1950s Millennium Falcon

Yavin Base

Force Awakens X-Wing

I'd built a model of this a long time ago, but lost it in a back-up fiasco. So here's an all new version. Designed in sketchup from photomatched images of fullscale prop built for Force Awakens.

Earlier work in progress renders...

Comparison

Adding a little texture now...

Episode 7 Millennium Falcon

Falcon in Flight

What's left...

Once the areas highlighted red are done, that's it for the top of the new Falcon. Then I can sit back and wait for more reference images to emerge, which will no doubt prove I was wrong about everything, and I'll have to start all over again... I do enjoy this, right? Right?... I sure hope so...

Making-of the new dish

It took a long time to finalize the design of the Falcon's new dish, but it was well considered. There were moments, though, that might be a little less remembered by the movie-making history books.

"Almost there..." "Loosen up!!"

So close and yet so far...

I've put a lot of work into the model since December, and it's getting there, but there's always more to do. And I haven't even touched the bottom half of this thing...

also, I realized this blog is called "all things Star Wars" but I've pretty much been on one big Falcon kick for a long long time... will have to wait to get inspired by the next trailer.

Ep VII Falcon in Motion

Took my work-in-progress model and made a quick animation in 3ds Max.

Though it's subtle, the camera motion is actually bit of a geek out. I made a replica of the special camera rig developed for Star Wars by John Dykstra, the Dykstraflex Camera.

Since the days of Star Trek ( the Original Series) spaceship flybys were created by taking a stationary model and moving the camera toward it on a dolly track. The ship would be filmed against a bluescreen, which would be matted out in post production and replaced by a static starfield. The resulting illusion would be that the ship was moving toward a seemingly stationary camera.

Dykstra took this further by introducing a computer controlled rig that could repeat the exact same camera motion over and over, allowing for more effects to be precisely composited together.

The very particular axis of rotation on his camera rig gave the ships Star Wars a distinctive movement, as they seemed to pivot gracefully into and out of frame.

EP VII Millennium Falcon Work in Progress

Adding more details from the photogrammetric studies I did of the trailer screencaps.

Definitive Millennium Falcon Interior (part 4)

Episode VII X-WIng "Lock S-Foils in Attack Position"

Definitive Millennium Falcon Interior (part 2)

Definitive Millennium Falcon Interior

Well... here we go again. My first model of the New Hope interior of the Falcon was made waaaay back when I was just learning sketchup. It is a mess, to say the least. So, armed with new skills and knowledge (and a fair amount of time borrowed from somewhere) I've started an all new model of the interior.

Starting with a photomatch, and working my way from there, this is as far as I've come.

my goal is to make a model that, when rendered, is indistinguishable from what we see on screen in A New Hope... no sweat, right?

and just for the sake of bragging, here is the geometry of the model overlaid with the perspective matched photo of the real set.

Further updates. more junk for everybody!

The Falcon that Almost Was.

A while ago I posted some renders of a proto-Falcon which featured the body of the Blockade Runner, the cockpit of the actual Millennium Falcon, and details adapted from McQuarrie Paintings.

Well recent I ran across some good photos of the actual studio filming model that almost was the Millennium Falcon. It featured most of the same details I mentioned, originally designed by Ralph McQuarrie, but had some differences. I had some spare moments, so I knocked together some details lifted from my other Falcon model, to get another look at the Falcon that Almost Was.

This is a rough draft, without many greebles, but you can get the idea. I've also included some shots of the real thing.

Here are some interior renders, based on Production Designer John Barry's sketch of this ship's interior.