thorr

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

There's not much cleanup to do.  Very slight color correction, scene-by-scene tweaking of brightness/balance, some isolated repairs, resizing, and building an appropriate border.  Then the audio..., etc.

Just finished first scan of reel 3.  It's looking good!

Regarding the border, if you would, please just crop it to the top/bottom and sides of the frame leaving the curved edge on the corners alone.

If you want to adjust the color, brightness, etc. please be careful not to wash out the brighter or darker areas.  It might be fine just to leave it as is and not adjust this at all, but you are obviously the best judge about that.

This is how it would look with the cropping:

http://i54.tinypic.com/2b5gn5.jpg

Here are all of the sample pics converted:

http://i56.tinypic.com/2196q1i.jpg

http://i53.tinypic.com/2m9uko.jpg

http://i55.tinypic.com/ymk9x.jpg

http://i53.tinypic.com/302m2rm.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/2cqo1vc.jpg

http://i53.tinypic.com/hx3jbb.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/2ppa8sn.jpg

http://i51.tinypic.com/2hmq4pz.jpg

http://i54.tinypic.com/16apnw3.jpg

http://i53.tinypic.com/2r5bwb4.jpg

Hi Puggo,

I just realized that this is already in quasi-HD (basically anamorphic HD, like how DVD's work, but more resolution)!  You captured this at a vertical resolution of 480.  If you do a horizontal stretch to a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, this comes to 1128x480.  You aren't adding any horizontal resolution, but you are gaining vertical resolution compared to DVD.

PLEASE, pretty please with sugar on top, convert this to an HD format and not just stick with DVD.  It is debatable if you should convert it to a standard resolution like 1280x720p in which case the picture area would be 1280x545 because you are upscaling the vertical a bit which might introduce artifacts.  Either way (1128x480 or 1280x545) would be a drastic improvement over 720x306.

Here is a sample pic:

http://i53.tinypic.com/343rxvp.jpg

Thanks,
Mike

This is really awesome!  Can't wait to see it!  I am curious about using a video camera to do the captures.  Can you try using a flat bed scanner on some of the frames and do a side by side comparison?  I am curious how they will compare in terms of quality, and I always wondered about using a scanner to do something like this, but I don't have a 16 mm film to try it with.  I know it would take forever especially when you have to crop and line up each frame, but in theory it could be done.  I would just scan 48 frames at a time into one picture and then crop them into 48 individual numbered frames (fits on my A4 scanner), then insert them into a movie.  It would take 3600 scans for 120 minutes of film.  Also to do it quicker, only the frames that aren't available in HD already would be needed to get the OT back.  Anyway, sorry for the side track and I can't wait to see the final product!

Mike

I put together a proof of concept.  You need to right click on them and select View Image to see the whole picture.  Of course I slightly missed the alignment in the final image, but you get the point. :)  Edit: I replaced it with a better aligned version.  It is not possible to get it perfect due to the low resolution unless I upscaled it further.  Making it 1280 wide might do the trick.

Widescreen DVD resolution:

Fullscreen DVD resolution:

Widescreen upscaled to 480 vertical resolution:

Final version with fullscreen version overlaid onto upscaled widescreen version:

See the detail starting at Leia's eyeball and looking to the right.

The final resolution is 1126x480.  Not that far from 1280x720p.

If anyone could point me to a place to download a good quality 4:3 version of the movie(s), I would be glad to work on this project.  I don't have a laserdisc player, so I am just looking for something that has already been captured.  I used to have the faces VHS tapes, but gave them to my sister.  They probably aren't any better than the GOUT anyway because they are on VHS.

I have done that very thing before with a double sided DVD (not Star Wars).  It had 4:3 on one side and 16:9 (2.35:1) on the other.  In the end with very careful editing, I got the movie to be nearly seamless (no pun intended) and it was much better than just watching the widescreen version.  I think your idea is totally doable and worth the effort.  I wouldn't mind doing this if I had the 4:3 captures.  I think I still have my scripts around somewhere from before and could reuse them for this.  Every time a scene changes, you need to get the 4:3 area in the right spot.  It doesn't take that long to do a whole movie.

Mike

Ady, your efforts were not totally in vane.  The new version is subtly but much better in my opinion and I noticed and greatly appreciated the differences.  I know others will never be happy, but I am at least.  :)  Thanks!

I totally recognized the new movements to his face and think it looks perfect now.  I think that having him blink is unnecessary and would make it look worse.  Before, his eyes looked like they were looking off to the left and were never moving and it just seemed strange.  Now his eyes are focused correctly and his face moves around his eyes and he seems real.  I also saw the movements of the hologram, but I attribute that to it being a hologram and perfectly natural.  Please change nothing more! :)

Amazing job Adywan.  Now the clip is perfect!  I can't wait for Revisited to be completed to see the rest of your amazing work.

