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14 cgw e d i t i o n i , 2 0 2 0 with motion-controlled miniature ships. "The video wall didn't shape the character work that much," Hickel says. "We had the same role as on a feature: anything that moved, whether creatures, characters, or flying spaceships. StageCra changed how some things are done – sets have to be ready to go as the film started, so that shi- ed the environment work further upstream and changed their working style. But, as amazing as StageCra is, and it is amazing, for me, it was down to the usual fun stuff. I got plates and we put in whatever." There was one exception. When Mando signs up for a heist mission to break people out of prison, animators created digi-dou- bles that appeared in environments on the LED walls. And, digital flying ships were pro- jected onto the walls in some backgrounds. "Sometimes, the ships were there just for eyelines, but sometimes they appeared in camera," Hickel says. "We also did some ships flying through clouds, and I expect we will have more of that now that we have figured out what we can do. But so far, 99 percent of the character and ship work was more like traditional postproduction." Hickel began working with Favreau long before postproduction, as the story and characters coalesced. "Jon likes to take characters barely seen in the original films and put them front and center," Hickel says. The Blurrg, a two-legged beast of burden, was one of those characters. The cumber- some creature first appeared in the 1985 television movie Ewoks: The Battle for Endor and in one episode of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars in 2009. "The Blurrgs were hard to get right," Hickel says. "They're all mouth with a pair of legs and a tail. It was difficult to get a credible run and walk, and they have to leap across track in the terrain. For the Mudhorn creature, our London team could bring up rhinoceros reference. But nothing moves like a Blurrg." In The Mandalorian, the Ugnaught Kuill, performed by Misty Rosas in a full prosthetic suit and mask built and puppeteered by Legacy Effects, and voiced by Nick Nolte, teaches Mando how to ride a Blurrg. On set, the stunt actors playing Kuill and Mando rode a sophisticated motion base in the volume. "I've been on a fair number of shows where we discuss having a proper motion base, but so far it's gone off the rails," Hickel says. "We always end up doing a 'poor man's' motion base with a buck on cushion bags, or bungee cords with grips off camera. Then we're tied into that motion in animation. This time was the first time where the motion base did exactly what we said it would do. Pixomondo created the run and walk cycles for the Blurrg that drove the motion base. When we first saw Kuill riding the motion base using the same curves as Blurrg, it was awesome." But for shots of Mando riding a bucking Blurrg, the crew had a stunt actor ride a me- chanical bull surrounded by mats instead. In wide shots, both are digital. Hal Hickel also oversaw the character development of two creatures unique to The Mandalorian: One, a half alligator/half blubbery sea lion, attacks during Chapter 1 in a difficult icy CG environment executed by ILM. Another, executed by Pixomondo, was a pterodactyl-like flying creature that attacks Mando and others on Nevarro trying to save The Child. "We wanted to do a reverse Jaws," Hickel says. "It's dark, so we can't see the creatures that come diving out of the sky and picking off people. We also did The Alien thing where StageCraft In the Future The ability to control a virtual back- ground gives filmmakers benefits beyond the amazing ability to shoot a digital environment in camera. "We can do a lot of cool tricks," says animation supervisor Hal Hickel. For example, if the crew knew the content on the LED wall would be re- placed in postproduction because they planned to add a large creature, they'd still use the digital environment but with animated green cards behind the actors to make it easy to swap backgrounds later. The actors would still be lit with the ambient lighting in the digital environment. Similarly, the director of photography could place digital cards that affect the lighting on the actors. In addition, although StageCra had a minimal impact on the work of ani- mators, that could change. It's possible that some time in the future, the crew might motion-capture an actor on a separate stage and retarget that data in real time onto a creature that's part of the digital environment. "It would also be super cool to have a character on the wall, maybe a huge character, that we pre-animated so the actors could watch it walk by," Hickel says. "The eyelines would be correct, and they can react to it. If they were sitting in a car, the creature would reflect on the windshield. There are a lot of things that would have been hard to do in the past. I see this affecting my job in good ways." Actor Misty Rosas wore a prosthetic suit and a puppeteered mask to play Kuill. Actor Pedro Pascal played Mando. The Blurrg, the hover cart, and the background are all digital. Actors rode motion bases programmed with Blurrg animation curves.