"or just the horribly wobbly bits?"

Why does that sound like a Python line?

We've developed a few plug-ins for this project. One is a de-noiser, as the laserdisc has surprisingly visible, ever-present video noise. Our de-noiser has successfully removed the video noise without softening the image.

We also developed a saturation plug-in. Simply boosting a saturation control doesn't work because it immediately introduces artifacts into the image as it tries to recruit colors from a palette that's already been truncated. Our saturation plug-in allows us to dial the color back in without this limitation. It also allows us to easily apply the color palette from one image to another, though there are a lot of ways to do that.

There's also a sharpening plug-in we wrote that works a billion times better than standard sharpening tools like unsharp mask, which usually adds edge artifacts and other anomalies.

Another plug-in was developed for things like lightsabers and lasers (I used it to restore the lasers in the opening scene), whereby there is nearly limitless control over the shape, softness, color gradients, etc.

For rotowork, we usually use Commotion 2.x (still the best), which we also use for paint work/clean up.

I'm cool with stabilizing footage where necessary, and for that I'll usually use boujou, or Commotion, or AE, whatever works, really.

_Mike

Cool project Mike.

The only suggestion I would make is the use of a better LD player. Lesser models like the 91 can cause a lot of the video noise that you're seeing.

Consider using something like the CLD-97, which has excellent composite output. You could send that to a capture card with a top-of-the-line comb filter. I think that would provide the best results.

The component mod you've made to the 91 is intriguing though. What kind of comb filter/transcoding solution does that employ?

I have absolutely no idea. I'm no engineer. I can ask the designer, though, if it's really important to ya...

Meantime, I'll look into that 97...

_Mike

Mike, I'm impressed with your work on the opening crawl. I just started trying to take the DVD and do the same and it is becoming damn near impossible to get the 'horizon point' to line up.

Just alittle praise on something that may get overlooked.

Thanks... yeah, there are a lot of things actually going on in there to get it perfect... I think it's 7 or 8 layers of elements.

_Mike

"yeah, there are a lot of things actually going on in there to get it perfect... I think it's 7 or 8 layers of elements."

Having made a few runs at it myself, I can concur. Funny how something that was done so easily as a simple panning optical effect is a bitch to recreate digitally. LOL!

Yes.

_Mike

To the best of my knowledge, all DVD players sold in America add setup to 7.5 IRE at the output stage, though some have a 0 IRE function cryptically called, "enhanced black".

hmm....

_Mike

Mike I noticed on your site that you state you use Adobe After Effects software. Is this the only software you use? And are you able to take the straight raw files and edit them, or do you have to convert like the rest of us?

Also, I did an edit on some footage from the DVD the other night and when I went to burn it for a test it said that the audio and video bit stream would add together to be too much. I understand this concept, but don't understand how Lucasfilm was able to do it, and I'm not.

No, our software principals are After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop, Commotion, Shake, Maya, Rhino, boujou, Stitcher, Imagemodeler, and Pro Tools for audio. We have seats of 3D Studio Max and Lightwave around as well, and a seat of Houdini, but I think we've only used it for particle effects twice. After Effects, especially with some custom plug-ins, is a killer app no matter what anyone says, and TONS of feature shots are finished on it.

In this project, I've so far used Photoshop, Illustrator, Commotion, AE, boujou, and Maya.

As for your encoding issues, I'm not sure what the problem is. We are directly decrypting the .vob files as our DVD image source. Our encoder is Cinemacraft Encoder PRO. Our DVD authoring software is Scenarist, and we have an ac3 encoder which we use to encode the 5.1 448 streams from our master 48kHz AIFF files. We can also burn DVD-9's in house.

_Mike

Well, I took the VOB file straight from the DVD and then seperated the audio and video, clipped a few frames from the video and then remux'd them back together. I used TMPGEnc DVD authoring program and it said the bitrate was outside the readible amount for standard DVD players.

But I thank you for all the information Mike. I think it is great that you bother to reply to all our questions about this.

My generosity is legendary.

_Mike

It's done when it's done... just so long as it's right, I don't care how long it takes. I'm only about 10 minutes into the film, but I've done spots of things in later sections, that I'll be posting sooner or later. There are sections that are more difficult, and less difficult... the opening 10 minutes were exceptionally dense with issues...

_Mike

Just checked out the sight. I must say you are doing phenomenal work. The effort you are putting into that project is a testament to how much of a fan you are. And the respect you are giving Lucas, Fox, etc. is a testament to your ethical responsibility. I guess im just glad to see some people maintain that.
Uh...right on. Keep up the great work.