ILM: Behind the Magic of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens

[@rebeccapierson5498]

I am so impressed with how far special effects have come since Star Wars came out in 1977.

[@stahl1624]

@@ohio K

[@SparrowNoblePoland]

The better the effects, the shittier the story. That holds true at least for Star Wars.

[@peterzettl7963]

*visual effects. special fx are created on set

[@NahsFX]

SparrowNoblePoland I Guess they sacrificed story for better effects😂

[@butcherax]

I just find it a bit boring when you know that everything is digital and nothing is real. Model FX creates a certain feeling by being tangible.

[@Trisska.ClubNationRenaissance]

It's quite amazing to see how much detail goes into constructing each starship, only to then be blurred out or undergo heavy shading to mesh well with a particular shot. The crashed Star Destroyer 0:37 and the Star Killer trench scene 3:03 are good examples of that. Those artists are under appreciated!

[@SERGIOVIGNUOLO]

That's why ILM is the best !

[@SERGIOVIGNUOLO]

Weta learned from ILM. But it's a real good company too. Ur right! :)

[@mrtey7283]

@@purefoldnz3070 Double Negative did Interstellar and BR 2049. Its right up there with ILM & WETA

[@braynz2378]

@@purefoldnz3070 ILM is the originator of the vfx art

[@G.S.Productions]

S_MAGIC _ONE Agreed! One of the best, in my opinion!

[@kholwayd9839]

Purefoldnz no I think ILM comes first ( VFX artist’s opinion )

[@lothean2099]

The best scene in the force awakens is when the millennium falcon flew through that star destroyer. That scene won me over and over. Thank you Ilm.

[@AndrewConway]

I would love to see how the Render Farm of Computers compiles all the assets

[@mike18699-e]

Say what you like about the movie as a whole (and God knows, a lot of people have), but it has the most glorious Millennium Falcon footage ever. In particular, the Jakku chase sequence with the TIE fighters is just brilliantly done - they showed off the Falcon's agility, but still managed to make it feel like a hulking beast of a craft - and all of it done entirely digitally.

[@ChaostheClown]

We got some of the greatest action shots of the whole franchise with this trilogy, I'll always be thankful for that :)

[@riaanshaigh1338]

I wish I was a part of your team. Unbelievable the amount of work to bring a story to life. Just awesome

[@NSWSteamFan]

Industrial Light and Magic, you rule the VFX industry (the American one).

[@kholwayd9839]

lll no he’s talking about Industrial companies not free to use simple softwares

[@thespalitine]

@lll Use Maya if you want to work at a place like ILM, Blender just isn't quite there yet...

[@jupiterjames9170]

@lll Maya and Houdini are the most common commercial softwares used in large-scale vfx companies

[@schoolfaqs]

This is explicit. Great work ILM

[@marshian__mallow2624]

You spelt explicit wrong and that means bad it's the wrong word to use cmon use ya brain

[@davidnavarrorodriguez7877]

Nobody: Human building speed in Lego ads: 0:40

[@DeepEye1994]

...Weren't people saying that this movie was a big comeback for practical effects? They couldn't even make a miniature castle or destroyed Star Destroyer ruins on the desert? They arguably used more digital than George was accused of for the Prequels.

[@alcarbo8613]

Not arguably they did, almost every environment in the prequels were real miniature effects

[@AlexandrePRODHOMME]

Sadly, this film marketing started that trend we see today (Nolan, Barbie, Top Gun...) to sh£t on VFX for marketing buzz... so disrespectful of their talent, but hey.

[@MichaelM28]

Lol no they weren't prequel shill

[@MichaelM28]

And yet the prequels still look like dog sh*t 😂😂😂

[@DeepEye1994]

@@MichaelM28 here's a great idea, have a POINT or go touch grass and dont talk to me. The "No u wrong lol" and emoji method makes you look as sharp as a molten marshmallow.

[@AleksisDorsey]

Omg how much work is put in this...

[@kilroy987]

"Make a demo reel of the special effects." "How much detail would you-" "Yes."

