Oh man. /Film started my day with this 10-minute documentary from Larry Cuba about how he made the computer graphics for Star Wars, specifically, the Death Star assault video Dodonna plays for the Rebel pilots, and it is so, so awesome. Cuba is obviously so proud when he says he's moving his Death Star model in real time, and he should be, since back in 1976 that probably needed 400 computers glued together and the blood sacrifice of a white calf. Anyways, it's fun for Star Wars fans and a neat look back for computer nerds alike.
And it reminds me of something -- when the Star Wars special editions were about to come out in '97, I was certain that Lucas was going to redo those computer effects, like from the Rebel briefing and on the Millennium Falcon's display during the TIE Fighter dogfight. Dead certain, because if anything dated the Star Wars movies (besides Hamill's hair) it was the computer effects. Compared to some of the shit that went in the special editions, these would be pretty easy changes to make, don't you think? And they wouldn't be nearly as obtrusive. And I don't think fans would mind that update -- I know I wouldn't. I'm still baffled as to why Lucas didn't bother to change 'em.
55 comments
Comments
Jamie Cottle said:
How about Lucas finish a movie and get on with his life? Constantly revising something so integral to my childhood is no way to spend his adult life. Leave these movies alone and enjoy them for what they were.
George Costansza replied to Jamie Cottle:
Three words: Howard the Duck.
Anonymous replied to George Costansza:
Okay, then how about leaving them alone and ignoring that they were made?
Jamie Cottle replied to George Costansza:
Touché good sir I stand corrected. :)
Captain Flunky said:
Looks like 'copy and paste' would have saved this guy shitloads of time.
Bill said:
Lucas didn't change the computer graphics, because he was too damn busy making Greedo shoot first. Wasn't that obvious?
Nicnac said:
Stick around. I'm sure Lucas is close to unveiling plans to refilm the classic trilogy.
Now with poop jokes and Jar Jar Binks™
Nonish replied to Nicnac:
"Stick around. I'm sure Lucas is close to unveiling plans to refilm the classic trilogy.
Now with poop jokes and Jar Jar Binks™"
No. NO! Don't even go there.
I've been scared pretty much shitless over this ever since this let's-refilm-and-gangrape-classics fad caught on at Hollywood.
LiterOne said:
I've always wondered why he didn't update the graphics or the lightsaber effects in A New Hope. The most likely scenario now, is he'll go back and change eps 1 thru 3 to look more like eps 4 thru 6 and release those as "Special Editions." Because James Cameron has developed the new state of the art technology to make movies suck more.
Ramone replied to LiterOne:
Lightsaber effects in A New Hope WERE updated. Several errors were corrected like when Vader walks towards Luke, Han, etc. escaping the death star after killing Obi Wan. His saber didn't have a red blade drawn over the prop sword blade. They fixed that. They also tweaked the colors of all the sabers throughout the film.
theholyfx said:
Eric said:
Even if they didn't restyle you think they would have updated the graphic to reflect the fact that the weapon of the Death Star was not on the equator of the station, but offset.
Hmmm... replied to Eric:
Yes! I'm glad someone else mentioned this. It's always bugged me.
Anonymous replied to Eric:
It's a sphere, with mass, and angular momentum. So aiming that weapon means changing the rotation axis of the DS. Doable by internal means, but it implies that there is NO prefered axis of rotation, and therefore no equator.
Anonymous replied to Anonymous:
Dude.Shut up.
Will Berg said:
Maybe in the next Star Wars remake they can replace all of the weapons with walkie talkies.
Unka Willbur said:
"when he says he's moving his Death Star model in real time"
He's using a vector-graphics system, which means it probably only took 100 computers glued together and the blood sacrifice of a any color calf.
Alejo Hausner replied to Unka Willbur:
Actually no. Since there are no pixels, he only had to compute the positions of the two endpoints of each line. The lines connecting the endpoints are drawn by analog hardware, and have zero CPU cost.
dood replied to Alejo Hausner:
Wrong. On a Vector scan system you need to write values to Digital To Analog converters. The timing has to be accurate so there's a lot of CPU power required to plot all the relevant points. You basically have an oscilloscope with 3 inputs. X, Y and Intensity. Admittedly you don't require to do the line drawing in CPU space using a line drawing functions (which take more CPU time).
This is how a Vector plotting system works. You may recall the Tank battle game in the arcade many years ago. That was the same system. Obviously computer power had improved by that point in time.
Name, indeed said:
Cool little doc, but I didn't care for watching Larry Cuba plot points "in real time".... ;)
Bodge replied to Name, indeed:
The captions made me feel sad, they were a bit pathetic.
Weakly said:
Here's something I never understood.
In the computer model of the DEATH STAR, the large concave area shows its main weapon is clearly positioned along the equator, but when we see the DEATH STAR proper, its main weapon is in the northern hemisphere. What good are these death star plans if they can't even get the most noticeable feature of the battle station correct?
Am I the only one who noticed this, or am I mistaking one thing for another?
Name, indeed replied to Weakly:
For that, you can blame those unreliable Bothan spies.
operations replied to Weakly:
You're not the only one... I've been 27 years without a good answer. I noticed at 6.
Sammy replied to Weakly:
Mind blown. For two reasons:
1. I never noticed this.
2. Lucas spent all that time and money dealing with stuff like "Greedo shot first," and doesn't think to fix this?
Hoba replied to Weakly:
Looks like even the Empire has trouble with their contractors. ;-)
Ausmus replied to Weakly:
The weapon is in the 'northern hemisphere', but there is also a huge engine/reactor which IS on the equator, but on the opposite side of the deathstar. Some people see it and think it's the primary weapon.
Kevin said:
Don't give Lucas any ideas!
Bill W said:
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg protested against colourisation of old Black and White movies.
Funny how his desire to protect his childhood memories didn't stop him trampling over mine
cream wobbly replied to Bill W:
So your memories are wiped by convincing you that you saw otherwise? Interesting. Please just don't vote.
Bill W said:
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg protested against colourisation of old Black and White movies.
Funny how his desire to protect his childhood memories didn't stop him trampling over mine
James Strocel said:
The Death Star graphic may be primitive, but it's still functional in any era of computing. Textured models and other such crap would just get in the way of the info that they are trying to provide in the briefing.
Xanthippas said:
And it reminds me of something -- when the Star Wars special editions were about to come out in '97, I was certain that Lucas was going to redo those computer effects, like from the Rebel briefing and on the Millennium Falcon's display during the TIE Fighter dogfight. Dead certain, because if anything dated the Star Wars movies (besides Hamill's hair) it was the computer effects. Compared to some of the shit that went in the special editions, these would be pretty easy changes to make, don't you think? And they wouldn't be nearly as obtrusive. And I don't think fans would mind that update -- I know I wouldn't. I'm still baffled as to why Lucas didn't bother to change 'em.
You know, that's a good point, given he used CGI to trick up everything EXCEPT the dated computer graphics.
Ed Holden replied to Xanthippas:
I was certain that he'd update not only that stuff but also the lame computer console where Artoo and Threepio communicate with Luke in the trash compactor. It's a really bad set piece, like something borrowed from the original Star Trek's engineering, and it screams for CGI replacement, or even reshooting in a cooler set. But noooo, it was more important to put a ring around the exploding Death Star, and have Biggs show up with no prior introduction. Oh yeah, and Greedo.
A fan said:
Perhaps it was the "handles" on the object, so Micro$oft's stupid interactive table could be manipulated into bilking you of all your money? Childhood memories?
And what the HELL was Jar Jar. At least Ewoks had some relevance to the plot. And actually fought in battles. Some even died.. which went a long way to creating a sense of compassion for their characters place in the story.
Build me a Jar Jar effigy. Put him in it. Set it ablaze, and watch me not care.
rjschwarz replied to A fan:
What annoyed me is that they clearly set up Jar Jar as a Jedi. "There is no such thing as luck" Obi Wan says. Jar Jar is clearly the luckiest character in the series, thus he's using the force and just doesn't know it. Seeing him get it at the end of Revenge of the Sith would have made it all worthwhile.
Ian replied to rjschwarz:
And what the HELL was Jar Jar. At least Ewoks had some relevance to the plot. And actually fought in battles. Some even died.. which went a long way to creating a sense of compassion for their characters place in the story.
And the Ewoks didn't speak English.
If you've been having trouble putting your finger on why they sucked so much less, there you go.
I'm still baffled as to why Lucas didn't bother to change 'em.
His people were too busy adding more Ewoks.
nick said:
The THX-1138 remaster also retained it's classic and rough wireframe / oldschool computer graphics.
I have a feeling that it wouldn't have been changed even if it was convenient to do so; Lucas probably enjoys the aesthetic that results from the 70-80's era wireframe, monochrome computer interface graphics.
I know I do.
jad said:
Ugh! That would be horrible if he "updated" the computer graphics to make them look more "modern."
I absolutely love the old school wireframe vector graphics so popular in movies from the 1970s/80s.
Baron said:
ARE YOU KIDDING. Wire graphics are great at any time. Besides it's a galaxy far far away, maybe they only had Wire graphics... That's the one thing I'm glad they didn't change. Oh and for those concerned about the main weapon on the axis, maybe it was. There's no indication the trench was on the axis, and it was a sphere after all. It could be rotated in any direction when attacking a planet. It may have only appeared to be in the norther hemispher because of the direction the attack was being made. It's all relative people.
