Star Wars Prequels 35mm 4K Filmized Editions by Emanswfan (a WIP) — Page 14

It's quite baffling how often major motion pictures don't blur CGI backgrounds. It makes their fakeness that much more obvious, in many cases there's no way it'd  be in focus along with the foreground.

kk650 said:

There is no chromatic abberation anywhere near that strong in the OT, or indeed in any film that I can think of. Perhaps the chromatic abberation would look better if it was way more subtle but as it is there it's not a good look IMHO, it looks way too artificial, not at all like any film i've even seen. It's your project of course so whatever you want goes but I would certainly do something about it if I were in your shoes.

Apart from the chromatic abberation that shot looks great.

 Yes, it generally isn't as strong as that usually but I did want to at the least eliminate the red line around Anakin's face in the original shot.

poita said:

What are you using for depth map creation?

3D Depth Map Creation Workflow:

First: I am using a cheap program I got ages ago called MakeMe3D which is pretty much a glorified Pulfrich effect.  It detects motion between different frames (and detecting camera changes) and is able to make a decent 3d conversion for scenes with motion of sorts.  It actually stabalizes and adjusts the Pulfrich effect accordingly for the detected foreground and background.  This program allows me to get much of the base for the depth information.  Luckily this works better than usualy beacause pretty much every one of those shots has a decent amount of motion, for this to work really well.

I then pull that into 3D Combine, where it calculates a depth map for each frame, and I can make some further adjustments there.  For example, if one frame has an error or lack of detail, I can fill it in with into from the previous frames depth map.

Next, I pull that depth map into photoshop and make some frame-by-frame adjustments to add more detail and adjust contrast in the depth map.

Finally, pulling it into AE I can use put it as a layer synced with the original footage to use Camera Blur effect referencing the depth map to create the miniature effect.

I would really love to use YUVSoft's Stereo Processing Pro Suite, but it seems it's far too expensive and I don't even think you can get it for personal use anyhow.

Now if they had only still rereleased the rest of the PT in 3D (they had it finished!) and then came out with a 3D Bluray set...

poita said:

If they really did have the other 2 PTs completely finished, then there might be a 3D BD release at some point, the cost of mastering and distribution isn't all that high, and it would recoup some of the costs.

I'd be surprised if they were completely finished though, usually you use the money from the first project to fund the next one.

You should give PFDepth a try, there is a two week free trial, you can knock over a lot of frames in two weeks :)

http://www.thepixelfarm.co.uk/product.php?productId=PFDepth

 Pretty certain that they were finished, they screened them in Europe, I believe.

I actually totally forgot about the programs from Pixelfarm, I'll try that.  Thanks, would certainly expedite the process.

yeah they showed it at the Europe Celebration - before that the plan was to bring out ALL 6 movies in 3D, one every year, but that didn't work out as we saw ...

even the thought of cramming 2 or more in one year was dropped, and then Lucasfilm went over to Disney and now "3D" is on complete hold - not just the release of Episode1 3D on bluray

maybe if Disney would focus on their older productions (eg: TRON), that they would start marketing the other stuff in 3D ...

Full "Anakin at the Opera" video clip, coming tomorrow!  It is rendering right now.  I'll make a less compressed version available for download in addition to being able to view it on my Vimeo channel.

cool, the one scene that was really good, but had a little plastic look ;-)

Right where's this clip then? ;-)

emanswfan said:

poita said:

If they really did have the other 2 PTs completely finished, then there might be a 3D BD release at some point, the cost of mastering and distribution isn't all that high, and it would recoup some of the costs.

I'd be surprised if they were completely finished though, usually you use the money from the first project to fund the next one.

You should give PFDepth a try, there is a two week free trial, you can knock over a lot of frames in two weeks :)

http://www.thepixelfarm.co.uk/product.php?productId=PFDepth

 Pretty certain that they were finished, they screened them in Europe, I believe.

I actually totally forgot about the programs from Pixelfarm, I'll try that.  Thanks, would certainly expedite the process.

 Anyone read this?

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/07/26/ive-seen-star-wars-episode-ii-attack-of-the-clones-in-3d-and-i-want-to-tell-you-about-it/

lpd said:

Right where's this clip then? ;-)

 It's finished rendering yesterday afternoon, but I was busy with the superbowl yesterday.  So I didn't start uploading it, till an hour ago.  I'll post the links very soon after they are done.

So I leave my house to run errands.  Come back and see my computer is on the log in screen, that's odd.  I had Windows 8, and it was saying "Preparing settings" or something like that.  Guess it updated to 8.1 for me, how nice. :)

BUT GUESS WHAT?

MY WHOLE SYSTEM RESET AND ALL MY FILES ARE GONE!  Guess it's time for Recuva.

SCREW YOU WINDOWS 8.1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-(

timdiggerm said:

emanswfan said:

MY WHOLE SYSTEM RESET AND ALL MY FILES ARE GONE!

 Uh...what

 Not too big of a deal.  They'll probably recover fine, just the new clip will be delayed a few days.

I have been looking over this whole thread, and I have a few questions:

1. Why are you adding chromatic aberration? The OT were shot in single-strip Eastmancolor, and (aside from those dye-transfer UK prints of the original) were printed in single-strip Eastmancolor. The fringing of Technicolor came from the fact that three color records were merged - most of the world wouldn't have seen the first film in 3-strip Technicolor, and nobody would have seen Empire or Jedi this way because no IB prints were ever made.

2. Why would miniature shots have anamorphic blur? The effects were shot in VistaVision, which was not anamorphic - they were only printed down to 4-perf anamorphic 35mm in the compositing stage. So the only anamorphic distortion would be from printing the effects elements down to Panavision, there wouldn't be any anamorphic lens distortion in the actual filming of the miniatures. (Though I'm sure they took the distortion of the live-action scenes into account in the optical compositing process, especially in Empire and Jedi - this article for example)

I hope I got my info right. Anybody who knows more than me (because I certainly don't completely know how all this stuff worked), feel free to chime in.

