Talking about Dewbacks!

Thread.

#VFXarchaeology

This creature was seen fleeting in the original Star Wars - a practical prop built for the production with minimal movement.

For a The Phantom Menace, the Dewback received some updated modeling and texturing - taking it closer to Terryl Whitlach’s redesign.

From the SIGGRAPH discussion about this scene, I remember specifically ILM devised a method to remove existing light wrap from the FG characters captured in-camera, and balance it out with the outline of the CG character — the integration is flawless!

"The Dewback was never seen in the original print of the film because George Lucas felt it looked too static and the budget did not allow for its animation. It was however used in many of the publicity campaigns with a Stormtrooper astride the creature (see lot 274). (p1)

(p2)...The head was placed onto the body of a prop rhinoceros and had a tail added. The rhino body was used elsewhere in other films, but all that remains is this head and the skins."

Lovely sculpt!

#VFXarchaeology

This appears to be the Phantom Menace Dewback - not sure if it is an original image or not, but it seems like the quick-shade renders of the era.

Anyone corroborate?

#VFXarchaeology

The Star Wars special edition added computer graphics, and animated versions of the Troopers into the original scenes, with some new footage. The creatures were animated in Softimage, and rendered with Pixar’s RenderMan, based on the pipeline ILM made for Jurassic Park