Post by Cryogenic on May 23, 2022 23:55:29 GMT
I just found out the legendary concept artist Colin Cantwell has passed away. Surprisingly, it made it to the top part of the "Entertainment & Arts" section of the BBC News website:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-61547986
From The Guardian's tribute, we are furnished with another Star Wars anecdote:
www.theguardian.com/film/2022/may/23/colin-cantwell-star-wars-designer-behind-the-x-wing-and-death-star-dies-aged-90
And also this poignant, arresting prognostication:
The official Star Wars site also has a tribute up:
www.starwars.com/news/colin-cantwell
Two paragraphs that explain how pivotal Cantwell's contributions were:
Lastly, I love this picture of Colin and George together -- two space nerds in their element!
Here, obviously, was a very talented and interesting man.
God bless him and may the Force be with him.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-61547986
Colin Cantwell, the artist who designed many of the spacecraft in the Star Wars films, has died at the age of 90.
Cantwell's first credit came on Stanley Kubrick's 1968 sci-fi movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Star Wars creator George Lucas then asked him to design and make prototypes for the Death Star, X-Wing, TIE fighter and Imperial Star Destroyer.
Cantwell's cousin Shannon Eric Denton said he "brought a lot of joy to the world with his art".
Denton added on social media: "And for all of us that knew him he brought a lot of joy being himself."
Cantwell, who also came up with the original design for the Millennium Falcon, was "an incredibly kind human and smart in ways most people dream of", Denton wrote.
Cantwell was born in Colorado in 1932 and gained a degree in animation before going on to study architecture.
During the 1960s space race between the US and Russia, Cantwell worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Nasa, helping the American public to better understand the flights.
This led to him working alongside TV journalist Walter Cronkite during his historic Moon landing broadcast in 1969, providing a link between him and the astronauts.
Cantwell's interest in both architecture and space saw him prosper in Hollywood, where he worked in special photographic effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey, helping to create the film's dramatic space opening scene.
Star War director Lucas then recruited him, alongside other designers like Ralph McQuarrie, to help create initial models for the original 1977 film.
'A strange kind of joyous'
"The beginning of the film after the scroll, the ship coming by was like one giant dart," Cantwell explained in an interview. "It kept coming and it kept coming.
"This is what had to compound itself in the first half hour of the film," he added. "It had to be all so absurd and different and insanely joyous and perilous that the audience wouldn't leave. They would want to be in it. The first half hour had to be extraordinarily successful and beyond reason.
"It had to be a strange kind of joyous. It is all the impossibilities that are playing together, and that is what makes it Star Wars. It is so many layers that the different characters showed that they are different but doing this giant parody at the same time."
Cantwell also worked on technical dialogue for Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, was a computer graphics design consultant for WarGames in 1983, and wrote two sci-fi novels.
His long-time partner Sierra Dall confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that he died at his Colorado home on Friday.
She posted her own tribute online shortly before his death. "I have been so lucky to be able to spend 24 years with this amazing man," she wrote. "We have travelled the world together an made many wonderful friends.
"I will try to preserve his legacy as best I can."
Cantwell's first credit came on Stanley Kubrick's 1968 sci-fi movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Star Wars creator George Lucas then asked him to design and make prototypes for the Death Star, X-Wing, TIE fighter and Imperial Star Destroyer.
Cantwell's cousin Shannon Eric Denton said he "brought a lot of joy to the world with his art".
Denton added on social media: "And for all of us that knew him he brought a lot of joy being himself."
Cantwell, who also came up with the original design for the Millennium Falcon, was "an incredibly kind human and smart in ways most people dream of", Denton wrote.
Cantwell was born in Colorado in 1932 and gained a degree in animation before going on to study architecture.
During the 1960s space race between the US and Russia, Cantwell worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Nasa, helping the American public to better understand the flights.
This led to him working alongside TV journalist Walter Cronkite during his historic Moon landing broadcast in 1969, providing a link between him and the astronauts.
Cantwell's interest in both architecture and space saw him prosper in Hollywood, where he worked in special photographic effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey, helping to create the film's dramatic space opening scene.
