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moonstrider9904 · 2 years

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Traitorous Truth

Chapter Five of Half-Moon Glow

Pairing: Crosshair x Female OC (Aurora Dawn)

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Summary: As the squad tries to put a spoiled shore leave behind them, Clone Force 99 are led to Cristophsis to try and negotiate with the cold and suspicious Osi Sobeck.

Word count: 4.7k

Tags/warnings: Mature (still 18+). Injuries, mild blood and some blood loss (not explicit), minor side character death, lots of angst, hostage situation, foul language, threats of torture and killing.

A/N: Nope, this is not at all like what I usually write, but it was oddly fun to write this one. There’s a load of angst in this one, so (affectionate) Get wrecked, fuckers (affectionate).

It was safe to say that shore leave on Naboo had been ruined.

The obvious tension lingering in the rooms whenever Crosshair and Aurora found themselves in the same spot would only dissipate when one of them left, and despite the anger reflected within the medic, Hunter couldn’t ignore the heartbreak in her eyes.

Everyone had gone their separate ways. Tech stuck to his own prototypes, valuing progress in his projects above whatever else could have gone wrong regarding personal relations. It was simply safer. Wrecker and Aurora bonded over the heartbreak they’d both felt, spending most of their time in one tavern or another drinking away, not quite bringing themselves to finding someone new even for a meaningless rebound.

Hunter could tell they’d both broken.

Meanwhile, the sniper was either resting in his room or off on his own, and no one quite knew where he was. Perhaps he’d found a corner on the higher levels of the building where no one would disturb him, a place perfect for sniping if the war were to reach Theed, or perhaps he’d found a more obscure bar where none of his squad mates or even fellow troopers would go. Crosshair was as avoidant and mysterious as ever.

But perhaps it was for the best.

Hunter was left on his own to observe how those around him tried—and sometimes failed—to make the best of what they went through. From the outside, Hunter could make out a number of details from the way Aurora’s eyes were swollen each morning when she woke, no doubt having cried herself to sleep at Crosshair’s absence, to the amount of dirty looks that Clone Force 99 was receiving by the time they had to leave Naboo.

Though not unusual, each of the genetically-enhanced clones seemed to be getting more glares than they normally would. The others didn’t care; they had too much to deal with on their own, but given recent events, Hunter couldn’t afford to let such a blatant change in behavior towards them slip by.

In his investigations, he’d found out another breach of data had occurred at the hands of the spy while they were on their leave, and the breach had been stationed on Naboo.

And once again, their questionable reputation came back to bite them from behind.

“You still there, sergeant?”

Hunter snapped out of his momentary daze and his attention was brought back to the holo comm, where a small version of commander Cody looked up at him, expecting a reply.

“Sorry, commander,” Hunter said. “Just pondering on all the coincidences.”

“Which are?” Cody prompted.

“Whoever this spy is, they seem to be following us around,” Hunter confessed.

“And so, you understand the position your squad is in,” Cody replied. “I don’t suspect of you or any of your men for a second, so I think we can kill two birds with one stone for this.”

“Sir?”

“I have a mission available on Christophsis,” Cody began. “Relations haven’t been as tight since our battle there, and right now all military operations on Christophsis are under the command of captain Osi Sobeck. He’s a tough nut to crack, so I need you to go and negotiate terms with him to hopefully agree on setting up a base there.”

Hunter and Tech exchanged a doubtful look—negotiations weren’t a strength for Clone Force 99—and Hunter then looked back at Cody.

“We’ll do what you ask, commander, but how is this going to help our situation?” Hunter said.

“This mission is new and relatively secret,” Cody said. “Only you, me, and Wolffe know about it as of now. If any intel related to your whereabouts were to get out while you’re there, we can confirm that this spy has something to do with you, since they’ll have had to follow you to get there, and it’ll help us direct efforts to stop them. If any intel gets out from anywhere else, we could use that to your defense in the meantime.”

Hunter nodded briefly. “Alright, we’ll do it.”

