Page 71 - Star Wars Insider - The Last Jedi 2018

SHOWDOWN ON CRAIT

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n important new environment that we visit Crait serve a very specific story function in the movie.

in the movie is the mineral world Crait. Their design speaks to the type of creature that one
Rian Johnson had a very specific visual idea might expect to see on a mineral planet where it rains

Afor its look from the inception of the story. salt. They evolved with crystalline fur, almost like
“It would have a thin, white layer of salt that’s like a when you put a stick in sugar water and it forms candy
topsoil,” the director explains. “But under that would crystals. The vulptices are ultimately executed as hand-
be a ruby-red crystal foundation. It offered incredible animated CG characters and feature shimmering ‘fur’
1 / AT-M6 walkers
march across possibilities for an alien environment that we hadn’t coats of clear crystal shards brought to life by the visual
Crait, disturbing seen before.” effects team.
the surface layer. Production designer Rick Heinrichs worked with Creature designer Neal Scanlan went to some
(See previous page)
Rian Johnson to give Crait a magmatic layer of red extraordinary lengths to get an initial idea of what

2 / Poe Dameron mineral coated by salt flakes on its white surface. the vulptices may look and be shaped like. “We had a
leads the charge to When the surface is disturbed, the red shows to give taxidermy form of a fox and created a clay sculpture
engage the enemy. a distinctive great red and white design graphic. The that we added straw to, in order to see how you’d
landscape was created on a stage at Pinewood Studios replace hair,” says Scanlan. “Then, we tried to fi nd a
3 / Rey uses the Force
to help the Resistance and later matched in with a plate-shoot on the salt fl ats balance between something that was solid and heavy
survivors escape. (See of Bolivia. but also soft and appealing. I saw the vulptices as
opposite page) The crystal foxes, known as vulptices, living on a predominantly female species. There were some

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