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To address this interview specifically, rather than just gushing about how great Andor is-- One point Nuyens makes in a few different ways is that they used a
by iainmerrick 1y ago
To address this interview specifically, rather than just gushing about how great Andor is--
One point Nuyens makes in a few different ways is that they used a variety of tools and techniques at every stage. People often have simplistic, extreme viewpoints like "modern CGI can do anything" or "CGI looks fake and weightless, practical effects are better". But here's somebody with a big part in making a fantastic-looking show, who very explicitly embraces multiple approaches. Massive real sets with CGI enhancements; sometimes green screens, sometimes old-fashioned backdrop paintings, sometimes LED screens. It sounds like close collaboration between teams in different areas was key, like the VFX team working with the production designer from the start. "Some shots started VFX and then became sets."
It sounds like a big success for an artisanal approach, where every element is a bespoke construction by cross-functional experts, versus a modular approach where each team has a position in the workflow with well-defined inputs and outputs.
But maybe it's not worth the time and money, and the "worse is better" approach wins out? I hope not, or least I hope we get more shows aspiring to be as good as this.
On a smaller scale, interesting to hear how much equipment on a high-end film set is now wireless. That must be a massive change from just a few years ago, where you'd have had massive cables snaking everywhere.
- andrepd 1y ago> Massive real sets with CGI enhancements; sometimes green screens This is the definition of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, and they're still some of the best-looking films I've ever seen, far surpassing the modern UE slop.
- chrisweekly 1y agoUE?
- Filligree 1y agoUnreal Engine is used quite a lot in animation.
- Darthbuddha 1y agoUnreal Engine
- monocularvision 1y agoWe watched the original trilogy a couple months back with our kids and we were all so impressed by how they looked. And it wasn’t an “impressive for their age” but legitimately looked better than modern day films.
- DavidPiper 1y agoThe Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy is well-known for being peak CGI Artist overtime and burnout. Don't have the source handy right now, but At World's End in particular was allegedly an absolute meat grinder for the CG folks for years. That said, I do agree, they made something truly incredible that has stood the test of time. And I wish we could have more of it (but I'll also take better working conditions every day until we figure out how to have both.)
- andrepd 1y agoOh yeah yeah, I'm a massive fan of the trilogy so I've gone through all the BTS and staff interviews and whatnot. The consensus among the vfx artists is that yeah, while Davy Jones looks great due to its mix of procedural + handmade animation, it's also completely impractical to do; it was hundreds and hundreds of hours for each few seconds of Davy Jones' tentacles to be perfect.
- jfengel 1y agoThe sets are jaw dropping. An awful lot of them seem to be practical, and that must be very expensive. They didn't have to. It's cinema quality. They could have spent less and gotten a goodly fraction of the quality. But I'm really glad they did.
- manmal 1y agoI have zero knowledge about lenses and optics in general, but found it interesting that the outer edges of the frame are often blurred in a peculiar way. Was that a stylistic choice?
- prhn 1y agoAny odd blurring, distortion, or vignetting you might find around the edges could be caused by anamorphic lenses. Vignetting is often also added in post.
- NelsonMinar 1y agoIt's the anamorphic lenses. It's become something of a look recently so I think of it partly as a deliberate stylistic choice. But also an accident of a particular lens geometry. They just don't mind it. Shogun did this too, I think also The Witcher. https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsAndor/comments/15rjjcg/why_is_it_that_some_part_of_the_shots_are_blurry/ https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsAndor/comments/15rjjcg/why_...
- lucideer 1y agoOne of the things I've heard about the practical sets in multiple interviews is how they made an intentional effort to put a lot of real, functional, working props throughout the sets explicitly so that extras & folk appearing in scene backgrounds would have something to engage with & feel more immersed in their smaller roles. Most of these props would never be in frame - many were inside of cabinets or containers.
- jimbokun 1y agoWatching it I felt like watching something that had been filmed on location, even though I knew that was impossible. Like they actually took the actors to Coruscant to shoot scenes. Felt so much more lived in than Coruscant in the prequels.
- iainmerrick 1y agoOne of the big Senate buildings is apparently the Prince Felipe Science Museum in Valencia. The real thing looks incredible. "Lived in" is absolutely right. That's something people always praised about the original movies, but that was about the smokey dive bars, messy aircraft hangars and broken-down machinery. Getting that lived-in feel for massive Imperial buildings and cities is a great new twist on it.
- RataNova 1y agoAndor felt like a show where every detail was sweated over by people who cared
- dzonga 1y agopeople don't talk about set designers, but they bring a film to live. whether real sets like on andor on fake ones like the man in the high castle.