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Thought on de-SE'ing the DVD — Page 13

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Editous,

This project is really interesting to me. I haven't read your list of changes, I'd kinda like to wait until I can see the finished thing and see what I spot.

One thing about the screenshot you've posted above: Is the top strip (the one just below the dome) supposed to still be blue?
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Originally posted by: RichKS
Editous,

This project is really interesting to me. I haven't read your list of changes, I'd kinda like to wait until I can see the finished thing and see what I spot.

One thing about the screenshot you've posted above: Is the top strip (the one just below the dome) supposed to still be blue?


Yup. If it had been red, to match the rest of R5, I would have turned it green but as it doesn't match his main colour anyway, I've left it as it is.

But maybe it would make more sense if it was green as well... I'll have to look at some other droids and see what the theme is.

David
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Love what yu're doing there Darth Editous, can't wait to see the finished product.

The new green is a lot better.

How did you manage to paint out those two droids when the Land speeder comes into Mos Eisley? That was one of the things I wanted to change when I get around to editing the Trilogy, but I couldn't figure out how to do it successfully.

Is it possible to get a copy from you? I sent you a PM, but I haven't heard anything back. It might be too early to ask you this, but since I'm sure that I am not the only hoping to get one, I thought I would ask anyway.

Great work man!
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To anyone who has sent me a PM - don't be offended if I don't reply, I'm saving all your PMs until I've made my final burn.

Those two droids were one of the hardest things to fix. I tried a few different ways around it, but eventually did it like this:

I made a new background plate, painting out the droid as best I could. I then used my subpixel tracking/translation programs to cover up the droids in the first part of the sequence (after cutting 3 seconds off the front of the scene), where the camera is relatively static.

Once the camera starts moving, I gave up on the subpixel stuff (it's not neccessary for fast moving scenes). On each frame I would paste my plate on top, aligning it against the rusting spaceship in the background. Then I would transform (a skew and a scale) the lower half of the plate so that it followed the perspective of the ground, then made a mask so the droid continued to be covered as it moved (because of parallax) relative to the spaceship. That took a bit of touching up because the edges of the mask sometimes made it look like a wobbling cloud.

Then it was a matter of copying and pasting to fill in the parts of the landspeeder behind the droid.

When it came to the audio I couldn't do a simple cut or crossfade because the sound of the little droid going "boing!" was still present. So I had to loop a small section of the preceeding scene. Just recently I went back to it and had to adjust the volume a little because of discrepancies in the volume (it sounded like the landspeeder got a bit louder, than quieter, as it disappeared into the background). There's a slight loop in the music but it sounds fairly natural.

David
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You obviously know much more about video editing than I do, because I didn't understand how to do half of what you said! It sounds great though, and your screenshot looked awesome. I am looking forwad to seeing your final product.

When you do finish finish this, would it be alright if I used sections of it in my own edit?

Oh, and I had something I wanted to ask you about fixing, but I can't remember what it was. I will post later if I can figure out what it was.

Great work man!
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Hey Guys,

I've posted a few times, but I figured today would be the perfect day to let you know about my super duper deluxe edition of ESB (that I'm doing). I hope to restore the film to it's original glory, while adding in my own little things here and there. These additions have been approved by my six year old brother, and he actually helped me a lot during the restoration process (he’s very talented with MS Paint). Let’s get into it, shall we?

1. The movie starts off too abruptly. The probes that are shot out of the Star Destroyer blend in with it too much- by giving them a slight purple hue, they stand out better against the ship and the darkness of space, and purple is a royal color, so it makes the Empire seem super powerful.

2. Luke’s first appearance lacks some oomph. I've taken some clips of Sprocket the dog from FRAGGLE ROCK and blended it with the original audio of the taun-taun. I never liked how garbleed he sounded, so this new mix should suit it nicely. It gives some personality and depth to an other-wise bland creature. Luke now refers to Han has his “dear friend” instead of “old buddy.”

3. I liked what the SE did with the wampa, but it's hard to tell that it was actually the wampa that dragged Luke to the cave. I shot some footage of my dad in a wampa costume dragging my little brother through the snow, and the scale matches quite nicely. Master Replica makes some awesome miniature lightsabers, and it fit perfectly with my little brother’s snow suit.

4. Luke and Leia's kiss just shouldn't happen (gross!), so I took some footage of Luke in Dagobah and repainted his hair to make an all new character that I affectionately call "Bather." Bather now sits near Luke with dark auburn hair, but instead of Leia kissing Luke, she goes and kisses Bather. I might add in some Bather dialogue while Luke is in the bacta tank just to give him a little background so he doesn't seem to come out of nowhere.

