Behind the scenes of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew – iconic Star Wars shots and epic world-building secrets!

We've already heard how DNEG created the lovable Neel for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, and what it takes to really make a lightsaber, now Chris McLaughlin, Visual Effects Supervisor at DNEG explains how the team crafted the huge industrial environments, the war-torn world of At Achrann and how Classic Star Wars was always on the team's mind.

Star Wars has its share of immense industrial, highly-engineered spaces and as Skeleton Crew moves towards its climax the action shifts to an immense vault, something that has been teased for many episodes.

Reflecting on this environment, Chris says: "A lot of our work – like all the work in the vault – was shot in a blue screen studio. There were a few practical elements, such as the ground they’re walking on, the security droid puppet and a partial set for the spaceship where they sit on the ramp. Apart from that, everything else is bluescreen."

Making the vastness of the Mint

Chris notes that the vault was especially challenging to realise and that this is illustrated by the shot showing Jod walking into the vault and looking around. “That was a tricky one because we had to replace absolutely everything and make it look like Jod is in a massive space with multiple light sources around him. That took a lot of iterations,” says Chris.

He identifies a particular moment where digital effects and animation came into subtle effect: “I like the moment when Jod goes up to a pile of credits. Those credits that we see going through his hands are all completely CG.”

Certainly, the vast industrial space of the vault seen at the end of Skeleton Crew evokes the seemingly bottomless space below the Theed Hangar in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and Chris says of such spaces: “In the Mint there was the landing platform. Before it gets to the bottom of the Mint, the characters look and see the ‘credit maker’, which is this big machine that’s making all of those credits. We had to create the vault and the credit maker in CG as this really massive environment".

He tells me the team looked at lots of reference for this design, including the huge Boeing Everett factory, "just to see how light, atmosphere and colour contrast falls off into distance in a vast space. I also found that Star Wars: The Last Jedi was a great reference for us. In that film, there is a mega Star Destroyer ship and, inside its hangar, reams and reams of TIE fighters. It’s an incredible full-CG environment that was a really key reference for me.”

Developing the look of At Achrann

Chris explains that DNEG’s sequences in Episode 4 of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew showcase the team's environment work in relation to practical set work. In this episode, the hero kids arrive on At Achrann, a war-torn, bombed-out version of their homeworld of At Attin.

“At Achrann was shot on a set,” Chris notes. “Any rocks or ground that the characters walked on were practical sets. Generally, everything was blued off in the background and then we extended the set. What was difficult about that sequence was the smoke, dust and mist which gave it that post-war kind of look. There was a lot of smoke on set, but it was difficult to maintain a consistent look and feel, so we needed to balance that out in post.”

To create the war-torn environment of At Achrann, Chris’s team ‘deconstructed’ the suburban setting of At Attin to create something that felt familiar, even in its devastation. For Chris, there was a surfeit of real-world war zone images to refer to in envisioning At Achrann: “All I would say is that there is far too much readily available reference of destroyed buildings,” he notes.

The influence of classic Star Wars

The opportunity to work on Star Wars: Skeleton Crew has been a very special opportunity for Chris and it’s evident when he recalls how he “grew up loving those films and loving the world: its design and artwork and production design".

Chris’s enthusiasm for the worlds of Star Wars underpins his closing comment when he notes that, “Probably my favourite shot that we worked on is of the Onyx Cinder spaceship coming in and landing on At Achrann. The shot has lots of dust, big fiery engines, and elements flying into camera. The animation of the ship coming in and landing took quite a few goes and the way that it settles and its weight readjustment was all quite refined”.

Chris pauses and adds with satisfaction that this shot, “is classic Star Wars fare”.

If you're inspired by the work of DNEG, read our guides to the best 3D modelling software and the best animation software – these are the tools VFX pros use. Also, read this advice from DNEG, Framestore and others on how to break into the industry.