Props to Mr. Cuba. Wonder what he could do w/ Photoshop now????
Bingo said:
I think those graphics were awesome, Larry Cuba is a genius.
nobuyuki said:
They probably kept the old computer graphics because (like the ships and costumes themselves), the parts that look dated have their own "alien" feel to them. Specifically for the computer graphics, I believe it was designed that way intentionally. The only anachronism to the graphics is the systems used to produce them. The fact these very specialized systems are no longer used (and rarely imitated!) I believe adds to their uniqueness.
Luke said:
If you've ever used CAD software, you'll be aware that all of the constructs are wire frame. still.
It is only the rendering that may now be done with filled in solids.
But, consider this.
If the plans were drawn up with software that is different to which the rebels use to render it with then the rendering software might easily use the wrong colours or some such if it were to fill in.
Further, if you look at the plans for any building on paper today, you will see "wire frame" plans. Anything that shows solid surfaces is a rendered impression of what the real building might look like.
Lucas did the right thing with respect to keeping the old CGI in that part of the movie.
Basido Barachio said:
Lusan HAS to remake the original trilogy. he forgot to dub over all the storm troopers voices with New Zealand accents.
He only did bobba
How could he miss 10,000 storm troopers?
He'll be adding in an extra scene where 2 Storm Troopers go for "fush and chups"
Bob replied to Basido Barachio:
Because the ST in ANH and later are not all based off of the gene material of Jango Fett.
Evident by the fact that the STs are not all of the same hight.
Else Han and Luke would have been caught by the fact that Luke was 'short for a ST'.
In the books and the 'extended universe' resources it is stated that the Emperor had increased the pool due to issues with the 'one man army'.
caktins replied to Bob:
Did you read what you just wrote? If Luke appears "short for a Stormtrooper", it follows that most Stormtroopers were of a similar height, and Luke is shorter than this height.
Thus, ST may be clones -- all the same height.
Bill Kendrick said:
Was that "UICC"(?) logo at the end a capture from an Atari 800 or something? :)
LeftBlank said:
The computer language he was using? 'Forth' (So it was only one machine (or small set of machines).
The UICC logo was where the graphics rendering took place (look at 10:00) 'University of Illinois, Chicago Circle.'
I saw (and tried) a system like this around 1985 (with _dynamically labeled_ knobs [red LEDs] on the keyboard, and color vectors) at another chemistry department's open house where they were using x-ray defraction to study the structure of enzymes and the computer system was used to layout the location of known atoms.)
dan said:
toni said:
thank you, you are very good blog
James F said:
I must admit, I previously had never really given any thought to those mission briefing graphics. Seeing that video though made me impressed at the amount of work that went into them.
I'm not sure if I'd want them to be replaced with modern computer graphics though. There is a certain retro charm to the vector line graphics, and they look cleaned and better designed then a lot of low budget 3D graphics. That being said, I'm not a computer guys so maybe their datedness is less obvious to me.
Jim Squaretrap said:
Well, not that I want to defend the judgment used in any of the Star Wars remakes, but...
I think the reason you wouldn't redo the graphics in the briefing is because they are "within the reality" of the film There's nothing wrong with these graphics being lo-tech. They're a scrappy rebellion so we can accept that's the kind of tools they have.
OTOH...if they got into a cardboard box with "ship" in sharpie on the side and made "pow pow" sounds as they flew, then we'd be taken out of the movie's reality. I think the edits and revisions were supposed to update for the expectations on this level.
To make an analogy: Compare seeing a scene of real people watching a cartoon on TV against cartoon characters watching real people on TV. The former is something we casually accept: of course real people can watch cartoons. The latter is only used to humorous effect (e.g. in South Park) because cartoons do not watch real people.
Colin Deman-Jones said:
No suprise about the primary weapon of the Deathstar not matching the plans. Anyone who has built anything from plans knows that changes occur after planning. My theory:
The Grand Moff Tarkin wanted a condo on the equator (having a lovely view and being prime real estate) and so he ordered the builders to move the weapon. This would explain the animosity we see betwen Vader and TGMT. Vader would have complained about it setting the schedual behind, and TGMT's stbborn insistance that the Deathstar was now flawless. (Or if I was to base this on my own building experiences, I would be blaming TGMT's wife for the late changes).
Curt Rostenbach said:
I remember watching a documentary on Star Wars graphics where they said they purposely took a step back from state of the art computer graphics for the trench animation because they wanted it to look computer generated.
The John Is John said:
I for one am SO glad these were left alone. It is one of the few instances in film which the computers actually look like they work. Why would the rebels need a photo-realistic rendering of the Death Star on screen? It feels like proprietary programing that some rebel that took two programming classes at community college was coerced into making.
Perfect the way it is, thank you!!!
