Alderaan94

vranir said:

Do you find that Starlight produces a markedly better result than other models like Proteus?

I used a combination of Artemis and Proteus to upscale all of DS9 and VOY for myself last year. I don’t have an active Topaz subscription (and can’t get Starlight because of that) but it is something I’d be willing to consider. My MacBook Pro has 32GB RAM so it should be able to handle it.

Definitely yes. I´ve been doing several tests and I can assure you It´s by far the best model they´ve released yet. Only combination of various models like you mentioned can get results closer to Starlight, but still they won´t have the level of temporal consistency as it analyses lots of surrounding frames. It´s more AI generative than any previous model so sometimes it goes crazy with blurry textures or faces, but it doesn´t create as much as weird/fake faces as Iris for example. I did comparisons between some of the Nemesis scenes improved with Proteus or Artemis + Iris and the Starlight versions and the difference is important. Some scenes that I thought they were unfixable after trying every model and model combo with the previous models, have become relatively fixable thx to Starlight. It does overall repair like removing dirt/spots or correcting green screen related distorted edges (https://imgsli.com/MzczMDAz) or green tint contamination (https://imgsli.com/MzczMDAy). The screenshots named “SV” are from the Standard Version of the edit, which used those previous model combinations. Here are some examples:

Iris vs Starlight: https://imgsli.com/MzgxNjc3
Starlight vs Source: https://imgsli.com/MzgxNjc2 , https://imgsli.com/MzgxNjc5 , https://imgsli.com/MzgxNjgx
Artemis + Iris vs Starlight: https://imgsli.com/MzgxMzk1

Cheers

As the Standard Version was completed, I´m moving the Extended Cut discussion to this new thread: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Star-Trek-Nemesis-The-Last-Rendezvous-Extended-Cut-Fan-Edit-/id/135567#1648092

Cheers

A few months after finishing the Standard Version (https://fanedit.org/star-trek-nemesis-the-last-rendezvous-standard-version/) I started to work on the Extended Cut which is intended to feature all the deleted scenes available. Now after 4-5 months working on the Extended Cut, the editing of the new scenes has been finished and I´ve prepared all the deleted scenes for Topaz Starlight Processing. The ending part of the movie has been re-edited from the Standard Version wit a new order of scenes hopefully handling the issues present in the SV and the Theatrical Version and the musical score for that ending part is completed! I’m sure it will give you some chills. There are also a few more surprise and fixes over the SV. So now the only thing left is the Topaz Starlight processing for every deleted scene. Unfortunately, I´m currently unable to get that done as my system doesn´t have the minimum VRAM to process with Starlight MINI (Smaller local rendering version of Starlight).

Starlight Mini local rendering requires:

• Windows as OS
• minimum 12GB system RAM
• NVIDIA GPU with at least 8GB video memory (VRAM).

My PC has only 4GB VRAM so it didn’t pass the system check when trying to download the model. If someone owns Topaz Video AI and is willing to render a few relatively small clips (12 clips between 30 sec-4 minutes length) that would be absolutely helpful and would allow me to finish the Extended Cut. Ofc some tests would be needed to get the best settings, although Starlight is a standalone model without concrete settings, besides codec/bitrate and resolution options.

Standard Version Trailer:
https://youtu.be/Fg4iBLp8apc?si=ImWk7HMgdZOffiQa

STANDARD VERSION INCLUDED PREVIOUSLY DELETED SCENES:

• Chateau Picard
• Federation Protocols
• Troi and Picard after meeting Shinzon
• Turbolift Violation
• Alternate Ending

REMAINING SCENES TO BE INCLUDED IN THE EXTENDED CUT:

• Extended Wedding Scene featuring Wesley
• Shinzon Plans
• Ten Forward scene with B-4
• Sickbay Preparing for Battle
• Crusher Joins Starfleet Medical
• Geordi and Worf in Data’s quarters

EXTENDED DIALOGUE DURING THEATRICAL SCENES:

• Half a minute of conversation during the Shinzon presentation scene in the Scimitar
• Crusher and Picard discussing young Picard extended dialogue at the end of the scene

Cheers

Hey¡ I´m back to this project now that Topaz has released their new Starlight model. I´ve been busy these last years with my Star Trek Nemesis Edit project (https://fanedit.org/star-trek-nemesis-the-last-rendezvous-standard-version/). I´m doing some tests and the results are awesome. I´ve seen some users in YouTube that already completed their upscaling of all prequel deleted scenes, but none of them seem to have used Starlight so far. Unfortunately, I´m limited by the fact Starlight Mini local rendering requieres 8GB or more VRAM, and I´m still stuck at 4GB. All the test I´m doing are with the Cloud rendering previews which use the FULL Starlight version.

