Hey Hal, I know I’m a few weeks late to these updates, but if you were interested and it’s not too late, I thought I’d throw in a small addition for your consideration:

Back in May, user sade1212 posted a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it transformation animation for Palpatine in the Prequel Radical Ideas thread. You can see the clip here, although they may have a newer version available elsewhere: https://streamable.com/yll8kr (approx 10 seconds in)

This has stuck with me since I saw it and I feel it could really add a nice bit of theatrical polish to your take on Palpatine’s transformation in LoE, if you’re editing it again anyway. sade1212 appears to still be active if you’d want to contact them about the clip.