You mean like this one for example?
i might sound like a total noob but... will these play on a standard DVD player or do they require blu ray?
The AVCHDs, will only play in Blu-Ray players and coputers. Empire is also available as a standard definition DVD though and the other two will as well.
Wow!
Possibly one of the most stunning recreation of the theatrical version ever? Hell yes.
Harmy said:
You mean like this one for example?
Hm.... I love your process, but that one looks quite odd. For the original, you need to use the low-rez falcon, I understand that... but it seems you used a still of the low-rez falcon. The thing is... the small grain won't make it appear lifelike or part of the picture, especially if there are small hi-rez stormtroopers on it's side... is there any way to use the moving GOUT image for this thing, and not a still, or will it jump around the screen?
Maybe it would also be possible to loose resolution of the HD-image, so they fit better together.
Anyway, I believe it's more important to have the shot work in itself, even if the resolution is lower, then have the old elements stand out. I think you make marvelous work with the rotoskoping, but using still images can stand out very fast and call attention to the effect.
"You're a wizard, Harmy!"Harmy said:
trooper flip image
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Harmy said:
Marvelous work Harmy.
@topper: Yeah, this is exactly the case where the shot jumps around like crazy in the GOUT and also it just looks bad, so I used a screen from the shot from DJ's blu project and I personally think it looks pretty good, though I did just make a new version, which I think looks better.
About the flipped forest shot, I had to rotoscope around the trooper and it's far from perfect, but I don't think I can do any better. It looks OK though and I think it's definitely worth it, because it looks much better than GOUT.
Here's a new video containing a few recently finished shots.
Man, that's pretty neat.
The Death Star explosion seems strange, with such a clean backdrop contrasted with a composite of a bad explosion.
I agree with the above poster about the Falcon sitting in the Death Star.
That shot of the X-wings taking off was spectacular; another instance of a shot that looks "wrong" only because I've never seen it look that good!
Hal 9000 said:
The Death Star explosion seems strange,
Although I don't know any technical reasons as to why or anything, I agree, I thought it looked strange. Everything else was just beautiful though.
I think it's because there's inconsistent "bleeding" of the composite.
In the GOUT, the whole image is brightened as the explosion moves outward. In Harmy's, only the somewhat arbitrary parts of the frame from the GOUT are illuminated.
Hey Harmy, what's your plan for releasing these with file sizes meant for BD's (hopefully double layer) with a more efficient video codec (and maybe a nice lossless audio track or two tossed in there as well)?
Think it'll happen anytime soon after these are released? Difference would be minimal obviously given the sources but I was just curious, it can't hurt.
On a completely unrelated note how the fuck do you make these 24p? I noticed when playing back Empire it was flagged as 24p. Do you use some kind of wacky 2:3 pulldown on the interlaced broadcast/DVD/LD sources?
Tweak color for dirtbike. Always on table.
The han retreat from the storm troopers on the death star looks flawless. how did you do it? Did you rotoscope around the troopers?
Also how did you get so good at video editing? are you self taught?
"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."
Harmy said:
Here's a new video containing a few recently finished shots.
I really like most of what I'm seeing here. Great work Harmy. The shot of the falcon approaching the death star looks a little off though.
"Oh, don't sell yourself short Judge, you're a tremendous slouch."
Yeah, I'll still need to tweak the DS explosion a bit but I'm definitely keeping the HD background plate.
@josh: I did indeed rotoscope around Han and the stormtroopers. I'm glad someone noticed because it was a bitch, I spent like 5 hrs working on that sho(i)t. But I'm very happy with the result.
@stinky: I have no plan whatsoever to release this on blu-ray. Maybe if I make a version based on the new blu-rays in the future but the master file HDTV captures are something like 16GB and I'm working from a 7GB 720p encode, so blowing them up to BD size would be totally pointless.
Harmy said:
Here's a new video containing a few recently finished shots.
It looks awesome!
I'm really looking forward to this release.
Thank you, Harmy, you're the best!!
Come off it! You're the "chosen one" :D
This is legendary , you are giving to us what George stole from us.
STILL MISSING SCOTLAND, OH FLOWER OF SCOTLAND DAH DAHHH DAH DAHHHHHHHHH DA.
Thanks, guys :-)
Oh, and sorry Josh, I overlooked the second part of you question. Yeah, I'm self taught. I used to play with Photoshop a lot and I found After Effects really confusing but in time I started doing some simple stuff and figured it out. I'm sure there's still a lot to learn but for that I'd need a teacher I think.
Here's a new version of the DS explosion, let me know what you think :-)
Harmy said:
Here's a new version of the DS explosion, let me know what you think :-)
That's perfect.
"Oh, don't sell yourself short Judge, you're a tremendous slouch."
NICE!
One word: Incredible. Seeing the gradual updates to this project is certainly a highlight of my day ;)
I don't know if you've already thought of this or if anyone has suggested it, but would better results for some of the composites be obtained by using footage from the Empire of Dreams documentary?
They're not the best quality ever, but anamorphic resolution is available for what shots there are. It might improve somewhat over using GOUT-based video. I think the shot of Han with the stormtroopers at the dead end is there, and some of the Battle of Yavin, but it's been a long time since I've looked at that so I don't remember everything it has.
Just something to consider. ;)
Hi Harmy:
Are you using After Effects CS5 or later? If so, have you played with the Roto-brush tool? It can do a pretty good job of taking some of tedium out of roto work. You can find tutorials and demos of how to use it all over the web. Most of the stuff I do is shot greenscreen, but for what you're doing the roto brush could be a timesaver.
In what color space are you working? HDTV (Rec. 709)?
Keep up the good work.
Shawn
hairy_hen said:I don't know if you've already thought of this or if anyone has suggested it, but would better results for some of the composites be obtained by using footage from the Empire of Dreams documentary?
Also, I don't know if anyone has addressed this, but is there anything you can salvage from the THX WOW demo reel? I remember it had a few shots of the battle of Yavin.
