It was one of the most revealing character scenes in A New Hope – we learned that Artoo was a very good dejarik player, Chewie hated to lose and would pull your arms out of their sockets if he felt strongly enough about it – and its reappearance in The Force Awakens was a much-loved moment and now Solo: A Star Wars Story sees the board appear again. Tippett Studios Chris Morley, VFX Supervisor on Solo: A Star Wars Story, walks us through the process, which included some very interesting surprises.
Conceived as a way to pay tribute to the original stop-motion creatures that were created by Phil Tippett and Jon Berg for the first holochess match aboard the Millennium Falcon in A New Hope, the Solo: A Star Wars Story script called for the resurrection of the complete 10-piece set, based on the original models, says Tippett Studio’s Chris Morley, the VFX supervisor for Solo.
When Morley saw Joonas Suotamo’s performance (and the unintended effect his mighty acting had on the table) he decided his team should add the special effects to obliterate the two pieces on film, bringing the story of the complete holochess set to a conclusion on screen. “He slammed it down with such force it busted two of the little plastic buttons. It’s total serendipity that two of the glowing lights got busted and two of the lost chess pieces were on that board at that moment,” Morley says. He knew what he had to do. “Oh, it’s obvious, they have to glitch!”
Foer more from Tippett Studios and Phil Tippett himself, check out our Vintage Interview.
