The visual effects company behind Star Wars, Industrial Light & Magic, has dropped a video showcasing how they used Epic Games' Unreal Engine to create landscapes for The Mandalorian. It looks amazing, and has the potential to drastically reduce the prevalence of green screen in the filmmaking industry.
The company used Unreal Engine to build entire 3D environments for the Star Wars live action series, displaying them on giant LED screens surrounding the set. Not only did this mean practically everything could be captured in frame, it also provided actors with some context to help their performances. It's much easier to act when you're looking at a sweeping desert instead of a green screen.
"You've got this very dynamic world where you can have randomisation of things and find the happy accident that gives you the perfect shot," said Epic Games' Kim Libreri.
Decades ago set designers painstakingly painted film backdrops by hand, hoping nobody would notice that the trees were suspiciously still or the clouds never shifted. Now, we can build animated background characters as well as entire mountains, and move them to where best suits us.
I want this technology for my bedroom walls, please.
Topics Star Wars
