The Stan Winston School of Character Arts Facebook page (*pauses to take breath*) posted a cool little featurette on the creatures of
R1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2N0Mn4i4DwI appreciate them going practical when they can - believe me, I do - but I really wish they'd stop with the clickbaity headlines like "Director Gareth Edwards favoured practical effects over CGI".

Guys, it's not an us vs. them war. Use practical for what practical is good for, use CG for what CG is good for. Use both if you can. It's as simple as that.
Not to mention that it makes them look real silly when the marketing releases statements like that, and then follows it up with a trailer chocked full of massive CG AT-ATs, spaceships, planets, and every shot being tinkered with in some regard with VFX enhancements.
ShaneP wrote:Here is one of these really great "looks like the very best practical model looking shots that is not a model shot" with the lighting from what I assume is a nearby star. It looks just like the very best model shot you could ever get.
]
That shot with the ships is so photoreal it
hurts. Like, it actually pains me knowing that it's completely CG yet looking exactly like a real, tangible model.
