In his big light saber
duel, Yoda battles Count Dooku like a live-action character, yet he's
all 3D. So how'd they do it? Well, Softimage Co.'s character
animation and effects software, SOFTIMAGE|3D, was used by ILM to
create many of STAR WARS: EPISODE II "ATTACK OF THE CLONES" stunning
visual effects and characters, including Yoda, the Kaminoans and
Dexter Jettster. SOFTIMAGE|3D was used to animate over 80 creatures
and give the CG figures believable expressions and movements. "We
used SOFTIMAGE|3D to pre-visualize and finish an incredible number of
scenes involving computer-generated animated characters," said James
Tooley, technical animation supervisor at ILM. "Whether it was to
bring the right behavior to our digital characters, keyframing of
their animation or staging natural movement via motion capture,
SOFTIMAGE|3D empowered us to raise the bar of believability with the
CG imagery we create." ILM upgraded to an early version of what was
to become SOFTIMAGE|3D version 4.0 mid-production in order to take
advantage of the new version's features and convert from IRIX based
systems to more powerful and cost-effective Linux workstations.
"SOFTIMAGE|3D on Linux is a top 3D animation system," commented ILM
lead animator Chris Mitchell. "As soon as SOFTIMAGE|3D on Linux
became available, we upgraded mid-production. The transition was
absolutely seamless. Not only were we able to keep all our familiar
tools unchanged and efficiently import our existing files, shots and
models, but we were able to immediately take advantage of the
increase in processing power that the new hardware and software
afforded us. The difference in speed was just amazing." Softimage Co.
recently halved the price of SOFTIMAGE|3D version 4.0, now available
for US$1,495.

Read more about animating Yoda in Animation World Magazine. Bill
Desowitz speaks with ILM on how they created Yoda in CGI and brought
him to action.