With the sound of Tech punching coordinates into the hyperdrive in the background, Hunter noticed as Cody seemed to briefly soften in the hologram.

“How’s Aurora holding up?” the commander asked, the question not surprising Hunter even in the least.

He sighed. “She’s saved our skins many times.”

“You’d tell me if she was struggling in any way, right?” said Cody.

“I haven’t lost faith,” Hunter replied, knowing that any more detail was unnecessary. “But if worst comes to worst, I’ll tell you.”

“Very well,” Cody replied, straightening his back as though slipping back into his role of commander. “I’ll send you the details of the negotiation shortly.”

“Thank you,” Hunter said, and the hologram powered down, leaving the cockpit in silence.

“Christophsis it is?” Tech asked to confirm.

Hunter nodded. “Christophsis it is.”

With the push of a lever, Tech sent the Havoc Marauder into hyperspace; it would hopefully not be a very long trip to their destination. Shortly after, the doors to the cockpit hissed open, revealing Aurora with Wrecker walking closely behind her.

It calmed Hunter down to see the two of them behaving almost like normal again.

“I thought I heard a hologram in here,” Aurora said.

“Yeah,” Hunter replied. “Cody says hi.”

“Ah,” she nodded as she walked over to the copilot seat as Tech engaged autopilot.

“He also gave us our next assignment,” Hunter continued, during which the last member of the squad made his way into the cockpit.

Crosshair’s presence raised the wall of tension once more.

“We’re heading for Christophsis,” Hunter addressed him.

“I heard,” Crosshair replied as he walked to one of the walls and leaned on it.

Hunter huffed and hoped his efforts to move on would be for the best. “We’ll meet a Republic captain there named Osi Sobeck and try to come to an agreement for a base on the planet.”

“Why us?” Crosshair slurred.

“Because Cody said so,” Hunter replied. “He thinks a mission like this will keep us off the radar for a while, and whatever happens with the spy will let us know if they’re onto us or they have other motives.”

“Um… Hunter?” Wrecker added. “We’re not exactly the best at negotiating. Unless we’re destroying something there, we won’t be of much use.”

“I beg to differ,” Tech spoke up. “I’ll gladly take over the negotiation, and besides, we have charisma on our side.”

“I am loveable,” Wrecker chuckled.

“Not you, di’kut,” Tech replied as he turned to Aurora, inevitably bringing Hunter and Wrecker to look at her as well.

And she also noticed Crosshair avoiding looking at her on purpose.

“She is the nicest of us, I’m sure she can appeal to this Sobeck’s better nature while I provide the technicalities,” Tech continued. “You three need only keep yourselves from screwing anything up.”

“Gee, thanks,” Hunter chuckled. “Would you prefer if we stayed on the ship and didn’t interfere?”

“I actually would,” Tech replied.

Tech and Wrecker would bicker for a long portion of the ride ahead, thankfully pulling the weight for conversational need from the shoulders of the others. Aurora’s heart would continue to sink, however, as Crosshair evidently knew of every glance she gave him, and would proceed to ignore it.

It would soon be more than she could bear. Not having him look at her, not hearing his voice address her, to not speak of his hands on her body, his arms holding her close to him…

Aurora still tried to convince herself that the way he kissed, held and looked at her held feelings at the very back, though that notion was beginning to seem like a distant dream.

Christophsis greeted them with its distinctive aesthetic; cool hues of green and blue on the ground level and the purple haze of the sky mixed together to build an ambience unlike many that squad 99 had ever come across

Cody’s coordinates had been precise, and Tech held the proposed terms of the negotiation safely in the data pad in his hands. He’d performed whatever investigations he could on captain Osi Sobeck, but he hadn’t been able to find much other than a brief time serving the GAR and a preference to remain on Christophsis whatever the cost, or so it seemed.

There didn’t appear to be any reasons to be wary.

“Let me take the lead for this,” Tech commented as he pushed up the visor of his unique helmet. “Aurora, just follow along.”

“Sure thing,” she said.

As the five of them lined up at the facility’s entrance, Tech pushed a button to notify those inside that they were out there waiting, and a camera lense seemed to power up with a distorted mechanical voice behind it.

