The filmmakers had tried this method on other Star Wars films for various sequences, but with Return, they perfected it. But its also worth noting that the inventor of the Steadicam, Garrett Brown, walked the length of “Endor’s forest” shooting at less than a frame-per-second. The visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund had worked on the two previous Star Wars films and came up with the idea to have a hyper-controlled camera capable of recording super-slow captured footage for VFX, into which we’ll get later. The film premiered in 1983, which was just before CGI made its big debut in the ’90s, so you didn’t have the corny, eyesore effects from something like Escape from LA or Dragon Heart instead, the technology had improved over the previous two films, while sticking to the same aesthetics and creative decisions that had made Lucas’s original a classic. There are several elements to Return of the Jedi that make it an absolute masterclass in special effects that amplify the story and the universe of a franchise already two excellent films deep. Okay now before you go click out of this article and comment about why I’m wrong, just hear me out. So, with Episode IX right around the corner, let’s look back at the good and the not-so-good. (Nobody had ever seen something like Star Wars in 1977 when the first film premiered.) Another aspect to consider is how the directors and VFX artists decided to combine practical and computer-based effects to seamlessly (sometimes not so much) tell these stories we know and love (sometimes not so much). This is all to say that VFX have gotten better over time, but, for this ranking, let’s consider the technical achievements and innovation as they were at the time of release. Some of the best-looking Star Wars films to come out in the past ten years have been fan films. With programs like cinema4D, Blender, Maya, and so on, visual effects become more accessible to filmmakers with each passing year. Now, obviously visual effects have progressed over time and are now a common staple of filmmaking. So, today the topic was “Star Wars VFX,” and I thought, what a perfect opportunity to dive into a topic nobody can get enough of: Star Wars. Here in our office, we often play a friendly ranking game called “Top 3/ Bottom 3.” We create a list of our favorite and least favorite three things under a specific topic. From the good to the great to the dear-god-please-no, here are the iconic visual effects behind Star Wars ranked - respectfully.