This week we’re sitting down with Matt Denton to talk about all the creatures and droids
he helped bring to life.
Plus we’re showing you one of the coolest jobs at Lucasfilm you might not know about.
Roll that intro, Frank!
This is The Star Wars Show!
From the Lucasfilm headquarters in San Francisco, here's your hosts, Andi and Anthony!
Hello and welcome to the Star Wars Show, a Star Wars Show that has had so much going
on this month that it completely forgot to celebrate it’s 3rd anniversary.
Oh wow, really?
Yeah, here let's fix that.
(Party sounds)
There. Anniversary marked.
Hopefully the rest of the show is filled with more excitement and revelry just like this.
Only one way to find out. By going to the news…right now!
Star Wars: Galaxy's...
Don't worry, it's still a party.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge may be a few days away from opening to the public at Disneyland
Resort in Anaheim this Friday, but if you’re clamoring for a first look, you only have
to wait a few more hours.
That’s because tonight The Disney Parks blog will be live streaming the historic dedication moment.
The stream begins at 8:20PM pacific, 11:20 eastern and promises to be full of Star Wars surprises.
The land itself opens on Friday, and requires a reservation to enter during the first few weeks.
For more information on both the livestream and the free reservations system required
to enter Galaxy’s Edge check out the Disney Parks Blog at this link.
Last week marked the 20th anniversary of The Phantom Menace being released in theaters,
and Star Wars.com celebrated with an exhaustive oral history of the making of the film.
The article includes insights from creators like: Doug Chaing, John Knoll, Ben Burtt,
Ahmed Best, George Lucas and more.
Plus it’s full of early concept designs, behind the scenes imagery, and lots and lots
of Q-tips.
The entire article is available to read right now on StarWars.com/SWS
Finally this week, the droids, creatures and aliens of Star Wars have always been a favorite
of mine. That’s why I was super excited to get a chance to sit down with one of the
people responsible for bringing them to life, literally, because he built the animatronics.
Watch.
My friend Matt Denton is here and he’s a wizard.
(Laughing)
You have made some amazing Star Wars magic over the years.
I mean most notably BB-8.
Mhmm.
But you’ve also been in charge of a lot of the animatronics and creature shop.
How did you get involved in Star Wars?
Actually it was lucky because Josh Lee, who also is one of BB-8’s creators, Josh phoned
up and said I’ve just started on this film, I can’t tell you what it is, but I’m designing
a robot and would you be interested in coming in and seeing if it’s even possible to make it work.
And I went in and he showed me this ball droid design and this was for the tryke.
He was trying to figure out if he could put stabilizer wheels on the back and they can
all steer together and stuff.
So I went in and started on a simulation.
So you started building BB-8 and there were 7 that were used for the films, with their
different motions and features.
But then when you had to build the live event droid, did you have any idea how people were
going to respond to him at Celebration Anaheim or were you surprised?
Yeah, that one bit of footage came out, didn’t it, with him rolling along in the desert.
I had to ask the head of ILM in the UK, is that ours or have you done that?
And he said, no that yours.
Really?
We doctored the head, the head was sort of bouncing about a bit and it was really fast.
It was the puppet being pushed as fast as possible.
So coming out live, I think we knew it was going to go down well.
Everyone we showed it to was like, how does it work?
You know, it was like a magic trick.
What do you think it is about BB-8 that people just immediately connected to?
There’s something special about that design.
When we were looking at characterizing BB-8 I think we all saw it like a little puppy.
You can get so much character out of that head.
Having the ball and head, you can just sort of…
Tilt it.
Dip it to one side or you can drop it down and look sad.
You can do so much with it.
So straight away that character came out.
People always want to talk about BB-8 but some of my favorite work that you’ve done
is on the creatures because they’re just so cool!
They're so cool!
They’re my favorite part, I love aliens.
When you switch gears when your working on a robot and then working on something that’s
supposed to be alive, tell me about how that changes your process and outlook.
Nearly every alien head that you’ve seen over the past 5 years has been across my desk
at some point and I’ve done something on it.
