Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released) — Page 81

I will blow up ripplin, in my pants ;]

No, I don't think it will ruin it, as the clip has been seen before, but it'd been lost to time, so I think i'd be a nice refresher.And I know TM worked hard on that midnight balcany scene, as well as the dusk funeral, maybe someone could help the color a little if it does not look quite right.

Good luck(Cough*CLIP*COUGH!!!!!!!!!)

Josh said:

No, I don't think it will ruin it, as the clip has been seen before

Not by me, I don't think... Anyway, yeah, I'd like to see something, even if it was just upped to YouTube.

I feel that I'd be pretty good at color correction if it was needed. The only difficulty would be obtaining the files and then reencoding them without losing quality because I don't have a lot of experience with that. But I've gotten some experience using the more advanced color correction on Vegas (ver. 4) that can change the hue of just the shadow midtone or highlights. I used it extensively for a music video I did with my sister for The Weepies "Hideaway" song.

Original

<img src="http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/60/carolj1eb4.png" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us" />

Corrected

<img src="http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3696/carolj3cz7.png" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us" />

Hopefully the images show up. Notice how washed out everything is in the original. The tree appeared to have the same blue tint from the sky covering so it really looked brown. Simply boosting the saturation would not be enough because there wasn't much color separation (is that the right word?) between the different objects. But using the 3 way color feature enabled the sky to look much bluer while the clouds stay white. And the tree leaves now have a proper green hue to them. 

sounds great! But alas I can't see the pics :[ And I'm not much of a techie so can't help with encoding stuff 

Edit: By going to the Url, I can see them and great job.

Ok, lets see if you can tackle this purple monster

http://rapidshare.com/files/174708162/chase2.mpg.html This is from Tropperman awhile back.

Why is it so hard to key an image in a forum post at this site? It used to be really simple before the new software. This time I tried using the tree icon (Insert/Edit Image) and it didn't work either.

My internet connection was screwey at the time and is fixed now but still.

Here some tests from me :)

-Angel

Edit: :)

Octorox said: The last looks far too Brown. The skin tones are the same as the background. I'm actually working on some color correction of AOTC right now. I'll put some results when I get a bit farther along

Star wars Met the 300 at coloring.This Party Is OVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER :)

-Angel

Nice stuff, vaderios. I like how it looks less cartoony. :)

Is not Mirrored, Just the logo was rotating :)

Really is too dark? hmm I gives a blade runner feeling tho :)

-Angel

Did you just use the regular episode II dvd for the images? What are you using to enhance the images? I think you did a good job with the colors but in some ways I feel like I prefer the original images more. It looks more like Blade Runner which is cool however this is still in the time of peace in the republic. So everything should still look somewhat new and shiny.

I don't know. I suppose it will be up to Trooperman. But I think the city shots look realistic instead of obviously just being desaturated. For the shot of Mace Windu there needs to be a way to alter the color of the background separately from the people.

Knightmessenger said:

Did you just use the regular episode II dvd for the images? What are you using to enhance the images? I think you did a good job with the colors but in some ways I feel like I prefer the original images more. It looks more like Blade Runner which is cool however this is still in the time of peace in the republic. So everything should still look somewhat new and shiny.

I don't know. I suppose it will be up to Trooperman. But I think the city shots look realistic instead of obviously just being desaturated. For the shot of Mace Windu there needs to be a way to alter the color of the background separately from the people.

AOTC dvd.. Photoshop for edits.I remember that a new for its age thing that make star wars so popular and successful was that everything wasn't shiny and new.And in that case of Coruscant down levels it has to look a bit darker less fancy. The curius is in some shots the balance is perfect.Always trying to catch a bit of the old films feeling .IMO always. Like Luthor said: It looks alien...I lacks that human's touch.

You have right on the Windu matter it was made fast.

-Angel

I personally really like the rerendered Coruscant shots (of course couldn't make a decision like that without TM's final approval).  But I'd like to see more.  They look more like Star Wars instead of the Fifth Element the way AOTC does.  Does the way you color graded Coruscant preserve skin tones?  Or do they turn out like the Mace Windu shot?

PaulisDead2221 said:

I personally really like the rerendered Coruscant shots (of course couldn't make a decision like that without TM's final approval).  But I'd like to see more.  They look more like Star Wars instead of the Fifth Element the way AOTC does.  Does the way you color graded Coruscant preserve skin tones?  Or do they turn out like the Mace Windu shot?

The color in the arena scene and Windu shot is made fast thats why I turned that way. The coruscant shots as with the droid factory it contains several settings and some masks.

Like I said i want to make a test of this color corection if someone can provide me a .mov format video with the factory or coruscant chase :)

-Angel

PS: Check this page for more pics:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/The-Prequel-Radical-Redux-Ideas-Thread/topic/9911/page/3/

Knightmessenger said:

Did you just use the regular episode II dvd for the images? What are you using to enhance the images? I think you did a good job with the colors but in some ways I feel like I prefer the original images more. It looks more like Blade Runner which is cool however this is still in the time of peace in the republic. So everything should still look somewhat new and shiny.

True, but new and shiny is one thing; Barney's Purple Playhouse is quite another...

I have to say that I love the color tests, vaderios.  It looks so much better without the ridiculoulsly saturated magentas and oranges. To me, its now a city, and not a giant outdoor rave.  kudos.

