The Mandalorian and Grogu has done a great job of following on from the Disney Plus series, and as the film blends CG, model work and more to create the new stock version of the Razor Crest that Din Djarin flies in the film, the official site take a look at how this cleaner version of the vessel was brought to life.
In an attempt to perfect the reflections on The Mandalorian series, Knoll invented something he nicknamed “the gazebo,” a partially enclosed space made of foam boards. The miniature would be situated inside, and Knoll could project atmospheric images onto the walls of the gazebo, giving the Razor Crest more accurate reflections. “It sort of worked,” Knoll admits. “It was hard to really calibrate the color on that.”
So, for The Mandalorian and Grogu, Knoll pitched an even more ambitious idea: What if they built a miniature version of an ILM StageCraft LED volume, allowing them to surround the miniatures with realistic environments?
That way, the team could execute more miniature shots than ever before. For scenes on the sunny beaches of Adelphi Base, for example, Knoll would shoot the miniature outside in real sunlight. But with the volume, the team could swap out the background depending on what the shot needed, whether it was endless dark star fields or the thick clouds of the planet Nal Hutta.
