamped hyperdrive jump shown in the trailer for The Force Awakens.
What is Star Wars without its stunning outer space visuals? With this tutorial, you can create a custom 3D planet scene without any plugins! It even demonstrates a technique that allows the camera to animate in 3D space relative to the planet created by CC Sphere.
We’ll conclude with a tutorial that, funnily enough, isn’t actually focused on Star Wars. This introduction to 3D matte painting does require a prerequisite of basic After Effects competency, but it does a great job explaining the logic and basic techniques behind creating a virtual 3D environment. You can even implement the previous space scene technique here by adding background planets and other atmospheric details to the sky.
With your newfound skills, you can bring your own creativity to the Star Wars universe just in time for The Force Awakens — and learn some things while you’re at it!
What visual effects from a film do you want to learn in After Effects? Let us know in the comments below.