Why were the clonetroopers all done in CGI?

I don't want to bash the CGI in the prequels, most of it is very well done and looks awesome, but it has allways been somewhat of a riddle to me that they had to do all the clonetroopers, even close-up shots in CGI.
Why go through all that trouble if you can get a couple of guys in clonetroopersuits instead of spending millions of dollars creating sophisticated 3D models with texturing and all. It would have looked a lot more real too for half the money (some shots of the unhelmed clonetroopers look like the head has been pasted on afterwards.)
Is there any pleasible reason they did this, or was it just an experiment to check how far they could go with CGI?

 

From what I remember, it was much cheaper to do it all by CGI. They had to fill in the rest of the background with CGI anyway.

 

Why climb a mountain?

Because it's there

 

There were a lot of problems during the OT using the armor. One part is that the extras and stuntmen had trouble walking in the those suits. Very uncomfortable. Another was that the helmets were difficult to see through, which resulted in several incidences where the extras would either slip and fall, or trip and fall. And the now infamous Stormtrooper smacks his head on the door and falls over. So by using CGI, they can avoid many of those problems while pushing the technology further. Also, by having done this, Lucas can hire someone with military training to have his body scanned and used for ROTS. With Morrison and Taylor handling the unmasked segments. The cost of CGI Clonetroopers is less than hiring extras and creating multiple suits for them. It also allows for a more uniformed look when the Clonetroopers move. Every effects shot was approved because it could be done within the parameters of the budget. Also because he was the creator, Lucas probably wasn't charged as much as third party would.

 

Also they're clones, so they have to be identical in every form. The extra's could have the same body figure, but litterally the image on the CGI is cloned so it just looks better.

 

hm, maybe you're right , but still the parts of morrission unmasked, which doesn't involve heavy action in which the suit might be clumsy, should have been done with costumes. I can't imagine the making of 5 suits (heck even us fans can purchase pretty real looking ones) would be more costly in this case than CGI.

 

Considering how goofy the stormies look if you watch them closely in the OT..no thanks.

 

I can't imagine the making of 5 suits (heck even us fans can purchase pretty real looking ones) would be more costly in this case than CGI.


Like others have mentioned, once you make one CGI clone trooper model, the cost of the thousands of others is squat. It would have cost more to integrate one live suited trooper into a scene that also had many digital clone troopers, because they would have to digitally mess with the live trooper to get the right lighting, sheen etc to match the others. For example, think of the ROTS scene with the 2 clone troopers sneaking up on Yoda on Kashyyykk. If those were real people in suits, think of the amount of digital manipulation work that would have to be done at the head chopping part. Its much less work if they were all digital to begin with. Also bottom line, if a movie requires a cast of thousands, digital is the way to go.

 

They still should have had a few suits for up-close shooting. That green "biker scout" standing behind Yoda on Kashyyyk looked atrocious.

 

A testament from me, I didn't know that the Clonetroopers were all CGI in AOTC, when I first saw it. I hadn't heard about that one and was surprised when I finally did. Only once in ROTS, could I tell there were just CGI and that was when Cody removes his helmet on Utapau. Otherwise, I couldn't tell. Lucas was asked if it was okay to build a suit, but he said no.

 

Considering how goofy the stormies look if you watch them closely in the OT..no thanks.

Exactly. They're clumsy as hell in the OT. They bump into things, some have to hold onto to their helmets to keep them in place, etc. Like Sinister, I honestly couldn't tell when I first saw AOTC that they were all CG. Now that I know, it does give them this sense of not being quite right, but in a good way. Since they're clones, having them all be CG just gives them that little bit of an unnatural quality. I think they look amazing. There's more than a few shots that look photo realistic to me.

 

I'm sure GL has his reasons why all the clones in the PT are CGI, but nothing beats the look of a real costume. Remember how cool they looked (to those who were there), and how you wanted a stormtrooper outfit? I was disappointed that there were no close-up shots in the PT of real guys in clone suits. The stormies, the scouts, the snow troopers, the tie fighter pilots etc in the OT, still look so much better than their 'always moving' CGI counterparts. CGI just can't suspend my disbelief as well models and guys in suits. Still I can understand GL's reasons. It's evolution baby.

 

Well, I could tell they were CGI at the end parade (something was just kinda shiny-looking) but I don't especially care about that.

They all looked fantastic on Geonosis and ROTS, though.

And given the number of effects goofs in the OT, I don't really think it's a mortal sin for the PT to have them as well

 

They all looked very real to me. The only time the suits looked CG was when the troops would take their helmets off.

 

No there are two different sets of standards. One for each trilogy. This applies to acting as well.

 

Oh noes! Personal opinion as fact.

It's like saying Dark Tower 1-4 is somehow a different story than Dark Tower 5-7. It ain't, and neither is star wars.

 

I was being sarcastic.

 

Remember how cool they looked (to those who were there), and how you wanted a stormtrooper outfit?

I'm sure someone, somewhere out there is selling clone trooper suits if you look hard enough.

 

Better luck next time

 

They are.

Although jeez, wearing a suit of hard plastic does not sound fun

 

This will sound like bashing, but it isn't. I think Lucas cheaped out, and the result is an army of cartoon characters. Yes they appear lifelike (sort of), but I never really feel like they're there, and I think it's sort of unfortunate that he didn't use extras for at least small groups of Clonetroopers that may interact directly with the actors (i.e. Ewan, Hayden, etc).

 

if any scene could have been done with real people I think, its this one.
These are close up shots. a large battlescene or a shot with a lot of them I can imagine being done entirely in CGI perfectly, but these two just looked kinda fake from up close.
and they wouldn't have to do a lot of extra digital manupilation, just two guys in a suit, blue screen for the background, the digital Yoda character pasted in front of them, and their helmets dropping down, et voila.

 

Ewan did interact with Morrison and Taylor, whenever he had to talk to the Clonetroopers. And when he interacted with Grievous and the others, there was always someone standing there. When there wasn't an actor there, he had someone feeding him lines from behind the camera. When he talked with Yoda, there was the Yoda puppet on set.

 

I had wondered this as well. You've all pretty much answered it. It was a question of cost and mobility. I also heard that the sound of the stormtrooper armor wreaked havoc on the sound.