“Identification?” It asked.

“We are Clone Force 99, sent by Marshal Commander CC-2224 of the 212th division,” Tech answered. “We are here to establish a negotiation with Captain Osi Sobeck.”

“One moment.”

They all knew it was normal to be kept waiting a little bit while waiting for clearance into a building, particularly a military base, but to all of them it seemed like perhaps it was taking too long for their request to be answered. While most of them didn’t make much of it, Hunter decided to cling to that detail, in case anything went wrong, though he still wasn’t sure of what could go astray.

The lens then powered up again. “Authorized.”

The heavy metal doors opened and granted them access, and behind the doors, two large, ominous special unit droids appeared as escorts. Though at first the sight of them made the troopers and medic wary, the droids clearly had the Republic’s crest painted on their shoulder, marking them as allies.

But why they would be there instead of clone troopers or Republic sentient fighters eluded the squadron, and it only made Hunter more aware of the surroundings than it already was. Silently, the droids led the squadron into the dimly lit base, with the heavy doors closing behind them.

Tension lingered in the air like a thick fog. Escorted into the elevator, the squad remained in silence with only the electronic whirring of the droids and the elevator in the background. Even more set aside was Aurora, who was the only one whose face was exposed in the middle of her helmeted teammates.

The ride in the elevator felt eternal, but Aurora would try to seize the opportunity. On her left stood Crosshair, tall and dark and silent, not looking anywhere except directly in front. He felt Aurora’s gaze on him, and though she expected him to ignore her again, Crosshair looked down at her.

But for all she knew, anger would still be ablaze in his eyes, and before she had any more time to wonder, Crosshair looked away from her again.

And that was it.

Soon, they arrived at the central command center high up in the facility, a large room fully lit because of its big windows, surrounded with holo screens and computers displaying several charts and reports. It was occupied almost exclusively by droids, all of them focused on their tasks, and at the very center was a holo projector over which towered the figure of a tall Phindian male, about Wrecker’s height, who had his back turned on the squad.

When he turned around, Aurora felt a chill, for this was one of the unfriendliest faces she’d ever encountered. His round eyes held a sharp, icy gaze that seemed as if it was hunting to kill; his features were already very bold, an impression enhanced by the authority he carried himself with, undoubtedly a strict leader. His clothes seemed almost too dark for a Republic officer, and on his hip rested a holster with a hand blaster in it, one that didn’t seem to have been used or worn out and was most likely meant for intimidation.

“The clones you requested, captain,” spoke one of the droids.

Hunter and Aurora exchanged a look at the peculiar remark.

“Ah, yes,” he spoke with a gruff snarl for a voice. “The infamous Clone Force 99.”

“We were sent by commander Cody,” Tech replied. “We bring numerous propositions for a Republic Base stationed here on Christophsis, and while we would like to discuss them all with you, we would also be eager to hear what you have in mind.”

Sobeck chortled deep in his chest. “You see, I reached out to the commander hoping he would send you. You all look as capable as you have been made out to be.”

“Tech…” Hunter muttered.

“Your intelligence, however, can be further worked on in a lab,” Sobeck concluded.

Those were the words that finally sent the other three troopers into reasoning, but it was too late by that time, as the droids around them had already drawn their blasters and pointed them at the squad, cornering them before they even had a chance of anything.

“How disappointing that it was so easy to get you in our grasp,” Sobeck laughed. “I’m surprised not even my droids set you off.”

“Of course not,” Tech’s voice hardened as he discreetly began recording through his visor. “You’re supposed to be part of the Republic. You had our loyalty by default.”

“Better for me,” Sobeck laughed once more.

Behind them, the door hissed open revealing a single figure wearing shiny clone trooper armor. He walked silently into the room, making his way towards Sobeck without acknowledging the troopers even once, and by the time it reached the captain, finally took off his helmet.

He was no clone, but a Rhodian merely disguised as one.

“Too easy, indeed, too easy,” Sobeck mocked. “And once you took the fall for me and everyone suspected you were the ones feeding intel to the Separatists, you did most of the work for me.”

