American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 24

Daylight wanes as Grand Moff Tarkin (Stephen Stanton) and the Grand Inquisitor (Jason Isaacs) capture Kanan in the first-season
episode "Call to Action."

Foundry's] Nuke for compositing. We try to
keep the software list low, because it allows
us to be agile."
Even more so than A New Hope, the
overarching inspiration for the look of
Rebels is the concept art Ralph McQuarrie
produced for the original Star Wars trilogy.
"The real task became, 'How are we going
to translate [McQuarrie's style]?'" Filoni says.
"Joel worked closely with Kilian Plunkett,
my art director and lead designer, as far as
texture and surfacing goes [and] how much
reflection we would need. Something Kilian
and I gravitated toward was Ralph's line
work - he did a lot of pencil lines on his
paintings. So instead of a lot of geometry in
our CG models, we incorporate a lot of
surface-drawn lines, which give a nice
hand-rendered feel and the [illusion] of
detail, which works well for our pipeline and
rendering ability."
Alongside this technique, the
production also employs a custom shader,
which is applied as a surface material to the
characters. As Aron explains, "The shader
used for the skin is a three-tone shader, like
a 'toon shader.' When you apply contrast to
it in color correct, it flattens, which is exactly
24

February 2016

what we want - like a [Hayao] Miyazaki or
Ralph McQuarrie image."
Another aspect of the McQuarrie
style is deep focus, which comes naturally to
animation, as the CG lenses aren't beholden
to the rules of real-world optics and their
depth-of-field characteristics. However,
Aron keeps a few tricks up his sleeve for
specific shots that might otherwise call for
an out-of-focus background. For example,
he explains, "If we're up [close] on Ezra and
he's using the Force, I like to drop the background brightness to take interest off the
background and subtly simulate depth of
field. And whenever I use a lens above the
100mm, I'll ever so subtly add a circle blur
[to the background], which simulates circles
of confusion."
One of the most pronounced stylistic
departures from The Clone Wars is the
change in aspect ratio from 2.39:1 to
1.78:1. "I have to say, that was a downer,"
Filoni opines. "We all miss [2.39:1]. It's cinematic; there is no substitute for it. But, very
simply, we made the change because it's less
to render. [With] 16:9, we can get things
done a little faster."
The narrower aspect ratio required
American Cinematographer

the crew to rethink their approach to framing, and as Filoni notes, "there are considerations for characters." For example,
although the taller frame makes it easier to
compose Darth Vader alongside his decidedly shorter castmates, "Joel and I learned
very quickly that if you shoot Vader from a
strange angle, he won't look like the Darth
Vader you remember," Filoni continues. "If
you shoot him from the side, you realize
how big that helmet is and how narrow his
body is - especially on our animation
model. You have to be aware of all of that
in your animated actor."
Vader requires particular finesse
when it comes to reflections, which The
Clone Wars eschewed completely but
Rebels incorporates sparingly. Years ago,
Aron was on set for a series of Burger King
commercials that featured the iconic Dark
Lord of the Sith, and that real-world experience informed his approach to Rebels' CG
Vader. His solution, he says, is to light Vader
"like a car commercial." Working in Photoshop, Aron painted a cyclorama that he
then took into Maya for lighting. "Wherever Darth Vader goes, he's got that cyc,"
Aron says. "Otherwise, he reflects the room

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 2016