[@grahpayy]

The Star Wars Sequels have some of the best visual flare in the franchise

[@Cre8Lounge]

They all do have some visual flare but this is all the sequel trilogy has because everything else is crap

[@meapiscool]

308328928 wrong.

[@Сайтамен]

Obviously, they are the newest ones.

[@anangryuser4020]

BUILD THE HELICOPTER 0:39

[@rayperez6322]

The subD modeled FOSD is very impressive incredible work by the 3d modeling team and texture team at ILM.

[@rayperez6322]

those water simulations in the end too were superb.

[@scootdixon8954]

There's stuff here that I assumed had been built physically. Amazing how far SFX / CGI has come nowadays.

[@isaacmartin3DArtist]

Awesome! Light and Magic (Light in the brain and Magic to render all this) XD Impressive.

[@DelightLovesMovies]

That's awesome, thanks ILMVFX

[@Malleus_77]

Didn’t Simon Pegg play the guy that gives out the food portions on jaku?

[@kholwayd9839]

Yes but he didn’t look like that in real life they gave him a different face using CGI

[@dariussalepetru9951]

Great work i will give 9/10 so cool

[@ShojoBakunyu]

As much as people bitched about the CGI in the prequels, I'm fairly certain they had more practical effects than the sequel trilogy. 🙄

[@bryanmanuelbaes7871]

Too bad the actors' performances suffered because of it

[@NonymAn0]

This was so impressive that i forgot to eat my food while watching

[@joedejesus6363]

I'm no expert on this, but I'm certain that a lot of work goes into developing these scenes.

[@TOMITA-AEROGRAFISMO]

Fantastic Job!☺

[@AlexMF321_YT]

1:03 the best part

[@channelkaranos]

One day we’ll have that in real-time vr

[@MikevomMars]

Curious to know why they used massive geometry instead of normal- or hight maps, even for the smallest details.

[@kennedygeraldo3137]

It's all about the detail, @Mike vom Mars. More details mean much more closer to reality. I am sure, you'd agree that reality isn't just normal height maps, but levels of detailed geometry on levels, on other levels, on other levels, and it goes on until you can't even notice the difference. If you get what I mean.

[@penholder7765]

what's the point of creating such details at 3:06 when the end result is dark and blurry at 3:18

[@HangYuriYangFX]

Cause we are VFX Artists :)

[@BigBoy257]

Attention to detail

[@CJDAM]

It has to be like that because CGI has to completely fool you. If there was a random chance that the lighting looked off on something because the set wasn't modelled realistically, your brain would register that inconsistency immediately. Having everything be as detailed as possible ensures lighting and volumetrics will appear perfectly. Your brain notices the difference subconciously

[@3ddin416]

Because they had the money and the time to do it like this. Actually you'll never know if the director will change his mind throughout the production. He may suddenly decide it's day instead of night and the assets have to be ready for that eventuality. I agree that they're way too much unnecessary details though XD

[@BurningGhosts]

This ladies and gentlemen, is why aside from the actors and staff, VFX/CGI is the most expensive part of any film and sequences like this easily go over $100,000

[@Banderasmex]

Wow wow... CG.. Good

[@philippeboutiquemarketing4182]

Super..........😊☺☺😊🏆🚀

[@davidsean1762]

PERFECT. 100%. If were lucky ;)

[@YTPrule]

So what was that about a "return" to practical effects?

[@nikolaivii5766]

My thoughts exactly. If you look at the behind the scenes for the prequel trilogy, you'll see that they're actually full of way more real sets and miniatures than this!

[@Trazynn]

The Skelligs were practical.

[@Stretchdiazz]

They built a forest full of fake snow.

[@lessalazar9068]

@@Stretchdiazz Guess that's the best they got for practical

[@christianschmidt8476]

@@nikolaivii5766 This is... bullshit. Just bullshit. Omfg! I can't believe there are really people who thinks this. W.t.f. Yeah, dude, sure the prequels with the tagline of Rick McCallum "every single shot has a digital effect" has surely less CGI than a real dessert... oh boy...