“What are you talking about?!” Hunter threatened.

“CT-99s are supposed to be the Kaminoans’ finest creations, and yet, your own army doesn’t respect you, your own comrades think you’re fools, they’ll all be ready to sell you out, not surprised if you were indeed spies,” Sobeck snarled.

Silence fell among the troopers as they huddled defensively.

“Here’s hoping your secrets will be better used by the Separatists,” Sobeck threatened.

“Spies…” Aurora muttered. “Hunter—”

“Bring me their leader!” Sobeck’s voice bellowed above hers. “He will be the first one to undergo,” he glared over at the squad, his eyes all but preaching doom, “extraction.”

Hunter acted quickly and without thinking, though that was neither new nor bad for him, and he unsheathed his vibroblade from its spot in his forearm, launching it at the disguised spy’s chest. The spy choked and collapsed onto the ground, perishing in no time, and just when it seemed their fate would be sealed as well, Aurora took one of the smoke bombs from Wrecker’s utility belt and detonated it, forcing the droids to hold their fire whilst giving her and her boys a chance to escape.

Hunter went to retrieve his blade from the Rhodian and was the last one out, leaving Tech to work on keeping the door sealed for as long as he could manage, ultimately blasting the controls to keep it from opening again.

“That should buy us some time,” Tech said.

“He seemed friendly, eh?” Wrecker said with sarcasm. “Think if he offer him our blood samples, he’ll go easier on us?”

“Guys, we have to get out of here now,” Aurora said.

“For once, I think we’ll all agree on something,” Hunter said. “Follow me and don’t stop running.”

Hunter led them down a series of corridors before reaching the elevator, which had unsurprisingly been remotely disabled, after which he led his squad down several flights of stairs before reaching the lower level cluttered with an equally complex system of halls and corridors they’d have to survive if they wanted to leave in one piece.

But down at the first level, trouble had already beat them. In full Separatist fashion, the place had already been riddled with battle droids and more special units, all of them programmed to stop them from leaving. Aurora watched as the droids seemed to multiply before her eyes, frozen in horror and in dismay as it felt like they wouldn’t be escaping.

Then, long, slender fingers wrapped around her wrist. Crosshair tugged her in his direction, wordless, running faster than she ever could on her own. Aurora took out her hand blaster as he ran with her, shooting whatever droids she could that were chasing them. Crosshair let go of her to assemble his rifle, hopefully granting them an advantage, but it wasn’t long before Aurora began to fall behind merely meters before the final corridor that would lead them to the exit.

They were vulnerable, only one mistake away from being cornered, wide open and with no cover to protect them from the blasts of the droids that didn’t mind killing them. Despite all this, they kept running, and though Aurora hoped with all her might that they would all be okay, her own fears materialized when a blast incoming from behind found her leg.

The little grunt she made considerably downsized the pain she felt from the blast wound, burning despite it having only grazed the back of her thigh, already slowing her down in her efforts to escape. She watched as the others ran in front of her, all of them approaching safety; it was the only thing that mattered. Aurora wasn’t so far herself, but her wound put her at a dangerous disadvantage that she hoped wouldn’t catch up to her.

But it did.

Aurora yelped when a large metallic hand tugged on the back of her gray jumper, pulling some of her hair along with it, and the force with which the special unit pulled her easily overpowered her. She was swept off the ground and dragged back in the direction they’d been running from in the first place, crying out in pain and in alarm as she saw her squadmates getting farther away from her.

That was when Crosshair turned around.

His expression was concealed by his helmet, but the hurry with which he ran back was evident. Crosshair had just pulled his rifle out when the special unit shot it out of his hand, but he wouldn’t be defenseless after that. He pulled out the hand blaster from his holster and aimed at the droid’s head, but its programming proved to be smarter. It lifted Aurora from off the ground to shield itself from Crosshair’s blast, and though the marksman tried to shoot at its legs, it proved futile against the special unit.

