ChainsawAsh

That's just EU reasoning to explain something that shouldn't have needed explaining, because IT DOESN'T make sense for the first to take 20 years and the second to take 3.  Yeah, the second would go by much more quickly than the first, but not THAT much more.  At most, I'd say 8 years for the first and 3 for the second makes sense, and that's stretching it.  IMO 5 for DS1 and 3 for DS2 makes the most sense.

Alright, here's my HTTE suggestions, part deux (from page 38 until I have to stop once more, or the end of the book, whichever comes first).  This is based on the new HTTE that Darknikos just posted, so I'm going to skim through pages 1-38 first to see if I notice anything else.  Barring that, here we go:

- While you fixed the lightsaber at the bottom of page 34, it now goes outside the panel's frame.
- Page 38 - while I like the Kamino reference, if you could make the speech bubble for it come out of the "Use team four next" speech bubble (the same way "I promised you Jedi ... " and "What's the report from Wayland" bubbles at the top of the page are attached), it would make the panel read more smoothly and seem less cluttered.
- Page 39 - "Interesting.  Continue, Captain!" sounds strange and unnecessary.  I'd replace it with "Rumors?  What good would rumors do us?"  It's a bit more, which will make such a large speech bubble feel more appropriate, and it makes Thrawn seem like less of an idiot at the same time.
- Page 44 - I'd make the laser blasts from the training remote yellow to match ANH (I think they were yellow).  As it is, they look a little strange being the same color as Luke's lightsaber.
- Page 47 - Get rid of the radar dish on the YT-1300 that's impersonating the Falcon.  That was a custom modification Han added, as evidenced by YT-1300's in the background in AOTC/ROTS that don't have the radar dishes.  Unless you think it likely that they would have rigged it up to make it look more like the Falcon.
Page 49 - "This is where I fought my nightmare battle with Darth Vader" - is that bit of exposition really necessary?  I mean, it's not obvious where he's at?  Same with "I'm back on Jabba the HUtt's skiff ..." which is actually even worse than the first one!
- Sidenote about page 72: Is Leia naked in the top-left panel?!  I clearly didn't pay enough attention to this comic when I first read it ...
- Page 72-73: Thanks for restoring much of Ralrra's lines from the novel.
- Page 80 - great job removing yslamiri references here.  However, bottom-middle panel, Karrde's line reads "...And don't think about running.  I guess you'll find Mara... a great opponent... for a Jedi."  followed by Luke's "..." - Karrde's should be "...And don't think about trying to escape.  I think you'll find Mara a ... worthy ... opponent."  I don't think "For a Jedi" is needed.  Further, I suggest Luke's "..." - while not bad in itself - should be replaced with "Or ... " to make it seem like he counter-offers Karrde a lot more quickly than he now does, making him a bit stronger.  Then, I'd remove "always" from Luke's next line (so it would now read, "You could return Artoo and me to where you found us."
- Page 87 - "Blast! She has destroyed the commands!" on the bottom-right should say "Damn!  She blasted the controls!" (I changed "Blast!" to "Damn!" because saying blast again one word later would sound very awkward, and "damn" has been used in "Star Wars" before, this book included)
- Page 91 - Karrde: "What I do find compelling is that they're our guests.  That means they're under our protection."  - this would flow a bit better this way: "But they're our guests, which means they're under our protection."  I would also change Mara's "I don't agree, but I accept your decision" with a simple "I understand" - it makes her seem smarter and it reads less clunky.  I also don't think "And move Skywalker's lightsaber" is necessary - a good replacement would be "Good.  See to it."
- Page 92 - Top-left panel: change Luke's "we will" to the contraction "we'll" (flows better).  Next panel: change Luke's line to "I feel no presence within Mara ... maybe Karrde is wrong about her ... ".  Then, the text block: "It would take more than a blasted control panel to hold a Jedi captive!  Reaching out with the Force, Luke finds a switch ... "  then the next text block: " ... and the door swings wide open!"  I'd also change Luke's "Freeze" to "Wait."
- Page 93 - Luke's line in the second panel on the right should have a question mark after "Gone."  I'd also change "If the Force will be with us" to "If the Force is with us."
- Page 94 - Luke's first line needs to be changed to make him sound like less of Basil Exposition-like character ("Let me bring you up to speed ... ") - I'd change the line to "I see it, Artoo!  It's one of Karrde's ships.  And there's a Star Destroyer in orbit above us ... "  To make that seem a little better, I'd add an Artoo speech bubble to the panel immediately to the left of Luke's strange face, coming out of the more distant ship, saying something simple like "Bleep!"  so Luke has something to respond to in the next panel.
- Page 100 - Luke says "You needed to find out what Karrde told the Imperials." should be "You need to find out ... "
- Page 101 - Karrde's line in the third panel should read "I'm not working for the Empire.  I've just helped them acquire some Jedi artifacts."
- Page 102 - Karrde's line in the fifth panel should read "Ghent knows everything except how to keep his mouth shut."
- Page 110 - Is there anything else you can do with the ligthsaber's arc in the last panel?  As it is, it looks a little awkward.
- Page 111 - If you can fit in a reference where Khabarakh mentions his species' name (Noghri), then Leia's thought bubble on the next page would make much more sense.  Perhaps if he says "I am called Khabarakh of the Noghri.  Your father....."
- Page 118 - Luke's line in the fourth panel should read "And if another Vornskr finds us before the Imperials?  You'll never be able to load it fast enough."
- Page 124 - "It's not an adequate guarantee, for me." would work better as "That's not good enough for me."
- Page 128 - Karrde's line, bottom-left, sounds clunky - my suggestion: "A loan, perhaps?  A stripped down Mon Calamari star cruiser at least?"

