Making The Mandalorian

Tatooine, a desert planet with two suns, is Luke Skywalker’s home. It has been a central location in Star Wars since 1977. Film teams for seven movies headed to North Africa to film in a desert in Tunisia to make the alien world as real as possible.

The Mandalorian, a TV show streaming on Disney+, is the most recent Star Wars tale to visit Tattoine. It follows a bounty hunter who travels the galaxy tracking his next assignment. The second season debuted on October 30.

But the cast of The Mandalorian didn’t film in a desert. They didn’t even film outside! The film crew built a large hemispherical room called the Volume in a studio in Southern California. Every wall and even the ceiling of the Volume is covered in LED screens.

As the actors move within the space, the images on the screens shift to create the illusion that they are on an alien planet. It’s an entirely new way of doing special effects, which brings out-of-this-world locations to life before the actors’ and film crew’s eyes. “That’s what Star Wars is, it’s these other worlds,” says visual effects expert Richard Bluff, who works for Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). ILM is the visual effects company that works on all live-action Star Wars movies and TV shows. “We always have to convince actors and camera crews that what they’re shooting against is real,” he says.

Tatooine has been an important location in Star Wars movies since 1977. The desert planet with two suns is Luke Skywalker’s home. The alien world appeared in seven movies. It was filmed in a desert in Tunisia in North Africa to make it as real as possible.

The Mandalorian is a TV show streaming on Disney+. Parts of it also take place on Tattooine. The show follows a bounty hunter who travels the galaxy. The second season came out on October 30.

But the cast of The Mandalorian didn’t film in a desert. They didn’t even film outside! The film crew built a large room in a studio in Southern California. The room, called the Volume, is shaped like half a sphere. The walls and ceiling of the Volume are covered in LED screens.

As the actors move within the space, the images on the screens shift. This creates the illusion that they are on an alien planet. It’s an entirely new way of doing special effects. Out-of-this-world locations appear before the actors’ and film crew’s eyes. “That’s what Star Wars is, it’s these other worlds,” says Richard Bluff. He’s a visual effects expert who works for Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). ILM is the visual effects company that works on all live-action Star Wars movies and TV shows. “We always have to convince actors and camera crews that what they’re shooting against is real,” he says.

Surrounding the actors and film crew with visuals is only part of the job, however. To really create immersive worlds, Bluff and his team of artists and engineers had to create images that would respond to the camera’s movement. They couldn’t just display flat images, like photographs or illustrations, on the LED screens.

To make responsive worlds, the team turned to video game engines. A video game engine is a type of computer software used to create digital worlds and environments. When used in video games, players can interact with these environments. They can look up at the sky or down at the ground and move closer to or farther from objects or landmarks.

Each alien world shown in the backgrounds of The Mandalorian is built in a video game engine to be just as responsive. Artists use photographs of real places, like a mountain range or a desert, as a starting point. They even create physical, three-dimensional models of things like spaceships or buildings that are then scanned into the game engine to capture as much detail as possible.

When these worlds are shown on the Volume, the camera’s motion causes the image on screen to change too. The shot in the camera’s viewfinder is complete with lighting and background because of the Volume.

“Once you put the image on the screen, and you’ve really finessed it the last 5 percent, that screen will blend away,” says Bluff. “You’d think the people could walk off into the distance when they’d really just walk into a wall.”

Surrounding the actors with visuals is only part of the job, however. Bluff and his team of artists and engineers had to create images in a particular way. The LED backgrounds needed to respond to the movement of the camera. Flat images, like photographs or illustrations, wouldn’t look real.

To make more realistic worlds, the team turned to video game engines. A video game engine is a type of computer software used to create digital environments. In video games, players can interact with these environments. They can look up at the sky or down at the ground. They can move closer to or farther from objects or landmarks.

Each alien world shown in the background of The Mandalorian is built in a video game engine. It’s designed to be responsive, just like it would in a game. Artists start with photographs of real places, like mountains or deserts. They even create physical models of things like spaceships or buildings that will appear in the background. Then they scan the models into the game engine to capture as much detail as possible.

During filming, these worlds are shown on the Volume. As the camera moves, it causes the images on the Volume to change too. Filmmakers get a shot that doesn’t need as much editing later. The lighting and background are already right because of the Volume.

The end result is backgrounds that look extremely realistic, says Bluff. Viewers don’t even notice that they’re made up of LED screens. “You’d think the people [in the scene] could walk off into the distance,” says Bluff. “They’d really just walk into a wall.”