I think I will disagree with those who say the skin tones are NOW the same color as the background.  In the original, they are ALSO the same color as the background.  Only difference is, its a saturated orange to start, and now a desauturated brown.  Which I find more pleasing.  I will agree that it is a bit dark.  Some lightening and contrast would help that a bit.

Thanks for posting the images.  great stuff.

After all the i have most fun, toying with the kamino shots. I believe the overal glow that have these shots is to cover CGI problems. Not to mention that (IMO) it works better to have a little more darkness to kaminoans to prelude the dark ages...

-Angel

I do like the new shots, with the exception of kamino (maybe naboo is a bit too colorless too).  I always liked the sort of awe glow that was emmited.  I think the biggest achievement you have made here is coruscent (the city looks amazing now) and Geonosis (everything was so damn orange before).

PaulisDead2221 said:

Okay, video editing looks fine.  I finally got past my initial software issues.  I was just prepared to completely give up, when an unrelated issue with some other software coerced me into reformatting the whole damn thing.  I then reinstalled all the necessary programs, and now we're in flavor country, and all the project files have successfully opened.  It took longer than it should have.

Anyway, video looks fine.  There's going to need to be some changes in terms of a couple of scenes.  The only one that comes to mind is the day for night parts that didn't really work out in the end.  But I'll ask TM before I do anything like that.  I tossed in a couple of explosions where they were missing in the first part to whet the ol' whistle a little bit, and tweaked the mix a bit.  I think I'm used to Vegas now and can move more quickly in the future.

I can tell it's definitely mostly done already, though I think a lot might be missing in terms of ambient effects, then again, maybe they're just too quiet, it's hard to find on the project timeline exactly what is what still, you know? TM, how much did you do in terms of ambient fx for scenes?

Hey, anybody who likes sound editing, particulary building atmospheres, there's a way you can help make this go faster, just putting that out there ;).  PM me if interested.

PS I didn't expect school to take over as hard as it did, but I know TM, being at a real university (rather than my little CC...), could never have made the time for this poor thing.  But with the bulk of the real work seeming to be done, I can concentrate enough energy.  Don't worry, and if anyone likes building atmospheres, you can help move this a little faster while I'm sitting here "doing homework" (I know, lame right?)

PSS, I...could post a clip...but wouldn't that ruin it? :(

Thank goodness the software is all working now.  

"It took longer than it should have."

I think that right there sums up working on "Shroud of the Dark Side.":)

You are right in that the day for night shots in Naboo didn't work out all that well.  It was so hard because of those sunlit bushes that were bright green.  

This kind of extends to most of the color correction, too....feel free to change anything that looks bad to you.  What I basically did for a lot of shots is start with desaturating them to bring down the ridiculously bright colors, and then I did other things to them.  My goal for the color correction, though, was to make the movie look more like the OT.  I know, George Lucas said that he wanted the prequels to look new and shiny and colorful because the Republic hadn't broken down yet, but I don't really buy that.  It just looks fake.  If we can just bring the colors down so that it looks more like a 70's print, I'll be happy.  

I would love to pull off the Technicolor look, but I think the source is just so bad that you have to take drastic measures to come up with something that looks decent.  But I will leave this all to you guys...those are just my thoughts.

I did change the Kamino interiors, by the way...they're not as dark as in the correction that was posted, but they're a little darker than the original.

Regarding the sound mix...I wouldn't take anything for granted.  Some sections are nearly perfect, but most are missing all kinds of things- like you said, we need the correct ambient sounds in the background.  Some scenes I did this...some scenes I didn't.  

One of the problems I had with a lot of fan edits would be that they would just cut stuff out without any regard for the music, and then just fade the music back together, making the whole film really disjointed.  Since I knew we would be going more radical than probably any other edit, I used new music, which gives a sense of continuity through all the cuts, like a real movie.  And I dialed up the music quite a bit louder than in most modern movies...in general the balance I have between music and effects is intentional.  I love the impact of the music without it being drowned out in sound effects.

But having correct ambient sound throughout each dialogue scene would just help to tie it together even further and make it more professional.  

The thing is though, there are some spots where I made a deliberately rough audio transition (such as after the scene where Padme gives Jar-Jar her spot), in order to mimic the style of the others.  It might be hard to tell what is deliberate and what is just unfinished....

I am really busy now (writing a 2-part counterpoint invention among other things), but I was thrilled to log in today and seeing that things are going again.  I'm so thankful that PaulisDead is doing this (and everyone else that's helping) because I see now, there's no way I would've had time to finish it.  

I also think it'll go faster for Paul because he has more objective eyes/ears, and I think he's probably running Vegas on a much faster machine than I was.  A lot of times, I would make a cut, and then wait for half a minute while it unfroze....it wasn't good.  

EDIT: And I completely agree that ROTS has much better colors than AOTC.  To everybody above, those are some really interesting looking shots.  The only thing to watch out for would be crunching the blacks (super high contrast) like a modern blockbuster.  It just wouldn't have been done then.  I really like a couple of those Coruscant nighttime shots though....just any time you have people's faces, watch out.  I know I broke this rule quite a bit, but looking back I was wrong....I went too far with the tinting in certain scenes.

Good to hear from you Tropperman.

I really hope that the moonlight scene is kept, as changing it back would change YOUR MOVIE! Maybe we could get someone to see if they could takcle it with the skills, and there are proposals as we can see ;]

The only thing I can see reverting back to original, is the dusk funeral scene, (correct me if I'm wrong) But Paul and you are the gods so....I'm the eger pesent.

Now how bout a*CLIP CLIP*-......who said that?