Ahsoka VFX Supervisor Richard Bluff has lent his talents to many franchises, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Transformers and, most recently, Star Wars.
He counts The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and even Disneyland and Disney World's "Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run" ride among his credits. However, Ahsoka marks Richard's most recent foray into a Galaxy Far, Far Away.
Last week, we were fortunate enough to sit down with the Emmy nominee ("Outstanding Special Visual Effects In A Season Or A Movie") to discuss his work on the critically acclaimed Star Wars TV series.
We started by asking Richard about translating the World Between Worlds from animation - where it first debuted in Star Wars Rebels - to a phenomenal live-action sequence featuring Rosario Dawson's Ahsoka Tano and Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker.
"I think a lot of it comes down to audiences being familiar with that world through animation. The limitations of animation but also the subtleties of their tools and techniques all go into what that look is. Trying to create a live-action version of it, we had to interpret a lot of the details in the things we were seeing. For example, the motion of the actual walkway underneath people's feet. What do the edges of the walkways look like?"
"Dave [Filoni] spent quite a bit of time as he was talking us through the visuals to try to put logic into what was creating these pathways and how they'd be lit up. Very early, Dave came to us and showed us some imagery of laser pointers photographed through dust. He would photograph some of these images himself and then, at the same time, we were down on the LED Volume one afternoon and somebody was shining a laser pointer at the screen. We were doing some walk thoughts and tests and the stage inside The Volume was being dressed with lots of dirt for an upcoming scene and some of it was in the air. I had Andrew Jones, the production designer, grab some dirt and put it through the laser pointer."
"I [recorded] that because it had a lot of movement in it and so I said to Dave around the same time he was looking at the laser pointer references himself and we came together on what this could be which was that the edges of the walkways is almost like a beam of light that's lighting up space dust. It was interpreting what's already been there and trying to put some physics behind it because that's what live-action filmmaking relies so heavily on. You have to believe the physics, what it is you're seeing, and that someone could put a camera there."
We also asked Richard about the amazing moment Ahsoka shows glimpses of Anakin's silhouette being replaced by Darth Vader's. That's done to show how conflicted he is even in death and, as the VFX Supervisor explains, it was a simple effect which required a lot of thought.
"The Vader thing, that was always going to come down to the compositors and the artist they would bring to those shots. We had the two elements. We had Anakin in his Clone Wars outfit and then, of course, the Vader outfit as well. One of the biggest questions we had was the height difference. The height difference between Anakin and Vader and reconciling that a little bit."
"When Anakin walks away from camera, he's largely a silhouette anyway and you're not really paying attention to where his head is or where his shoulders are. Those flashes to Vader proved not to be an issue but it was something we were discussing with Dave very early on after he brought it up as a potential concern and something to look out for."
In the video below, you can hear more from Richard on Ahsoka's incredible flashbacks to The Clone Wars, the art of enhancing Grand Admiral Thrawn's eyes with that red glow, bringing magic into Star Wars, and the challenge presented by those new lightsaber colours.
Finally, he tells us about what it's like collaborating with Dave Filoni and bringing his vision for this Disney+ series to life on screen.
0:27 - Breaking down the World Between Worlds sequence and the challenge of translating it from animation to live-action
3:20 - Working on The Clone Wars flashbacks and Anakin Skywalker's transition into Darth Vader
8:35 - Adding the red glow to Grand Admiral Thrawn's eyes
12:05 - Contrasting classic Star Wars imagery with the undead Stormtroopers and The Great Mothers' magic
14:48 - The lightsaber battles and whether the white and orange blades presented new and unexpected challenges
19:05 - Collaborating with Dave Filoni and bringing his ideas to life in Ahsoka
Set after the fall of the Empire, Ahsoka follows the former Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano as she investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy.
In addition to Rosario Dawson in the title role, the series stars Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla, the late Ray Stevenson as Baylan Skoll, Ivanna Sakhno as Shin Hati, Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan Elsbeth, David Tennant as Huyang, Lars Mikkelsen as Grand Admiral Thrawn, and Eman Esfandi appearing as Ezra Bridger.
Ahsoka was written by Dave Filoni, who executive produces alongside Jon Favreau, Kathleen Kennedy, Colin Wilson, and Carrie Beck. Directors include Filoni, Steph Green, Peter Ramsey, Jennifer Getzinger, Geeta Vasant Patel, and Rick Famuyiwa.
All episodes of Ahsoka are now streaming on Disney+.