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Remastering the 1981 Episode IV Title/Crawl/Flyover (Released) — Page 4

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Indeed, that does look very nice. Good job!

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I really like the compositing. It’s definitely looking great. However, I’m not sure about the added gate weave. It seems unnatural the way the background elements move independently of the ships and other elements. I also think you could potentially increase the grain level on the background.

If I had some gum, I’d chew a hole into the sun…

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Yeah, after thinking about it, I’m going to do a small gateweave on the planet/moon plate to mimic the movement I noticed in the 77 source that Williarob so kindly provided. That looks much better. I still need to balance the colors and brightness of each component. I want to get them aligned first.

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As I’ve gone over the laser bolts, I just have to wonder what the hell the Star Destroyer gunners were shooting at. And there are a lot of flashes of minor hits, but only one big hit. Maybe they can’t shoot any better than Stormtroopers.

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Wow, you’re really committed to the 81 crawl. I like that a lot, because it’s what I grew up seeing, and it helps the film stay connected to all the other episodes (yes, even the prequels - I’m not as critical of them as some, but they’re definitely not my favorites). I assume this will be 1080p when completed?

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Hagdorm said:

Wow, you’re really committed to the 81 crawl. I like that a lot, because it’s what I grew up seeing, and it helps the film stay connected to all the other episodes (yes, even the prequels - I’m not as critical of them as some, but they’re definitely not my favorites). I assume this will be 1080p when completed?

Yes, I’m trying to match it in quality to the work Williarob is doing on his 35 mm restoration. It should exceed it in some ways. I still have to tweak the edge of the Star Destroyer a bit. My draft was ok, my last pass was much better, but I need to tackle it again to get closer (and hopefully to a final state). That is really the last thing I’m working on. I’m trying to decide on whether to feather out the edge more, lighten it, or (in the case of the Blockade Runner) bring the other element in front and feather that.

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 (Edited)

I finally figured out how to deal with the Blockade Runner engines as they vanish behind the star Destroyer to match the 81 flyover. In the process I came to the conclusion that this segment has been completely redone in both 1981 and 1997. In 81 they used elements that nearly match the 77 (you can tell the SD is different if you overlay them, but the engine glow is identical). But for 1997, they did it again. The 81 titles are taken from the TESB element. The crawl remained the same from 81 to 97. In 97 they brought back the original starfield, but it is not placed the same. But the elements have all been recomposited in both instances. In 1997, they used a new engine glow effect and the lasers are desaturated. This is especially noticeable on the DVD and BR, but I’ve noticed a lot of effects shots were scanned with strange settings that reduced the brightness of effects.

I’m not sure I’m on the final version, but if not final, I am close. I redid the planets, cleaned up the starfield (with all the various pieces I used, there was some overlap that didn’t line up exactly. I also enhanced the brightness of the starsfield Poita recovered so the others are dimmer. Meaning that at the right settings, I should be able to degrade this version to nearly match the 35 mm scan. The Blockade Runner is fixed. I had to replace it from the moment it starts to disappear. I used a frame from just before that and forced Vegas to match the original. In the end, I placed that on top, used the lighten setting, and cut of the excess because in the 81 version, there is a flaw where the Blockade Runner engine glow (probably originally a separate element) overlaps the SD instead of fully vanishing behind it. They fixed this for the SE, making it more realistic. But I was going for a match to 81 so I had to match the error. The one part I’m not sure I’m happy with is where the SD passes in front of the large moon. I’m not sure I can get it much closer.

I’m rendering it out now in 1080p… it should take an hour because of the high quality. I have letterboxed it in a strange way… trying to emulate the framing without cutting anything so that it can be further cropped as needed. To match the GOUT it needs to be cropped a certain way. To match other versions it might need to be cropped differently.

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awesome! this is my favorite version, so hopefully someone attaches this to each new Harmy revision

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The only little things I can see to change would be to smooth the edges around the larger moon, and maybe address the “blinking” stars during the crawl. That’s just based on the vimeo version, of course.

