A prominentStar Warsanimatronics designer has recently come forward and revealed that the iconic artists for the movies had complete creative freedom when it came to bringing new characters to life. Since the beginning of its inception in 1977,Star Warshas made audiences fall in love with its mythological locales and incredibly eccentric alien creatures that truly stand out when it comes to the overall genre of science-fiction.
With every new addition to the forever-evolvingStars Warsfranchise, a series of brand-new exotic beings are introduced to fans.Star Warshas consistently throughout the decades truly surpassed previous expectations and barriers that come with the vast creation of fantastical entities. TheStar Warssequel trilogy proved to keep that impeccable artistic vision intact. Each alien and robot design that was presented felt completely new and yet touchingly familiar. This rigid balance of bringing fresh energy to each design, while still managing to uphold the franchise’s overall thematic and moralistic elements, is partlywhat has madeStar Warsso successfuland popular.
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Now, in a recent interview withInverse, special effects artist and supervising animatronic designer Gustav Hoegen shared that when he worked on themore recentStar Warsproductions, he was given a huge amount of creative freedom and autonomy throughout the process of designing the characters. “OnStar Warsmovies, they would just present you with a script and leave it to us what creatures would inhabit that story," he stated. “You’d have a design team just pumping out design after design to plant a seed in the director’s mind. He would pick the ones he liked and leave it to us to build it.”
Examples of the team’s work can be seen inStar Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, which introduced audiences to the character of the tentacled Rathtars. Rathtars inStar Warsare regarded as dangerous tentacled predators who are known for their skilled techniques in pack hunting. As a result, the tentacled Rathtars ended up demolishing Han Solo’s (Harrison Ford) freighter.Rogue One: A Star Wars Storyushered in the Bor Gullet, a purple-skinned Mairan who invaded the mind of the Imperial pilot defector Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed). However,Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalkerseemed to bring in a new fan favourite alien, a miniature Anzellan on the planet Kijimi.
Typically, a design team is given a general description of the creature that is already set in stone by the writer and director of the film. The team would then go about creating various different character designs and present them to the director for him to be able to physically articulate his vision. The creative liberation and the freedom to play that Hoegen claims the design team was allotted is a very rare experience to have as an animatronics designer. It proves just how much thedirector J.J. Abramstrusted his design team’s innovation and imagination, perhaps as much as he did his own. It also goes to show the special unmatched quality that eachStar Warscreature seems to have within them - the freedom to play without creative restrictions and barriers getting in the way.
