American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 69
Yanick Dusseault and James Clyne; and
art director Kevin Jenkins. "I really
wanted to come back and just be a regular
designer," says Chiang. "For the past 10
years, I was working as a production
designer for Robert Zemeckis. So this
was actually the first time in years that I
was going to do artwork myself. And that
was terrifying - I was so rusty, and the
talent level had risen to such a degree that
it was hard for me to keep up!"
The artists worked with such 3D
modeling and rendering packages as
Pixologic's ZBrush, Autodesk's Maya
and the Foundry's Modo, while 2D
painting was typically done in either
Adobe's Photoshop or Corel's Painter. "If
I do character designs, it's easier for me to
do them in 2D," Chiang notes. "When I
design a set or a vehicle, I know Modo
enough that I can block out shapes and
forms to use as an underlay - my
perspective line drawing, essentially -
and then I paint on top of that with 2D."
In keeping with Star Wars tradition, the visualists began working well
before there was anything resembling a
script - and, indeed, even before J.J.
Abrams had signed on to direct. Once
Abrams did enter the picture, he immediately invited Carter to join him as he
developed the story with screenwriters
Michael Arndt and, later, Lawrence
Kasdan.
Carter refers to that process as "a
six-month exploration" in which he
worked alongside Abrams and the writers at the director's Santa Monica-based
Top: Created by Alzmann, McCaig and Kurt Kaufman in May 2013, this early exploration of a
starship graveyard placed the setting on a water planet. Middle: The graveyard was eventually
moved to the desert planet Jakku, as depicted in this painting by Chiang from June 2013.
Bottom: Andrée Wallin's painting of the Millennium Falcon on Jakku from January 2014.
production company, Bad Robot, while
the visualists continued their work in
San Francisco. "We would have brainstorming sessions, and then [the
concept artists] would visualize what we
came up with," Carter explains. "We
www.theasc.com
would lay out what I call a 'moviescape,'
which grew and kept evolving, all the
way around this big room that we were
in, so people could refer to not just the
note cards with story and character
points, but to what it looked like. That
February 2016
69
http://www.theasc.com
American Cinematographer - February 2016
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 2016
Contents
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - Intro
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 1
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 2
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - Contents
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 4
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 5
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 6
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 7
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 8
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 9
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 10
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 11
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 12
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 13
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 14
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 15
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 16
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 17
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 18
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 19
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 20
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 21
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 22
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 23
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 24
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 25
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 26
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 27
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 28
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 29
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 30
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 31
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 32
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 33
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 34
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 35
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 36
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 37
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 38
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 39
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 40
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 41
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 42
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 43
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 44
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 45
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 46
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 47
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 48
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 49
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 50
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 51
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 52
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 53
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 54
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 55
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 56
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 57
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 58
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 59
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 60
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 61
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 62
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 63
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 64
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 65
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 66
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 67
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 68
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 69
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 70
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 71
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 72
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 73
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 74
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 75
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 76
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 77
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 78
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 79
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 80
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 81
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 82
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 83
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 84
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 85
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 86
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 87
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 88
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 89
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 90
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 91
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 92
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 93
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 94
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 95
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 96
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - February 2016 - Cover4
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