RUMOR Yoda in 'The Force Awakens'

Yeah, Star Wars is also known for being a series that pushes the state of the art with special effects. The computer animations in ANH look really dated now, but in 1977 those were hard to come by in film making. Similarly, TPM the full droid battle was cutting edge in '99, but looks less impressive on a 4k screen today.

That all said, impressive as puppet Yoda in ESB is, the CGI versions in ep2/ep3 were great. What's different 10 years later is they can do a better job with lighting/ambiant occlusion and teaching the actors to interact with the CGI characters better. (Which comes more naturally when there's a physical puppet... There's better techniques now to solve that problem... E.g. Andy sirkis as golem)

Anyway, I'm so stoked for the film, and Yoda anywhere in the ST would be epic.

 

I disagree.

Also you forgotten that we now have a motion capture tehnology, already in use for TFA ( Maz Kanata and Snoke ).
Actors do not need to talk to the green screen anymore, they now can become that character with that tehnology.

I hope that Yoda will be done with CGI motion capture tehnology.

--- Double Post Merged, Nov 1, 2015, Original Post Date: Nov 1, 2015 ---

I prefer CGI Yoda over puppet.
It looks more natural to me, it has more natural facial expresions, and looks more like a living being to me.

Do not get me wrong. For that time period, that puppet was great. But we are now in 21. century.
They should use the best tehnologies available

 

I am more inclined to agree with many that CGI is far better and the way it is done, than the puppet.

 

I see what you did there
IMO I can't see them not using Yoda.

 

They need to have a combo of the two, a puppet with CGI layered over the top to give his skin more of a realistic/translucent look.. and polish up his facial expressions afterwards.

The problem with CG Yoda was the animation just wasn't at an Avatar-like level yet, but I still liked it. It wouldn't bother me either way if they went with CG Yoda for The Force Awakens, but the puppet is far more realistic looking from a movement/depth perspective.. Of course people will prefer CG Yoda when we're looking at still images.

 

Also if they still go puppet, and I know this will be sacrilege to the OT practical effects were so much better crowd, I was always distracted that for the most part the puppets could only do the "bah bah bah" mouth movements when speaking, including Yoda in ESB. So CGI enhancing a puppet, or going full CGI to me would be a step in the right direction.

 

One of the following might be why it seems off to you and me Cmdr. Ed Straker

The eyes are wrong. The puppet has protruding eyes like someone of Asian descent or with a Thyroid condition.
The CGI has eyes set like a Caucasian westerner of European descent.

The puppet has less vertical distance between Eyes, nose and mouth features.

The puppet also has a Neanderthal or more ape-like sloping forehead while the CGI has a modern rounded Homo Sapien shaped cranium

i was watching ESB for the umpteenth time last week and it never has failed to impress how real and alive Yoda looks. especially when hes sitting waiting outside while luke is in the cave. i think it has something to do with the lighting and film grain. the CGI is just too clean looking. the 'flaws' make it come alive.

I agree with Fartkraum. I think the very best solution is when they use a practical effects and props wherever possible then 'slightly enhance' things using CGI (like blinks and such)

 

As much as i love Yoda my idea is that we must be looking ahead and let the new trilogy grow with the new characters rather than being reheated food.

 

I agree.

Not to mentioned that CGI right now is even better than 10 years ago.
Puppet can never have realistic facial movements and expresions like CGI with motion capture.

For example this scene.
Young Arnold Schwarzenegger in these scenes is Full CGI character.

 

The reason I think CGI Yoda feels "wrong" is in my opinion the fact that it's CGI.
Lol, right?

An object is never just the object. If you cut a person from a newspaper and put it onto a random photograph, it will aloways feel wrong, even if the surroundings fit.
Why? Light.

Everything we see is hit by lighting and modeled by the corresponding shadows.
A persons age as we see it, it determined by the light that catches on the topography of their faces and the shadows it casts.

Even if we think there are no shadows: there always are.

Now, the human brain has a very uncanny ability to determine the right visuals from the wrong ones.
Sometimes with CGI you can't really determine why something feels wrong, but you know it is.
It's almost always the light. Why?

Shadow is incredibly complex, softness, density, direction, outlines, our eyes know exactly how it's supposed to be and catch on the slightest thing that's off.

Don't misunderstand me, that Yoda CGI up there is wonderful. That is fantastic work.
But it's still artificial, crafted by a human hand. And humans tend towards perfection.
Perfect shadow density, perfect saturation befitting the light and so on, perfectly executed movements...

And the mean thing is: our brains catch on that one too.
Nature always allows for imperfections and our brains come to expect them.

A puppet is there, a puppet catches the light at angles, simply because it's actually there. And this is what our eyes expect and it feels right.


Other than that: Yes, please. Yoda!

 

Are there any offspring of Yoda? Could they make an appearance in this movie ? I know everything about the Yoda species is secretive, maybe he has offspring and they make an appearance. The movies do have family themes going through all of them.

 

Yes object is real, but real puppet, not living being.
Puppet Yoda still looks like puppet and not like living being. Looks much more ''wrong'' than CGI.

Facial movements are woden, puppet like. Basically can only open mouth and eyes and that is it.
Puppet body movements are again very limited and again puppet like.


Current CGI is light years ahed puppets.

Maz Kanata and Snoke are not puppets for a reason.

 

NO!!!! Yoda should be kept mysterious!!!!

 

I say if possible combine the puppet's "skin" with CGI facial expressions and motions.

 

Unexpected this is & fortunate for him to witness.

 

Unexpected indeed...

 

Maybe we wont see Yoda but just his voice, like Ben in ANH and TESB.

 

Yes, but Maz Kanata and Snoke are not pure CGI either and there is a reasonf for that.

CGI always means that there is nothing to filkl that space that should be filled and the position of an object needsa to be added by hand, including all its influences to its surrounding.

Snoke and Maz Kanata are actual people whose features then get overlayed. But they are there!
Their surroundings react to them and that is the one thing you just can't a 100% emulate with CGI

And I am not just talking persons.
I talk surfaces that crease or mirror, even as little as a faint color bleed, shadows, light and so on

 

I don't know anyone who would be a mocap stand-in for Yoda. They would have to be trained ahead of time in all his quirks and movements to get it just right. It would not look right unless someone practiced all of it.