Speaking to the official Star Wars blog, Star Wars: The Bad Batch’s animation director Keith Kellogg reveals some key changes between the first and second seasons of the animated show.
“We really try and make sure that all those characters you see on the screen come to life and emote in ways that hopefully move you in different ways, whether it’s fearful, or sad, or happy,” Kellogg told StarWars.com. “We’re just trying to make sure the audience really feels what these characters are experiencing.”
Plus, Kellogg made it clear that the crew working on The Bad Batch never stops learning and is always looking for practical changes it can make to ‘tell better stories’. One key example of this is the squad’s trooper armour. Kellogg described how, early in Season 1, there were times when the armour would appear to unnaturally stretch and bend. Working with the animators, Kellogg says the team was able to improve on the look for Season 2.
“We came up with this idea to try and push our armour so that we could either have it be more malleable-looking for certain poses and things, but also dial it down so that it was more solid,” he said. “I think it really helped the show actually be a little more grounded feeling. It makes everything feel a little more realistic, a little more gritty.”
What’s more, the Riot Racing scenes in episode four, “Faster,” saw changes to the crowd of spectators in the stands that made the people appear more varied and realistic than in past shows.
“The racetrack was really the first time we’d ever done a stadium,” says Kellogg. “We really worked on the flow of everything, to get it to really feel like an alive stadium. I was really proud of the way that one turned out.”
Dig into even more animation facts in more detail over on StarWars.com.
Featured image: Disney/Lucasfilm
