HOW'D THEY DO THAT?

The space battle scenes are just toys??? Yep, that's right. Before CGI (Computer-Generated Images) the original Star Wars (A New Hope IV, The Empire Strikes Back V, and Return of the Jedi VI) used models that were basically just big toys to shoot most of the vehicle battle scenes. When you see the X-wing cruising across the surface of the Death Star, all you are really watching is a model ship being pulled on a line of fish wire across a couple of tables that are decorated to look like the mechanical skin of a planet destroyer.

To create this effect for your own videos, grab a bunch of your favorite toys and decorate a table to look like the inside of a palace - or use your backyard to stand in for the jungle. You can make scenes that can look quite real by decorating the set well, using stop animation or fish wire to move objects instead of your hands, and using key camera angles. Cut these images in with shots of you and your friends and you could make yourself appear to be in worlds and battles like never before.