If I had some gum, I’d chew a hole into the sun…

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 (Edited)

There is a lot of annoying flickering on almost every E in the crawl, and on some of the stars, but otherwise than that it’s beautiful.

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A bit of aliasing caught my eye.

she/her
mwah

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 (Edited)

See… you get too close and you don’t notice things. I think I need to redo the crawl. I think this was my first attempt at extracting it. I came up with a better way, but I don’t think I saved it. At least I remember how I did it to redo it. That should fix the blinking stars (which are part of the crawl element).

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Are some frames missing at the start of the logo? Other than that, I think it looks great!

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sergejames said:

Are some frames missing at the start of the logo? Other than that, I think it looks great!

No, it is the exact same length as the 77 crawl, the 81 35 mm scan, and the blu-ray, not to mention all the LD preservations. I timed the fade out to match the 81 35 mm scan, so any difference is inherent to the 1981 version.

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Is this rendered in 1080p or 4K?

she/her
mwah

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1080p. That is the resolution of all the source material.

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I seem to be having trouble matching it to the GOUT. Any reason as to why? Am I missing something?

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In what way are you having trouble? This is the exact file I use to replace the 77 crawl in my GOUT project (though I do run it through one additional step to replicate the unique warping of the GOUT image on the left side). It runs the exact same length. Same number of frames precisely. I’ve compared it to the 77 35 mm, the 81 35 mm, the JSC, the DE LD, the US and UK GOUT, the 97 SE, the DVD and the Blu-ray, and a few other older home video versions. You do have to make sure you are using 23.976 fps. I did leave the cropping a bit odd to maximize the picture data, so it does need to be cropped to suit your project. I also am revisiting the crawl text to try and bring out some of the letter strokes that partially vanish and remove the unwanted stars from the Blu-ray, so this is not a finished item. yet. Close.

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Well, I guess by GOUT I mean GOUT synced such as Harmy’s 2.7 Despecialized. I was trying to replace the crawl in the 2.7 with yours but it seems to go wildly out of sync during the flyover. And yes, I keep everything 23.976 fps.

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Be patient. He’s not even done yet.

If I had some gum, I’d chew a hole into the sun…

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Yes, when I’m done I’ll put it up on spleen… right now I am trying to clean up the crawl that I’m pulling from the blue-ray. My previous attempt didn’t keep enough of the text as it faded out and has some pesky stars that are too close in color to the text.

In any case, the key points of alignment are the lasers, flashes, and the final frame. That is how I found out that the 81 35 mm scan had an extra frame in it.

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Extra Frame? Every single source I’ve ever seen has the same number of frames for the title/crawl/flyover: 2834.

If I had some gum, I’d chew a hole into the sun…

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Yes. The same number of unique frames. In the 35 mm scan of the 81 crawl/flyover that came with the SSE 1.0, as the Star Destroyer comes into frame, at 2:26, as the Blockade Runner fires on the Star Destroyer, one of the laser bolts is frozen along with all the action and the grain for a single frame. For its accurate length, you have to cut that extra frame. It is an error scanning the film. Outside of that one instance, when it was an obvious mistake, the flyover progresses frame for frame the same way - all the lasers line up, the flashes, the timing of everything. Even though they used a different Star Destroyer plate for 77 and 81, they still line up perfectly. Every version I have checked, 82 PAL, JSC, SWE, DE TR47, US GOUT, UK GOUT, SSE, Williarob’s current proejct, the 97 SE TB copy, the DVD, and the Blu-ray, all are the same length. the 35 mm is only one frame longer because it has a duplicate that you need to remove for it to be an accurate representation of the 81 crawl (one fo its many flaws). Now, I found an almost consistent inconsistency in the warping of the image. Only the 35 mm scans and the DVD/Blu-ray are somewhat alike (enough to be able to identify and align the crawl as being identical to the Blu-ray and line it up… I step I need to redo), with the SWE being a the closest of the others. And the levels vary considerably. In some home video version, you can clearly see the entire matte of the moons and planets. In others they are black. I have been attempting to match the DE and the 35 mm as much as possible, with the SWE and the 82 PAL version providing the best starfields to compare to.