Do you think you would still like the PT as much if Lucas used the OT Special Effects?

Where it RotS did FX overtake the story?
Heck, even the opening battle (while certainly an FX extravaganza) concentrated exclusively on Anakin and Obi-Wan's story. A bit of excitement to open the show with a bang certainly, but it did follow Anakin and Obi-Wan when it could have easily wandered away to show... well... damn near anything I suppose
You could argue Kashyyyk I suppose.

As far as AotC, I'd say the factory was more of a case of sacrificing some story for action instead of FX. FX were certainly needed to pull it off of course.

 

I do have to say that if anything, I like the OT ships better. They seemed more real or something. Same with the Storm(Clone)troopers.

Characters like Watto and Yoda, places like Coruscant, I'll definately take the new fx. Coruscant looks sleek...high tech. The rebel bases on Yavin and Hoth looked like real dumps. This is a good example where the available technology worked better for both trilogies. To show a cobbled together temporary base, cobble together some crappy looking rooms. Building a city that has gigantic buildings and covers an entire planet? Go with the Fx.

Carnage

 

I think the Echo Base looks fine, very rugged with lots of droids, welding, dirty equipment, ragtag guys going about their business, etc. But the Yavin Base looks pretty low budget. It looks like the set of a Stargate episode or something.

 

A lot of the CGI in the PT feels unnecessary.

The effects that were necessary could have easily been done with traditional methods.

Coruscant could have been pulled off with miniatures.

The podracers could have been hand controlled in front of a blue/green screen.

The battle droids could have been attached to the front of people wearing blue/green suits.

The spaceships could have easily been filmed with motion control.

Small objects could have been controlled in many ways, like a stick or wires.

CGI does look good if used only when necessary. Jurassic Park and Terminator 2 are great examples.

Also, the less CGI you have, the more you can work on it to get it right.

 

Turbo,

It would've been virtually impossible to pull of Coruscant with just models. Think of the shot in Episode III between Padme and Anakin in the living room. It's damn near a 360 viewing of Coruscant in the background. No way does that get down with model work.

Plus, they used plenty of models for Coruscant in the Prequels...just not to the scope I think you're looking for.

Episode I had some motion control shots using spacecrafts. Episode III also had at least one I know of(I'll let you figure that one out.)

 

I'm pretty sure it could be done. You'd just need to take the time to build one heck of a big set.

Some isn't enough. Even if you do have some real effects in a shot, the CGI usually distracts from it.

 

Turbo,

You can't build a model set of that size. It's too expensive and by the time you'd have it built, it would've been finished, via CG, in a shorter time frame.

Look at the Geonosis Arena. It was built as a large, scale model and they still had to use CG elements for it to work properly.

 

I think the story is strong enough that he could have done it with the same limitations he had on the originals, it just wouldn't look as good is all.

 

Sacrificing quality for time and money just isn't right.

Just imagine what it would have looked like. I think that a Coruscant miniature alone could have compensated for the other weak effects.

 

Go-Mer,

Maybe. Maybe not. I'm just glad that, by using new technology with the old, he was able to show us a grander era of Star Wars and I think that helps the overall story alot.

 

Turbo,

It's just not fiscally responsible for Lucas to build a model of that size. It just wouldn't work. It'd take way too long and way too much money to produce just for a handful of shots that are more often than not, out of focus in the background.

 

Turbo,

Honestly, if you want a fair assessment on the work ILM and the model shop did during the Prequels, just pick up "Creating the Worlds of Star Wars 365 days." It's an absolute must-own if you're really interested in this kind of stuff.

 

I'll have a look around for it.

Better way to cut corners would be to create a small set, then make it seem larger with matte paintings.

Maybe even matte paintings alone could have worked. (Not for the close shots, of course.)

 

Turbo Extremeist
The battle droids could have been attached to the front of people wearing blue/green suits.

It's actually surprising they didn't do that considering they did it with 3PO in TPM.

That could've easily been adapted to the battle droids.

I think it's called Bunraku or something.

Funny enough, Stan Winston Studios did the same with their animatronic Teddy built for AI.

 

Turbo,

But, Coruscant was created using matte paintings. The difference? Digital matte paintings (with the addition of plate photography elements) vs. traditional matte paintings with a painter.

It's still the same thing.

Now, some would say that traditional matte paintings look better than digital. Personally, I disagree. I mean, it's pretty obvious in the Original Trilogy when the matte paintings show up because they look 2D. Whereas in the Prequels, the matte paintings look and feel 3D.

But, I like both. I just prefer digital matte paintings now after the likes of the Prequels and the Rings Trilogy.

 

It doesn't really matter whether it was digital mattes or 3D models. All I know is that Coruscant didn't look very real.

 

I don't know, I think Couruscant looked much more real than Bespin did back in the day.

 

I can't actually remember how Coruscant looked. I haven't seen TPM in a while.

The only SW film I own is the fullscreen 1997 ROTJ SE on VHS.

 

Some of my favorite parts, if not most, of the PT are when there's just real interaction and a lack of CGI. Like in the Mace Vs Sids duel. I don't care for the part where Sids is leaping around like a frog. I prefer the spot where he and Mace are by the window and it's just the two of them, even though Ian himself was used for these shots and he's not agile or a master swordsman. I tend to think (I know, heaven forbid) that I might have enjoyed it even a tad bit more.

 

I would of prefered more hand made sets and more model shots, especilly as the CGI on ships makes the MF, X-Wings ect look aged and old (which is a good thing though to show the 20 odd year period), but if they were done as models it may have kept the look condistant on ships. Id hate a CGI MF as it looks so cool as a model

I would still like the PT as long as the clone wars on Geonosis could be carried off ok with OT SFX, here CG would be essentail.

 

I would like them more. Using models for the ships in the original trilogy, while limiting certain motions, had a bonus good side effect. Lighting. Because you are using real light on real models, you never have to worry about shadows looking unrealistic. Basically, our brains are pretty intuitive. If you see a CGI special effect with the wrong lighting effect, or shadow going the wrong way, our brains pick up on it...with a model, you never have this issue, because the shadows are always real. You also make Star Wars look a little grungy, which is what GL was going for in the originals, as a counter to the perfect never gets dirty future presented in Star Trek. Models simply look more real than a CGI created ship. No where is this more obvious than the pod racing scene in Phantom Menace....Go watch the pre-race stuff on DVD...on VHS its not as obvious, but on DVD, the pods at the starting line look FAKE. CGI models can look "too" crisp.

Using old special effects would also have made the PT more visually like the OT. I hate that there is such a marked difference in coloring, etc between them.

 

I think they would have been better movies, because there would have been less regarding "how the PICTURE you see on the screen LOOKS" to be concerned about, leaving more of the filmmakers' attention to be focused on what really makes a good STORY. Better writing, better acting. When you can't dress up these things with "Oooh! Oooh!" visuals, you tend to work harder on the real meat of the movie to make up for the fact that it doesn't look as good as you wished for.

Conversely, in films as well as in life, I think people concentrate wayyy too hard on what a person or thing LOOKS like, as opposed to how it actually IS. Especially if it's, in the words of most four-year-olds, "Piiiitty!!"

 

I would've liked them more.

Lucas sacrificed the story for the sake of special effects....if he didnt have that, then he'd be FORCED to get back to the story, and it would have worked better with the OT.

 

It needs to be repeated again that the Prequel Trilogy used way more models than the Original Trilogy.

 

Darth_Davi , the podracers BEFORE the race are real, full scale models