Originally posted by: Knightmessenger
I think the color on Phantom Menace looks really good. I actually wasn't that impressed with the color and cinematography on the original films. The lighting looks rather flat, made worse on the 2004 dvd, and the most of the sets look rather drab and dull. Cloud city interior looks like a hospital wing, Jabba's place looks more like a dark cave than a palace. The wall on the Hoth base where 3PO pulls down the wampa sign in a deleted scene looks like molded plastic rather than a cave that was carved through ice. Even Endor doesn't seem that colorful for a forest. I know it's supposed to be a used future look but still so much seems to take place on confining corridors with either white, gray or black walls. I'm not very fond of 70's style and architecture so that might be part of it too.
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?
[URL=http://imageshack.us][/URL]
[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.
[URL=http://imageshack.us][/URL]
[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.
[URL=http://imageshack.us][/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us][/URL]
I think the color on Phantom Menace looks really good. I actually wasn't that impressed with the color and cinematography on the original films. The lighting looks rather flat, made worse on the 2004 dvd, and the most of the sets look rather drab and dull. Cloud city interior looks like a hospital wing, Jabba's place looks more like a dark cave than a palace. The wall on the Hoth base where 3PO pulls down the wampa sign in a deleted scene looks like molded plastic rather than a cave that was carved through ice. Even Endor doesn't seem that colorful for a forest. I know it's supposed to be a used future look but still so much seems to take place on confining corridors with either white, gray or black walls. I'm not very fond of 70's style and architecture so that might be part of it too.
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?
[URL=http://imageshack.us][/URL][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.
[URL=http://imageshack.us][/URL][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.
[URL=http://imageshack.us][/URL][URL=http://imageshack.us][/URL] The Padme picture never had anything wrong with it. Why do humans automaticly associate everything to something on earth? Guess what, not everything is the same as earth. Not every planet in the galaxy is going to have the same color sun. What if the sun in the Geonosis system is a redder light? It would make everything redder. Plus, the sand on Geonosis is suppossed to be redder than sand like is on our beaches. Also, the sky of geonosis is red. This also creates the red tone. The picture of padme is right, because that is how Geonosis looks. It is very red, and is suppossed to be.