Behind DNEGs work on Skeleton Crew.In this interview with DNEG visual effects supervisor Chris McLaughlin, befores & afters learns about the studios involvement in Skeleton Crewfrom the Mint, to helping craft Neel shots, and the desolate surrounds of At Achrann. Includes lots of fun behind the scenes befores and afters.b&a: Tell me about the build for the Mint can you discuss the process of taking concepts and also any VAD work for this and starting the build? What kind of live action plates were filmed? What were some of the main challenges of dealing with scale, selling the vastness and adding in details, including robots and other elements?Chris McLaughlin: The Mint environment can be broken down into three main areas the landing platform and lift shaft, the Credit Maker, and the vault.For each of these areas, we were provided with concept art and a previs model. Using these references, we began by creating a blocking model, gradually adding more detail to each component.Since these were fully CG environments, the filming took place against a bluescreen, with only a few key set elements built practically the landing platform floor, the spaceship ramp, and a full-size security droid puppet. Everything else was entirely CG. The onset lighting was carefully planned to account for what would replace the bluescreen. We had many lighting cues to work with in CG for example, a strong, hard, warm light source behind Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law) to represent the entrance of the vault, as well as vertical chaser lights to simulate the motion of passing lights as the landing platform descended down the lift shaft.The landing platform itself was largely pre-designed, as it had been carried over from previous sequences handled by another vendor. Our main task was to slightly increase its resolution and texture the areas closest to the camera in our shots. However, the lift shaft, through which the landing platform descends, needed to be built from scratch. The Credit Maker, visible from the landing platform in a few shots, was inspired by a piece of concept art. To effectively communicate the scale of the machinery, we animated its moving parts such as robot arms with slow, deliberate movements, making them feel heavy, as though they were struggling under their own weight. Additionally, we populated the surrounding airspace with sky sleds at varying distances to reinforce the sense of scale.For the vault, conveying its vastness and, by extension, the sheer amount of credits was crucial to the story. However, since the vaults design was relatively simple and repetitive, we relied on shot composition, depth cueing, defocus, and additional atmospheric elements to enhance its perceived size.Across all three environments, we drew inspiration from several key visual references, including the Boeing Everett Factory, Cardington Film Studios, and the Son Doong Caves. We also found valuable references within the Star Wars universe, particularly in The Last Jedi, which features incredible shots inside the Mega Star Destroyer essentially a massive hangar for the Imperial army. b&a: Can you break down how the team tackled a typical head replacement and animation shot for Neel going through all the steps from ingest to final delivery?Chris McLaughlin: In most of his shots, the character of Neel was portrayed by an actor wearing an animatronic head, created by Legacy Effects and operated by a team of puppeteers. The animatronic head featured a semi-transparent panel that allowed the actor to see, which we digitally removed whenever it was visible. Full CG head replacements were relatively rare, occurring only in situations where the prosthetic head would obstruct the actors vision or compromise their comfort and safetyfor example, when running down the ramp of a spaceship.For these shots, we ingested a Neel digidouble, created by ILM, and carefully tracked the actors body. Ensuring a precise track around the neck and shoulders was crucial so that the CG head felt seamlessly integrated with the bodys movement.Our animators primary reference was the performance of the animatronic head. We ensured that our rigs capabilities matched those of the practical version, so the CG animation never felt exaggerated or unnatural. As a final step, cloth and hair simulations added subtle deformations and movement to Neels ears, trunk, and hair, enhancing realism.Light matching was essential in blending the CG head with the practical elements, but it posed a significant challenge Neels skin coloring was quite complex, featuring a mix of blues, greys, and pinks. It took several rounds of compositing refinements to perfectly dial in the look and match the colors seamlessly.Ultimately, the team did an outstanding job across all departments, and I think it would be difficult to distinguish which shots featured a CG head and which were practical.b&a: Could you pick just one other scene/sequence/character or asset that DNEG was responsible for and talk about the particular challenges when you tackled it, what you had to solve, and why you thought it was successful?Chris McLaughlin: For our work in Episode 4, we were tasked with building the suburban outskirts of At Achrann a desolate, war-torn, region on a distant planet. We began with concept art provided by the shows art department, which set the tone for the environment. While a few practical set pieces were constructed for interaction, the vast majority of this world was entirely CG. Any surface that characters walked on or physically interacted with was a practical set, but everything beyond that from the ruined skyline to the distant hazewas digital.Our team built an extensive library of destroyed buildings, including a bombed-out school, as well as an arid, decaying forest, all meticulously crafted to enhance the war-torn aesthetic. To increase the sense of destruction, we carefully designed and textured the buildings to reflect the war-torn setting, drawing inspiration from real-world conflict zones while maintaining a distinctive Star Wars look. The concept art portrayed a landscape shrouded in fog and mist, creating an ominous and foreboding atmosphere. To match this aesthetic, our FX team developed a library of rolling mist and fog simulations, which we carefully integrated into every shot, ensuring consistency with the practical smoke effects used on set. Overgrown vegetation, scattered rubble, and dried-out, dying trees added further layers of realism.This sequence also features one of my favorite shots a moment that feels quintessentially Star Wars as Jods ship, The Ironclad, descends through the low-lying mist, its white-hot engines ignite the air, sending smoke, sparks, and debris billowing toward the camera as it touches down. All images courtesy of DNEG 2025 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.The post Making a mint appeared first on befores & afters.