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Behind the Mask Artists

Nilo Rodis-Jamero

VFX Assistant Art Director and Designer of Slave I

2023-02-20T22:35:27-08:00

Nilo Rodis-Jamero was the assistant art director (miniature and optical effects unit) for "The Empire Strikes Back" and also a costume designer on "Return of the Jedi."

Slave I is Based on a Radar Dish

"Joe Johnston showed me some of the ideas he had for Boba Fett, and I remember asking myself what his spaceship would look like. I remember seeing a radar dish and stopping to sketch it very quickly to see if I could get something out of it. The original design I had was round, but when you looked at it from the side, it became elliptical. For some reason, when I drew it, [George Lucas] thought it was elliptical, so that's what it became. When we were building the ship at ILM, somebody looked at street lamps and pointed out that they look like Boba's ship. So everyone began to think that was where I got the idea for the design."

Source: Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays (p. 212)

Collaborators

The prop itself was built with Lorne Peterson.

Rodis-Jamero's design for Slave I was rendered as a matte painting in Empire by Harrison Ellenshaw.


Last updated: February 20, 2023
Article ID: 103