[@FSTH000]

No matter how much we know, but it's still impressive. The SFX have reached such a level of realism... this is what was sorely lacking in the prelogy.

[@christianschmidt8476]

@@kidicaras2719 And it just cost an entire star wars trilogy.

[@bm_m4in215]

Hey, you guys worked on transfomers right or?

[@sclogse1]

When Cinefex's Blade Runner 2049 issue came out, my local book store stopped carrying it. Iit never showed up on ebay. Unless you dropped a wad.

[@Fidelio558]

They shud enhance the cgi of the old movies to this quality

[@DigiPen92]

Will Mashy You mean like VFX artist should tweaked the CGI Graphic to make it look more realistic like in the newer Star Wars movies for a new Special Edition in the Original Trilogy and Prequel Trilogy to make look better than the previous Special Edition had?

[@patrickbeattie3496]

Will Mashy they tried, ever heard of the Special Editions? They didn’t pan out well

[@rafaelalmeida8611]

Muito impressionante. Agora, imagine essa tecnologia na trilogia original de George Lucas, com 3D... Seria espetacular!

[@enriquedanielinsuastemoran6427]

Maravillosa

[@javi1capo]

What is the software 3d, Blender??????????????????

[@anaflorido984]

A mi padre, bueno le hubiera, uahhhhh encantado. Vayaaaa. Si

[@Injudiciously]

Wow!

[@lesmoor001]

this is better than the film

[@dariussalepetru6770]

Yes VFX in The Force Awakens are the best

[@muhdharith2790]

ACTOR imagining their best to believe what they are not truly see

[@no288]

nah, i think its all real and they just added the green/blue screen in these clips to throw us off - lol ; )

[@vapor_jem]

I still don't understand why they put in props that don't match the final product at all Some kind of production-work I'm not understanding

[@Famsysthing]

So much detail lost to motion blur

[@NativeEngine2017]

Я уже и не смотрю новые серии...

[@robertbarnjak6118]

👍👍👍👍👍🍻🎆🎇✨🌠

[@addycool444]

Don't they use Autodesk maya for character

[@adruvitpandit5816]

Nope Proprietary software Caricature and iSculpt , they also use Softimage right from the days of Star Wars "A New Hope."

[@davidcottrell1308]

if only the script and story had such magic......sigh....

[@ratuadilFF]

Ini.. ???

[@Quartermaster323]

Why so much "unnecessary" detail? 1. Shading, daylight/artificial light 2. Zooming capability for home video 3. Everything is in 4K now

[@ratuadilFF]

Ini.. lawan..

[@HOLLYWOODlosANGELES]

*Avec de pareils effets spéciaux, il n'y a plus de limite à la création visuelle. On peut tout faire croire...*

[@anaflorido984]

Vayaaaa, me he perdido muchas

[@ratuadilFF]

Profesor.. juga pasukannya lawan.. ?

[@anaflorido984]

Vayaaa

[@nineleafclover]

We filmed in a desert...a real desert!

[@christianschmidt8476]

Yeah, that's exatly what they did. Lmfao

[@nineleafclover]

​@@christianschmidt8476 Looked like a lot of CGI to me.

[@christianschmidt8476]

@@nineleafclover Yeah... you know... you can't build a live size star destroyer... They filmed in a real desert! Rub' al Khali was the location for all Jakku scenes.

[@nineleafclover]

@@christianschmidt8476 They could have used a model for the Star Destroyer. Some of the desert scenes are clearly CGI.

[@christianschmidt8476]

@@nineleafclover Would it help? The star destroyer looks real. It can't look more real, lol. Ok. Do you have examples? I watched the movie yesterday and all desert scenes look absolutely real.

[@DionsTravels]

Makes no sense that the millennium falcon was abandoned in the desert just so Rey could have a ship

[@bbbricks3410]

Chewbacca sold the ship to Hondo and it he lost it to the fat guy and that’s how it ended up on jakku

[@meapiscool]

Makes no sense that there’s a worm living in asteroids and the falcon flies in it.

