ILM Makes ‘Star Wars: Field Guide’ Short Film Using Generative AI

Visual Effects House Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) has shown a new short movie “Star Wars” made by using a generative AI.

Presented as part of a Ted Talk ILM’s Chief Creative Director Rob Bredow, a two-minute short “Wars of Star: The field guide” shows the menageri of strange aliens of the hybrids created using images of earthly animals and AI.

Billed as a test, not the final product, the goal of the work, Bredow said, is “to see the path on which we are and the path we want to be on.”

Bredow emphasized the anxiety of VFX artists because of artificial intelligence, noting that when Ilm worked on “Jurian Park” from 1993, his pioneering use of computer graphics many in the special effects of special effects felt like they were facing extinction.

Now he said, “Many of us feel so much for Ai.”

But he claimed, the industries of special effects and visual effects succeeded when old and new technologies were used in a concert. Bredow pointed out that “Jurassic Park” used classic techniques like animatronics along with a VFX.

More recently, he gave an example in 2023, “Indiana Jones and the election of fate,” in which the Harrison Ford star was “Desna” for a key sequence in the movie. To understand the effect, he said, ILM artists “hand -adjusted generative AI models” based on Ford’s past appearances as Indiana Jones. At the same time, VFX artists created a “full CGI” version of the younger Ford.

This hybrid approach was adopted because, although the generative AI was good at the “withdrawal of all details” from Ford teaching performance, he struggled with “details and controls”. ILM artists “created a blend of the two of them” to achieve a de-residence effect, which Bedow called “some of the best works of this species ever done.”

Comparing “Star Wars: The Field Guide” on the “mood board, but moving”, Bedow claimed that generative AI should “better tools aimed at artists”, pointing out that textual instructions are not “great ways to shoot the movie.”

With the appearance of increasingly powerful Generative AI video toolsBredow said, “We must use them thoughtfully, with a full license of talent.”

Generative AI and movie

The use of a generative AI in film and TV has proven to be disputed among the creative community, with movies like “Late night with the devil”, and “Brutalist” Coming under the fire to use technology.

Artists are particularly concerned about using materials protected by AI copyrights to create models on which their products are based, with companies like Open and Target Dealing with lawsuits because of their failure to get appropriate licenses or permits by the creator.

Some productions, such as the A24 movie “Heretic”, even resorted to Adding a renunciation statement stating that the generative AI is not used in the creation of the image.