The Official "I'm worried about Yoda" Thread

Yes I have now seen the Mystery trailer and Yoda looks fantastic. Wow he looks so much better than in the Breathing teaser. Really really good. Even my roommate was like DAMN Yoda looks really good. My worries are now gone!

 

I like the CG Yoda......

 

Those photos put together by Gry are a great visual aid for this thread, nice work Gry. I have to say that I thought that close up shot of Yoda was a puppet. No, it doesn't look the same as TPM, but then again, all of the films with Yoda have a different look to them. Have we forgotten they went from 70's mop tops and side burns to 80's supercuts in ROTJ? If the human characters look different then why shouldn't Yoda change a bit from film to film?

Personally, I like the ESB Yoda the best. But my Empire bias is probably coloring my judgement. The only CGI shot in the Waiting trailer that I had problems with was the one of him walking. It looked better than the shot at the end of TPM, but it still looked like a computer generated image clunking along the screen. I figure that AOTC's CGI Yoda will look better than TPM's and EP3's will be the best of them all. Regardless, I think we're getting the best CGI Yoda POSSIBLE at this time and that's good enough for me. While a puppet may look more realistic, it limits the story GL wants to tell. The only way to get a fighting Yoda is to have a CGI Yoda. So I say bring it on and let Yoda kick some ass!

 

Just saw the Mistery trailer. AWESOME.

Yes, Yoda dows look very nice there, but I see my fears are true. He looks very realistic (though not totally, but more than the puppet anyway), but he does seem to have a different character... His walking was a bit different, but you can really see a NEW Yoda delivering that line, it's not like ol' puppet Yoda...

... I'm beginning to accept CG Yoda, because I'm beginning to see that what I fear most it that he's different than the Yoda I grew to love, that strange puppet...

Bottom line is, CG Yoda is too real...

I guess I'll have to learn to love him like that then ;-)

 

I just hope that GL doesn't go back TESB and replace puppet Yoda with "new and improved" CG Yoda. Don't get me wrongo, the new Yoda looks awesome, but I never want to see TESB Yoda changed. He was great.

 

OK, I think I have figured something out. The reason that Jar-Jar (however annoying he was), Sebulba, Watto, and Boss Nass looked so incredible to us in TPM is because this was the first time that we had ever seen them. There was no previous reference to compare them to.

I'll be the first to admit that after seeing the CG Jabba in ANH: Special Edition, the CG Jabba in TPM even looked incredible. But, Yoda is in our psyche, supposed to look a certain way and if we don't see that right away, then we will never be satisfied.

I think that the more you get used to the CG Yoda the more you will except it and enjoy what is most important to the movie and that's the story.

 

how do we even know that yoda is cg for the whole thing(not that it matters to me cuz i think it looks cool),

and whats all this talk about yoda doing jackie chan flips, apparently all these nay-sayers have seen the film allready.

 

I think we can be pretty darn sure Yoda is "all CG, all the time" in Ep2.
We've seen CG Yoda:
1- Simply standing there, looking concerned.
2- Walking
3- Talking

He was CG doing all 3 of these simple actions. The only thing we haven't seen Yoda do in these trailers is fight. Now do you think they'll use puppet Yoda for the fight scenes and CG Yoda for these 3 types stated above? Don't think so uh... so that means.. all CG.

And about my "Jackie Chan" comment, I just said that because it's the only reason I can see for using CG Yoda. And of course I was exagerating, I just meant "physical fighting".

 

Gry Sarth you are already wrong. The shot of the Jedi Council in the Mystery trailer shows a puppet Yoda just like in TPM. So the question is when they will use the puppet and when they will use CGI.

 

Ok, I didn't mention the "sitting" action, because that shot on the council is dubious and open to discussion, we can't know for sure if it's puppet or CG. I personally think it's CG, but since I can't be sure, I don't give it as a certainty.

Now, how can YOU be sure it's the puppet there? It's a pretty short and distant shot where he's practically sitting still...

I agree that it COULD be the puppet there, but it makes no sense to use CG in all 4 kinds of action I stated above (since I hope you agree w/ me that fighting Yoda has to be CG) and use a puppet in a council scene... especially since the CG Yoda is not looking exactly like the puppet one, and switching back and forth during the movie would be terribly distracting.

