Welcome back to my blog about balloons, rocket ships, airplanes, space travel, Star Wars, sci-fi, 
and everything about flying. Last night, I was watching Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace and got to thinking about the whole wide world of Star Wars (or should I say, the whole galaxy).
I couldn’t stop thinking about all the different types of creatures throughout the Star Wars galaxy and wondering who exactly created them. Well, I did a little research and found the amazing Terryl Whitlatch. Terryl Whitlatch was the principal creature designer for The Phantom Menace, in charge of creating almost all of the creatures and alien characters — she even designed Jar Jar Binks!
Whitlatch also designed Sebulba, the pod racers, and the creatures of Naboo. Working alongside Star Wars creator George Lucas, Terryl Whitlatch also helped redesign beloved and imfameous characters and creatures including Jabba the Hutt and the dewbacks.
She has written some amazing books about her creature design (my favorites are The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide, Principles of Creature Design: Creating Imaginary Animals, and Science of Creature Design: Understanding Animal Anatomy). In all of her books, the illustrations are unbelievably beautiful and just crazy cool! It is also pretty amazing to read about how Whitlatch gets inspired and how she does all the research to make her creatures seem so real!
I can’t wait to try and design some of my own creatures tonight! I’ll see you next time…in a galaxy far far away!
~ Max
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