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Harmy's THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Despecialized Edition HD - V2.0 - MKV & AVCHD (Released) — Page 6

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Harmy said:

Sure, I'm gonna do that once it's all done :-)

Great to hear! On a slight side note, I just noticed that I don't have the latest ROTJ version of your PDE trilogy. Could I get a PM with the links if they are still available?

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 (Edited)

Thanks Harmy. Does the audio fix have to be implemented with this version as well or is it all good?

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No, that's the whole point of this version, same picture, better sound :-)

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Sweet. Looking forward to it.

Since we're on the subject of sound, what are you plans for the sound for the Despecialzed versions? Are you going to use the exact same setup as the PDE or will there be any changes?

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Sorry, I'm not gonna repeat that again, when it was discussed on the previous page (or maybe the one before that) ;-)

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Sorry, must have missed that. I'll just go back and find it. Thanks.

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OK, Empire is finished, I looked into all that you guys commented on on the workprint and fixed what I though needed fixing. I'm just waiting for 005's review of the workprint, because I know his eagle eyes will spot mistakes mine wouldn't ;-)

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I'll have plenty of time this week, as I'm going to be on travel with my laptop so I'll be able to watch the whole thing Monday night probably.

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Sounds great Harmy, can't wait to see the finished product.

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Alright, here are my comments, written as I watch it:

I wish the "Long Time Ago" was clearer. Maybe the titles could be recreated? It's not the best first impression for "HD".

Could you recolor the thruster blasts from the pods, I miss the blue. Adywan has them on ESBR, so if you're not sure how to do it, maybe Ady will let you have the clip (unless he changed something else about them, which he might have).

While you probably couldn't lower the probe droid down, could you put out the fires and darken the smoke back? First SE change, and its the first thing I look for when I'm IDing which version something is.

The Wampa cave looks great. The frames being off isn't an issue, so that's good.

I guess I'm OK with the Executor bridge not having giant matte lines. ;-)

The SE mistake of seeing Veers through the wall of Vader's screen remains, which while replacing the frame of the screen would be easy, the fancy wipe at the end of the scene (which is probably why they recomped that last shot anyway) might be hard to match.

Most of the snowspeeder changes I had to see frame-by-frame originally, so they're not a problem.

I would recolor the last transport, I've never liked the blue, even if it "blends in better".

Black R2 is awesome, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. ;-)

The lightsaber replacement in the cave is well done. The lower quality of the effects adds to the dream feeling.

The X-wing being raised matte looks great, but the X-wing was moved higher and they added a shadow on the fog. Perhaps you could matte the X-wing lower and repeat some frames of the fog to cover the shadow.

Maybe consider recoloring the Falcon back to its blacker color as they approach Cloud City?

The distant shot of Cloud City before Leia's apartment needs some more atmosphere/blue. And the Cloud Car isn't exactly right, but that's not a giant deal.

The distant hallway as Han and Co head to dinner: as people pass over it, their clothes turn orange. Especially noticable as the last lady wearing all white passes in front of it. Maybe matte out the characters, or even just do it halfway so the color change isn't as noticeable.

Is it just me, or does the frame jump around a little when the elevator window appears (well, disappears)?

I like that you added the shadow back to Han's shoulders. It's the little things.

Lando's lips could use some more work. Good idea only using the lips from the GOUT, but maybe use the bottom half of his face? It looks off.

That's it!

Overall, I'm very impressed. There's a lot of work (un)done here, and I'm really just nitpicking at this point.

So, my work here is finished!

*wipes hands on pants and disappears into Disney World*

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Thanks 005 :-)

 

doubleofive said:


I wish the "Long Time Ago" was clearer. Maybe the titles could be recreated? It's not the best first impression for "HD".

 

The workprint ones were just temporary but I won't be recreating the title cards but I think the ones I'm using now are better. 

Could you recolor the thruster blasts from the pods, I miss the blue. 

That's why I needed you, an easy fix that I missed. Check here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHcSllYWspg

While you probably couldn't lower the probe droid down, could you put out the fires and darken the smoke back? First SE change, and its the first thing I look for when I'm IDing which version something is.

