Star Wars Costume Spotlight: Yoda

by Ben | Feb 21, 2017 | The Tech Behind the Movie

Star Wars Costume Spotlight: Yoda

In my continuing Star Wars costume series, this next fan favorite will be of the great Jedi Master Yoda himself!

As you may know Yoda stared out in The Empire Strikes Back, The Return of the Jedi, and The Phantom Menace (prequel) as a puppet. Then in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith he was CGI.

Now before we go on to the puppet lets first look at these photos of how Yoda started out:

Here’s him as a puppet in The Phantom Menace (episode I). Note that the puppet looks like a very old muppet.

Here’s the first CGI version of Yoda from Attack of the Clones (episode II). From looking at him note that the CGI makes Yoda look like an alien that could have existed in real life.

Here’s the second CGI version of him from Revenge of the Sith (episode III):

At the museum, they included a display of one of the puppets from V and VI

Now here are some close ups:

In this close up notice that the number of wrinkles on the puppet’s face does make Yoda look really old:

Check out the string of his necklace–it’s very realistic. The cloak does look like it hasn’t been washed in years. Plus it looks like it’s been bleached out by the sun a bit.

Note here in this close up that the sleeve of Yoda’s cloak has a big dirty spot on it. His home planet is pretty mucky, so perhaps that accounts for all the dirt and wear and tear.

Here’s the full Yoda puppet:

Star Wars Costume Spotlight: Evolution of Stormtroopers

by Ben | Feb 20, 2017 | The Tech Behind the Movie

Star Wars Costume Spotlight: Evolution of Stormtroopers

Hey Star Wars fans! In my continuing series on Star Wars costumes, today will not only be about the Stormtroopers, but how they evolved over time!

At the museum they had an exhibit showing the evolution of the Stormtrooper models:

Here’s a photo of the original Imperial Stormtrooper form. As you can see the armor is beat up and dirty. It’s not very streamlined—note the sharper edges.

Here’s the next version of a Stormtrooper, this time from the First Order. You can see that the chest angle is not as blocky and sharp edges have been smoothed out. The blaster does look the same as the original blaster, but it’s now black and white instead of all black. The helmet looks more streamlined and more simpler than the original helmet. The shoulder pads are kind of rounded and shorter than the original shoulder pads. 

Here’s the first version of an Imperial Snowtrooper from The Empire Strikes Back. As you can see the Snowtroopers wear helmets with goggles along with cloths that cover their nose, mouth, and necks. They have more substantial covering over their legs and the rest of their bodies for extra protection against the freezing cold.

Here’s the next version of a Snowtrooper but this time this one is from the First Order. The shoulder pads are now rounded and short like the ones from the First Order Stormtrooper except they have black stripes on them. The cloth is gone and has been replaced by an armored mask. This makes these improved Snowtroopers very capable of surviving in extreme cold.

Here’s a close-up of the top part of the costume:

Here’s close up of the chest of the costume. Wonder what those markings mean?

Star Wars Costume Spotlight: Zam Wesell

by Ben | Feb 17, 2017 | The Tech Behind the Movie

Star Wars Costume Spotlight: Zam Wesell

Today’s next Star Wars fan favorite will be the costume of the bounty hunter who was hired by Jango Fett to kill Padme, the changeling herself, Zam Wesell!

If you recall from Attack of the Clones, since Zam is a changeling that means she is able to make herself look like a human or an alien in order to blend in with crowds so that no one can catch her.

You may also remember that Jango killed her with a toxic dart before she could tell Anakin and Obi-Wan Jango’s name.

Now before we can go on to the full costume lets first look at the concept 3D model:

Here are a couple of close ups of the costume:

Note that the chest part of the suit with the strange alien writing looks rusted and the cloth that she puts over part of her face looks old and dirty.

Here in this close up is one of the boots of the costume. The metal on the boot looks pretty rusted. Also the boot almost looks more like a droid’s foot.

Now here’s the full Zam costume:

Note here that the costume is made of a mix of flexible leather and soft fabric. The weapons that are attached to the straps, holsters, and trimmings are being held in place by magnets which explains why Zam manages to reach her weapons pretty easily. The costume does allow Zam to move very freely when carrying out on missions.

Star Wars Costume Spotlight: Chewbacca The Wookie

by Ben | Feb 15, 2017 | The Tech Behind the Movie

Star Wars Costume Spotlight: Chewbacca The Wookie

Still continuing with the next Star Wars costumes, lets look at the costume of the great hero who served in the Clone Wars, the Rebellion, and the Resistance—Chewbacca the Wookie! 

I’d say Peter Mayhew was great at Chewie’s voice and movements, even though the costume was hot and uncomfortable.

Before we get to the costume, first lets look at these concept sketches of Chewbacca:

In this first sketch it shows that Chewbacca looks more like a humanoid-like alien. The way he looks in the sketch reminds me of Zeb the Lasan from the Star Wars Rebels TV show. In the sketch he appears to be wearing a vest with pockets, two ammunitions belts in an X shape, and a big belt around his waist with a blaster in a holster.

In this second sketch Chewie looks more furry and dog-like with one ammunition belt and holding what appears to be a Stormtrooper blaster:

And here in the third sketch we see the size perspective:

Now lets move on to the actual Chewbacca costume:

In this photo it shows a vest with a hydration tube, which is used by the person wearing the costume so they don’t get dehydrated. Also it shows the furry feet.

Here is a close up of Chewie’s feet from the Han and Chewbacca costume display:

Now here’s the full Chewbacca costume:

Star Wars Costume Spotlight: C-3PO

by Ben | Feb 13, 2017 | The Tech Behind the Movie

Star Wars Costume Spotlight: C-3PO

Hey Star Wars fans! Still continuing with the Star Wars costumes today, I am doing a post of a costume of another fan favorite R2-D2’s buddy and great translator—C-3PO himself!

I think Anthony Daniels is an amazing actor! And I’m even more impressed when I see all the parts to his costume (I’ll get to that later). But first, here are some concept sketches of C-3PO:

Here in this photo are the first 4 sketches of C-3PO. The first one has C-3PO look like a slim human-like machine with a humanoid mouth and eyes. In the second sketch (top), he looks like an exposed humanoid skeleton with an antenna. In the third sketch on the far right makes him look like a more futuristic machine. The head in the last sketch (bottom) looks like a kind of smooth robot head with round bumps for ears and three dots for the eyes and mouth.

In this composite sketch, C-3PO looks slimmer and more mobile, like Data from Star Trek.

Now on to the actual costume:

As you can see here in this photo are some of the parts of C-3PO—A prototype of his head, the chest, one of his hands (behind the chest), his eyes, his feet (one gold and one silver), two pieces from one of his legs, the body suit, and the two pieces with circuitry on them that are for the middle part of the body suit.

In this photo is bit of a close up of the body suit. Plus you can sort of see one of C-3PO’s hands this time.

Here’s a close up of the of the leg pieces and a piece of the middle part for the body suit. As you can see one of the leg pieces looks a little beat up and has a lot of scratches on it.

Here’s a close up of the circuitry on one of the middle pieces of the body suit.

And now here he is all put together: