John Knoll Talks Star Wars 3-D

ILM's acclaimed VFX supervisor discusses the challenges of converting the Star Wars saga to 3-D.
Posted In | Magazines: VFXWorld | Site Categories: 3D, CG, Films, People, Visual Effects

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The Empire Strikes Back will definitely have a 3-D force.

 JK: Yeah, I would say that, in general, the prequel trilogy are denser than the original trilogy and the most obvious contrast is comparing the space battle at the end of A New Hope with the space battle at the beginning of Revenge of the Sith. There's a lot more going on and definitely a lot more stereo possibilities there. But there's nothing about the original trilogy being older that makes them harder to convert. If anything, they might be a little easier because they're less dense than the prequel trilogy. A lot of the labor-intensive work is if you have an army of 4,000 droids getting them separated from the background, generating the second view and then cleaning up the background where they were. And it's harder to do when you've got hundreds or thousands of characters as opposed to 10 or 15.

BD: Is there a favorite film or moment you're looking forward to converting?

JK: I always liked Empire Strikes Back. It's just packed with great stuff: I love the snowspeeders and the walkers. I love the asteroid scene. I think that people misunderstand what stereo's good at and what it isn't. It's not necessarily about vista; it's most effective when you're in close with your characters and all those scenes with Yoda are closer, intimate scenes. And I actually think those are going to look nice in stereo, and the bigger challenge is what are you going to do with the Return of the Jedi space battle where those shots are relatively wide?

BD: Any plans to do tweaking?

JK: No, there are no plans to revisit shots or do any new work. This is just doing a stereo conversion of what we've got. This is a long process if done right and I have no intention of doing something that damages the brand. I think we're going to set a new precedent for what conversion can look like?

Bill Desowitz is senior editor of AWN & VFXWorld.







Comments


Ah yes, nicely put, eveyrone.

Randhil (not verified) | Mon, 08/29/2011 - 10:48 | Permalink

ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS PREMIERE

Anonymous (not verified) | Thu, 06/02/2011 - 12:27 | Permalink

Can't wait!!!!!!!!! Just to be able to see the Duel of the Fates, Naboo, Jar Jar, Jango, the battle of Geonosis, Anakin & Padme, the space battle over Coruscant, speeder chase through Coruscant, battle of the hero's, the trench run, sand people, Cloud City, speeder biker chase etc. on the big screen again is enough for me!!!! I haven't seen anything in this new 3D yet, The Phantom Menace will be first. I'm glad they're starting in the proper order, I-VI is the ONLY way to watch Star Wars!!! They are NO trilogies, only the Star Wars Saga! Six films, one story! Thank you George, and John!

oxward321 (not verified) | Sat, 11/06/2010 - 11:18 | Permalink

Money talks, box-office reciepts and DVD revenue are what makes decisions, not the retardation of fanboys who cant grow up.

Anonymous (not verified) | Fri, 11/05/2010 - 11:59 | Permalink

Okay I'm still trying to figure out where Knoll insulted Cameron because I didn't read it or picked up on it. There is genuinely a difference between what Cameron used 3D in Avatar and what Dreamworks did in 3D. Cameron wanted to create a virtual environment and others just want to wow audiences. I'm glad Knoll realizes that the long shots in movies aren't supposed to look up close in real life and applying that to 3D.

L (not verified) | Thu, 11/04/2010 - 08:24 | Permalink

I agree Lucas has destroyed star wars like he has indiana jones. The 3-D thing is just further ruining it.

He can spend 20 million to put jar jar freakin binks in 3-D but won't restore the legendary original star wars trilogy from 1977-1983. Its madness!

skyjedi (not verified) | Wed, 11/03/2010 - 20:54 | Permalink

What i would ove is restored prints of the theatrical versions of the original star wars trilogy. Not the 1997 special edition, or 2004 video cut.

And if any star wars deserve to be in 3-D it should be the real original trilogy not the bad cgi version.

I remember when they recreated some scenes for imax from the theatrical versions for a ben burrt documentary. That was better than this cgi crap prequel retreads will be in 3-D

skyjedi (not verified) | Wed, 11/03/2010 - 20:50 | Permalink

I don't think that was Jimmy Mac that made the post you're referring to; the guy (or gal) simply ended with Jimmy's famous quote to Roger Ebert, and they attributed his name to it, as often seen with stand-alone quotes.

Anonymous (not verified) | Wed, 11/03/2010 - 20:11 | Permalink

All you Prequel haters - just stop wasting your breath. Stop criticizing and hating the prequel for what it is not. No, it's not the Original Trilogy. Nothing ever will be. So many of you haters wanted 3 movies of nothing but Jedi battles and Vader. You wanted a whole trilogy of dark and adult like Matrix or the glut of brooding superhero movies. Well, that wasn't the story George had to tell. But he is filling in some of the blanks with Clone Wars and future SW projects. Enjoy it all for what it is - more SW stories. And if you don't like it, why waste your time spouting off? Move on and find something that you do like.
And understand that the OT was a once in a lifetime phenomena for those of us that were of the right age and grew up with it. Nothing would be able to compare with that magic. Nor would we quite be able to experience any new SW films quite like we did when we were younger and so readily and easily able to lose ourselves in the fantasy of cinema. The OT was delicious cake. The Prequel and now the Clone Wars and everything that comes after such as a 3D release is just icing on that cake.
And to Jimmy Mac - love your Forcecast - thanks for such a great venue for us fans. You guys rock! I do agree with your comments here. But no need to specifically bash someone's personal political stance.

Rick (not verified) | Wed, 11/03/2010 - 14:45 | Permalink

To all the Avatar fanboys, Knoll is basically saying that for their purposes, the other approach works better for them. Don't forget Avatar was developed for 3D, Star Wars was not.

Personally, I found How to Train a Dragon too pop-up bookish. Anyway, Knoll has a great track record, he knows what he is doing, so I am quite sure he will deliver.

E-Man (not verified) | Tue, 11/02/2010 - 21:41 | Permalink

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