How was the Razor Crest designed? who designed it?
The Razor Crest, the main ship used by the lone bounty hunter in the show, has an aesthetic that predates that of the well known star wars ships, like the X-wing.
The designers of the ship at ILM, people like Doug Chiang, the design supervisor, and Ryan church, concept design supervisor, took inspiration from old aircrafts from the WW2 era, and those found in airport graveyards and other derilict aircrafts, to make the design for the Razor Crest. Jon Favreau, the director of The Mandolorian, likes the design of the A10 warthog, a twin turbofan engine jet made for the US Air force, and so it was used as a starting guideline for the Razor Crest. The idea for the design of the Razor Crest was it is a early design for a spaceship so a WW2 aesthetic was given to it.
They wanted a shiny aluminium warplane look for the Razor Crest, so they had to make sure that the shiny aesthetic of the plane looks good in all the different environments of the show, and any that the ship goes to in later seasons.
ILM wanted to make a miniature model of the Razor Crest so they could get a proper idea for how the landing gear worked, so Jon said why not just make one big enough that they can shoot like they did for the original star wars movies.
What was the basic approach the ILM took for creating the in-show shots of the Mandalorian's signature space craft "The Razor Crest"? What different skills were required to make the spacecraft?
They had to strike a balance between scale and detail to make sure they can hold it up close enough to the camera but to be able to make the shots dynamic enough that they can get far enough away at the end of the track travel to get sufficient speed and range
They decided to 3D print the model in house and had to separate the model down to smaller components to make this possible so they can get all the shots they need with the model and make sure the balance of scale and detail is kept. They had to make sure the 3D model was as good as the digital model so it works across the entire show and doesn't look off in anyway. They used molds to make the shape of the model and took the 3D printed pieces and put a foil over it to give it the look they desired.
Back with the original star wars movies George Lucas wanted to make everything look as real as possible, and using models of the ships and blowing them up on camera for shots is what allowed him to make his movies pieces of art.
How did this approach improve the quality of the show and what are your thoughts / feelings on ILMs workflow?
Having not watched the show myself i can't truly say how it's improved by having these shots of the ship. However, from the shots shown in this video and from the impression given by the team at ILM it appears that these shots were just as good as the CG imagery and helped to build a solid base of quality for the CG work.
The workflow at ILM appears very open and friendly. Each member of the team appears to know each other very well and they all seem to love what they're doing. It was mentioned in this video how members would come and inspect the model a lot and the person putting the components together for the ship would grab them as soon as they were printed to get working asap. It truly seems like this was a project they loved to do and the company have a healthy work ethic and environment.