Though this seems to have flown under the radar for a lot of viewers, legendary stop-motion animator Phil Tippett was credited as “Visual Effects and Creative Design Consultant" on Chapter 2 of The Mandalorian season 3, and the upcoming episode of Disney Gallery highlights some of his work on the show.
In the brief teaser released online yesterday, Jon Favreau reveals that Tippett, who was the creator behind numerous vehicles and creatures in A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi back in the day, helped them to develop the "nightmarish" look of the Mines of Mandalore in the second episode.
Though it's not clear how much (if any) new design work was done for the episode, Favreau says Tippett's models were integral to the overall aesthetic.
“Phil Tippett was one of the original collaborators with George Lucas, and we thought that Phil would be great to collaborate with on what Mandalore would look like, to create something that was both tech and nightmarish, because we wanted the mines of Mandalore to look different from anything else we had in the show. And of course, Phil Tippett’s aesthetic was something that we thought we would really benefit from. We actually used his models to do photogrammetry and help build it into the volume and into the CGI.”
Check out the clip in the player below.
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Season 3 is set to premiere on Disney+ on June 28.