The Disney+ Andor series was created by Tony Gilroy and it is the fourth live-action series in the Star Wars franchise, as well as a prequel to both the spin-off film Rogue One (2016) and the original Star Wars film (1977).
The series follows thief-turned-rebel spy Cassian Andor during the five years that lead to the events of the original Star Wars. Diego Luna reprises his role as Cassian Andor and also serves as an executive producer. The ensemble cast also includes Kyle Soller, Adria Arjona, Stellan Skarsgård, Fiona Shaw, Genevieve O’Reilly, and many others. Andor was hailed by critics as the “most complex, mature story in Star Wars lore”, and the series was loved by fans. You can hear the fxpodcast reviewing the show here.
The visual effects for the series were primarily by ILM, In this bonus episode of the fxpodcast, we talk to Andor’s ILM VFX Supervisor Scott Pritchard. As you will hear in the episode additional VFX supervision was provided by David Seager and ILM Associate VFX supervisor was Gavin Harrison.
Below we have provided a comprehensive visual guide to ILM’s impressive work over the entire series.
Episode 1
This shot is typical of a closeup revealing the wide and not the traditional opposite of a ‘wide shot and punch in for the closeup’.
Andor’s production team built vast sets and practical props.
The team decided against shooting using LED volumes, something ILM had deployed very successfully on other Star Wars shows such as The Mandalorian.
By shooting outside the team could use real sunlight – something very hard to replicate in an LED Volume.
Episode 2
Andor really opened up the Star Wars universe and a vast set of different locations were required between the various stages of the story, from forests to high-tech jails.
Episode 3
As the story covers ordinary people inside a dark vast bureaucracy. The images were shot always as if from a real camera and from an ordinary person’s point of view.
Andor is a story of hard dirty and back-breaking work against an oppressive middle management of the Empire. It is not a story of ‘operatic space battles and galactic wizards with light swords’.
Episode 4
Episode 5
Naturally given the material, some sequences were fully CG but on the whole, Andor was based in a filmed reality.
Episode 6
Andor still shot in sound stages and used traditional green screens, but the team did not use LED Volumes.
Episode 7
The production shot many English ‘brutalist’ structures around London and then added and extended them back to provide much more depth to the shots. In many shots such as these the foreground is remarkably similar to the actual structures and the real changes are in the deep background.
It would not be Star Wars without some droids, – seen above, an Imperial security droid grabs Cassian Andor. K-2SO will appear as a reprogrammed Imperial security in Rouge One. While K2 has ‘swagger’ and attitude the Imperial security droids of Andor are quite different in walk cycles, movement, and attitude.
Episode 8
Episode 10
Episode 12
