Back in 2017, John Knoll shared insights into the visual effects of Rogue One. Since that interview, he has been involved in several high-profile projects, including The Mandalorian, Jungle Cruise, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and Skeleton Crew.
In 2017, Hal Hickel took us behind the scenes of the animation work on Rogue One. Since then, he has contributed to several major productions, including The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.
With over 20 years in the visual effects industry, Justin van der Lek has built an impressive career across renowned studios like Digital Domain, Weta FX, and ILM. His credits include Black Widow, Ahsoka, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, and Alien: Romulus.
After so many Star Wars projects throughout your careers, what did returning for a brand-new Star Wars feature film feel like creatively?
Justin van der Lek: The project was truly a tribute and love letter to the art of visual effects. From the earliest stages of pre-production, it was evident that Jon Favreau intended to utilize every available technique whenever it served the story best. Jon possesses a deep appreciation for our craft, which is inherently tied to the identity of Star Wars. Our collaboration was enriched by the trust and expertise we carried over from the series, allowing us to seamlessly blend diverse methods. From the Volume and practical miniatures to puppetry, printed translights, stop-motion, and traditional CG. Creatively, it felt like I could finally break out my brand-new VFX Swiss Army knife!
Hal Hickel: For me it was more of a continuation, rather than a return, as I’ve been working with Jon since 2018 on The Mandalorian. It was super exciting though to bring these characters and sequences to the big screen. I deeply love the theatrical experience, so the prospect of sitting with a room full of strangers, watching our work on the largest possible screen was a dream come true.
How did you approach expanding the visual language of Star Wars while still preserving the DNA audiences instantly recognize?
Justin van der Lek: The visual and design language of Star Wars possesses an organic quality that often tilts the franchise further toward space opera than traditional science fiction. While elements like the aesthetic of a lightsaber, the cadence of pews, and the specific style of weathering and detail are foundational, there remains significant opportunity for growth and evolution within that framework. Striking this delicate balance is made possible by our incredible art department under the leadership of Doug Chiang, who truly embodies the DNA of the Star Wars aesthetic. We rely on his guidance when venturing into the design of new worlds, vehicles, and creatures, contributing our own expertise to realize that vision. Simultaneously, we continue to analyze the legacy established by George Lucas in the original and prequel trilogy, studying not just the on-screen imagery, but also the fundamental principles of composition, lighting, and cinematic language. We always want it to feel familiar, even when it’s new.
Hal Hickel: It’s a constant creative conversation, negotiating what “feels” like Star Wars, and what doesn’t. For instance, the way shots of space ships look in Star Wars feels vastly different from say, Star Trek. That’s one example out of millions. At the same time, if you’re too slavish to what came before, and you don’t innovate, things can feel like a stale copy. That’s the biggest challenge of all, figuring out where you can break new creative ground, that still feels like it lives in the established Star Wars universe.
What were the biggest design and animation challenges in bringing Zeb to the big screen as a full-CG character?
Hal Hickel: Well Zeb is to a certain extent, a known entity. He’s had plenty of previous adventures as part of the Rebels animated series, so part of the job is just preserving who fans already perceive Zeb to be.
Steve Blum returns again to voice the character, so there is continuity there as well. Our job is of course to make the character look realistic, so that he fits into the live action context, but that’s not just a design problem to solve, it’s also one of performance. It’s a very tricky business taking a “larger than life” character like Zeb, and sort of toning down the performance so that it’s a bit more naturalistic, and feels right in a live action context.
Rotta the Hutt is a very different kind of digital character. How did you approach his design, personality, and performance?
Hal Hickel: There were two major challenges with Rotta. The first was “motion”, the second was “emotion”.
In terms of “motion”, we’ve seen huts before, but mostly as very corpulent, sedentary characters (Jabba, the Twins). Whereas Rotta is a buff, fit, fighting Hutt. He’s a warrior Hutt. We’ve never seen that before. So figuring out how he can move, and even move quickly when he needs to, was a big task.
In terms of “emotion”, unlike Jabba and The Twins, Rotta isn’t a villain. He has to appear menacing and powerful in his first scene, but we quickly learn that he’s a good Hutt, a likeable Hutt, and by the end of the film, we hopefully really care about him. That’s a huge challenge for a character that’s essentially a huge slug.
