Watch What The Mandalorian Looks Like Before and After ILM Adds Its Special Effects

Star Wars has always been a trailblazer in the field of visual effects, and The Mandalorian has managed to up the ante yet again. Disney+’s efforts earned the series a slew of Emmy Awards in 2020, including wins for special visual effects, sound mixing, sound editing, stunt coordination, cinematography, production design, and music.

Now, you can find out more about how the magic happens. As Nerdist reports, Industrial Light & Magic—the VFX studio George Lucas founded in 1975—recently released footage of the production process for The Mandalorian’s second season. In the video below, you get to see how CGI helps bring Banthas and the Krayt dragon to life; and what the miniature models of certain ships look like (exactly the same, just smaller). The behind-the-scenes shots transition straight into their corresponding scenes from the actual show, so you don’t have to remember the final products for yourself.

“The effects team leveraged virtually every trick in the book, from miniatures and motion control to traditional puppeteering, advanced animatronics, spectacular special effects, and photo-real CG,” ILM wrote in the video’s description.

It’s not the only time The Mandalorian's production secrets have been shared—there's a docuseries about the making of the show on Disney+. And in February 2020, ILM posted a video revealing how season 1 was shot with the help of a 20-foot-tall, 270-degree LED video wall where 3D sets were built and edited as the team was actually filming.

“Being able to see the actors point at things and see what they’re looking at was pretty transformative. It gave everybody context—with the added benefit that if you want to move a mountain from there to there, you can do it instantly,” Epic Games chief technology officer Kim Libreri explains in the video below.