I also think that they really might use the puppet in some shots where you can barely see Yoda, where you only see his back or that kind of thing. Like they used Ahmed in the suit for a couple of shots in TPM. But you wouldn't say Jar Jar is NOT all CG because of those, would you?

 

Didn't Lucas say it was CGI all the way for Yoda from now on?

 

I certainly have seen no such quote from Lucas or any other Lucasfilm person.

 

What was wrong with the muppet Yoda?

 

Couldn't be shown the way you can use CGI. I guess.

 

I must reiterate this again. What looks best will always be used more than what doesn't. Take Jar Jar for instance. On the DVD they mention that they were planning to use Ahmed's body and then CGI for the neck and head only, for the sequences. But it looked better having an all CGI Jar Jar and it also turned out to be cheaper. Now, lets take that new Jedi Council scene. I imagine Yoda was/is a puppet in that scene. At least in the initial stages. The next step would be for ILM to do their Magic and place a CGI Yoda where the puppet is. If the puppet looks better, they go with the puppet. But..as I imagine the case to be...if the puppet Yoda's eyes are skewed or it somehow looks odd, and the CGI Yoda looks great, they will go with the CGI Yoda. Just keep this in mind...if you see a CGI Yoda scene and it looks a bit "off", please understand that the puppet Yoda, in the same scene, would look absolutely terrible. And that goes vice versa, of course. The better looking shot wins...not whether or not it's CGI or puppet or not.

Isurus

 

I hear you, I just don't think I always agree.

Mainly I think this is because no matter how hard you try, a CG character always looks CG. A puppet is at least physically real. It has real texture, for instance, which will make it look more "real."

But the main drawback for a puppet is that fight scenes would probably just not work. I could see CG for these, but otherwise, I'm not sure it's better.

 

First off, I'd like to say that I am pleased that the Ep2 Yoda actually looks like Yoda, as opposed to the Ep1 puppet whose facial features differed in more ways than could be explained by the character being younger and healthier.

However, I do share some of the same concerns as others in this thread. It's not that the CGI Yoda doesn't look good enough... it's that he looks *too* good.

Before you laugh me off, hear me out.

We've already seen Yoda in three movies, and in those three movies it is established that he physically looks and moves in certain ways. Even if it doesn't look 'realistic', in our minds that is how he moves. With the new CGI Yoda, he is going to begin moving in ways inconsistant with what has already been established, which will only serve to remind the audience that Yoda isn't real and they are watching a movie. It's possible that the CG Yoda will be restrained to behave as the puppet did, but Mr. Lucas isn't exactly known for using restraint...

 

My sister, who is by no means a SW fan, went to see Monsters Inc. and saw the Breathing trailer. She did not know Yoda was cg until I told her he was. Now, of course, when I showed it to her online again she says "oh yeah, I can tell he's cg" but she did not notice initially.

I think if you know something is cg you will think it looks "cgish", but if you just watch the movie and don't care about such things you won't notice any problems at all.

 

I think the CGI Yoda looks great. I also like his voice in the "Mystery" trailer when he says:"Dangerous and disturbing this puzzle is." It's deep and sounds like it did in Empire when he was training Luke. It doesn't sound too "Groverish" like it did in TPM and RotJ.

 

I thought he looked fine in the Mystery trailer and what's more, I thought the same shot they showed in both Breathing and Forbidden Love looked BETTER in Forbidden Love. Like they had done more work on Yoda and made him look better.

As for his voice, I don't think he sounds quite right in the Mystery trailer. His voice is too low. But then Watto does not sound right in Mystery either.

 

Watto sounds fine. Also, Yoda's voice was low during a lot of EMPIRE. Especially when he says : "You will be. You WILL be!" after Luke tells him he's not afraid.

 

Something just does not sound right with both of their voices. Maybe the one short line is not enough time to judge, so I will keep an open mind when I see AOTC

 

Yoda doesn't talk the same at any time. He uses different inflections depending on the circumstances. Sometimes it's Grover-like and sometimes it's deep and that often occurs within the same movie. Then again, that's pretty much the same cases with our own voices.

 

Up!

 

One critisism from me; just maybe he looks older than in ESB and ROTJ.