A Bright New Day: Uniting the Star Wars Galaxy at the End of The Rise of Skywalker in One Image
Palpatine is defeated, the galaxy united: In a radiant piece of concept art, Pablo Dominguez brings together X-wing and N1 starfighters while the Millennium Falcon leads the path to a peaceful future.
In The Phantom Menace, a young Anakin Skywalker laments that the biggest problem in the universe is that no one helps each other. A heartbreaking observation by a selfless child which echoes in many different parts of the Star Wars saga. Throughout the movies, our heroes often look at the sky, hoping for allies that never arrive. But then – finally – they all appear at the most hopeless hour of The Rise of Skywalker.
As Rey battles Palpatine, countless ships from all over the galaxy arrive at Exegol's darkened skies and ignite the spark. The Resistance's last stand was heard. Hope spreads in every frame of the movie and light drives out the darkness. Concept artist Pablo Dominguez captured this inspiring moment with a beautiful image that unites starships from all eras of Star Wars and brings peace to the galaxy far, far away.
If I’m correct, The Rise of Skywalker was your first Star Wars project as a concept artist. How did you get the job?
Pablo Dominguez: Yes, this was my first job on a Star Wars project. I was working for ILM in London. It was for the last scene of Episode IX, around summer 2019. For me it was an incredible experience since some of the work I did was on some cool Millennium Falcon shots.
Was it difficult for you to settle into the Star Wars universe as an artist?
It was kind of easy to jump on the project since I'm a Star Wars fan, but I've also been studying and practicing from other Star Wars artists. In some way I was preparing myself for that moment. It was a true honor for me to work alongside these guys.
You’ve been a part of big projects like Jurassic World: Dominion, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and various Marvel movies. What is the biggest difference between working on Star Wars and any of the other franchises?
Star Wars has already a solid design base developed and you just need to adapt to the era, planet, vehicle you're working on. So in some ways there's less crazy design exploration, but there's a couple of rules and design choices you need to keep, sometimes it’s easier to work on and other times harder. But if you have doubts about a design it's always useful to come back to the original sketches and ideas form the other movies and games.
This specific piece of concept art illustrates an epic moment at the end of The Rise of Skywalker. What did you know about this scene before you started working on it?
This piece actually is one of many versions we did. The goal was to set the mood and lighting, quantity of ships and smoke and FX around, always keeping a clean graphic read as usual in Star Wars and trying to not overload the image with FX or noise around. I started from the previz video they sent me and they explained to me in a close work meeting a bit what was happening in the film at that moment and how much they wanted to push the image to help the VFX team recreate all of that later on CGI.
There are ships from all eras of Star Wars in this concept art. Can you walk me through the individual ships and your choices?
The Falcon and the two X-wings were actually something needed from the previz, the other ones are some random spaceships the art team redesigned from other shows – Clone Wars, Rebels, and older movies. So I had a bunch of them to work on, for example the one in the bottom was my friend and coworker Timothy Rodriguez’s redesign. I dropped it there for him, and the two N1 starfighters on the left was actually me trying to put one on the big screen again since it's one of my favorite designs ever. It didn't make it in the end, but it was fun to try.
I love it that you tried to sneak in some N1s! Have you seen the upgraded N1 version in The Book of Boba Fett?
I loved the new Mando N1 version! I actually did a “similar fan idea” years ago, but this is not official. I did this literally after visiting Lucasfilm in San Francisco. I came back inspired by all the stuff I saw there and all the talent. So I did my own N1 version. But again, it's a fan/tribute piece. Nothing related to an official project. And I doubt the team even saw this when they did Boba Fett.
What was it like working with these iconic ships which hadn't been in a scene together before?
It was a true honor to be part of this scene and actually as I mentioned before when the briefing comes with “X-wings and the Falcon”, it's just a big exciting moment to be part of a probably iconic scene for the Star Wars universe.
This concept art looks so peaceful and optimistic and I think one reason for that is the colors and the warm light of the setting sun. What were your thoughts behind the color scheme?
Yes, this painting job was to show the end of the war, our heroes’ triumph over evil. A beautiful morning light to start a new life. We also did try more moody and dark choices but in the end they decided to keep it a more happier and hopeful image. A new day, a new era.
What was the most difficult part in creating this concept art?
Since this one was an image done on the last stages of the production, I had already made assets and models I can use, so in some way it was like playing with Star Wars ships and making it look as good as I could.
Can you talk about the techniques you used to bring this concept art to life?
This was a straight OctaneRender and overpainted in Photoshop to erase a bit the CG/3D look and make it look realistic but painterly at the same time.
What were your biggest inspirations for this piece?
As usual Ralph McQuarrie is the main inspiration, but also all the things I learned from my art directors at ILM – Jason [Horley], James [Clyne] and Stephen [Tappin]. They gave me very useful feedback.
How did it feel to finally see this moment on the big screen?
It's truly amazing when your painting ends up in the final cut and the VFX matches the painting to a live-action moment so closely. I had big goosebumps in the cinema when this happened, and if you have John Williams music in the background it's even better!
You can follow Pablo’s work on Twitter, Instagram and ArtStation.
Image credit: Lucasfilm/Pablo Dominguez