Jaitea said:

shadows set to hard, rendered with motion blur &

Motion blur is good.

engine lights pointing directly at camera with lens flare

Star wars doesnt have so many lens flares in space in OT apart is an optical bug from the lenses. You added a starglow effect in the engines which is good (ANH is full of that cross lens shit all the time)

I'll try it again but in multiple passes & as you say render in 2k then down res it for project

Try that but not limited to. The up rez solution will give you some valuable film artifacts and a less clean rendered look. V ray is a nice option but even a scanline render with the proper settings can be used as a nice base

This image might help you of some useful artifacts that you need if you want to break some of the CG looks.

(most of the errors i see are when they just scale down detailed elements into a simpler environment. They havent have the same density of detailing and the damn simple blur cant do the justice :)

, the Death Star is still....& planet does pan slightly, so perhaps a slow scale for Death Star.

The deathstar even in the closeups in ANH shows some turning curvature that adds a bit more life to the shot

Any ideas of anything more menacing than a needle for the Torture Droid, perhaps a dentist tool

The only thing that comes to my mind is to stabilize the probe while entering the prison room. So fake and bubbling

J

-Blue