Soon, Aurora heard clanking from behind her. A group of at least ten other battle droids, alongside three more special unit droid commandos appeared from the adjacent hallway, all of them taking aim against a wide-open Crosshair. But he didn’t seem to relent, and Aurora saw it ending only one way.

She noticed Crosshair was just behind one of the door frames that would divide the hall if it were closed, and though her heart would break more, she knew the door would be strong enough to shield him from any blasts.

It would also give him a chance to escape, to save himself.

“Let her go!” Crosshair yelled, his voice a violent thunder raging in the hall, echoing alongside the blasts.

“Crosshair, leave!” Aurora cried out, yelping in pain as the droid securing her pulled on her with more strength. “Please, leave, or they’ll shoot you!”

But he didn’t stop, and Aurora knew that it wouldn’t belong before he’d be badly hurt. No matter what had happened, or how awful he’d made her feel, the thought of him being hurt was more than her heart could bear, and she wouldn’t allow it.

And when the droid that was holding her raised its arm and exposed the built-in blaster, aiming it at Crosshair, Aurora mustered all of her strength and pushed against the arm, deviating it and altering the blast’s course just enough for it to hit beside the door’s controls. The blast was powerful enough to fry the entire panel, causing the door to close in front of Crosshair.

“No!” He yelled out just as the doors sealed, separating him from Aurora and the droids for good.

With all his strength, he slammed his fists repeatedly against the door, relenting only to throw aside his helmet and gaze at the sight in front of him through the small glass window. Eyes wide with alarm, he saw as the droid dropped her without care, and she fell on the ground grunting out in pain and clutching her bleeding hamstring.

He slammed the door again when more battle droids surrounded her, all of them taking aim, and he yelled curses at Sobeck when he appeared from behind them, grinning evilly at the defenseless Aurora.

Crosshair felt a pair of hands tugging at his armor from behind him, threatening to pull him away from the door, away from Aurora. He struggled, if only to keep watch over her, and observed as Sobeck ordered his droids to stand down only to have them drag her away while his older brothers did the same to him.

“I’m not leaving her!” Crosshair cried out and slipped himself from their grip, heading back to the door and slamming it with more strength than ever, more strength than anyone could ever predict he had. “AURORA!”

“Crosshair!” Hunter secured his shoulders and shook him. “Crosshair, listen to me! You’re not going to help her like this and you’re not going to help her if you get yourself captured.”

“She’s wounded, dammit!” Crosshair yelled. “She needs me, I’m not leaving her!”

“Crosshair—”

“I need her, goddammit—”

“Then you should have told her that before!” Hunter raised his voice, finally making Crosshair quiet down, as his youngest brother looked up at him with a pained expression.

They both knew Hunter was right. The hall fell into an eerie silence, and on the other side of the door, neither Aurora, nor the droids, nor Sobeck were still there.

“Crosshair,” Tech spoke as calmly as he could. “Sobeck won’t hurt her. He wants us, and I’m sure he’s going to use Aurora to get to us.”

“And even if he weren’t, we’d still go back for her,” Wrecker added.

“But we need you to be focused,” Hunter finished.

Crosshair felt himself shaking as he exhaled; no matter what they could say, he wouldn’t stop fearing what that maniac could do to her, but it at least prompted Crosshair to pick his rifle up from the ground, loading it and not bothering to put it away.

“I won’t leave Sobeck alive,” he growled.

“Fine by us,” Hunter replied.

“I’ll report our findings to Cody before Sobeck has the chance to twist any of this,” Tech said. “We should head back to the ship in the meantime; if these halls are separated by doors, we risk being trapped.”

“Alright then, we move,” Hunter led and was the first one making his way down the halls.

Before Wrecker and Crosshair moved, Wrecker picked Crosshair’s helmet up from the ground and gave it to him. With a brief nod, Crosshair took it and placed it back over his head, and quickly, he ran behind his older brother, resolved to free Aurora from the clutches of the traitor.

Being dragged from the hallways and barely able to stand on her own feet, it was a blur for Aurora by the time she was back at the command center, her weight secured by two droids at her sides while Sobeck had his back turned on her, setting up the holo projector.

