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***The "Darth Editous" Episode IV DVD Info and Feedback Thread*** - a partially "de-specialed" DVD — Page 4

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Hey David,

I can't believe what I just watched today! It was just stunning. You've made an amazing hybrid that will certainly be remembered and referred back to time and time again. And you do a pretty darn good Mark Hamill impression! I unfortunately didn't have the complete list of changes in front of me when I was watching it, but the fact that I couldn't detect a lot of your changes is a HUGE compliment- they blended in seemlessly!

Major major kudos for such an undertaking! My Paypal is coming shortly!

Matt
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Sorry ... shoulda been more clear. I was referring to the scene after the escape from the death star where Han and Luke take on the TIE fighters. I've always called that the dogfight. All those junk mattes are gone and it looks so friggin beautiful now.

Ahh, I did wonder if that's what you meant. Some of the mattes were removed manually, but most were done automagically with a mixture of levels, curves, and channel mixes.

Hopefully I'll get it in the mail tomorrow! Mailbox campout!


Be careful - if the postie spots you hiding in the bushes he might think it's safer if he doesn't deliver to that house

Brimley, glad you liked it - even the Mark Hamill impersonation. I worked hard to get it sounding right. What did you think of the new non-clumsy Stormtrooper?

DE
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I'd love to see this, but I'm afraid I've jumped on the bandwagon too late to get a copy from Darth Editous. Can anyone help me? Thanks.

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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Originally posted by: Erikstormtrooper
I'd love to see this, but I'm afraid I've jumped on the bandwagon too late to get a copy from Darth Editous. Can anyone help me? Thanks.


Me 2 and Im in the US. (I can convert the PAL to NTSC.)
Is anyone posting it to a.b.starwars?
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So, now that Editous has sent out his copies, what do you all think. I personally think it rocks and this is the version I will put in my DVD player when I want to watch Star Wars - this is how the special editions should have been: a corrected but not bastardized version of the movie. Anyway, like I said, I love it, and it's so nice to see those horrible lightsaber jump cuts fixed, but I still have an issue with the green R2 unit. What's everybody elses views?

War does not make one great.

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this is the version I will put in my DVD player when I want to watch Star Wars


That's the best compliment I could get (that's supposed to be an "embarrassed" smiley - imagine it with a smile)

DE
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Any chance this could be posted at MYSPLEEN.NET or could someone help me out with a copy?

“Good… Bad… I’m the guy with the gun.”

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If there is anyone in the U.S. who has received a copy of this and would like to help Darth Editous distribute it on this side of the Atlantic, I'd be happy to cover the cost of the disc and, of course, shipping. Please PM me.

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If someone can send me a copy I'll up it on the net

PM me if you have it or can get me a copy

“My skill are no longer as Mad as the once were” RiK

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Yes PM me about getting a copy also. I can help distribute it on usenet
or myspleen etc. Thanks! (I'm in the US. If the format is PAL I will convert it
to NTSC before redistributing.)

[edit]
By the way I think I had PM in my profile turned off and I turned it on as
I'm used to boards where it is on by default! So if you tried and
couldnt get thru please try again! thanks!
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(I'm in the US. If the format is PAL I will convert it to NTSC before redistributing.)


I hope you'll be able to get the NTSC version, because you'll have to reencode the video and resample/reencode the audio otherwise, and although it's all digital I'd prefer it if everyone got "same generation" copies.

Four more copies went out this week. There's a padded envelope crisis developing here so the final four (ReverendBeastly, KlingonJedi, Rebel11_38, Hurin) will be next week hopefully. If any of you decide to get it via another member before then, please let me know so I can cross you off the list.

DE
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Originally posted by: Darth Editous
Four more copies went out this week. There's a padded envelope crisis developing here so the final four (ReverendBeastly, KlingonJedi, Rebel11_38, Hurin) will be next week hopefully. If any of you decide to get it via another member before then, please let me know so I can cross you off the list.


So, was I included in the 4 sent this week?
The Jedi are all but extinct.......
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I got it today! Wow, it looks great!

I really like the lightsaber ignitions and retractions. I like how they weren't toyed with except to smooth them out and make them visibly extend and retract.

More later.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Originally posted by: Darth Editous
(I'm in the US. If the format is PAL I will convert it to NTSC before redistributing.)


I hope you'll be able to get the NTSC version, because you'll have to reencode the video and resample/reencode the audio otherwise, and although it's all digital I'd prefer it if everyone got "same generation" copies.
DE


Ok I wasn't sure if you had done an NTSC version since you are in England right?! But if you did and sent them to the US
folks and I can get one from them then yea that's preferable!

[edit]
Actually it occurs to me that if you send the US folks a PAL format we can play it on the computer
but also I can convert it for myself but redistribute it as PAL to others to retain the generation
and then they can do what they want with it for themselves.


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So, was I included in the 4 sent this week?

Yup.

I really like the lightsaber ignitions and retractions. I like how they weren't toyed with except to smooth them out and make them visibly extend and retract.


Thanks

Luke playing with the lightsabre in Ben's hut was a morph, with either 3 or 5 (can't remember) frames inserted. Ben was also morphed a bit, because his hands and head jumped positions. The extra frames gave me room to make the blade visibly extend. Threepio also jumps in this scene - I fixed that by working out the rotation/translation of his body and head from the first half to match the second half, then applying that transformation automagically to all the frames in the first half.

Second bit was Luke turning off the lightsabre after Alderaan gets destroyed - that was easy enough.

Third was Luke turning off the lightsabre to say, "You don't believe in the force, do you?" For this I took a few frames after the lighsabre goes off and slowed them down and reversed them (but retaining the original training ball thingy). Then I painted in the lightsabre to match the original scene.

