In the fall of 2016, an incredible digital artist Orlando Arocena created a mash up of the Full Metal Jacket poster and elements of Star Wars into a Rogue One tribute poster. It stuck with me long after the movie came and went.
Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) passed the following spring. One weekend I simply dropped everything and started working on my own tribute piece: the Endor Rebel Trooper helmet like the one she wore during the speeder chase scene in Return of the Jedi.
When they revisited the Stormtrooper armor in Rogue one, the creative team remastered details that were simply decals into structural features.
We have better materials and processes and more time than the filmmakers did back in the early 80s. What once was a flimsy vacuform plastic donut piece with painted on vents is now a solid cast helmet.
Once the “Rebel Donut” was done, it had to be taken to the next level. The ‘Born to Rebel’ poster became art direction. I learned how to sew to make the soft helmet, from patterns the Rebel Legion have so generously made available.