Updated: Now with images.

I have long intended to do a written feature about this phenomenon, but there exists too little hard data to develop a solid story. I wouldn't want to write a starwars.com article that was driven too much by speculation... but that's perfect for blogs.

The mantra "fix it in post" is a staple of digital filmmaking. When filmed images can be converted into (or begin as) pixels, an image is infinitely malleable. Boom microphones, unwanted shadows, unseemly cloud coverage or even wardrobe malfunctions can be painted out and replaced with the desired image, with the audience being none the wiser. The prequel trilogy has uncountable examples of this type of digital trickery, a brand of invisible effects that have become an essential device in the modern filmmaker's toolbox.

But back in 1983, the motion picture image wasn't as forgiving. Any manipulation of the image had to be done through comparatively brute-force photochemical means. Film elements had to be combined and rephotographed in cumbersome optical printers, and there would usually be tell-tale "artifacting" - odd distortions in image clarity and color that would indicate the picture had been modified.

Despite these shortcomings, George Lucas continued to press the envelope, using hand-animation techniques to sculpt an image to achieve a specific shot that either wasn't available on-set, or suddenly struck him deep in post production. Return of the Jedi has a number of curious examples of shot modification through hand-animation. While they generally avoided attention in theatrical exhibition, the shortcomings of video presentation made them apparent. Color values on the initial home videos did not have the range to conceal these animated additions, and many became more apparent than they should have. Others managed to go unnoticed for decades.

What follows is a summary of animated image manipulation in Jedi that you may or may not have noticed, with timecodes taken from the US/NTSC version of the 2004 DVD release.

0:05:37 - Artoo's Eye Setting: Outside the door to Jabba's palace. A shot looking down at Artoo. As Artoo turns his head towards camera, he appears to have some animated darkness in his central eye. Why? Presumably, the angle afforded the eye enough transparency that you could see into his dome. No, you wouldn't see Kenny Baker, as this is the three-legged moving Artoo, and Kenny isn't inside it.

0:17:38 - The Woman on Jabba's Throne Setting: Inside Jabba's throne room at night, as Boushh sneaks in to free Han Solo. The camera pans from left to right across the roomful of sleeping dregs. Now, look to Jabba's throne. There is a woman, Jess, asleep on the empty dais. As the shot pans and she almost leaves frame, she is suddenly consumed by a hand-animated shadow. Why? I don't know, but I have a theory. My guess is that this extra stirred a bit, perhaps pretending to toss and turn in her sleep. Such movement would have been a distraction, and so such movement was obscured by an animated shadow.

0:18:04 - Boushh's Shadow We're still watching Boushh. As the disguised Princess Leia walks towards Han's alcove, she passes by several arches. As she stops, she throws a shadow on the arch on the right side of the screen - however, that shadow is hand-animated, and not natural. Why? Again, I don't know. She doesn't cast any shadows on the previous pillars, so why the last one? Perhaps there was a sleeping creature effect there that wasn't very convincing or distracting.

0:20:23 - The Cartoon Curtain A freed Han Solo tries to negotiate with Jabba (he's saying "just on my way to pay you..."). As the camera captures Jabba's POV, we see behind Han and Leia. A curtain draws aside, revealing more nasty aliens hiding and watching. But the curtain itself is hand-animated. Why? I have a theory. I think there was a real curtain at one point, and a shot that had it drawn aside, but in the interests of maintaining editorial pace, that shot was cut. So, to avoid the continuity error of a curtain being and place and suddenly vanishing in another shot, the reveal was "fixed in post" with an animated curtain.

1:35:40 - The Emperor's Hood This is perhaps the best known example of animated touch-ups. The color contrasts in video made the black blob on the side of the Emperor's cowl so obvious that they earned the nickname "the Emperor's slugs." A number of theories have developed regarding their existence. I have yet to find a definitive answer, but I think I can figure it out based on what someone in the LFL film archives told me. The makeup effect for Palpatine was just distracting - that is, that particular low angle revealed a rather strange fold in the Emperor's temple that drew attention away from his eyes. Presumably George Lucas wanted it fixed, so rather than reshoot the Emperor, an animated shadow was introduced to cover the distraction. Under optimal conditions, where black color values are matched perfectly, the shadow shouldn't be visible, but the earliest VHS release of Jedi suffered from the inherent shortcomings of home video, and the effect was very obvious.

1:48:46 - Darth Vader's Fall - Special thanks to Sevb27 for pointing out this one in my comments section! I had never noticed this one before, but looking at it now, I don't see how I missed it. When Vader lands on the floor after falling backwards down the stairs, almost the entire right side of the screen is covered by an animated matte. I'm guessing the camera that tracked Vader's fall caught a member of the crew or some off-set equipment, but since it was the best take, the shot was salvaged with some clever animation.

1:51:57 - Luke in Darkness This one is hard to spot on the new DVDs, but very obvious on VHS. Luke is hiding from Vader. The camera dollies in toward him, and only a few of his features are visible. Everything to the right of Skywalker is an animated shadow, leaving that side of the screen black. The next shot of Luke, 1:52:10, shows what the shadow was hiding - a little bit of scenery behind him. My guess is that in order to make it more plausible that Luke could hide in the shadows, any background scenery was obscured in that initial shot with an animated shadow.

2:05:15 - Luke's Glove I only spotted this one this past weekend, thus proving that these movies are infinitely watchable, and each screening produces new discoveries. The shot of Luke standing before the funeral pyre, as the camera tilts up to reveal the fireworks, was a late addition. Reportedly, it was shot on Skywalker Ranch with an extra playing Luke. Well, that extra evidently was not wearing Luke's signature black glove, because the glove is animated in that shot!

Here are some tips in spotting these animated examples

- Turn up the contrast on your TV. The effects have a different black value than the surrounding footage, and it can best be seen with contrast and brightness dialed way up.

- Or, use a program like InterVideo to take screen grabs of the above shots, and drag those images into a program like Photoshop where you can play with the color values.


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Bonus: The Animated Barge Man. This guy is only apparent to those who own the pre-Special Edition release of Jedi. In the shots where the sail barge is a model, the ILM Animation Department tried to liven up the action by including a rotoscoped cel-animated character. Unfortunately, he does not really look that realistic. Accordingly, he was replaced in the Special Edition by a live action extra who was scaled down and composited into the miniature environment.

See here and here for examples.



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