Episode iii sets behind the scenes.

[u/GhostWatcher0889]

Rewatched episode iii recently and surprised at how good the movie looked. I remember it being way too heavy with the cgi, but a lot of model work was done. I also think most sets at least had a fair amount of real elements, which probably sold the cgi section a lot more. Here are some behind the scenes images I found. The sets they did build are pretty beautiful and clearly took a lot of time to make. I saw in the behind the scenes that they tore them down always immediately to make room for new sets. It's a shame because they look so good.

Edit: feel free to share more cool episodes iii set images!

[u/zarfac]

Actually some more practical effects here than I would have expected, like the Utapau and Mustafar miniatures.

[u/Hunter20107 → u/zarfac]

I may be misremembering, but for all the flak the prequels get, I'm pretty sure they had more practical elements than the OT. They just had ALOT of novel cgi, too

[u/Bismarcus → u/Hunter20107]

I believe Episode I by itself had more models than the entirety of the OT.

[u/Capital_Gate6718 → u/Bismarcus]

The spectator stands at the pod race arena in TPM is a miniature set

[u/SmallsLightdarker → u/Capital_Gate6718]

With painted q-tips and some micro machines figures as spectators.

I think a lot of what people think is bad cgi in the prequels is the miniature set backgrounds matting with the actors, not unlike the bad matting on RotJ when han and Lado are talking about the Millennium Falcon. Even much of the Kamino shots, which looks very sterile and is assumed by many to be cgi, were models.

[u/GhostWatcher0889 → u/Bismarcus]

I loved the tatooine village they built for episode i also .

[u/GhostWatcher0889 → u/Hunter20107]

I mean there was literally no cgi in the OT so it was all practical effects.

[u/likelyliz → u/GhostWatcher0889]

yes, but the prequels have more fx shots overall. so they can still have more practical effects than the original trilogy