When I first watched Phantom Menace in '05, I was completely blown away by the varied landscapes and vistas, detailed set design and colors that were very vibrant while still looking natural. The visual effects looked great and I think they still hold up fairly well even today. They just don't have that much resolution but I think after a certain point, trying to add more detail to CG just makes it more obvious because that just brings out the fake texture and unnatural sharpness. Ironically, I think the biggest aspect of where the prequels actually improved on the original films was not visual effects but rather set decoration and design, costumes (especially prosthetics masks) and the minature sets. It's a shame so much of II and III used blue screen.
Anyways...
I decided to try color correcting some screenshots from episode II.
I thought this shot looked pretty good to start. How was the landscape generated (if it was real world, where was it shot?) and how was the house made?
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[URL=http://imageshack.us][/URL]I don't think this correction is perfect (part of R2 becomes overexposed) but I think it gives you a good idea.
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[URL=http://imageshack.us][/URL]This is probably one of the better examples of the oversaturation that TM was referring to. But if you were to jack up the saturation on the image all the way, you would reveal the problem with the shot. Padme's face will look pretty much the same color as the sand she's lying in. So basically the face of someone and desert sand under broad sunlight is not able to be differentiated by the camera in regard to color. The image is also too far red shifted and fixing that makes Padme's shirt more white. I think I adjusted the contrast/midtones with the shot but not very much. I also desaturated it which was more effective with the other fixes.
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