The difference between that and a droid is trying to hide the robot within.
So a lot of my time is spent over the years writing software and developing techniques
to make things look more organic.
Little things like the way they blink and when they blink, I can put little automated
stuff into them now.
Six Eyes was one of the best examples of that cause it had this head tracking unit on it
and Martin Rezard who sculpted Six Eyes, that design, and Gustav Hoegen who did the animatronic for it.
Gustav put like 58 motors in the head or something to get all the eyes moving together.
So then I really had this thing to play around with and it was just a joy.
There are techniques that we used on Six Eyes that I would like to make simpler because
to set that system up, it took me like days to get that working nicely.
So it’s just about making things more bulletproof and user friendly.
So you work is incredibly inspiring to me and I’m sure it is to a lot of Star Wars fans.
I’m sure there are a lot of kids watching this, going like I want to build robots, I
want to make creatures.
What’s the kind of advice that you would give them and kind of follow that path.
Build something that really interests you.
I built things all the time as a kid and took things apart.
I love taking things apart.
(Laughing)
Well that’s super cool.
Yeah.
Always a pleasure talking to you, thank you so much for coming by.
Thank you.
You're watching The Star Wars Show!
Have you ever messed around in Vader Immortal and just put party lights?
I think Vader probably throws a pretty wicked party, honestly.
What kind of wig would he wear?
Definitely a rainbow fro.
(Music)
(Laughing)
My name is Ronman Ng, I’m a lighting technical director at ILMxLAB.
(Music)
As a lighting TD my job is akin to lighting a puppet set where you have control over the
light sources, how many light sources you have, where you place them, where the shadow
falls, what color the lights are.
Which is kind of what I do in a computer animated set.
My background is in computer animation so the big difference for me is that the tools
that I have are real time tools.
One of the things that is great about it is that the feedback is instantaneous and I can
make a change and put on my headset and go into VR and take a look and see how my decisions
have worked out.
One of the first projects I worked on was Secrets of the Empire, and my role on that
was to be the lighting TD.
It was a one person job and it was amazing.
Because I basically lit it, the whole thing, and got to learn how it works.
Good lighting is important because if it’s not good you’re not going to feel like your
in a believable world, you’re not going to connect as readily with both the story
and the characters your with.
I think part of the challenge is to make it look good enough that you can believe that
Vader is standing next to you.
I think being in VR and working with VR does expand your imagination.
I think it makes you aware of what else is possible.
ILMxLAB, they do a lot of immersive and experiential design and so it’s the cutting edge of both
entertainment and technology.
For me it makes me imagine what else I could do with this medium and hopefully can inspire other people.
While the two of us are beyond excited to head to Black Spire Outpost when Star Wars
Galaxy’s Edge opens this Friday, our ever loyal viewers are ready to break into Batuu
like a Fathier busting through a casino full of War profiteers.
Keri Bean is looking forward to grabbing the rag doll style toys, Kayla of Wendt is ready
to jam out to DJ Rex, predicting every song slaps, while Darth Demi is looking forward
to hopefully catching a sunrise against the spires.
Chris Niles is looking forward to making an astromech,
and the appropriately named Batuu Jedi cannot wait to build their first
lightsaber and then use the Kyber Crystal in a Holocron while discovering some lost
Jedi Lore along the way.
That's a real thing you can do.
But the overwhelming obvious thing people are looking forward to is seeing the Millennium
Falcon in person, stepping inside, and taking control of the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.
We’re right there with you, and if you ever need a spare pilot, gunner, or engineer,
you know who to call.
And as always, remember to like the video, subscribe to the channel, follow us on Twitter,
Facebook, and Instagram, and remember, if you see our editor Frank out there in real
life or the internet, congratulate him on getting engaged over the weekend.
CONGRATS FRANK!
Thanks for watching, and may the Force be with you.
Is she going to take your name? Is she Bianca Star Wars now?
Mr. Star Wars.
(Laughing)
Slaps. Is that cool teen lingo that I don't know?
What's up fellow teens?
Local youth Andrea Gutierrez says this song slaps.