The Mandalorian – Season 1

Helping Launch Lucasfilm’s First Virtual Production

The Mandalorian Season 1 marked Lucasfilm’s first leap into virtual production, and we were proud to help lead the environment design. Safari and I ran the Virtual Art Department, bridging traditional production design with Unreal Engine workflows.

We developed and led the virtual location scout process, introducing and guiding directors, producers, and designers through virtual sets in and out of VR. What started as a VR proof-of-concept grew into a working pipeline supported by new teams in later seasons.

Our focus was high-quality previs environments designed for VFX handoff, built in Unreal Engine but fitting of a traditional VFX rendering pipeline, a major step toward what ICVFX would become.

To follow our journey with Lucasfilm, check out the links below:
– The Mandalorian Season 1
– The Mandalorian Season 2
– The Book of Boba Fett
– The Mandalorian Season 3
– Obi-Wan Kenobi
– Ahsoka
– Skeleton Crew

VAD SUPERVISOR

Felix Jorge

VAD LEAD

Safari Sosebee

COLLABORATORS

Producers:
Jon Favreau (also showrunner); others included Dave Filoni and Kathleen Kennedy

Directors:
Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Rick Famuyiwa, Bryce Dallas Howard, Deborah Chow, Robert Rodriguez

Production Designer: Andrew L. Jones; lead of visual art department Doug Chiang

Cinematographers:
Greig Fraser, Barry “Baz” Idoine

PROJECT DETAILS

160+ Virtual Stage Walks With Production Designer

70+ Prelight & Camera Blocking Sessions With DP For Techviz

40+ Virtual Location Scouts With Key Decision Makers

10 Virtual Art Department Artist

6 Months Of Set Design

12 Hero Sets With Multiple Variants

45+ Set Variants

65+ Set Dressing Assets scanned

70+ Lighting Scenarios

300+ Cameras Placed