Hello. I have finished this project back in January, thanks to the new 97 SE Recreation by @SonnyGFunk. You can find all the information here: https://forums.thestarwarstrilogy.com/threads/star-wars-rotj-otd83-97-edit.3525

Cheers¡¡

I´ve been trying to enhance some of the remaining deleted scenes for the Extended Cut and as you know, the main upscaling tool has been the famous Topaz Video AI, with overall good results. But in the lowest quality scenes, I couldn´t get rid of some artifacts like weird teeth and hair. And Topaz produces some really creepy artifacts like creating eyes or faces where there´s no. I´ve tried all the models and ended up using mainly combination of Iris and Proteus. In one scene Topaz wasn´t being able to improve the quality at all, maybe because the source is too bad so I went to google and tried some online tools to test and found HitPaw Video AI. Here is a comparison between the source version, Topaz upscaled and color corrected and the one with additional HitPaw enhancement.
https://imgsli.com/MzUwMDA2/0/1
There must be said that I did blend HitPaw output with the Topaz one to decrease the waxy look of Hitpaw version and also used masks in some scenes to just use the HitPaw outputs at concrete parts of the image, but I´d like to hear your opinion abut this as I´m concerned HitPaw is just doing some kind of “Deepfake” to the video and so that´s the reason the “upgrade” is only visible in the head, besides some denoising in the rest of the image. This is another comparison between Topaz and Topaz + HitPaw outputs (notice how HitPaw “fixed” the teeth).
https://imgsli.com/MzQ4MDgy (v1 is Topaz)

So I´d like to know your opinions about this workflow and if there is another alternative or maybe some Topaz model/settings that can do something similar.

Cheers

FVDnz said:

Fantastic! May I have a link to your labours, please (or do I need to PM?)…

PM for any questions regarding the edit plz.

Hii

As some of you may now I´m working on a Star Trek Nemesis Fan Edit. I´ve already finished the Standard Version (https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/1fu1nv6/star_trek_nemesis_edit_big_update_star_trek/) and I´m currently working on the Extended one. I found an issue common to some of the deleted scenes which I´m upgrading. There are continuous lightning changes during these scenes. I´m attaching some examples:
https://imgsli.com/MzI2NDYz

This is one of that scenes. It´s like the lightning is changing every frame creating that sense of flickering.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/194CrPatEe3ZaEu9XaTsaJNSPRqJSdr4N/view?usp=sharing

That same fluctuation can be seen all around in this other scene:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KhBbom5RbRyTMUcU95Byc_BQsp6hRAEv/view?usp=sharing

I´m not sure which problem is causing that or how to get rid of it. Any help would be absolutely appreciated. Cheers 😃

Hii. Are you still working on this? I did try this myself in the past and improved most of the deleted scenes.

So it´s been finally completed 😃
Here is a small Trailer by one friend who did music and CGI for the edit:
https://youtu.be/Fg4iBLp8apc?si=oCDVUmgprtL7lrMD

Vidmaster said:

This sounds great.

Regarding the upscale of the deleted scenes:
Considering the fact that we have hi-def footage of our actors, wearing the same costumes, in the same movie, one might also consider more advanced machine-learning techniques instead of “just” an upscale using a “standard” neural net. By clever combining, overlaying and inputting data, quality might jump quite a bit.

Also: You might want to contact a person named Owen Davies, going by “ODVS” in the internet. He made great strides in upscaling shitty footage in recent years and is involved in many great projects, including the WingCommander4-FanRemaster and the StarTrek:-Borg FanRemaster. That is his YouTube-Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClu1Uwv6SseVHbXIC-b5YFw

Hi¡ Thanks, I will contact him. He is using Topaz Video AI, the same software I´ve been using for this upscaling of the deleted scenes. But this scenes have been color corrected, deinterlaced, AR has been fixed… so upscaling is just one of the steps, albeit the most important to “improve” this scenes quality. DeepFake software wouldn´t work in this scenes because everything is looking blurry, not just character´s faces and costumes. If you “insert” HD characters inside the bad source material, it will look absolutely uneven. I´m not sure what can be done to improve this scenes beyond what I´ve already done given the quality of the source. Btw, there are even some seconds of actual HD footage of some of this scenes from the HD Teaser Trailer.