Also, I think I figured out my issues with the Slave 1 shot. First, there is a lens blur effect across the entire shot, when in the OT this would have been a composite which would not have had consistent in-camera blur of that kind. This looks like it was shot live in Panavision (when as I said before, they were actually separate elements shot in VistaVision - the only part that would have been shot Panavision would have been the actors)

Also, I haven't seen AOTC since the original release, but is the Slave 1 just stationary on the platform in this shot? In the OT, a shot like that wouldn't have been done with a miniature of Slave 1 / the platform, but with a matte painting. Matte paintings didn't incorporate those sort of lens artifacts.

Have you thought of cutting out and separately grading/blurring different elements to give it that optical-composite feel (though it would make the project a lot longer and more difficult)? I know they were trying to make sure disparate elements blended together, but the actors, Slave 1/platform and ocean should not all look like they were shot through one camera lens, should they?

Your version looks like a miniature in a water tank, and even then that's not what ILM would have done, since water is the same scale no matter what scale you do the miniature in. For the shot of the clipper in Raiders of the Lost Ark, they combined an authentic plane shot on dry land, a matte painting of the dockyard (and Pan Am livery on the plane), and actual water off an actual pier. An OT Kamino would have probably been a live plate shot on water, plus a matte painting of the whole platform including the Slave 1, and live footage of the people in the middle.

Maybe if you cut out the platform from the water and applied separate blur filters (and not anamorphic ones, since again, the effects were filmed in VistaVision for higher clarity and less grain in optical compositing)? I'm not sure...maybe this would just be too much work.

And I certainly don't completely understand how all this worked, nor will I pretend to. It's just that to me, while your shot looks better, it looks wrong in a different way. (Though I will admit that in your grading, the thin white matte lines around the platform towers seem to give it a little bit of an optical-composite feel, even though they were there in the original version.)

Sorry, I haven't responded to your posts before, been busy trying to get my computer back up to shape.

Wow, thank you for the details on how the shots were composited in the OT, I will take that into consideration when working on the shots.  I'll see about making another version of the Kamino shot sometime relatively soon.

In other news, I've gotten better at making films look older.  For example, here's a non-SW shot (from Chronicles Of Narnia), where I nailed a very old 30's BW film stock look pretty spot on.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/59283

I used a completely new technique I made myself relating to the sharpening, blurring, and grain addition.  The distortions I made here add a lot more authenticity to an old look, along with curve film adjustments made in previous PT screenshots.

The OT does have these artifacts that I can't find a name for, but not to this degree.  The issue is trying to do this in color, which currently doesn't work.  I'm trying the technique with my current shots to see if I can get it to work.  There are at least some shots where they are starting to look very-70's look, but have issues with certain colors and shadow/highlight detail.  I probably won't post anymore screenshots until I know this can or can't work.

Also, I've found older films flicker slowly and largely and wobble quickly and extremely small.  But they are actually very very subtle artifacts that come from shooting on older 35mm camera mechanisms and not poor re-prints and scans.

New clip up!

https://vimeo.com/86378320

Vimeo Description:

Here's my next test of working with grading SW Ep. III to look much more like the OT. The digital look is truly gone from most of the shots. And much of the set/background CGI has been much improved by this. I'm still working on the colors a lot, they look far too modern, but I have gotten the lighting to respond closer to what I want. The palpatine conversation, and the council scene still need lots of work to look older.

I have audio this time, with an in-the-works oldified sound, which sounds overdone right now, partially because the grading is still not where I want it.

Password:

SW35OT

Will have 1080p far less compressed version soon available for download via 4shared, need to re-render for larger file size plus I accidentally left off a layer of color correction in AE that is somewhat important.

I liked the presence of gate weave, even though it may be a bit overdone as NeverarGreat said.

I am no fan of the prequel trilogy, and all the other problems are still in evidence, but I will say that with your treatment, whenever the camera was on Ewan McGregor it was almost as if I was watching the OT.

Apologies if I'm waxing poetic, but those shots of Obi-Wan make me feel like I'm peering through a crack in the space-time continuum into a parallel universe, and seeing a faint glimpse of what the prequels should have been...

TServo2049 said:

...whenever the camera was on Ewan McGregor it was almost as if I was watching the OT.

 Agreed! I didn't think this would have such a profound effect on my enjoyment, but it really did. Video seems the best way to demonstrate how effective your changes are.

Everything might be pushed just a bit too far beyond "70s Star Wars" and into "faded 70s TV Show" for my taste, and If I were asked, I'd say lose the gate weave entirely.  That said, I am aware that this is your project and I really enjoyed the clip. 

Great work so far. 

Well since I'm doing a larger file render, I'll be certain to make those adjustments.

I still want to keep some gate weave, so I could maybe cut the amount I currently have in half, so it is more subtle.  I do feel it helps the CGI a lot, especially Yoda.

Audio is still in work, I have already planned on deepening Anakin's voice and raising Yoda's voice to get a more OT feel.

In regards to the color, I still feel like it doesn't look quite right, I still feel many of the shots feel too new.

Interesting Joel, that you actually feel it's been pushed a bit too far. Still don't feel that way.

One thing I should note, that these color grading settings here when applied to sets and places existent in the OT, look like they are from the OT.  Which means, I might just be stuck with certain color schemes that are just there.

EDIT: Just realized Vimeo screwed up some shots in their encode and their is a weird jitter and shake that's not supposed be there.  Is there any confusion with that jitter and consistent gate weave throughout the clip?