A new video from the costume designers for Ahsoka revealed how they tackled the technical challenges of translating animated Star Wars Rebels characters into live-action. Since it first premiered, Ahsoka has become one of the best Star Wars shows on Disney+. It’s enjoyed so much success that Ahsoka season 2 was recently confirmed, meaning Ahsoka’s hunt for Grand Admiral Thrawn will soon continue. Part of the reason the show has been so successful is because of how well it put animated characters into live-action, but the creators recently explained that process was more difficult than the final product looked.

In an interview with IndieWire, hair designer Maria Sandoval and makeup artist Alexei Dmitriew spoke about how they designed the live-action versions of characters like Ahsoka and Sabine Wren, and how they managed to make Morgan Elsbeth look like a Nightsister of Dathomir. Dmitriew summarized how involved such a process was.

“Our job is to match what the animated [look] is, to make it practical and execute this textured feel. Everybody’s involved in that to get that character to look a certain way.”

Sandoval and Dmitriew went on to explain some of the most important choices they made while designing Ahsoka‘s characters. Ahsoka herself, for instance, proved quite a challenge, as the team had to 3D print a headpiece to support her lekku so that actor Rosario Dawson could move around more freely while wearing it. Other parts of her design also created issues, such as Ahsoka’s white costume, which drew more attention to the orange makeup used to create her Togrutan skin tone. The makeup team even had to remix the formula for that makeup so that it wouldn’t rub off onto the white fabric.

Other Ahsoka characters also introduced their own unique problems in being depicted in live-action. Sabine Wren, for example, was created with Rebels‘ unique style and color pallete in mind, so the team had to use similarly muted dyes for Natasha Liu Bordizzo’s hair. Sandoval also spoke about Morgan Elsbeth’s hair, as while her character did originate in live-action, she was heavily inspired by the Nightsisters, which had only been shown in animation prior to The Mandalorian season 2. Because of that, Sandoval decided to make Morgan’s hair wispier and more similar to yarn than normal human hair.

Translating Animation To Live-Action Is Always A Challenge

Translating animated characters into live-action is almost always a notoriously difficult undertaking, which makes Ahsoka‘s success even more impressive. One of the main reasons it’s so difficult to translate characters between mediums is simply the nature of animation. It’s a specialized media format, and since animation offers greater creative freedom than live-action, creators often make full use of it. That often manifests in action scenes with physically impossible feats, but it also means characters created for animation are often designed with aspects that simply don’t exist in reality, like Ahsoka’s lekku. Since there’s no real-world parallel, to adapt it well means pioneering a new form of makeup art.

• 

  Ahsoka Tano

  The apprentice of Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano was an accomplished Padawan who served during the Clone Wars. Ahsoka left the Jedi after she became disillusioned with the Jedi Council, but returned to serve in the Siege of Mandalore at the end of the Clone Wars. She survived Order 66, becoming a Rebel agent during the Dark Times of the Empire’s reign, and her adventures continue in the New Republic era. Ahsoka was last seen stranded in a distant galaxy, having failed to prevent Grand Admiral Thrawn’s return.

  Cast

  Ashley Eckstein
  , Rosario Dawson

  Alliance

  Jedi

  Race

  Togruta

  TV Shows

  Star Wars: The Clone Wars
  , Star Wars Rebels
  , Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi
  , The Mandalorian
  , Ahsoka

• 

  Sabine Wren

  A Mandalorian rebel, Sabine is a technological genius whose ideas were turned against her own people by the Empire. She served as an important member of the Lothal cell for years, only to return to her own people for a time with the knowledge and skills she had cultivated. More recently, Sabine has unlocked her nascent ability to access the Force, becoming Ahsoka Tano’s Padawan.

  Cast

  Natasha Liu Bordizzo
  , Tiya Sircar

  Alliance

  Mandalorians, Rebel Alliance, Jedi

  Race

  Mandalorian

  TV Shows

  Star Wars Rebels
  , Ahsoka

• 

  Morgan Elsbeth

  Hailing from the planet Dathomir, Morgan Elsbeth’s people were almost wiped out during the Clone Wars after their leader, Mother Talzin, became a rival to Darth Sidious himself. Morgan swore loyalty to the Empire, and became a close associate of Grand Admiral Thrawn himself. When Thrawn was stranded in a distant galaxy, she spearheaded efforts to retrieve him, prompted by visions cast by the Great Mothers of Peridea. She was sacrificed by Thrawn to buy him time to escape Peridea, with Ahsoka and her allies stranded there.

  Cast

  Diana Lee Inosanto

  Alliance

  Empire/Dathomiri

  Race

  Dathomiri

  TV Shows

  The Mandalorian
  , Ahsoka
  , Tales of the Empire

While making the jump from animation to live-action is always difficult, Rebels also introduced its own issues. Rebels has a unique and incredibly stylized form of animation, which can be seen in Sabine’s hair and armor, which pushes it even further away from live-action. That creates greater room for interpretation of how characters would look in the real world, but it also increases the odds that audiences won’t appreciate the choices made by the costume and makeup departments. Adapting stylized animation to live-action is a thin line to walk, and there are more than a few examples of it going horribly wrong. Luckily, Ahsoka is not one such example.

The efforts of Ahsoka‘s hair, costume, and makeup departments are a major reason the show has been so successful. Their attention to detail displayed a clear love for Rebels, and it drove them to some impressive innovations in the name of accuracy. One such innovation was in Ahsoka’s lekku, which were notoriously difficult to get right in The Mandalorian season 2, as they were simply too heavy for Dawson to comfortably wear. The team managed to make them significantly lighter in Ahsoka, which allowed the lekku to be more accurate to Rebels, and stands as a testament to their talent.

Source: IndieWire