Justin van der Lek: The modeling and look-dev for Rotta presented significant challenges. Our goal was to craft a tangible Hutt, reminiscent of a practical puppet, while infusing him with a muscular, athletic build that allowed for believable mobility. Achieving the right balance for his shading, sweat levels, and color breakdown required numerous iterations to ensure he felt realistic yet clearly part of the Hutt lineage. To maintain this familial connection, one of our artists proposed a “family photo” approach: we used a still of the Jabba puppet from Return of the Jedi to render and composite the characters together, constantly verifying that they felt like they belonged to the same family. I’m so grateful to Hal and John for keeping me sane and reminding me that making a lead CG character isn’t always a straight shot, it usually takes a few side-quests to actually get there!
John Knoll: I think Rotta was the single largest challenge of the show. It’s one thing to describe in a script that Rotta is fit, athletic, swift, imposing, and charming, and speaks basic, and it’s another thing entirely to turn that into compelling moving images. This was a task that by its nature was an exploration rather than a direct path and required a lot of testing and experimentation. For example, the level of detail in lip sync needed to feel consistent with Jabba which was very approximate, but when speaking English and conveying more subtle emotion, we found that you really needed a more detailed and expressive animation style. How does Rotta “walk” or “charge”? Like a snake? A snail? An Inchworm? An elephant seal? Or something else entirely? These were things that required testing. You’ll know it when you see it. There were similar challenges associated with skin color, texture, dirt, sweat, abraded skin, etc. How closely do we need to hew to the Jabba puppet, and how free are we to add details for the sake of verisimilitude that depart from the established look?
Grogu remains one of the saga’s most beloved characters, how do you continue evolving his performance while keeping his charm and subtle emotional language intact?
Justin van der Lek: Our philosophy centers on empowering the puppeteers, ensuring they have the creative space to deliver those iconic performances. The inherent charm of the character is a testament to the incredible talent at Legacy FX; it is a profound collaboration between ILM and their team to safeguard Grogu’s distinctive likeness. We view our role as facilitators, ensuring that visual effects never obstruct the organic performance. Even for the handful of full-CG shots, we strictly adhere to the puppet’s physical dynamics, limiting our animation to movements that remain faithful to the practical reference.
The film introduces several new creatures, including the giant serpent-dragon, what were the key inspirations behind its design and movement?
Hal Hickel: With any fantastical creature like that, we look to nature first as a guide for movement, behavior, texture, etc. However, there are no snakes in nature that are the size of our Dragon Snake, so of course the animator’s imagination must take over at a certain point. We try to imagine “what if”, and then infuse the creature’s motion with what we imagine is the correct amount of speed versus weight, to achieve something that feels plausible. One of the design details that I love about the Dragon Snake is that his teeth are “prehensile”, they can kind of angle outward, and rotate inward when needed, very creepy.
How did you balance realism and stylization when animating creatures that needed to feel both believable and unmistakably Star Wars?
John Knoll: We always begin with a reference survey. Has this character been depicted before? What real world creature is this like that might inform the movement? The arena monsters in some cases had no analogue. As an example, the Ng’ok creature looks like he might not have a skeleton, and we liked the idea that his limbs might have a sort of rubber hose bendy movement style, where a limb might be able to thin and elongate as though it’s made entirely of muscle.
Star Wars has a rich practical legacy, how did the use of stop-motion animation influence the visual storytelling of this film?
Hal Hickel: Jon Favreau is a big fan of Phil Tippett, and of stop motion, so we’ve found places to work with Tippett Studio here and there across The Mandalorian series, as well as The Book of Boba Fett, and Skeleton Crew. However, we really haven’t had the chance to do a big sequence in the style of Ray Harryhausen, until now. The giant droid fight was the perfect place to apply stop motion as a technique, because we had these two, large, clanky droids, and the inherent dream-like quality you get with stop motion was perfect for them.
John, you’ve long championed miniatures, what did practical models bring to this production that digital methods alone could not?
John Knoll: I do love miniatures. I think that there is still something about practical photography of a physical miniature that you can still sense. The exterior of the Razorcrest is an anisotropic bare metal finish that is surprisingly challenging to really get right in computer graphics. As in the series, having photography of a physical object gave us a fantastic reference for the CG model and set the bar pretty high on how good the materials needed to be.
The film takes us to new planets, how did you design environments that feel fresh while still belonging to the Star Wars universe?
Justin van der Lek: For the most part Star Wars feels familiar because George took us to planets we could imagine really existed because they were based off of real world locations. Think Tatooine and Endor. But you Star Wars-ify it. For example adding tech and gack that gives it that greebly star wars feel. Nal Hutta was an established planet already in the universe via other media like the comics, video games and animated shows. The building blocks were that it was a swamp planet. The real world inspiration and reference came from places like Caddo Lake in Texas, The Goblin Forest on Mount Taranaki in New Zealand. We took that and the art department and greens build real sets so what something to anchor our work in. The team in Sydney then took it to new levels with the amazing aerial environment shots, with help from Doug’s team.