But flashes from the hallway repeated themselves in Aurora’s mind, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t erase the image of Crosshair crying out through the sealed door, trying and failing to get to her.

At least he and the others were safe; the fear of seeing him get hurt was far stronger than the fear of losing him.

“Your clone friends are terrible at picking up comms,” Sobeck spoke, his gruff voice both chilling and disgusting Aurora to the core. She glared up at him and fear and in spite, a part of her hoping they wouldn’t answer, that they’d returned to safety.

But just then, the holoprojector powered up and displayed the silhouettes of her four squad mates, with Crosshair at the front looking angrier than she’d ever seen him. Sobeck signaled the droids behind him to bring Aurora into view; she grunted in pain as she moved, and feeling helpless, tried not to look at the pain and worry in the eyes of her boys.

“I believe we can skip the formalities,” Sobeck began. “You want your medic back, or so I assume, and I’ll happily return her to you.”

“Guys, it’s a trap!” Aurora yelled out, but one of her droids hit her right on her blast wound on her thigh, making her crumble to the ground in pain.

“Don’t you fucking touch her!” Crosshair yelled through the holocomm.

“You have escaped me for the last time, clone!” Sobeck called back. “You know what I want, and unless you’re willing to come back here and give it to me, this pathetic little rat dies.”

Crosshair’s struggle was visible even through the hologram, and shaken as he was by anger and his desire for revenge, his gaze floated over to Aurora, kneeling on the ground, her gray uniform stained by her own blood.

“Look at her,” Sobeck said. “Poor little girl, so afraid, so in pain, so abandoned by you.” Sobeck reached down and held her chin and cheeks, forcing her to look up at the projection as tears streamed down her cheeks. “Don’t tell her you’re going to leave her here all alone.”

“Get your filthy hands off her!” Crosshair yelled.

“Give me what I want!” Sobeck let her go and pointed at him. “I want to see you steering your ship towards me now, or your little pet is in for a world of pain!”

“You want our DNA,” Crosshair’s voice gave a hint of a tremble, though it remained menacing. “You can take it from me if you can guarantee her safety.”

Sobeck cackled. “This is almost far too easy, but it isn’t unwelcome. I’ll be expecting your company again.”

“One more thing,” Crosshair said, his voice cold and unfeeling while his harsh gaze found Sobeck’s. “If I find out you’ve laid another finger on her, I’m going to murder you.”

“And I’m sure you’d love to,” Sobeck snarled.

“Crosshair!” Aurora called out, though she didn’t know what she’d say. Would she beg him to forget about her, to forget about Sobeck, to save himself? Would she implore him not to go down the path of revenge, or would she ask them to get there as fast as he could?

Or would she cry out her love for him if it was the last chance she ever got?

Before anything could be said, Sobeck turned off the holo projector and left the room in a ghastly, thick silence. The grim captain turned around and his cold, fearsome eyes landed on Aurora, hurt and vulnerable on the ground, as she tried desperately to escape his icy gaze.

Sobeck turned to one of his special unit droids. “Take her to a detention cell, and stop the bleeding. She won’t be of any use to us if she’s dead, these clones are not as naive.”

He looked at Aurora again, grinning evilly at her. “You’d better be excited, we’re about to have company.”

She glared at him. “And they’re gonna kick your ass.”

“Alas, you are their weakness,” Sobeck replied. “If you’re here, I’ll get everything I want from them in the palm of my hand. Take her away.”

Aurora groaned in pain as she was lifted by the droids and taken out of the command center, on her way to be thrown into a small, confined cell where she’d be all alone, with no hope until they arrived.

She prayed to the heavens they wouldn’t take long.

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clonewarsarchives · 2 years

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ANIMATED DISCUSSION (#130, JAN 2012)

Keith Kellogg certainly made an impact when he joined the production team behind Star Wars: The Clone Wars as animation supervisor at the end of season three especially when he brought Chewbacca with him! Star Wars Insider talked to Kellogg about his work on the show so far, and about life as an animator. Interview by Jonathan Wilkins

Can you describe the role of Animation Supervisor and what the job entails?

