As the storyboards were completed, they were pinned to foam boards in sequential order. "We had them all over the room," Natividad says. "Ultimately we ran out of space, but it was amazing to see the entire movie before your eyes." Laying out the boards like that also made it possible for director Lucas to pre-edit film sequences, often removing boards or changing their order to make a scene more exciting visually.
At that point, the storyboards were shown to Industrial Light & Magic. "Because of the large number of effects required, the storyboards were very critical for ILM to determine their financial estimates for the film," explains Natividad. "They came in and George actually took some markers and color coded what would be a digital matte, computer generated elements, sets and miniatures. The quality and accuracy of the storyboard drawing had to be much higher than for other films. Everything had to be clearly represented. Nothing left to question. The computer guys take things very literally when they do their modeling."
With the initial round of storyboarding complete, for the next year Natividad turned his attention to concept design for the countless elements needed to populate the
Star Wars universe. With major themes in place, Ed helped the artistic team in coming up with a look for everything from the Jedi temple to Gungan weaponry to statues to costumes for secondary characters and down to even smaller details like tables, chairs and light fixtures. "In the art department, we all have to be versatile and able to jump in wherever we are needed," said Natividad. "There were so many things to design. We would just take what Doug and Ian McCaig had established aesthetically and would springboard off of that. "
But storyboarding did not end when the shooting of film began. As live action footage progressed, the storyboard artists were called upon to produce 'effects boards.' "We would receive stills from blue screen filming and it would be up to us to fill in the blue void," says Natividad. Once the effects boards were complete, the team was also responsible for drawing storyboards for any reshoots that were determined to be necessary through the editing process.
Despite the repeated and detailed involvement Natividad had with each scene from Episode I, the final product was still a mystery. "The pacing was different than I expected. It went by a little bit faster than I thought," he says. "Actually, I didn't want to see anything from the movie before it was done. I avoided every opportunity to preview the movie...anything." He saw the film theatrically 13 times throughout the summer.
Natividad was relaxing in Hawaii when the call came with the invitation to work on Episode II. He accepted "in a heartbeat" and doesn't expect the storyboarding process to change much. "We have a schedule to meet, so I think it will be a little more efficient and won't take as long," he predicts. "But I think pencil and paper is still the best and quickest way. Everything is moving towards the computer, but what if the director wants you to come up to his office and come up with some ideas? You can't bring the computer up there." "The film is the final artwork. My drawings are ideas."
