George Lucas 3D Pioneer

George Walton Lucas, Jr, born May 14, 1944 is a four-time Academy Award nominated American film director, producer, and screenwriter famous for his epic Star Wars saga and Indiana Jones films although the Indiana Jones files are collaboration with his friend Steven Spielberg. He is one of American film industry’s most financially successful independent directors and producers.

Lucas co-founded the studio American Zoetrope with Coppola hoping to create a liberating environment for filmmakers. From the financial success of his films American Graffiti (1973) and Star Wars (1977), Lucas was able to set up his own studio, LucasFilm. Skywalker Sound and Industrial Light and Magic, the sound and visual effects subdivisions of LucasFilm, respectively, have become among the most respected firms in their fields. LucasFilm Games, later renamed to Lucas Arts, is highly regarded in the gaming industry.

George lucas probably wasnt the first to use 3d models with chroma screen, but he did use the technique in his highly successfull star wars films, he had highly detailed 3D models which would be rendered on a blue/green background, he would then take this footage and key out the green/blue and put it on a real time background. He also made fully 3d Environments that can be seen in the footage below:

here you can see the use of chromascreen in the cockpit and the use of 3D models during the flight. he would also have real models built for some shots.

Lucas’s company LucasFilm has been a leader in developing new film technology in special effects, sound, and computer animation, and because of their expertise its subsidiaries often help produce non-Lucas Film pictures. Lucas film is set to move away from films and more into TV, due to rising budgets.

The following is a list of Current LucasFilm Subsidiaries.

• Lucas Digital
  • Skywalker Sound – post production sound editing
  • Industrial Light & Magic – special effects
• Lucas Licensing - licensing and merchandising
  • Lucas Learning – educational materials
  • Lucas Books – book publishing
• LucasArts – video and computer games
• LucasFilm Animation - animation
• Lucas Online - websites

In the four catogories made by John W. Gardner which can be found Here I think that George Lucas fits in to the category of “Adaptors” I think this because He didnt invent the use of 3D models on a Chroma scrren, but he did take the idea and refine it and made it more realistic.