Today the remastering resumes in earnest. I have storage space again and I am collecting all my sources together. I have the 1977 35mm scan for reference and stabilization (and perhaps more), I have the SSE 1981 crawl/flyover scan, I have the 1982 PAL pan and scan (it has lots of stars so it will be a primary alignment tool), the LD DE (again for alignment, and some for coloring), and the Blu-ray (for stabilization, good source for planet and moon, and to aid in enhancing details), and a copy of the original matte painting of the planet and moons (for the correct matting).

Step one is to do a rough alignment of the Star Destroyer flyover in Sony Vegas. Then export the images and align them by hand in external graphics software. A lot of work, by my previous effort showed that due to the condition of the 81 flyover, this is the best way. If I can use a good stabilized scan of the 1977 flyover I may use that instead. My comparisons show that they are identical - they only changed the matte used to composite the effects, not the actual effects shot. That would simplify things greatly, but I’m not sure it is any higher quality. The blu-ray has too many differences other than to use for a reference.

Once I have a stable flyover, I’ll create the layers and mattes and then start putting it back together.