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Star Wars Prequels' Art Director Doug Chiang Talks

Posted by timothy on from the screw-a-lid-lid-on-jar-jar dept.

inherent writes: "Recently, representatives of three fansites covering Westwood's upcoming release, Earth and Beyond Online had the opportunity to interview Doug Chiang, Art Director for the Star Wars prequels, and the designer of the spacecraft models in Earth and Beyond Online. Chiang speaks on topics like the differences between film and digital animation, advice for upcoming digital artists, and the now infamous Jar Jar Binks. The interview transcript is available at Earth and Beyond Portal"

6 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. good advice... by nostromo_42 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    in terms of setting yourself out from the crowd, at least in graphic design terms, there is no substitute for having classical training in the visual arts. too many people think that they're hot stuff just because they can use photoshop.

    1. Re:good advice... by mav[LAG] · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Indeed. If you look at Doug Chiang's work in the Art of Star Wars - Episode One (Amazon will probably have it - I got it as a present), you'll see all of his conceptual work is in traditional media - watercolour, pen and ink, and pencil.

      I recommend any of these books if you want to look behind the scenes at concept design, particularly how creatures and sets evolve in the mind of the artist. Doug Chiang seems to have designed 80% of the Episode I universe based on the sheer number of his works in the book. What's even more interesting is that he claims Lucas has an incredible sense of design and vision which just gave the artists that final inspiration or push in the right direction just when they needed it most. Not basic whip-cracking either - more tweaks or overhauls to things that just gave them The Right Look. Say what you like about him as a director, he obviously still knows how to design cool stuff.

      --
      --- Hot Shot City is particularly good.
  2. Re:Hmm... by Em+Emalb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Taco, you wrote:

    "From what I can see, Star Wars was originally part of a social movement, the gradual change of geeks, if you will, from the shadows to the mainstream."

    I sort of agree with this statement. However, I think you are missing the larger picture here. The awesome thing about Star Wars is that you don't/didn't have to be a geek to enjoy it. It was a huge part of life for us children of the mid/late 70's and early 80's. It was hugely successful because it appealed to all classes, races, and creed. It was a magical movie that could make you forget all your problems for a couple of hours, or if you were lucky, several months on end in toys, etc.

    Now, IMO, here's the issue for Mr Lucas. He made the mistake of creating his best art at an early age. The rest of his life has been spent trying to recapture it, and he has (so far) failed. Imagine if you were in his shoes...would you pump out lack-luster fare trying to recapture the magic you created, or move on? I doubt you *COULD* move on. Not many people can say they shaped a generation, he can. Too bad he's now trying to shape another generation into being little zombie consumers. Just my opinion of course ;)

    --
    Sent from your iPad.
  3. Re:Hmm... by invid · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Have you ever wondered why so many creative people produce wonderful material when they first start out, but when they become rich and famous their material sucks? In many instances the reason is that when someone is not well known they listen to other people's advice and criticism, and this limits certain excesses that might spill out of their work. Once they become big names they get the belief that they can do no wrong. Worse still, other people become too intimidated to criticize them. Read any recent Steven King book. Look what Gene Rodenberry did to the first Star Trek movie. He was allowed to create his complete vision, and it was simply too much of his vision. That's what happened to Star Wars Episode One.

    --
    The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
  4. Re:Know what i'd like to see? by clontzman · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Since he's obviously going to painfully attempt to recreate ESB in a formulaic manner so unimaginative, no one else would have imagined it, I'll make an increadibly obvious prediction: Anakin looses his hand in the climatic lightsaber duel. Maybe it'll happen in episode III, but I'm still betting on episode II.

    Seeing as we know he has a robotic arm in Return of the Jedi, that prediction is more than obvious. If he doesn't lose an arm, it's a gross continuity error.

    Relax, dude, it's just a movie.

  5. Re:Interesting poll results... by clontzman · · Score: 3, Insightful
    It's a shame really! Why do some companies instantly dismiss making Linux version's of games?

    I'm just stabbing in the dark here, but probably because there's not a single instance of any game selling anywhere near enough units to even dream of making even the most modest profit.

    Honestly not trying to be a troll here, but with a sub-1% desktop marketshare, you can't be surprised that expensively produced games aren't being produced for Linux yet.