5. Now the Hoth laser blasts actually hit the Star Destroyer while the transport high-tails it! One for the Rebellion!

6. Darth Vader no longer avoids debris as he walks through the base- he nods and it moves out of his way using THE DARK SIDE.

7. Yoda now has a lightsaber attached to his belt in all of his scenes with Luke. And threatens to use it during his fight with Artoo.

8. Han and Leia's kiss now goes on a few extra seconds (I just looped it once or twice). I always thought that it was unrealistic how fast they fell in love, so this extended kiss makes that part more believable.

9. Blue milk was added to the Vader feast scene. Also, I took the mediation chamber “helmet-off” shot and matted it in, so it looks like Vader is having a meal right before Han and Leia come in. It just adds more humanity to Vader, cause the dude has to eat, right?

10. In the cave on Dagobah, the Vader mask now reveals Bather instead of Luke. This harkens back to Bather's death on Hoth, which is alluded to when a voice over can be heard saying "Why did you leave me to dieeeee?" Now it makes more sense for Luke to leave his training, since he doesn’t want any more friends to die! (Luke now adds “like Bather.” when he mentions that Han and Leia will suffer.)

11. During Han's interrogation scene, when we cut away to Boba and Lando we now hear Han explaining about Ord Mandell. It fleshes out his comment to Leia earlier in the film. I also removed the dialogue when he says "they never asked me any questions" and replaced it with "I think they're preparing me for being frozen in carbonite."

12. When Luke's hand flies off, there's a quick cut away shot of a young blue skinned servant grabbing the saber and hand with a tractor beam, so that Thrawn can make Luuke later in HEIR TO THE EMPIRE. Just a little shout-out to just EU geeks out there!

13. Yoda now says "no, there is a sister" instead of "no, there is another," since I remember people thinking that “the other” could be Boba Fett. This clears up any confusion.

14. Chewbacca now has suitable subtitles, which add more depth to an already vaguely resentful relationship with Leia.

15. Threepio's dance number in the Muppet Show has been color corrected added to the slug-stomach scene, for a light hearted respite from the film's deadly serious tone.

16. 21B's is now assisted by an elderly Jar-Jar, who accidentally drop's Luke's new hand and has a fight with Artoo over who will pick it up! LOL!

My hope is to send this torrent out soon. In fact, I've already heard back from Rick and George, and they've stated that many of my alterations will be present in the 3D version of the film (I can't wait to see my Dad and little bro through those polarized lenses!). I'll keep you posted as this develops.

Happy April 1st,
Brimley
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Brimley, that was a great read! Are you going to work on RoTJ after this?

David
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Originally posted by: Darth Editous
Brimley, that was a great read! Are you going to work on RoTJ after this?

David


Thanks David! I'm glad you (and hopefully everyone else) can have a sense of humor about our work. Lord knows I've toiled at plenty of things in my fandom (prop replicas anyone?), but I'm a firm believer that it's an entirely healthy thing to sit back and look at how silly our obsessions can be!

And hopefully none of us will be adding a dancing Threepio to ESB any time soon!

Cheers,
Brimley
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LOL...It wasn't until the second line that I realized what was going on. (MS paint - HA!)

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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Blue milk just shot out of my nose.
I am fluent in over six million forms of procrastination.
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You had me up to:

Originally posted by: Brimley
3. I liked what the SE did with the wampa, but it's hard to tell that it was actually the wampa that dragged Luke to the cave. I shot some footage of my dad in a wampa costume dragging my little brother through the snow, and the scale matches quite nicely. Master Replica makes some awesome miniature lightsabers, and it fit perfectly with my little brother’s snow suit.


Great read, man. I must ask though, how long did it take you to come up with all that, or was it just a spur of the moment thing?

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Lord Editious, have you considered adding in a bar to the middle of the falcon's windsheild to match the model shots of it in the movie, and rest of the trilogy.

Perhaps, grab it from ESB or ROTJ.

See this shot for details.

I would like to see the bit of the glowing ring that us missing its glow, directly underneath from where the falcon enters the DS hangar, fixed.

Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabris, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.

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Originally posted by: Commander Courage

Great read, man. I must ask though, how long did it take you to come up with all that, or was it just a spur of the moment thing?


Just a spur of the moment kinda thing- probably took around ten minutes (added up between doing various things at work).

Glad you enjoyed it!
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To Editous, and others engaged in similar projects:

Are you re-encoding the entire movie, or only the parts you have changed. If the former, how the hell do you have the space? If the latter, how are you managing to join your re-encoded mpeg2s with the parts from the DVD, every method I have tried has introduced artifacts at the point of the join.