Exploring the new planet of Shakari was a fun experience. Jon Favreau and Doug Chiang came up with a setting reminiscent of an early Chicago cityscape, infused with a cyberpunk aesthetic similar to Blade Runner, characterized by perpetual night and constant rainfall. Before the physical set was built, the Virtual Art Department (VAD) developed a modular street model that we could visualize via the Apple Vision Pro (AVP) while on location in Downtown Los Angeles. The strategy involved building an exterior street within a warehouse, which already featured a foundation of grime and patina upon which we could further develop the world. To facilitate in-camera extensions, the VAD and ILM produced real-time set extensions for Volume walls positioned at both ends of the warehouse. This setup allowed for authentic lighting and reflections in the puddles and wet surfaces on set. The addition of various characters and food stalls completed the feel and picture.
For the compound located on the opposite side of Shakari, Production Designer Andrew Jones identified a remarkable location off the coast of Quebec known as the Magdalen Islands. Having been intrigued by the islands since he was a young boy taking flights from Scotland to New York, Jones recognized their unique aesthetic, which features a narrow peninsula of grassy sand dunes. We conducted precise scouting of the location and tech-vizzed every shot to make sure it aligned with the foreground plates filmed in Manhattan Beach. Supported by a dedicated drone crew, with a local team we successfully gathered the necessary plates and data. Additionally, we utilized tools such as The Third Floor’s Cyclops to visualize vehicles and align shots directly on location.
The final large-scale battle with X-wings, Y-wings, and the massive explosion is spectacular, what were the biggest technical and creative challenges in crafting that sequence?
John Knoll: We had this idea that large structures on Nal Hutta are grown rather than directly constructed. We wanted that to be apparent in how the structure reacted to impacts and explosions. We’ve had a lot of experience depicting terrestrial building destruction, and how structures made from steel, concrete, glass and stone react. How does a structure made from organic elastic tendons and fungus grown over a fibrous branching vine-like skeleton react to a ship crashing into it or an explosion? It was really fun to do something weird and different.
With invisible effects often being the ones audiences never notice, which subtle VFX work in the film are you personally most proud of?
John Knoll: There was a reordering of scenes while Jon Favreau was editing that moved Mando rearming himself from an armoury set inside the Hutt palace to the back of the crashed turtle tanker. Mando along with the weapons he’s picking up were moved to this other location by rotoing him and replacing the backgrounds for those shots. Similarly to help audiences remember that this crashed ship belonged to a gun runner, when Mando first enters the ship we added numerous dislodged crates with guns, grenades and knives spilling out. I think that work is pretty seamless and you would never know the guns weren’t there in the original photography.
What are your best memories during this production?
Hal Hickel: Too many to pick just one. I always enjoy dailies with the animating team. Filming is also a very special time, I really enjoy the circus of it all. Oh, and towards the end of shooting, Jon made grilled cheese sandwiches for the entire crew. Best grilled cheese I’ve ever had, hands down.
Justin van der Lek: Turning one of our shooting days almost into an episode of the Chef Show. VFX suping while cooking grilled cheeses with Jon was definitely one of those highlights for me.
John Knoll: While we were shooting the Razorcrest miniature, I was chatting with John Goodson who built it. He mentioned that he had just completed some restoration work on an original Y-wing model from A New Hope for the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. That model had been built at ILM in 1976 and shipped to the UK to be art department reference for building the full sized set pieces. Because it was in England during the shoot, it was never photographed to be in the movie. I got permission from George (Lucas) to let us shoot a couple of elements of that model to be in this movie. It was a really special and fun experience to be able to shoot one of the original miniatures, and for its feature film debut to be on The Mandalorian and Grogu. That was very kind of George to let us do that.
How long have you worked on this show?
Justin van der Lek: Our team has been immersed in this specific area of the franchise for roughly 7 to 8 years; however, our work on this specific film has spanned just over 2 years at this point.
What’s the VFX shots count?
Justin van der Lek: 2’160 shots.
What is your next project?
John Knoll: Eliminating my sleep deficit. Working on that now.
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
ILM: Dedicated page about The Mandalorian and Grogu on ILM website.
Image Engine: Dedicated page about The Mandalorian and Grogu on Image Engine website.
Important Looking Pirates: Dedicated page about The Mandalorian and Grogu on Important Looking Pirates website.
Hybride: Dedicated page about The Mandalorian and Grogu on Hybride website.
Tippett Studio: Dedicated page about The Mandalorian and Grogu on Tippett Studio website.
© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2026
