ChainsawAsh said:The "Jedi" logo was the only one that I created from scratch (using the Astro font, based on the logo on the SE poster). Empire is an EPS file I downloaded a while ago that's 100% identical to the vintage poster (I perspective-corrected it and removed the "Star Wars" and surrounding circle-thing). "Star Wars" is another EPS I downloaded, but haven't checked to see if there's anything specifically wrong with it.
What do you mean by "slug tummies" exactly?
The reason I'm asking is that I don't want someone to download this, watch the beginning, and then notice something wrong about the opening logo. To me, something like that can ruin the viewing experience of any fanedit. I don't want to have an "Eh, it's good enough" attitude for this project - I want it to be as perfect as I can make it.
If you (or anyone else) have any suggestions for how to improve the logos, please let me know!
Oh, and I did notice a problem with the first "S" in Star Wars that will be fixed.
By slug tummies I direct you compare the upper curve of the small Ss with the lower curve. The upper curves are perfectly rounded but the lower curves have more of a point to them (all be it smoothed but still more angular than rounded). The P in Empire has a very strange droop to the curve to (compare it to the R and you will see what I mean).
I haven't access to the typeset but if you have access to Fontlab, Fontographer or better still Fontforge (because it free) you can adjust these curves. Or if you have the designs as an EPS you could load it into Adobe Illustrator.
Kerning adjustments will help tweak the spacing between some of the letter forms too and help you avoid the crunching together thats very obvious in the ESB title it will also help prevent the clashing of close fitting uprights (like the vertical lines where the T in Strikes almost collide into the S and the R creating the illusion of a double width). Close crunching also makes a slightly off form look even more off. Look at the curve of the C in Back, can you see how the diagonal of the A makes the already off curve seem to bend up?
Be warned it's really labour intensive work which is why some of the faults do (as you point out) turn up on official materials like posters because designers often can not arsed to do it right or don't think their audience will notice. Part of the problem is that the SE title designs were created to be seen with outlines filled in so the spaces between the letters were given more definition. Bear that in mind when you making outline only versions. In effect you are creating a totally new design because removing the coloured in sections you can no longer rely on them to iron out any clashes in the positoning of the letters.
Best of luck because this sort of work looks so easy until you actually try doing it and you have already done a much better job than many I've seen.