[@Сайтамен]

And it isn't even locked.

[@SparrowNoblePoland]

Magic? What magic? There isn't one.

[@миронов777]

Уже половина "актеров" в этом фильме нарисована на компутере)) Скоро от актеров избавяться совсем))

[@ratuadilFF]

Ini??? Profesor dan sekutunya lawan..

[@cokedrinker941]

I like the sequel trilogy... i liked the prequels (when they came out) and i liked the original trilogy...thereby i am not a "real" star wars fan.

[@Jarvis_923]

cokedrinker941 well, the sequels were good entertainment wise, but not storyline and continuity wise. I think the same thing could "maybe" be said about the prequels.

[@alcarbo8613]

No you just like crappy, lazy, nostalgia baiting, movies, made by an evil corporation, that are giant insults to the creator of Star Wars, and the fans of Star Wars

[@moistsparky9733]

@@alcarbo8613 alright calm down dude I don’t like TFA either but I still think ur being rude

[@eirschu8973]

You're fine.

[@Dr.dr134]

Im glad I'm not alone

[@reno.rodolfo3089]

The fucking water

[@antuk-rb2cs]

got battlefort 2 ps4

[@rosalindacaseley6996]

Shame the script and politics devalues this astonishing work...

[@damianbrudzinski2762]

wizjonerski fil niema co luckas jest opentany przez kosmitow

[@andgate2000]

Are....it had potential.......but alas.

[@kohakkanuva3224]

the only forgivable thing about this film was the vfx

[@alcarbo8613]

FAKE this is not a real star wars movie only soulless imitation, well George Lucas’s 6 masterpieces will live forever in film history, this movie will die a sad miserable death fading into cultural obscurity taking its rightful place next to RoboCop 3, Jaws 4, Weekend at Bernie’s 2, and Home Alone 5

[@leocan3659]

Ta bom com toda a tecnologia os cara usam "lanchas de desembaque" com as q existem hoje aqui na terra. Kkkkk ridiculo

[@butcherax]

They try to create a reaction in the viewer by making references to real history, eg. D-Day and fascism.

[@MrMauidiver]

You mean all this isn’t real??? Say it isn’t so..............

[@Λυγτψλεηυς]

Lo que imaginaba, todo hecho por ordenador en estudio. Ningún puto escenario real, hasta la arena es de croma jaja

[@GraczPierwszy]

cgi as always great

[@heastner]

Oh yeah, they should have said, Too much CGI on the sequels.

[@Scifogon]

Yeah. People really only poop on prequel CGI because it's outdated, but it was used quite fairly, compared to the sequels.

[@clevelandrum]

lots of effort for a story that sucked. Coolest thing was sound of Tie Fighter firing up.

[@damianbrudzinski2762]

robi sie gesta atmosfera na 5 n.p.m a wrogowie sraja na rzadko na gorze

[@emerzoncoaquira3137]

Hsoh toged bet not fam jin

[@FrankieMankie]

There is no magic in this movie lol

[@yokoreia]

Already dated.

[@did3d523]

all is cgi ..

[@hotenhitonokoe2848]

Computer graphics are great, but the story is poor and boring.

[@The-Sigma-Principle]

Behind the scenes is all computer generated maps lol what a crap .the puppets from old star wars were way much better

[@jonsmith2832]

Why?

[@markrunk9171]

This is the first scene we get to be unimpressed with Mart Sue. Sadly it wouldn't be the last.

[@VCYT]

Millenial snowflake - i dont like this, whinge whinge etc

[@curious9948]

Complete nonsense

[@tohey7952]

Ok karen

[@angelurena6137]

terrible movie but awesome effects!

[@Nihito]

@@MichaelM28 michael you've been playing battlefront games for 2 years straight now, sucking at it and occasionally emoting over other peoples bodies and uploading it on youtube. Maybe its a good idea to just step away from your computer now to take a few deep breaths. Compose yourself michael, don't be so rude.

