STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Designers Reveal How They Designed 'BB-8'
Yesterday, we got a detailed look at the Star Wars: The Force Awakens' BB-8, via Empire Magazine's latest look at their subscriber's issue! Now, Empire has released a new interview that reveals all the details on how this new droid was created! Hit the jump to check it out!
I'm sure you've all noticed the newest droid introduced in the Star Wars franchise. I mean, how could you miss him? With the creation of BB-8, he will most likely be the R2-D2 for all the young Star Wars fans today! So, how did this "ball-droid" come to be? Well, it all started with an idea from director J.J. Abrams. "J.J. wanted something rolling on a sphere, so I tried a lot of different designs developing that idea." These words came from Concept Designer Christian Alzmann, who also said how their designs gave BB-8 a personality. "He would give direction on the kinds of shapes to use, and that led to a personality for the droid."
Creature Shop head Neal Scanlan also chimed in and revealed more details that led to this new droid's creation. "The whole ball-bot concept is something that universities to individuals have played around with." He then continued and revealed one other thing they had to consider while creating BB-8. "We looked very closely at what one would consider existing technology and decided that it was not far enough advanced."
Many models of BB-8 was constructed for the Star Wars: The Force Awakens filming, and each model had its own function. Even though that may seem like something positive, it was actually frustrating for the design team to not have ONE fully functional BB-8. Senior Animatronic Designer Joshua Lee reveals how he and his team solved this problem. "It had been sort of burning a hole in me. I started to design this crazy idea of one that would roam around and that we would show to the fans as well. We couldn’t do it for filming, but it had to be done! There are several ways of doing a ball robot, but there was nothing that included an articulated head or anything that could spin on the spot - and that’s one of BB-8’s signature moves. So, I started to design the prototype while Matt [Denton] adapted his existing software to make control of this new BB-8 possible.”
The process to making BB-8 was hard, but i'm pretty sure that it will be totally worth it, once the film hits in December! We saw short snippets of BB-8 in the trailers, but the first time we'll lay eyes on this new droid on the big screen is when he tags along with Rey and Finn in Star Wars the Force Awakens! How much are you looking forward to see BB-8 on the big-screen? Sound off below with your thoughts!
Starring original cast members Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker and franchise newcomers, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Lupita Nyong’o and Max von Sydow, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is set to be released on December 18th, 2015.