We have three studios working for us currently, so basically every studio submits their shots to me on a daily basis. We’re working on multiple episodes at any given time, and I review these shots—around 80 to 100 of them each day—and I make notes on them. There are also many times where I will record myself, as sometimes this is the easiest way to get across my thoughts on the performance.

There’s also a lot of work that is done upfront, earlier in the design process of the episode. From the start of the show, the assets are created. These are modeled, both in-house and overseas from the amazing designs on the show. I’ll give feedback on these and make sure that the characters can move properly. We also have rigging dailies to take a look at the upcoming characters in the episodes. This is to make sure that they meet the deformation and motion requirements that are necessary for the show. Sometimes a still image can look good, but we have some really crazy designs and outfits—plus the armor of the clone troopers—so you have to make sure that it all works onscreen.

You started working on The Clone Wars at the end of Season Three. What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced so far on the show?

With every episode we’re creating new characters, new locations, and new designs—so each and every show has its own special set of challenges. Obviously, we have our main characters: Anakin, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan and so on, but with different story arcs we also get to delve into other characters that people haven’t seen in the Star Wars universe yet. It’s a lot of work creating those characters on an episodic basis, and making sure the character stays consistent across our three animation studios.

Which is the bigger challenge on the show: creating a new character or animating an existing one?

To me, it’s creating a new character. Occasionally, due to different production and scheduling things, we have different studios animate a new character. That’s a big challenge, because there’s a lot of different ways to animate a character. A really great example of that was Pong Krell in the Umbara quadrilogy. He was created across two different studios, with each doing two episodes. A lot of my job is trying to make sure that we maintain a complete character with all the subtle characteristics intact.

Speaking of characteristics, is it difficult to make sure all the clones in the show are different?

The challenge is finding their different personalities. The upcoming arc on Umbara is mainly about clones. Obviously, they all look the same, so trying to make sure the audience could tell them apart by both their body language and facial expressions was a big challenge. Some clones would be more questioning, so I’d have their inner eyebrows up just a little bit, just to kind of get that subtle nuance across that this is the one that’s questioning the orders. There might have been another who is angry about what’s going on, so maybe his brows were down a bit more, his lower lids up slightly more; just subtle little things like that.

Do you have a favorite character?

I tend to like the villains, just because they can really chew up scenery; you can be a little more aggressive with them, have little jaw-rolls here and there and little nuances in the face. It might be a facial tic like we had with Osi Sobeck in “The Citadel.” Whenever he spoke to Count Dooku, we gave him a little bit of an eye-twitch to show how nervous he was. With villains, you can push them probably about 20 percent more than what you can do with your heroes.

You brought Chewbacca into the show —are there any other classic characters you’d like to see?

We just got to do Ackbar in “Water War,” which was really cool. To see him as his younger self, commanding an army in the field was really fun, and to be able to see him mentor Lee-Char was great.

I liked seeing Tarkin come back; it gave the audience a glimpse of what he was like when he was young. As we keep going through Season Four, I’m sure you’ll start to see some more classic characters that have been brought back, but I’ll just wait for those to surprise you as they come!

THE CHEWBACCA CHALLENGE

Keith Kellogg reveals how Chewbacca was brought into The Clone Wars.

“When we introduced Chewbacca to the show, it was the first time the world had ever seen Chewbacca being performed by somebody else. [Original Chewbacca actor] Peter Mayhew was really heavily involved in our recreation of the character and he gave us subtle ideas of how Chewbacca should behave. Peter is the only person to have ever portrayed Chewbacca, and we tried to make sure we were true to his vision. We made sure we incorporated the fact he’s not as aggressive as some of the other Wookiees, and he’s a little more curious, and that he has the movie-Chewbacca’s little bow-leggedness. Hearing all that from Peter’s perspective helped us to bring that character to life.

“There was also a technological advancement because we had moving fur for the first time. Chewbacca was an incredibly heavy character to animate; the animators struggled a bit at first, because of how dense he was, but we came up with ways we could help with that.”