[@jasperbayless]

@@Nihito Yes... He wasn't the kindest. I whole heartedly agree. Although, he has a point. It was a great movie, and the opposite of the prequels...

[@deadshot5007]

I don't know your standard is but tfa is decent at the very least

[@surject]

@@deadshot5007 If TFA was decent, TLJ was abysmal.

[@reno.rodolfo3089]

No

[@peterwg725]

SFX is great but the script is so bad. And the Directing too. What happened to George?

[@biblethumpr2161]

Nothing compaes to the original 3, this crap is too dark and phoney, bring back modeling vs. cgi

[@shadow_dancer]

Even though this cgi looks pretty decent, almost all of this movie is fake, i mean not real, how this can be called filmmaking, a cgi movie - yes, a movie - no.

[@vuurkip2491]

sooo animated movies aren't movies either?

[@shadow_dancer]

No of cource, just like you say - they are ANIMATED movies. Of cource making a space movie without cgi is quite hard and some stuff is impossible, but take out from this movie all of its actors and whats left? nothing, some props maybe and couple of wide open shots of nature, if this is called filmmaking today then ok i must be wrong. Movies in past whatever they were space operas or just sci fi stories, were far more real than this, you did beliave in that worlds, stories and etc. but today it is just a CGI stuff and some acting below mid lvl. Back in the day all felt real, cause it was real is some ways, they build massive decorations, environment, props and stuff, like in Aliens, old Star Wars movies, even Phantom Menace had quite a LOT of practical stuff. Even Pandorum (2009) had quite impressive stuff they build for it. This movie is just a bunch of cgi stuff. I cant say it was bad cgi, though in few places it was far from perfect, and people who did work on graphics are pretty solid professionals, but for a movie, even for star wars movie this had way tooo many cgi stuff...

[@mihaisurdea]

@@shadow_dancer with minimal set design and costumes the acting resemble more a theatrical play, not a movie per se; one of the reason of blank acting in many modern movies is this trend of replacing real sets, or filming on location with a bare minimum of elements for interaction.

[@christianschmidt8476]

I would certainly like to know your thoughts on the prequels.

[@shadow_dancer]

Well i guess this would be a very long and big discussion but i try to put it short) Phantom Menace - Actually this movie had quite a lot of partical stuff, some of which i thought was cgi, but when saw making of videos, i understood i was wrong. Yeah the PM had cgi and some of it holds pretty nice but some not. I understand that they used cgi for robots but i still think gungans could be done with real ppl and some serious makeup and etc. Would be more realistic. Some cgi explosions looks bad for today standarts. Some shots which combine real nature with cgi stuff still looks pretty amazing today. I think final act of the movie is suffer from cgi overuse. Final fight between Obi & Qui Gin vs Darth still holds up very good , though in some shots they filmed on green screen and characters masked out pretty badly and background looks very fake it these shots. Underwater city looks good, but underwater sequence with sea creatures looks not that good today, in therms of story i would completely cut that sequence. As for Jar Jar , he looks surprisingly good even today, but not in all shots though. (as for character itself, for me , i dont mind him in a story but would make him much less comedic character, his appearance was quite annoying through the story not everywhere though but in a lot of places for me.)Last time i saw this movie some long time ago, so i dont remember everything. Acting from main cast was good, story have some plot holes but wasnt terrible. I wish this movie was more darker than it is, and that cgi was better in some sequences., wish Jar Jar part was much less comedic than it is, and his screen time was much shorter. Darth Maul was damn good villian i would be happy if he somehow survived for the next movie (though in this case Qui Gon death wont be avenged in this movie) Overall i enjoyed this movie for what it was, though would cut some stuff out completely, like underwater sequence with creatures, the final battle with gungans for me was quite lite, i wish it was more darker in tone. Some cgi stuff in this movie still holds up pretty well today some unfortunately not. At the end i cant say this movie was cgi fest, half of the movie yes, but not all. (second movie Attack of the Clones was a CGI fest though, but i will talk later about this)

[@AlexMF321_YT]

1:03 the best part