Do the new Star Wars movies use any paintings for set backgrounds?
The original Star Wars movies used a lot of large paintings for set pieces.
For example, this image shows a painter creating stormtroopers for a scene inside the Death Star:
Do the new movies (Episode VII: The Force Awakens and Episode VIII: The Last Jedi) use this technique at all?
One shot I'm particularly interested in is the establishment shot of the fallen AT-AT that Rey uses as her home on Jakku. When we zoom in, it's clearly a physical AT-AT leg that she's resting against, but before that, the shot of the large vehicle in the sand looks suspiciously "not real" (and also "not CGI").
Best Answer
I'm surprised to find that the answer might be yes. That is, old-fashioned paint might have been used for some matte backgrounds. On the IMDB credits page for The Force Awakens, there are many people with titles referring to matte painting or paint artistry:
- Matthew Gilson ... senior environment artist/matte painter/concept designer: ILM
- Jaime Jasso ... digital matte artist
- Timothy Mueller ... matte painter: ILM
- Justin van der Lek ... environments/digimatte lead: ILM
- Mike Wood ... digital matte artist
- Scott R. Anderson ... senior paint and roto: ILM
- Mathieu Bacchous ... stereo paint artist: Stereo D
- Matt Cameron ... paint and roto
- Huey Carroll ... sr. paint artist
- Wally Chin ... senior paint artist
- Anita Clipston ... senior paint artist ilm
- Tony Como ... senior digital paint artist: ILM
The titles distinguish between "senior paint artist ilm" and "senior digital paint artist: ILM", for example. This suggests that some work was done digitally, and some was done with actual paint.
However, this could just be an unclear naming convention. The "senior paint artist" may have "painted" a digital scene. Since paint seems so archaic, and digital seems so perfect / easy / quick, I would need to see a photo of an actual painting used in the film before I'd be convinced!
Pictures about "Do the new Star Wars movies use any paintings for set backgrounds?"
Who painted the backgrounds in Star Wars?
You may not know Ralph Mcquarrie, Michale Pangrazio, or Chris Evans by name, but I'd bet you know their work from Star Wars. These three are the men responsible for the beautifully detailed background paintings seen in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.Did Star Wars use paintings?
Harrison Ellenshaw: \u201cMatte paintings are fake sets that-most of the times-used to be made with plexiglass and oil paint. The artists used oversized panels to create the necessary detail that the camera needed to fool the audiences when the film was projected over the large surface of the theater screen.Did Star Wars use matte paintings?
The matte paintings in Star Wars played a huge role in creating some of the most breathtaking backgrounds within the original trilogy. Matte paintings typically depict landscapes or large set-pieces painted onto glass using oil, acrylics, or pastels.Who did the matte paintings in Star Wars?
Esteemed artist and matte painter Harrison Ellenshaw discusses the nearly lost art of matte painting - an element crucial to the look of Star Wars and so many other classic films.Star Wars Behind The Scenes - Matte Paintings - Star Wars The Digital Collection
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Images: Laura James, Lucas George Wendt, Dziana Hasanbekava, Teona Swift