Fourth was Luke turning on the lightsabre with the helmet on. This was the jumpiest cut of them all. The best alignment was actually between the first frame with the lightsabre and the frame that came about 5 frames before, so I used three or four separate morphs - one of Luke's head, one of his left side, one of his right side, and possibly one of his lower half. These were blended in Photoshop and a matching lightsabre painted in. In slow motion you can see that his hands go from holding the lightsabre one over the other, to one above the other, so his hands seem to pass through each other, but at normal speed I think it works pretty well.

Last was Ben igniting his lightsabre in his duel with Vader. For the DVD it looks like they tried to morph him from position A to position B - but they only used a single frame! I did another automagic shifting thing so his hand stays in the same position. Because there's not much movement in his cloak I did a mix, rather than a morph, to smooth things out.

DE
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Originally posted by: Darth Editous
(I'm in the US. If the format is PAL I will convert it to NTSC before redistributing.)


I hope you'll be able to get the NTSC version, because you'll have to reencode the video and resample/reencode the audio otherwise, and although it's all digital I'd prefer it if everyone got "same generation" copies.

Four more copies went out this week. There's a padded envelope crisis developing here so the final four (ReverendBeastly, KlingonJedi, Rebel11_38, Hurin) will be next week hopefully. If any of you decide to get it via another member before then, please let me know so I can cross you off the list.

DE


Ahh, I was wondering about that. Mail can be odd in Modesto. I must've missed the previous update. ^_^

I definitely look forward to seeing how you've done this. Though it will be a bit awkward sitting through a partial SE. I'll do my best not to let it influence me. Though I may skip most of the Yavin battle.


Made for IE Forum's Episode III theme month - May 2005.

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Originally posted by: Darth Editous
I hope you'll be able to get the NTSC version, because you'll have to reencode the video and resample/reencode the audio otherwise, and although it's all digital I'd prefer it if everyone got "same generation" copies.
DE


Darth Editous, did you make this NTSC version you speak of?

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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Darth Editous, did you make this NTSC version you speak of?


I did, so it's the same generation as the PAL one. The audio went from AC3 to PCM to AC3, the video went from MPEG2 to MJPEG AVI to MPEG2.

...which also answers bomma's PM, since I still have too many PMs to send replies

DE
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How do I hard code alien subtitles into the video like you did?
I'm working on my own edit of the six films, and this sounds like a better idea than creating a subtitle stream.

I am using Womble mpeg-vcr to edit the video, if this helps. (And how, or with what program, do I create scene transitions and wipes that look like a professional editing job, instead of what Womble offers?)

My stance on revising fan edits.

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How do I hard code alien subtitles into the video like you did?


Here's what I did...

I had a still from the SE LD left over from my LD->DVD project a year or two ago. I got that in Photoshop, scaled it to match the same frame from the DVD, then made a text layer. The best match for me was AlternateGotNo3D, 42pt, 70% width, -25 on the tracking (except where characters came too close together), and with doubled spaces. For NTSC you'll need to change the height to 83%. Then I added a 1px black Inner Glow (50% opacity) and a 1px black Outer glow (100% opacity).

That will give you the same look as my DVD in Photoshop. What I then did was make the text red, the background green, and use those levels in a C program that applied the subtitles to right frames.

The inner glow softens the text (and gets rid of interlace flicker) and the outer glow makes sure it's still visible against white objects, like the lamp on the table.

DE
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Originally posted by: Darth Editous
I just had a look at the corridor on Bespin, and I see it now. I missed it the first time because it almost seems like they turn 90 degrees before opening the door. Tricky... but not impossible.

DE


Like I said, I have every shot completed with windows except the one with the stormtroopers entering, if you want them.
It may make the task a bit easier.

http://twitter.com/TheMagnoliaFan

http://www.youtube.com/user/magnoliafan78

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"but I gave you my real name and address so as not to baffle the postman when he delivered a package to Yoda, and a good thing to as I was out when it was delivered and had to collect it from the sorting office."

That wouldn't have been a problem. You could have used your photo ID.

http://cargobay.starwars.com/printed/finance/creditcard/mbnayoda.jpg

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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Originally posted by: Darth Editous
The best match for me was AlternateGotNo3D, 42pt, 70% width, -25 on the tracking (except where characters came too close together), and with doubled spaces. For NTSC you'll need to change the height to 83%. Then I added a 1px black Inner Glow (50% opacity) and a 1px black Outer glow (100% opacity).


Apparently the actual typeface used for alien subtitles in every episode was ITC Franklin Gothic Demi Bold, 69pt with -30 tracking. It is at least what was definitely used for the prequels. I only have the movies on DVD so I can't check, I also can't check whether that means just Demi or if they are faux bolding the text, I presume the former.

http://www.kineticpast.com/starwars/thecheatlaserdisc.gif
Ooh, a laserdisc. The Cheat's playin' something on a laserdisc.
Everything is better on a laserdisc. Whatever happened to the laserdisc? Laserdisc!

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Originally posted by: Gillean
Apparently the actual typeface used for alien subtitles in every episode was ITC Franklin Gothic Demi Bold, 69pt with -30 tracking. It is at least what was definitely used for the prequels. I only have the movies on DVD so I can't check, I also can't check whether that means just Demi or if they are faux bolding the text, I presume the former.


I've read the same page as you, but Franklin doesn't match what's on the Special Edition Laserdiscs, and the font size is meaningless if you don't know the size of the image it was being written to. The o has vertical sides, for example, much like the O in A NEW HOPE on the title crawl. But the LD has a fancier g than the Univers font. AlternateGotNo3D is an almost perfect match.

I haven't checked the subtitles on the prequel DVDs, but they may have been prepared by the DVD team. IIRC, the subtitles on the OT DVDs are some completely other font, and not very Star Wars-y.

DE