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Disney Plus' new Star Wars animated show Maul - Shadow Lord has a cutting edge approach to its animation style, blending CG with traditional techniques for a look that stands out. Maul - Shadow Lord follows a growing trend of finding new ways to incorporate old school hand drawn animation into CG shows and movies, notably Arcane, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, and of course the Spider-Verse movies.
"Dave Filoni wanted us to put the hand of the artist in every frame," supervising director Brad Rau tells SFX Magazine. "So you see more brush strokes in the skin tones, in the buildings and in the [background] matte paintings. Joel Aron, our director of lighting, photography and effects, had this really cool idea, where his team would paint on glass with actual brushes, and then scan those brush strokes into the computer. In the pilot there's this great hero shot of Maul as his lightsaber turns on, and if you look at the smoke next to him, there's actual brush strokes in the smoke."
Personally, I'm pretty excited to check out the show. The latest trailer for Maul - Shadow Lord shows off plenty of kick-ass double-bladed lightsaber action, expanding on the acrobatic Lightsaber Form IV combat techniques Maul shows off in Star Wars - Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, in the best duel of the prequels.
Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord premieres on Disney Plus on April 6. In the meantime, check out our guide to the other upcoming Star Wars movies and shows to get up to speed on everything else on the way from the galaxy far, far away.
