J.J. Abrams went out of his way to use practical effects throughout Star Wars: The Force Awakens to give it a feel more in keeping with the original trilogy. This means we’re occasionally surprised to learn some parts of the film — like BB-8 — weren’t CGI. Another practical effect you may have assumed was CGI was the instant bread Rey (Daisy Ridley) makes on Jakku by adding water to some powdered rations which were originally Republic and Imperial military supplies.
How’d they do that? Apparently, the gag was deceptively simple. Visual effects artists Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould (who are now Oscar-nominated for their work on Force Awakens) explained the effect to The Independent.
“I’m gonna be famous for Star Wars for nothing else but this bread!” Neal explained. […] “It was very simple. We molded up an inflatable bread so that it was deflated underneath the liquid and then we slowly inflated it and sucked out the liquid with vacuum pumps at the same time to produce this bread coming up and forming.”
As simple as that sounds, Corbould tells MTV it took them three months to get it right. “It started off with the mechanics of getting the bread to rise and the liquid to disappear, but then there was the ongoing problem of what color should the bread be? What consistency should it be? Should it have cracks in it? Should it not have cracks in it?”
The work paid off. It was a cool little gag in the film, and the effects team had a good reason to get it right: J.J. Abrams himself came up with the idea for the instant bread. It’s not at all edible, however, so you’ll have to find something else to happily munch on while wearing an oversized pilot helmet.
(Via ONTD, MTV, and The Independent)
