‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ VFX Veteran Hal Hickel on Rotta’s Redesign, Phil Tippett and Jon Favreau’s ‘Less James Bond, More Jackass’ Approach

Industrial Light & Magic animation supervisor Hal Hickel approached Jon Favreau’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu” with a deceptively elemental question: “What would Phil do?” The Phil successful question was stop-motion pioneer Phil Tippett, whose enactment connected the archetypal “Star Wars” trilogy provided a template for everything from lumbering AT-AT walkers to a spectacular conflict involving […]