How The Star Wars Crew Handled Creating A Digital Yoda For Attack Of The Clones
There was a time, long before the "Star Wars" galaxy expanded to sequels, spin-offs, and TV series, where only one version of the infamous Master Yoda existed. In the original trilogy, Yoda was a puppet operated by Frank Oz — and even when "Star Wars" creator George Lucas came back with "The Phantom Menace," Oz reprised his performance as Yoda once more. Until then, Yoda was largely sedentary, and save for a few piggybacks on the shoulders of Luke Skywalker, entirely earthbound.
All that was set to change with the prequels, namely "Attack of the Clones." The new trilogy established the Jedi Order as a force to be reckoned with: during the Clone Wars, they're at the height of their hubris, but also the height of their military power. That meant that Yoda, the Grandmaster of the Jedi Council, would have to pull his weight in battle — as well as in a breathtaking duel against former-apprentice-turned-Sith Count Dooku (Christopher Lee). That presented a unique challenge for Rob Coleman, who served as animation director on "The Phantom Menace" and was returning for "Attack of the Clones." Coleman had overseen animation for several characters that were entirely animated — Jar Jar Binks, Sebulba, and Watto the Toydarian among them. While Coleman and co. at Industrial Light and Magic made massive strides with "The Phantom Menace," he knew it wouldn't be quite enough for Yoda's action-heavy return.
The old ways
Redemption was the main thing on Rob Coleman's mind when he returned to supervise "Attack of the Clones." Admittedly, the fan reception from "The Phantom Menace" had left him "stinging": "I was the guy who helped bring Jar Jar to the screen, and there was all the blowback from that," he told StarWars.com in 2022. Coming into the second film in the trilogy, Coleman admitted to feeling a bit terrified. "I didn't want to be known as the guy who wrecked Yoda."
Coleman spent long hours discussing the new Yoda with Lucas. In the early days of development, the writer-director wanted to retain as much puppetry as possible. Frank Oz was set to return for "Attack of the Clones," and perform as Yoda in the majority of his scenes. Coleman would have only had to animate the duel between Yoda and Dooku — but Coleman pushed back against the idea:
"I felt that it would be really, really difficult because we would have to match what they did with the puppet and interpret how that puppet movement would be put into a digital character running around ... George did say early on in briefing us that we'd see him full-body, he'd have to run and jump and fight. So I did know that, but I thought after learning what we learned on Watto, Jar Jar, and Sebulba [in 'The Phantom Menace'], I felt we could take on Yoda."
Let them fight
Rob Coleman and his team set out to animate Yoda fully, and for every scene. To do so, Coleman first consulted with Frank Oz himself, to get familiar with Yoda's mannerisms. By the time the initial animation tests were ready, even Oz noticed the parallels. "Frank, after seeing our initial tests, he was very supportive and said, 'I love the restraint that you're keeping on this and I love that you're matching what I was doing.'"
After studying Oz, it came time to build out the fight sequences. Coleman sought out Nick Gillard, the stunt coordinator who prepared Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor, and Christopher Lee for their own Jedi combat. He even watched anime — recommended by Jar Jar actor Ahmed Best — and studied "Swordsman II," a wuxia film starring Jet Li that screened at the San Francisco Film Festival. "In that movie, there's a nighttime scene in a bamboo forest, and the ninja are leaping from tree to tree, bouncing around," Coleman explained. Those stunts in particular were the perfect inspiration for Yoda's own agility.
20 years on, the duel between Yoda and Dooku is still one of the best moments of the saga. Not everyone is on board with the decision Lucas and Coleman made — in fact, some "Star Wars" actors still wish that Yoda had remained a puppet — but it's hard to imagine pulling off the action of the prequels without the use of ILM's competent effects.