New Update!! https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/s/I3XyX02VN2

vranir said:

I looked at the Reddit shots. Amazing work! I can’t wait for this to be done.

Thanks you¡¡ There will be a Standard and a Extended Cut. Standard Version at the moment will include 4 of the deleted scenes, while the Extended Cut would include 6-7. The progress is going really good. .I can say now that the Standard Version is almost completed and it’s looking awesome. The deleted scenes restoration is now even better than in the screenshots/comparisons I’ve been sharing and the new music is great.

Alderaan94 said:

Jedi Matt said:

I would love to see this when it is finished! Thank you for all the time and effort you are putting into it.

Hello. Thanks you for your interest. I´ll give a big update on Reddit. There has been a lot of progress recently. This was the last one: https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/18shpo2/star_trek_nemesis_edit_as_never_seen_before_year/

Jedi Matt said:

I would love to see this when it is finished! Thank you for all the time and effort you are putting into it.

Hello. Thanks you for your interest. I´ll give a big update on Reddit. This was the last one: https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/18shpo2/star_trek_nemesis_edit_as_never_seen_before_year/

I´ve been trying to fix one deleted scene from a movie and I didn´t find a way to get rid of this grey/blue halo/glow around characters. It follows character movements as well like a ghosting artifact. I tried a lot of DeHalo filters but didn´t work. I attach two screenshots with the issue marked.

https://imgur.com/a/jY8SfpS

Cheers¡¡

wowbobwow said:

It’s unclear from your post, but I would make sure you’re sourcing the movie from the most recent release of it. It is a much better video presentation of the movie versus the 2009 blu ray.

I didn’t specify on that because the main source video for the edit can be easily replaced in the timeline, if it has the same length which should be the case. If not it wouldn’t be very difficult to find the difference and fix it. Currently I’m using the 2009 Blu Ray but will replace it with the new one before finishing the project.

vranir said:

I don’t know that I’m able to help with the editing on this project, but I’m very interested in your work here, especially what you’re doing with those deleted scenes!

My biggest concern is the haloing in Chateau Picard scene, which is affecting the green screen replacement and the overall quality. You can see it in this screenshot around Data´s head for example. It can be fixed with Photoshop but is a hard work frame by frame and I´m not an expert using that software.

Hello everyone¡

I´ve been working on a fan edit of Star Trek: Nemesis from many years and I think now It´s time to share this project with you. There is a finished version but I´m trying to improve it to get the definitive version of this edit. It is well known that the deleted scenes were cut mostly to give the film a more commericial appeal and more action, but they could have made a much better movie in my opinion. My edit cuts most of the redundant and weakest scenes while trying to recover the missing scenes, at least the best ones that could fit properly in the movie.

Other people have tried to make a fan edit of the last of TNG movies, but the biggest problem is the really low quality of the avaliable footage of the deleted scenes. They suffer from very low resolution, interlacing, bad edges, haloing and wrong aspect ratio. Some scenes have superposed credits and others feature green screens that were purposed to be replaced with VFX in post-production. The new 4k official disks include the same bad quality versions from previous releases, still I would appreciate if someone can send me data from software like MediaInfo from the deleted scenes files included in the new disk.

This is a list of all available deleted scenes:
By order in the movie:
1- Wesley scene during the wedding. 0:54
2- Chateau Picard 4:03
3- Ten Forward scene with B-4. 1:45
4- Shinzon plans 3:24
5- Federation Protocols 1:00
6- Half a minute of conversation during the Shinzon presentation scene in the Scimitar
7- Troi and Picard after meeting Shinzon 1:06
8- Crusher and Picard discussing young Picard extended dialogue at the end of the scene. 0:31
9- Turbolift violation 1:15
10- Sickbay preparing for battle. 0:56
11- Geordi and Worf in Data´s quarters. 1:43
12- Crusher joins Starfleet Medical. 0:36
13- New first officer / Alternate Ending 3:14

