I set out to find a happy medium between Despecialized and Grindhouse.
Using ESB Despecialized 2.0 as my base, I liberally applied different variations and passes of the RE:Match filter to extract information from Grindhouse, along with some internal Premiere CC tools to reach what I found was a very happy medium. I use that term loosely, since Despecialized already has an amazing color grade and didn’t require too much retooling, so the grading leans a lot towards Despecialized. Thank you to everyone for their exquisite work that allowed me to proceed with this project.
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Original Post:
I’ve been working on an attempted color correction of the Team -1 grindhouse release, using Despecialized As a reference.
To begin with, i used the parameters set out in the Gout Sync thread to export a gout compatible lossless avi. This means that it also matches up almost frame for frame with despecialized.
I muxed despecialized to an m2ts, then imported grindhouse and despecialized into premiere.
Using the Re:Match Color plugin, I was able to then direct grindhouse to reference each frame of despecialized. For color, shadow, and depth information. (Multiple instances of the plugin were required to use a combination of the different modes)
Apply any other color corrector you’re interested in using. In one of these, i suggest upping the saturation to around 120%
Often after color correction correction, there are blotchy color artifacts. To remove these, I used the Neat Video plugin to filter them out. This works very well. sadly, it then leaves a slightly too smooth picture.
To fix this, i simply added another video track of grindhouse to overlay on the color corrected version with 25% opacity. This ads back fine details and also keeps film grain without being overwhelming.
My computer keeps outputting red flash frames and just isn’t powerful enough to handle this.
Hope to see someone else interested in applying some of these techniques in their own attempts. 😃
Preferred Saga:
1/2: Hal9000
3: L8wrtr
4/5: Adywan
6-9: Hal9000
nightstalkerpoet said:
To fix this, i simply added another video track of grindhouse to overlay on the color corrected version with 25% opacity. This ads back fine details and also keeps film grain without being overwhelming.
oooh, clever trick - I must remember this.
"Close the blast doors!"
Puggo’s website | Rescuing Star Wars
Here are some comparisons:
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/113902
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/113903
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/113904
Have you checked your spleen lately?
Preferred Saga:
1/2: Hal9000
3: L8wrtr
4/5: Adywan
6-9: Hal9000
I’ve previewed my still incomplete download, and what I’m able to view so far looks nice.
I’m not familiar with the filters and techniques you’re using, but from the initial description, I was expecting to see something like Grindhouse with improved color based on DeSP. The final description and final product suggest DeSP as the base. So what role did Grindhouse end up having in this?
The initial description was my intended use for this project. However, the color information just wasn't there in Grindhouse to do a quick and dirty color correction. It would have required far, far more time that I sadly don't have.
Instead, I settled for using Grindhouse to adjust the colors of Despecialized. While the specific color information I needed wasn't in Grindhouse, it provided an excellent source for the theatrical contrast and saturation settings, which brought out some of the depth and detail.
Essentially, as far as I understand, the RE:Match filter applies the LUT concept on a deeper level. You provide a source for the filter to use as a reference. The analysis is then applied to the video you are color correcting.
Since Despecialized is already GOUT synched, I used the script from the Gout SYNC thread to match up the two video files. I then set the RE:Match filter to Match Every Frame mode. That way, every frame that corresponds between the two different versions are matched for a very direct frame by frame correction.
Since Grindhouse has multiple spots with excessive red fade, I did have to drop the amount the correction was blended a bit, and you will find, specifically in the Dagobah scenes, that some of it is still is there.
Either way, I feel that it represents a near best of both worlds :)
Preferred Saga:
1/2: Hal9000
3: L8wrtr
4/5: Adywan
6-9: Hal9000
Thanks, that makes more sense!
Anyone taken a peek at this? Final verdict towne32?
Preferred Saga:
1/2: Hal9000
3: L8wrtr
4/5: Adywan
6-9: Hal9000
BD-25 released. Far Better, since the release is highly reliant on grain. :)
Preferred Saga:
1/2: Hal9000
3: L8wrtr
4/5: Adywan
6-9: Hal9000
So I see this on the Spleen, and am trying to pin down the above messages. I too thought this was going to be the Grindhouse version, with essentially the Despecialized colors. But it sounds like.... this is still the Despecialized video with the colors slightly altered based on the Grindhouse colors? Is that correct?
May the Force be with you.
Yes.
Preferred Saga:
1/2: Hal9000
3: L8wrtr
4/5: Adywan
6-9: Hal9000
Since nobody else has, I thought I'd share some thoughts and opinions on this release.
First, after reading the description a couple of times, I was very excited to see how this turned out. It sounded like the sort of playing around I'd be doing if I had that plugin or the harddrive space. Adding information from a faded print to a fanedit sounded crazy and probably as destructive as helpful, but the results are amazing!
The two issues I've had with the colors in harmy's ESB 2.0 were a lack of overall consistency(especially with saturation), and a large number of shots with overly blue highlights. This version does wonders in making the overall colors look more like film than a patchwork of digital tinkering. It also fixes alot of the blue highlight issues especially on hoth where it feels more like a color boost than something entirely artificial. It fails, however, on more extreme examples like many of the cockpit shots on the millennium falcon (just look at leia's coat when they discuss the "Lando system"). Judging by how bad those shots look next to the gout footage sounding them, I've been assuming they're just place holders untill the whole scene can be replaced with 35mm scans.
I haven't downloaded the full bluray version, but if it's as artifact free as the dvd-9 version seems, you may have saved Harmy alot of work on his v2.5 release. There could be some black crushing going on... but it feels natural enough to me.
I sent you a PM to share my thoughts (indirectly), because I was being lazy.
Sometimes the skin tones look to be too yellow. It’s probably a minority of the time, and I don’t have it open to think of an example. Though some scenes do look better (in my opinion) than Harmy’s, I don’t feel like his has missteps like that, and generally plays it safer. Contrast can be too dark at times. On my monitor, Luke was pretty heavily shadowed as he took off in his Xwing from Dagobah. Detail present in Harmy’s was obscured. But Dagobah in general looked great and natural. I wonder how much was automated, vs. manually adjusted shot by shot?
Hey guys, thanks for the feedback! Sorry it's taking so long to respond, I've got a 3 week old baby girl and things are just starting to settle into a pattern. The entire process was automated and done blanket across the film. No scenes were addressed manually - i lack the time for that, but hope to see results from someone who does because I'm sure they'll be spectacular. I may eventually do another pass just to lessen yellows a bit, not sure yet.
And i agree. My settings didn't do thefalcons cockpit any favors - i can't remember if they did out that much in ESB 2.0 so I'll have to take a look.
Preferred Saga:
1/2: Hal9000
3: L8wrtr
4/5: Adywan
6-9: Hal9000