How has it been working with some of the guest directors?

There have been some really big names, for sure. Duwayne Dunham’s episode was an incredibly challenging thing to do because we were going underwater for a three-episode arc. We had to create all-new environments and the characters had to be constantly treading water and moving. I chose a lot of the underwater fight scenes from Thunderball, the James Bond movie, as reference for the animation studios to look at, and I’d constantly be sending them clips of other things. Reference is always the key. Duwayne also pushed us on the amount of characters that we use, and we’ll be seeing a lot more of that in Season Four. We’ve started using Massive at some of the studios, which is a crowd software package, and we’ll be using more of that and fleshing out the universe. It all adds to that level of realism.

Another guest director was Walter Murch, who worked on the Umbara arc. Everybody around the studio was obviously really happy he was here and learned a great deal from him. He’s got so much experience. You can really see his camera-work and all the details in the Umbara arc; you feel like you’re down in the actual trenches, fighting alongside the clones.

When you’re working, do you study the actors at all, and how closely do you work with the voice actors?

One thing I’ve always found to be a really big help in animation is filming the actual ADR [Additional Dialogue Recording] sessions of the actors. You can see what the actors were thinking and get an idea of what their emotions were when they recorded the scenes. In studying the performance, you always find little things that you can bring out that take the performance to another level.

Some of our animators don’t actually speak English, and it’s a real challenge for them to animate lip-sync. So to actually be able to show when the mouth is opening and closing, and what the different shapes are, helps them a great deal.

Would you say that the animation is stylized or is it striving to be more real?

It’s a stylized realism. We’re definitely more realistic than a lot of animated shows are, but we do still have a specific style that we’re trying to hit. We have a very angular kind of design and I try to emphasize that angularity a little bit. Making sure that we have really strong poses is a big deal, especially when lightsabers are blocking blasters. We definitely are stylized, but there is also a high level of realism.

As the show advances, can you tell me what you think is the next step in animation?

In any animated show, sometimes there can be little things which draw you out of the story—for instance, if a walk looks a little stilted or you suddenly realize that something doesn’t look quite right. My biggest goal was to make sure that none of those things appeared on-screen. The second task I wanted to accomplish was really pushing both the facial performances as well as the acting in order to bring a new level of animation to The Clone Wars.

Also, we have so many different kinds of characters and a lot of them walked the same and did similar things, so, later on in the season, you’ll see that different species will start to have a little bit of a different walk and different gait. We’ve tried to give them some personality through that.

What excites you about the future of the show?

Our biggest thing with The Clone Wars is just to try and keep pushing and see how far we can go. Both Joel Aron, the CG supervisor, and myself, really want to push the show to a place it hasn’t been and push television animation further. We want to show that even if you don’t have an incredibly huge budget, you can still make something really amazing and blow people’s socks off.

On our show, there’s a whole lot of drama, which is something you don’t see in many other animated shows. We are starting to portray very real situations and trying to make sure that the acting looks as real as possible. We’re trying to take TV animation to the next level and my goal was to try and do feature animation every week on a TV schedule. This season, you’ll start to be able to see everything that we’ve been pushing for.

GETTING ANIMATED

Keith Kellogg discusses what made him want to get into animation.

“Animation was where I always wanted to go. Movies such as Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and The Abyss are what really got me into the whole medium of CG animation, but getting a job as an animator at a well known studio right out of school was rare. So I started out working in matchmove at Roland Emmerich’s visual effects studio Centropolis. Then I was able to work my way into animation and have been fortunate enough to be there ever since. I’ve always had a drive for both art and technology and thought that computer animation was the best blend of the two. I loved seeing those amazing images that directors were putting up on screen, like the first time the dinosaurs appeared in Jurassic Park, and obviously all the Star Wars movies and the prequels. All that kind of stuff was running through my head constantly, so being able to get to do some of that and work with the live-action stuff was a lot of fun.”

#Keith Kellog #Season 4 #crew #insider #i130 #the clone wars #animation

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