Excellent clip Adywan.  Until I saw your clip, I always hated every version of that scene.  Yours looked perfect to me until I read everyone's comments.  It seems like you can't ever make something perfect because it can always be improved.  The only thing that I would personally change if I was working on this is having a slight movement to his eyes.  I would think that would be easy enough to do and would make him look more alive.  The eyes are the window to the soul, so to speak.  On the audio side, I prefer the "Luke" version.  It really struck me with a chill hearing his name spoken by the emperor.  It was like having a big target put on him and they have been doing their research - they know his name!  Eek!

- Mike

LOL!  Although Mark Hamill did play the lead role in Wing Commander 4.  And that was a pretty sweet game!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvPQHdVG1lc

I also recognized most of the other actors (at least 7 or 8 of them).

Chewtobacca said:

thorr said: I am not sure how to post images, but I just did a quick touch up to a frame from the Puggo Grande to illustrate my point, and it came out pretty well.

Upload images to tinypic and then paste in the URL that it gives you, like this:

]

Thanks!  Keep in mind this was just a quick proof of concept.  I got rid of the scratches and played with the color.

Original

New

I would think that if you could scan the 35mm at a very high resolution, each frame could then be cleaned up with a scratch filter and the whole thing could be color corrected.  This should turn out pretty good.  I have scanned a ton of very old slides and they have scratches, etc. but my Epson scanner does an awesome job of automatically making them look like new old photos.  I am a believer after seeing what that can do. 

If I had access to a 35mm print, I would build a rig to run it through my scanner a few frames at a time, pausing for awhile so it could automatically scan the frames, then move forward and scan the next batch, etc.  After it was all done, it would be a matter of carefully cutting and pasting each frame to get the borders right.  It may be possible to automate this also if the film can be lined up exactly while it is scanning.  Another way might be to use a tool that auto rotates it so the edges are perfectly horizontal and vertical, then look for the edges of the actual picture and auto crop it.

Anyway, it would be a fun project even if it took 3 years to complete for one film.

I am not sure how to post images, but I just did a quick touch up to a frame from the Puggo Grande to illustrate my point, and it came out pretty well.

Is there a full moon or something?  This forum has taken a turn for the worse lately.  Can't we all play nice?

Not sure if you have access to one or if it helps, but I used to use my Sony miniDV camera for doing very clean captures.  It had audio/video inputs and would convert inside the camera to DV format and send it out via firewire.  DV is not lossless, but very close and the files it captures are huge (25Mbps @720x480).  The camera was a DCR-TRV30 which is old now, but I am sure there are others that do the same thing or maybe you can find one on ebay.

Hope it helps,
Mike

Probably not, but with some of the amazing stuff I have seen on this board, I am sure some here are talented enough to throw something together that would be accepted. 

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but here's your chance to submit your fan edit for competition to be judged by the man himself: 

http://www.starwarscelebration.com/en/Events/Fan-Movie-Challenge-Awards/

adywan said:

Bingowings said:

One thing that is possibly impossible to fix (at least I can't think of a way other than building a new carbonite block and filming it) is Han's shirt change from going into the chamber and coming out frozen (it's an error that wasn't fixed in ROTJ either).

I'm actually working on a way of fixing that :)

How about the binder on his arms?  He doesn't have it when he gets thawed out in RotJ.  It's probably easier to fix now than in RotJ: Revisted.  ;)

It looks ok to me for the most part.  It looks like he is on a hill surrounded by fog in the first shot.  In the second shot the fog looks lower than it should be.  If anything, lowering his mound a bit in the second shot would be all that is needed.

Mike

Edit: my response was to the one right before Ady's (not trying to argue or anything).  We posted at the same time. :-)

Adywan,

When this is all done, have you considered posting it as version 0.99 beta to allow for one last round of nitpicking before the final version is released?

I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to, but it would allow for any last whoopsies to be corrected so you don't have to post patches or 1.01 versions, etc. and if any other ideas come forward that you like, you could implement them.  Sometimes seeing a finished product spawns new ideas for improvements that leads to something even better, kind of like with software development.

Thanks,
Mike

Are there any plans to remove the lines on the ground when C3PO is dragged by R2D2?  I am sure this has been brought up before, but I just saw the new clip and nothing appears to be done with it.  This always took me out of the experience and reminded me I was watching a movie because I felt like they did that shot several times to get it right and every time they attempted the shot, they left a groove mark.

Great clip though!

Mike

Ady, hope your bday was great!

xhonzi said:

thorr said:

Maybe in RotJ he can have dualing red and green light sabers coming out of the moving lights, lol.

Mike

 Oooohhh.... what if the search lights are just search lights- lazily scanning the sky until the light on our right ignites green and violently swings at the logo, and at nearly the same second, the light on our left ignites red and swings inward, and blocking the green light (while somehow being on top of it?)  And then Palpatine's cackle fills the surrounds.

(Yes, I know I'm behind the times.)

I like it! :-)

LOL, poor Adywan.  He innocently posts a single screenshot from a "completed" portion of the edit to appease a fan and look at all of the ruckus it has raised.  ;)