It was on my TO MAYBE DO list, I gave it a shot but I couldn't get it to work to my satisfaction, so I decided to leave it.

I would recolor the last transport, I've never liked the blue, even if it "blends in better".

Maybe consider recoloring the Falcon back to its blacker color as they approach Cloud City?

These are the same case as the probe droid.

 

The SE mistake of seeing Veers through the wall of Vader's screen remains, which while replacing the frame of the screen would be easy, the fancy wipe at the end of the scene (which is probably why they recomped that last shot anyway) might be hard to match. 

I don't know which shot this is, I couldn't find it in your comparisons. Could you maybe post a link to the corresponding comparison pic?

 

The distant shot of Cloud City before Leia's apartment needs some more atmosphere/blue. And the Cloud Car isn't exactly right, but that's not a giant deal.

Yeah, that was a colouring problem and I think it is a lot better in the current version of the colour correction.

 

The distant hallway as Han and Co head to dinner: as people pass over it, their clothes turn orange. Especially noticable as the last lady wearing all white passes in front of it. Maybe matte out the characters, or even just do it halfway so the color change isn't as noticeable.

I was never really happy with that shot but no matter what I tried, it just made it look even worse, so I'll probably just keep it as it is now.

Is it just me, or does the frame jump around a little when the elevator window appears (well, disappears)?

Yeah, I noticed that too, it should be better now.

 

Lando's lips could use some more work. Good idea only using the lips from the GOUT, but maybe use the bottom half of his face? It looks off.

Yeah, I was gonna try doing some more with that but I must say I'm quite proud of that whole sequence. It's still far from perfect but it was a really difficult one (even Ady gave it as an example of a difficult sequence  in his reconstruction when refusing to release it in HD) and I think it turned out OK considering the sources available, just compare it with Ady's version, I think it's definitely an improvement (well he challenged me to it, so challenge accepted ;-) )

Overall, I'm very impressed. There's a lot of work (un)done here, and I'm really just nitpicking at this point.

Thanks a lot, I'm glad you liked it and I hope the finished product will be even better :-)

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 (Edited)

Oh, and I forgot, for the lifting of the x-wing I used Ady's recreation that he made for the ESB Reconstruction, so the credit should go to him. But I'm gonna remove the shadow and make it HD for the most part while I'm at it.

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hey harmy,

 

did you fix the light sabers at bespin?

thats one thing that always stood out to me.

"I will laugh my ass off a hundred years from now when the only version of STARWARS people remember are harmys despecialized editions.  They will project it on a 20' by 40' screen with perfect quality."

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Well, they're improved and closer to the original but I didn't replace them like the ones in the cave, just fixed them through colour correction.

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cool...i guess it was really the colors.

could i test it out if you are done?

"I will laugh my ass off a hundred years from now when the only version of STARWARS people remember are harmys despecialized editions.  They will project it on a 20' by 40' screen with perfect quality."

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Well, the final version isn't done yet but I'm test rendering it right now, so the workprint is also not an option any more. But it should be out by the end of the week :-)

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 (Edited)

Also if you are basing it off of adywans recolor of ESB there is a scene where just before general veers shoots the power generator he shoots down a speeder.  Veers asks "distance to power generators" and the guy replies "one decimal 2 8" then veers shoots down the speeder.  In the original theatrical version the ATs laser shots are clearly visible and have a clearly defined redness to them.  in adywans recolor of ESB the blaster shots coming from the AT are very white and almost invisible (very hard to see).  They were probably screwed up to begin with in the Special edition by lucas but I like the more red/defined versions of the blaster coming from the AT.  Actually come to think of it alot of the blaster shots in the battle of hoth are just plain hard to see in the special edition mostly towards the end of the battle being shot by veers AT.  It's just a nitpick but it's always bothered me.

"I will laugh my ass off a hundred years from now when the only version of STARWARS people remember are harmys despecialized editions.  They will project it on a 20' by 40' screen with perfect quality."

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Well, the test encode didn't go so well, it took almost 12 hrs and it doesn't work in anything else than VLC but I know how to get around it, only it will take like two days to encode. Also, I skimmed through it and found a few more things I want to fix, so the release is more likely to be sometime next week.