Take an obscured shot meant to hide the wheels of the speeder vehicle, reposition speeder, add computer-generated hull, and viola, an impressive Special Edition fix-up.
Here's a side-by-side comparison shot of the original, sparse Mos Eisley matte painting, and the new more detailed digital one. The digital matte adds additional haze and flying starships into the mix.
The original shot features an extensive digital makeover. The sky has been repainted a more intersting hue, and starship traffic has been added. Note that the speeder actually hits the ground, kicking up gravel, in the Special Edition.
Scurriers are small pests native to Tatooine. In urban areas like Mos Eisley, they tend to cluster in alleys and wherever else scraps of food and refuse can be found. The male scurrier has a twisted pair of horns growing from its head. The scurriers were CG creatures built from the velociraptor topography from Jurassic Park.
1) Gallofree Yards medium transport vessel.
2) A team of ASP-7 worker droids loading the transport.
3) An Ubrikkian 9000 Z001 landspeeder.
1) Numerous bulk freighters and space barges.
2) The remnants of the Dowager Queen colony ship. Note that the Special Edition cheats the placement of this landmark. This crash site should be just outside the cantina. In this shot, it is nowhere near the cantina.
3) This is a nice touch. Watch Threepio play tourist as he looks around at the new digital scenery.
1) Dash Rendar's Outrider freighter, developed for Shadows of the Empire.
2) A clone of Luke's Skywalker speeder, travelling in the opposite direction.
3) A pack-carrying ronto.
4) An extra, sitting on the edge of this circular opening.
5) A charred and demolished building.
1) An R1 astromech droid
2) Tatooine sunlight reflected in the swoop's rear-view mirror
3) The entrance to the cantina. Again, effects animators cheated the placement of the cantina, since it is not really located on this new digital street.
4) A serendipitous R2 unit. This is neat. Although this R2 unit was filmed over 20 years ago, it reacts perfectly to the bucking ronto, swerving to avoid the ponderous beast.
This new special edition shot is actually more involved than first looks indicate. The horizon line is lowered to show more sky. The cityscape is built up with new digital buildings. A ronto and swooprider are added. Furthermore, the existing extras from the first shot -- a shot that was never intended to be an effects shot -- have been broken down into individual elements and retimed. So the extra that crosses the camera at a specific point in the original now walks on at a different time. The speeder has had its bottom cut-out so as to hover higher.