'The Mandalorian' VFX Reel Reveals Digital Characters, Creatures, Droids & Environments In The First Season

Much of the focus on the making of The Mandalorian has been on the groundbreaking virtual set technology referred to as The Volume, or StageCraft, as it's also been referred to by industry professionals. However, there's still a lot of traditional visual effects work that went into bringing the first season of the live-action Star Wars series to life. A new The Mandalorian VFX reel was recently posted online by one of the visual effects studios who worked on the series and it shows which shots had fully digital characters, creatures, droids, environments and more.

While much of The Mandalorian was able to be shot on sets with The Volume and some green screen, this VFX reel from Imagine Engine (io9) shows that there are some shots throughout the first season that were created entirely with digital effects.

The digital elements include the many Mandalorians who came to the aid of the title character when he was backed into a corner by Greef Karga and some fellow bounty hunters who were trying to get their hands on The Child (AKA Baby Yoda). There are also creatures like the blurrgs and various droids that were created with visual effects. Of course, there's also additional CG elements like rain, sparks, fire, and smoke.

There are also computer generated set extensions for several environments, ranging from the small villages to vast desert landscapes. Sometimes this includes creating models for vehicles that had small sections built practically on set, such as the Jawas' Sandcrawler.

Easily the most impressive sequences shown in the VFX reel come with that battle between the various Mandalorians and the bounty hunters, as well as the face-off with the security droids on that prison ship in space.

Hopefully, The Mandalorian will get a proper release on Blu-ray and DVD with a bunch more special features about the making of the show. The documentary series Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian has provided a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes, but there's probably even more that can be revealed, and Star Wars fans are always hungry to see how the space sausage is made.