A VFX artist who worked on Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith reveals a surprising CGI Anakin Skywalker scene. After a mostly negative critical reaction to Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, writer and director George Lucas returned once more to helm 2005's Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. While still somewhat divisive amongst critics, the film was a big hit with audiences, with the film acting as the epic conclusion to Anakin's (Hayden Christensen) descent to the Dark Side.
The film is easily the darkest of the three Star Wars prequel films, depicting the now-iconic "Execute Order 66" scene and the destruction of the Jedi. After helping Emporer Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) kill Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson), Anakin brings a squad of clone troopers to the Jedi Temple where they proceed to eliminate seemingly each and every Jedi inside. The infamous scene solidifies Anakin's turn to the dark side and even features the character executing a group of Younglings. The purge of the Jedi Temple is instrumental in Obi-Wan's realization that Anakin is completely lost to the dark side and precedes the pair's emotional final battle in the lava fields of Mustafar.
In a new tweet, visual effects artist Juan-Luis Sanchez reveals that one scene from Anakin's assault on the Jedi Temple features an entirely CGI version of the character. The shot in question is an overhead view of Anakin walking into the temple with clone troopers behind him, with Sanchez explaining that he is the artist responsible for generating the simulations seen on screen. According to Sanchez, getting Anakin's billowing cloak right was "a complete fluke," calling the process of simulating cloth, at least in 2005, "a roll of the dice." Check out Sanchez's tweet below:
Click here to see the original Tweet.
While it's relatively easy to tell that most of the clone troopers seen in the Star Wars prequels are entirely CGI, the fact that this particular shot also featured a CGI version of Anakin is something many fans likely missed. As Sanchez explains, the shot features Anakin's dramatic and billowing cloak and, even by today's standards, the CGI holds up astonishingly well. Although most of the effects seen in the Star Wars original trilogy are practical, technology had advanced far enough by the time Lucas decided to undertake the prequel trilogy that entirely CGI shots like the one above were finally possible.
Admittedly, not all of the CGI in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith looks great by today's standards, but the scene of Anakin entering the Jedi Temple is cast in enough shadow that it very nearly looks photo-real. Anakin's march into the Jedi Temple is the final nail in the coffin when it comes to his transformation into Darth Vader and, while Sanchez's behind-the-scenes visual effects fact isn't likely to ease the heartbreak felt in that moment, it does shed some light on a film that has been heartily re-embraced by fans in recent years.
Source: Juan-Luis Sanchez/ Twitter