Droidmaker
George Lucas and the Digital Revolution
by Michael Rubin · first published 2005
6mentions
3recommended by
3HN commenters
2016–2025first – last mentioned
100% recommend
This book ventures in territory never explored, as Rubin-a former member of the Lucasfilm Computer Division-reconstructs the events in Hollywood, in Silicon Valley, and at Lucas' private realm in Marin County, California, to track the genesis of modern media. With unprecedented access to images and key participants from Lucasfilm, Pixar and Zoetrope-from George Lucas and the executives who ran his company, to the small team of scientists who made the technological leaps, Rubin weaves a tale of friendships, a love of movies, and the incessant forward movement of technology.
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…did at ILM. They used technology to help create the shots they need, which lead to digital editing, computer shot layouts, and many other tech advances that seems standard these days. Highly recommend Droidmaker by Michael Rubin
on “Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (1957) [video]” ↗Also very, very much recommended: "Droidmaker: George Lucas And the Digital Revolution", which features Alvy Ray Smith a lot. It has a homepage at https://www.droidmaker.com
on “The Little-Known Genius Who Helped Make Pixar Possible” ↗Another great book that covers the early days of computer graphics work is Droidmaker [1] For a book that is purportedly about George Lucas and his contributions, it's goes into a great amount of detail about the histories of the computer graphics pioneers were doing before they worked…
on “How the Computer Graphics Industry Got Started at the University of Utah” ↗All of this and more is covered in DroidMaker [1], a book that covers Lucas' contributions to film and film technology. Star Wars may have had a huge impact, but it's clear that those contributions are dwarfed by his work on the digital and tech…
on “Ron Cobb – Filmography” ↗…outside criticism before shooting began. This, coming from the guy who fought against enormous odds, at great personal cost, and spent every dollar he had to get Star Wars made. That said, after reading Droidmaker I got a renewed appreciation for all of the different things Lucas not only had the vision for, but did, and did well, even though Lucasfilm/Lucasarts was running in several different directions at once.…
on “Ron Cobb – Filmography” ↗…together through American Zeotrope, both encouraging each other (and competing) in their respective projects. You can't tell the story of Lucas without talking about Coppola. A lot of this is detailed in Droidmaker. [0] [0] https://www.droidmaker.com/
on “On David Lynch's Revenge of the Jedi (2018)” ↗