The Acolyte’s production visual effects supervisor Julian Foddy used a favorite book to help realize many views of outer space in the Lucasfilm series. While aboard the International Space Station, British astronaut Tim Peake took high-resolution photographs of Earth and its atmosphere, which were subsequently published. “I wouldn’t say I was obsessed with the book,” Foddy notes with a smile, “but I was very keen to make sure that the atmospheres that you see around the edges of the planets were all physically realistic.
Peake took incredible images of the edge of the Earth at various conditions and angles to the sun,” he continues. “It’s amazing how differently the light plays and refracts and wraps around the Earth when you’re going around to the dark side of the planet that’s in night. We put a lot of effort into replicating those looks and playing around with how thick the atmosphere would be based on the planet’s size and so forth. It’s not just copying Earth. Hopefully, it adds a bit of physical reality to all those atmospheres.”…