LEGO Star Wars designer reveals how to present movement in static bricks

One of the LEGO Star Wars diorama sets to commemorate Return of the Jedi captures an action-packed scene – something that’s hard to do with static bricks.

For the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi, the LEGO Group is tackling the Endor speeder bike chase in LEGO Star Wars 75353 Endor Speeder Chase Diorama. With Luke and Leia being chased through Endor’s lush forest in a hair-raising sequence, the speed and danger is palpable.

While speaking to StarWars.com, LEGO Star Wars designer Jme Wheeler, who worked on 75353 Endor Speeder Chase Diorama, revealed how the team managed to convey the speed and depth of the iconic Endor chase scene in a static and relatively compact LEGO build.

“The speeder bike chase is all about speed, and creating a sense of movement with a static three-dimensional object can be tricky. I like to approach vignette builds in a similar way as I would if I were creating them as an illustration. Of course, with an illustration, you can use things like blur or focus to create movement and depth, but there are plenty of other ways of conveying these things.

“For example, while the trees are quite far apart from left to right, they are very close together front to back. By placing the speeder bikes between them, it ensures a sense of depth. The action feels less static because it is taking place within the scene, as opposed to simply in front of a background. Having the leaf canopy completely intersect at the top of the model also makes the action within seem more confined, and hence ‘faster’.”

It’s not just the placement of the trees, but the entire layout of the set that effects how we see the dynamics of 75353 Endor Speeder Chase Diorama.

“Placing everything at a diagonal within the vignette also means that the scene will remain dynamic no matter what angle you view it from,” Jme continued. “Lastly, by tilting the bikes, it signals that they are actively moving, instead of simply being sat static upon posts.”

Tips from LEGO designers themselves are nothing to turn your nose up at. If you’re working on a build of your own, perhaps Jme’s tips will help you add some speed to models of your own.

LEGO Star Wars 75353 Endor Speeder Chase Diorama will be available to pre-order from LEGO.com from April 7, ahead of its release on May 1. Plus, take a look at some of our favourite details in our visual tour.

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