We knew that we had to have some vertical elements as a unique description of the landscape, thus we ended up with the idea of an ancient petrified forest. We wanted to make sure that we created a landscape that is undoubtedly Star Wars and does not remind our guests of any other land that was created previously. What were some of the inspirations for creating the rockwork? Most of my team joined the project about two years ago when the field installation began. I personally have been working on Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in both California and Florida since the very first 1:100 inch scale model was produced about five years ago. All the tricks that we have developed over the years to fool the eye – the layering of textures and paint techniques, aging, adding moss and lichens, using translucent materials to make the black spires look like gigantic pieces of obsidian, paying extra attention to the hardscape materials to support the narrative, just to mention a few – if the guests don’t question the finishes at all, then we are successful!įor the rockwork creation (more than 200,000 square feet of rockwork), how big was your team and how long were you all working on this?īetween the two coasts we had about 110 people working on the finishes including field art directors and artisans. The goal is to have our guests NOT question the finishes but accept them as real for what they are in the context of the storyline. Also, starting on Pandora – The World of Avatar, we added exterior Artificial Foliage to the Studio as well. The Themed Finishes Art Studio consists of four major disciplines including Rockwork, Character Façade, Character Paint and Hardscape. What does that include in addition to creating rockwork? I asked Zsolt to answer a few questions about what it takes not only for his team to create this beautiful rockwork, but also about the themed finishes on the buildings in the land that give Black Spire Outpost and the rest of the planet their distinctive look.

Zsolt and his team of talented international artists brought their level of craftmanship and artistry to Batuu.

Zsolt Hormay is a creative executive at Walt Disney Imagineering with many years of design experience and oversees the teams that have built some of the amazing landmarks of Disney’s theme parks including Typhoon Lagoon, the Tree of Life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the Cadillac Mountain Range of Cars Land and the otherworldly look of Pandora- The World of Avatar. It takes a talented team to create the more than 200,000 square feet of amazing artificial rockwork throughout the land. Black Spire Outpost even takes its name from one such spire, darker than all the rest and located in the center of the outpost. Although it is not quite known what happened to these trees over the centuries, over time they became the petrified spires that dominate the landscape today. When we set out to make a real place in the Star Wars galaxy with its own unique geography, we came up with a planet that thousands of years ago was covered by giant trees, many of them thousands of feet tall.

One of the incredible things about Star Wars : Galaxy’s Edge that visitors to the planet Batuu admire is the amazing landscape and rockwork throughout the land.

Star wars scenery painting