Page 64 - Star Wars Insider #175

GRAPHIC DISPLAYS

09
an Evans & Sutherland Picture
System 2 graphics terminal
to create computer animations
of the Death Star, Endor,
and the energy shield that
connects the two.
“It didn’t have much
memory,” Duff recalls today,
“so the complexity of what
you could draw in one pass
was extremely limited. To get

the final effect, you had to
shoot many different passes.
“We created the Death
Star in two parts,” he
continues. “I did the side

that was finished, and Bill did
the side that was not, and
we teamed up to fi t them 10
together into a single model.
The surface of Endor was a
model that I designed myself. I spun some knobs on the
“For the force fi eld that Picture System, and this
comes up from the moon and spherical thing came up on
goes around the Death Star, the screen with this beautiful
I spent a lot of time trying motion. When I showed that

to find something dynamic to Joe and George, they said,
that suggested a magnetic or ‘It’s perfect!’”

electric field. One day, having
just about given up on it, CAUGHT ON CAMERA
I started up a program that The technology for
I had written years before, transferring Duff and Reeves’
trying to emulate the animations from their 09 The rebels Several passes had to

abstract analog computer computer screen onto fi lm plot the end of be filmed to create the fi nal
the Empire.
films that the animator John was relatively unchanged animation, because the

Whitney made in the 1950s. from the system used by Larry 10 Technology Picture System’s screen was
improved
Cuba for A New Hope six monochrome. Each differently
rapidly in the
years before. A customized years between colored section had to be

Mitchell animation camera A New Hope filmed in isolation, with optical
and Return of
was loaded with high-contrast printer operator David Berry
the Jedi.

film stock, and then used and optical photography
to photograph the graphics 11 O’Bannon, supervisor Bruce Nicholson
Teitzell and

frame-by-frame. The main John Wash using color filters to build up
advance was that one of the going over the multicolored graphics
exposure tests
Computer Division’s hardware seen in the fi nished fi lm.
(top right).
techs wired the Mitchell “It was one pass for every
directly to the Picture System 12 Wash and color, and in some cases more
Teitzell with
2, in order to trigger the than one pass,” recalls Duff.
the Oxberry
camera with each successive animation “Some of the fi nished shots
frame displayed on the stand (bottom were 15 layers plus the
right).
computer screen. live-action plate.
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