(This article first appeared on The Examiner, which you should check out.)
The San Diego Comic-Con can be an overwhelming prospect, but I was able to wade through the noise, cut through the lines and get all the information there was to be had about the Star Wars universe.
First, we’ll turn our attention to a behind the scenes look at The Clone Wars.
On Friday, I attended a panel moderated by the man in charge of www.starwars.com, Pablo Hidalgo, and was headed up by Dave Filoni, the supervising director of the Clone Wars TV series.
The biggest thing we were told to expect diving into the behind the scenes of Season 2, is a giant leap forward in the quality of animation and assets over Season 1. You see, when production started on The Clone Wars, Filoni began with a crew of four and had to build a studio from the ground up, as well as launching an entire season of a show. (Now, they boast studios in three countries and more than 400 employees.) It was limiting to build the show and the studio from the ground up simultaneously, but that hurdle has been jumped and they can focus entirely on the show now.
I was treated to a glimpse at the difference in quality between Season 1 and Season 2 and I have to say it is a giant leap forward. They screened a scene of Ahsoka explaining her reckless actions in front of Yoda and the Jedi Council and she was much more contemplative and expressive than I’ve seen her. The performance was truly outstanding, both in voice and animation. Put together it was better than anything we’ve seen character animation wise in Season 1.
The FX guys on the panel were also keen to point out that they aren’t doing digital effects in the traditional way, they’re going for a more painterly quality. Water, for instance, is usually done with intense programs doing volumetric calculations, on Clone Wars, they take art and paintings and emulate those on layers that behave sort of like water. It makes it feel more animated. We were treated to the process of how they did that with lava and flamethrowers as well and it was quite fascinating.
The next thing they showed us were how much better the models were compared to the movie. In fact, they’ve completely rebuilt the Anakin model so that, although he looks the same, he can get a much better, precise performance out of it.
The last thing of note that was talked about was how when they started, they didn’t know which direction and age group they were taking the show to. That’s the reason the beginning of the show started much more geared toward the 6-12 set. But they found that they were killing with the 6-12 set, but the further they’ve pushed the show in the direction it’s currently heading, the better they do in all age groups. Which says to me that we’ll be seeing a lot more of Cad Bane and the Bounty Hunters. That and the fact that all of the promotional material for Season 2 is labeled “Rise of the Bounty Hounters.”
Overall, we’re going to be seeing this show evolve into something even better than it is, which I think is no easy challenge since the show is already great as it is.
Tune in later today for the official video of the Clone Wars: Season 2 trailer for Comic-Con and come back tomorrow for a Part 2 of the Clone Wars. I’ll be talking about the story tidbits that were discussed. And like I teased before, we’ll be talking about Boba Fett and Mandalorians.