Star War director Lucas then recruited him, alongside other designers like Ralph McQuarrie, to help create initial models for the original 1977 film.
'A strange kind of joyous'
"The beginning of the film after the scroll, the ship coming by was like one giant dart," Cantwell explained in an interview. "It kept coming and it kept coming.
"This is what had to compound itself in the first half hour of the film," he added. "It had to be all so absurd and different and insanely joyous and perilous that the audience wouldn't leave. They would want to be in it. The first half hour had to be extraordinarily successful and beyond reason.
"It had to be a strange kind of joyous. It is all the impossibilities that are playing together, and that is what makes it Star Wars. It is so many layers that the different characters showed that they are different but doing this giant parody at the same time."
Cantwell also worked on technical dialogue for Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, was a computer graphics design consultant for WarGames in 1983, and wrote two sci-fi novels.
His long-time partner Sierra Dall confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that he died at his Colorado home on Friday.
She posted her own tribute online shortly before his death. "I have been so lucky to be able to spend 24 years with this amazing man," she wrote. "We have travelled the world together an made many wonderful friends.
"I will try to preserve his legacy as best I can."
From The Guardian's tribute, we are furnished with another Star Wars anecdote:
www.theguardian.com/film/2022/may/23/colin-cantwell-star-wars-designer-behind-the-x-wing-and-death-star-dies-aged-90
“I didn’t originally plan for the Death Star to have a trench, but when I was working with the mould, I noticed the two halves had shrunk at the point where they met across the middle,” he told Reddit. “It would have taken a week of work just to fill and sand and re-fill this depression. So, to save me the labor, I went to George and suggested a trench. He liked the idea so much that it became one of the most iconic moments in the film!”
And also this poignant, arresting prognostication:
“I could not have picked a better time to have been born,” he once wrote. “So much has happened so quickly! Our dreams of space flight are maturing and I believe one day soon we’ll be exploring the next waiting wonders of our galaxy.”
The official Star Wars site also has a tribute up:
www.starwars.com/news/colin-cantwell
Two paragraphs that explain how pivotal Cantwell's contributions were:
Cantwell began working with George Lucas in November 1974 — likely only days ahead of concept artist Ralph McQuarrie — on what would become Star Wars: A New Hope (1977). He was, quite possibly, the first employee hired on the Star Wars project. Coming from a varied design and space background, Cantwell was tasked with bringing Lucas’ ideas for various ships to life. His staggering number of designs and prototype models essentially formed the visual Star Wars starship lexicon, and include the X-wing, Y-wing (the first approved design, according to The Making of Star Wars), TIE fighter, Star Destroyer, Death Star, landspeeder, sandcrawler, and blockade runner (a design originally intended for the Millennium Falcon). Notably, Cantwell’s T-16 skyhopper model — which was intended for a cut racing sequence on Tatooine not unlike the podrace sequence from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace — actually ended up in A New Hope as the model Luke picks up and plays with while in his garage. While Cantwell didn’t design the final saucer-shaped Millennium Falcon, his conical cockpit from the original blockade runner model did survive the transition to the final design.
Many of McQuarrie’s early concept paintings were based on Cantwell’s designs; art director Joe Johnston and others later refined Cantwell’s work, adapting his creations to the specific needs of special effects filming. But it all started with Cantwell, who went beyond translating Lucas’ ideas; indeed, he would often devise functionality with his designs, such as the X-wing’s ability to open and close its wings. “Out in space it had to be able to draw its guns like in a Western, so that was the equivalent,” he said.
Many of McQuarrie’s early concept paintings were based on Cantwell’s designs; art director Joe Johnston and others later refined Cantwell’s work, adapting his creations to the specific needs of special effects filming. But it all started with Cantwell, who went beyond translating Lucas’ ideas; indeed, he would often devise functionality with his designs, such as the X-wing’s ability to open and close its wings. “Out in space it had to be able to draw its guns like in a Western, so that was the equivalent,” he said.
Lastly, I love this picture of Colin and George together -- two space nerds in their element!
Here, obviously, was a very talented and interesting man.
God bless him and may the Force be with him.