Many Thanks.

El Lono.

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Originally posted by: skyman8081
Lord Editious, have you considered adding in a bar to the middle of the falcon's windsheild to match the model shots of it in the movie, and rest of the trilogy.

Perhaps, grab it from ESB or ROTJ.

See this shot for details.

It's an idea, but I think I'd rather remove the bar from the exterior shots (if I wanted to spend the time, which I don't!).

I would like to see the bit of the glowing ring that us missing its glow, directly underneath from where the falcon enters the DS hangar, fixed.

http://img14.imgspot.com/u/05/93/05/glow.jpg

You can probably see where the fix was made, but it's the last frame of the shot and I don't think you can tell when you watch the sequence.

If the former, how the hell do you have the space?


I have a 300Gb external hard drive

If the latter, how are you managing to join your re-encoded mpeg2s with the parts from the DVD, every method I have tried has introduced artifacts at the point of the join.


Are you re-encoding entire GOPs (Group Of Pictures - from one I-frame to the frame before the next I-frame), or just parts of GOPs?

I don't know for sure, but if you're trying to chop and change MPEG2, you should re-encode from the previous unchanged GOP to the end of the edited GOPs.

For example, if you have five GOPs:

IBBPBBPBBPBBPBB-IBBPBBPBBPBBPBB-IBBPBBPBBPBBPBB-IBBPBBPBBPBBPBB-IBBPBBPBBPBBPBB

and you edit the middle GOP, you should probably reencode from the first frame of GOP 2 to the last frame of GOP 3.

And for the best encoding experience (to ensure all bidirectional frames are truly bidirectional), I think you should re-encode the first 4 GOPs, and then splice only GOPs 2-3 into the original sequence.

David
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the hangar fix looks prety airtight to me.

I'd say take one of the interior bars, rotate it to be vertical, and the interiors will match the exteriors.

Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabris, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.

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How about a before and after of the hanger picture?
The Jedi are all but extinct.......
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Editious, I would love to go back through your dvd and re-time the colors.

Reading SWLegacy has made me see the color casts and I can't unsee it.

Have you thought about re-cutting the battle of yavin to match the earlier timing from the original cuts?

I.E. splitting the passby shot back up in to the original two-shots.

Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabris, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.

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I'd say take one of the interior bars, rotate it to be vertical, and the interiors will match the exteriors.

I'll have a look to see how much work it is, but I think it would be easier to remove the bar from exterior shots. It's probably something I can happily live without fixing

How about a before and after of the hanger picture?

I don't have a "before" available right now, and to be honest you probably won't see the difference unless you take them into an image editor and turn the levels way up - I already turned the levels up on that screenshot and you can barely see the glow (there's the white light, the grey border, and then the glow is outside that).

Editious, I would love to go back through your dvd and re-time the colors.
Reading SWLegacy has made me see the color casts and I can't unsee it.


I don't mind if you want to re-time it, or do anything else to it for that matter. I honestly can't see much of a problem on the shots on the SWLegacy site. Where he says one shot is blue and one shot is grey, if I look close and squint, they look like two very slightly different shades of blue...

Have you thought about re-cutting the battle of yavin to match the earlier timing from the original cuts?
I.E. splitting the passby shot back up in to the original two-shots.


I'm not sure which shot you're referring to, but I'm happy with the battle as it is.

David
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There is a small moment in the detention block where Han is yelling to Luke that Leia is a "wonderful girl". During this scene, Han has a make up smudge on his stormtrooper armor below his chin which appears and disappears. This might be a candidate for a little something to paint out.
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LOL

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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And could someone explain to me the purpose of the green R5 unit? I think I know why, but I want to make sure I am not missing anything serious.
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After R5 blows up on his way to the farm and Owen decides to take R2, there's a shot of R2 back in the line that has that very same red R5 in the frame. It's painted green in this edit to make it seem as though they brought out a totally different droid to supplant the exploded one, thus eliminating the continuity error.

I used to be very active on this forum. I’m not really anymore. Sometimes, people still want to get in touch with me about something, and that is great! If that describes you, please email me at [my username]ATgmailDOTcom.

Hi everybody. You’re all awesome. Keep up the good work.

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That's what I thought. It seems that this only creates more problems that it fixes. A green R5 unit seems just too noticable to just sneak into the shot. I'd either cut the shot entirely (or move it backward where it belongs) or paint out the droid all together. Just put another Jawa infront of him.