Full Series Is anyone else worried about the McQuarrie style art for Rebels?

In the intro video, Dave talks about how they're going to take McQuarrie art and make it 3D. And they talk about how that makes sense because this series takes place before ep4 and his designs are concepts and therefore a few degrees off of ep4 and so it makes sense with the timeline. And in theory that kind of makes sense; I just hope they don't take that idea too far. For example, it wouldn't make any sense to see a McQuarrie designed Darth Vader because we know from RotS that he doesn't look like that and then later upgrades his armor to the ep4 style or something. It also wouldn't make sense to get original designs of R2, 3PO, the Death Star, etc. I just hope they don't take this idea and take it too far.

 

You're taking that statement in the video a bit too far.

 

Technologies, environments and the like. Not wholesale redesign of classic saga characters.

 

He'll probably adapt it like he "adapted" the EU.

 

Not at all. Love his stuff and they're not doing to redo the film aesthetics, that's worrying too much.

 

Remember, it's an interpretation. You're not gonna find anywhere on Wookieepedia that, "After the start of the Clone Wars, Dooku's chin got f'ing huge, but the swelling seems to have gone down by the time of the Battle of Coruscant."

 

Basing off of McQ's art is one of the things making me want to watch Rebels.

 

McQuarries art was an inspiration for designs in TCW as well, as shown in numerous behind the scenes videos.

 

No.

McQuarrie art inspired SW that we know and love. It is fantastic that it continues to inspires to this day. God bless his soul.

 

You're taking that statement far too literally.

 

Bast Castle animated in 3D would be cool.

 

My sentiments exactly.

 

We'll see ships, environments... we might even see droids resembling McQuarrie's R2 & 3PO walking around somewhere, but it won't actually be R2 & 3PO. They'll look like their normal Saga selves, interpreted in whatever style the show takes on (TCW or otherwise).

McQuarrie Vader would be GREAT to see, but really not likely unless Vader has to get himself a new suit for a particular type of environment where his normal suit isn't able to adapt... like a different set of Iron Man armor, kinda. But if anything of that sort happened, it should be a one-off... one episode, or one arc, and at the end that suit is trashed for whatever reason & is never used again.

 

I know I said I'd expect McQuarrie-inspired technologies and environments to appear, with no major changes to the characters we know and love, but one intriguing possibility occurs to me:








I'm thinking that something like these designs (minus the lightsabers and shields, naturally) might look really cool when rendered in the TCW fashion, offering a classy nod to McQuarrie's legacy. Further, I can see these guys making sense in-universe as a transitional interpretation between Phase II clone troopers and full-blown, ANH Stormtroopers.

What do you think?

 

I've been put off TCW partially by the animation, so ditto.

 

Surprisingly there a lot of things (mostly ships) that are almost taken right from ANH's concept art.

 

Ships & environmental touches, too... pylon-things lining walkways and the like...

TCW had some pretty rough character animation at the start, and the models weren't always great. The Season 3 revamps improved a lot (like getting Ahsoka into something better than that silly tube top and eliminating the "Thunderbirds supermarionation" look of Obi-Wan & especially Anakin), and the animation generally improved in quality quite a bit. But the environments, ships, etc, those were always pretty spectacular... even the crowd shots got better as they had more models to tweak & recolor to populate them.

 

Anything would be better than the S1 TCW animation. There were already too many jokes about "wooden" acting to use Thunderbirds style

 

I was mostly talking about the people. The ships and environments range from 'ok' to 'rather good' in my book - though I've only seen episodes from the tail end of the series.

 

Is there something you prefer (within the same TV budget), or are you just pro-2D animation?

 

I'm not pro-2D animation, I prefer 3D, I just don't like the cartoonish people. I have no idea about animation budgets so I can't comment, but in the other thread (about what kind of animation) I said I liked the Final Fantasy film style, and the SWTOR trailer style (though everyone said the latter was incredibly expensive). Like, I want to see brows crinkle in concentration and hair blow around. I haven't seen much of TCW, but I didn't see that.

 

I think we'd all want the quality of TOR trailers, they are simply stunning. However, with a TV budget TWC was fantastic quality, particularly as the series progressed. The quality of the animation on the Sifo Dyas preview clip is amazing. If they continue the progression for Rebels, we will have a visually epic series. IMO it's better to do stylised well, rather than aiming for realism and coming up short.

Rebels will be amazing.

 

Count me in full agreement with this. It's often the little things that grant that added touch of realness to an animated character.

While watching the Assassin's Creed short film Embers, I was surprised to see how similar the animation style was to TCW's. But Embers felt...softer, I guess is the best word for it. Fabric looked like fabric, with wrinkles and different textures. Hair was stylized, sure, but it also looked defined; light seemed to pass through it as though it were truly made up off many hairs instead of a single block, and it changed fluidly with movement. And when the main character drags his hand across his face is tired frustration, you can see the skin and muscles of his face move with the touch of his fingers in a realistic way. These were little touches that still somehow felt leaps and bounds ahead of TCW's animation, minor though they were.

For anyone curious to see the comparison for themselves...

 

Mia Mesharad

I watched the first three minutes, or so, to get a quick idea of what the video offered. I'm no animation expert, by any means, but I noticed the fine work on the face of the older man that you mentioned. I also picked up on a lack of detail in his hands and fingers, and the little girl hiding behind the barrel seemed to lack a little bit of the fluidity of movement TCW was able to achieve in its later years, as she ran away.

So, I don't know. In the end, is it just a trade-off? Were all of the resources poured into the facial features and clothing? The one thing I'll venture is that if this short film were a one-off (I'm not certain that it was, but if it were), then the film's producers would have the ability to utilize all of its resources on this one piece (whereas TCW/Rebels have episode upon episode to develop, of course). I imagine working within budgetary constraints is a big part of what kept TCW from looking even better than it eventually did.

I'll say this: As long as Disney earmarks anywhere near the amount of dollars for its Rebels budget as Lucasfilm did for The Clone Wars, I think it's safe to assume we'll be in for a show which starts off with a look as nice as TCW ended, with each season of the new series bringing us bigger and better things.

 

Hey you guys. What if Rebels was cel-shaded and semi-rotoscoped?