This project consist on the following steps:

• Edit changes on the theatrical version of the movie. I own the official Blu Ray version of the movie which is the main source for this edit, but I could also make it in 4K in the future. Currently I´ve finished all the editing work but I´m open to make changes at request or listening to new ideas.
• Improvement of the deleted scenes: This is the main task of the project, and the most difficult. I’m using software like Hybrid and Topaz Video AI to enhance the scenes. Results are really good as you can see here:
  https://imgsli.com/MTcxMTIz
  https://imgsli.com/MTcxMTI2
  https://imgsli.com/MTcxMTI4
• Replacement of green screens with a decent quality background. This would be easier if we can get more defined edges on the green screens, removing the green contamination on nearby areas and the extensive haloing around characters. This last part is a difficult task that would require frame by frame Adobe Photoshop (or other software) editing with content aware filling and some masking. Rotoscoping would be the most costly way to do it. I have test versions which are far from perfect but they´re the best I could do given the very bad source quality:
  https://imgsli.com/MTcxMTMw
• Removal of credit letters in some scenes. This is a difficult task that would require frame by frame Adobe Photoshop editing with content aware filling and some masking. Rotoscoping would also be the most costly way to do it.
• Audio enhancing on the deleted scenes. There has been some small improvement until now with some filters that have eliminated background noise and part of the shhhness of the audio.
• Color correction: As you can see in the comparison images, this edit features some color changes to fit better the theatrical version, as the source scenes are too soft and empty.
• Additional CGI scenes. There will be new footage exclusive for this edit.

So anyone who can/want to help with this project is welcome to participate. Feel free to give your feedback, proposals, ideas and if you want to actively participate in the project, contact me in private message.

Cheers

Alderaan94 said:

SomethingStarWarsRelated said:

I mean, there shouldn’t be grain in the first place, right? Those were shot digitally. Or am I not understanding?

Not native grain, but it could have filmic grain on purpose. As I don’t remember how AOTC looked in cinemas back in 2002, I can’t be sure if it was already without almost any noise. What I’m sure is that it wasn’t as waxy as on the Blu Ray/ UHD versions. But as we are doing this for use in fan edits , I think what will be best for all of you is to have this scenes as much as similar to the Blu ray / UHD releases. So I will take an agressive approach with DNR. If someone is doing an edit which includes a theatrical source (4K02) or some noise restoration tell me via private message and I will share versions with a less agressive approach.

Fulcrum2398 said:

They look great!

Are you going to release any more Prequal images soon?

Hi! Yeah, I intend to release a complete collection of all deleted scenes from the prequels in time. But I’m starting with AOTC as they were the most requested. I’m near releasing finished versions of that scenes using the best tools I have.

SomethingStarWarsRelated said:

I mean, there shouldn’t be grain in the first place, right? Those were shot digitally. Or am I not understanding?

Not native grain, but it could have filmic grain on purpose. As I don’t remember how AOTC looked in cinemas back in 2002, I can’t be sure if it was already without almost any noise. What I’m sure is that it wasn’t as waxy as on the Blu Ray/ UHD versions. But as we are doing this for use in fan edits , I think what will be best for all of you is to have this scenes as much as similar to the Blu ray / UHD releases. So I will take an agressive approach with DNR.

One question. Do you tink I should be true to the BR/4K editions which use extensive DNR (grain is almost gone) using a more agressive approach or make them less waxy? I saw TPM in cinemas back in 1999 and it was much more filmic than the BR and subsequent releases. It had grain as 4K99 project is showing. But I´m not so sure about AOTC or ROTS. If they already had that waxy appearance in cinemas.

benduwan said:

that sounds good.
all scenes from dvd and bluray? unfinished too?

Scenes which are unfinished like Obi Wan being told Dooku’s story in the library will be made only at request. I will be doing scene by scene using mainly DVD as source (BR source is really broken). I’m starting with the dart’s analysis scene.

I have found out that the Blu Ray deleted scenes are missing some and feature more damaged footage than the DVD source, even when they’re presented in its original 23.976 frame rate. They’re also upscaled to 1080p so Topaz margin to work on them is decreased. For that reasons DVD source will continue to be the main source for this project.