And that's all my suggestions for "Heir to the Empire."  I'll start on "Dark Force Rising" in the next couple of days and make a similar list for that.  Great job, by the way - I didn't think it would work without the ysalamiri, but you've certainly proven me wrong.

I always thought ESB had the lightsabers pitch-perfect (I'm not a particularly huge fan of the PT 'sabers), but I dunno what the hell happened with ROTJ.  The gradient on Luke's saber especially - it's like it drops off in intensity in a very strange way compared to all the others.  I don't really know how to describe it - that's the best i can do.  I just know that I hate it.

Wow ... that's WAY too big.  Besides, Ady already did a wonderful job with the lightsabers in ANH.

And Luke's in your above picture is also too thick.  Vader's looks nice, though, but you definitely need some anti-aliasing on the core.

And HotRod wins the prize!

Now I've got to figure out what "the prize" is ...

adywan said:

"Are you sure this is the right word, alcoves?"

Sorry, I had to.

Do you have a link to that article?  I'm intrigued by the quotes ...

Yeah, if the shadows are darkened a bit, it'll look spot-on.

The ceiling still doesn't match, though, which has bugged me since I first saw ESB (before the SE, there was a skylight ... but another floor above Leia ... )

I think the best thing to fix that is to just move the whole window slightly to the right, then move the interior slightly more to the right.  That way, it won't look drastically different, but it'll help the ceiling match the roof at the same time.

The point is, it looks *brighter* than it is outside, which makes NO sense whatsoever.  You yourself said it's a skylight - how, then, can it be brighter inside than outside, if it's using outside light?

"Insults" and whether you really are good at color correction or not (honestly, not so much) aside, can you guys move this discussion to another thread?

I think that would be a mistake - the whole 2-seconds-of-silence thing isn't that big of a deal IMO, it can be fixed by anone who is bothered by it.

Yoda Is Your Father said:

I enjoyed it but just need to get a few things straight...

The Six who Baltar has been seeing in his head from the start of the show and even had imaginery sex with quite a few times, is an angel?  And there's also an angel that looks like Baltar?

Baltar survived the destruction of Caprica... how?

The colonials are my ancestors?

Adama is going to sit on a hill till he dies?

Starbuck...?

- Yes, and the Baltar angel (some say he could also be a demon or Lucifer) was first seen in "Downloaded," where it's established that Caprica sees an image of Baltar the same way that Baltar sees one of Caprica.

- Duck and cover!

- Yup.  Or, at least, Hera is our ancestor - so we all have Cylon mitochondrial DNA (different from our other DNA if I remember my biology classes).

- Not exactly - he's chosen to live in solitude, like Tyrol.  He's going to build his cabin and live there himself.  Maybe down the road, he'll decide to go find people again, but probably not.

- Was an angel as well.  The way I look at it, the "angels" can manifest in the flesh whenever they choose (Shelley Godfrey in "Six Degrees of Separation," anyone?) - but with Starbuck, "God" or whatever higher power orchestrated these events decided to resurrect her physically, though not completely aware of her own purpose until she's already fulfilled it.  And the "harbinger of death" thing - well, she technically brought the Cylon and human races to their end.  The descendants of the Colonials, because of Hera, are all technically Cylon-human hybrids.

- The dying leader (I'm adding one here, yes), I think, was Galactica herself.  Just something I thought up the other day while thinking about it.

Um ... yeah.

It's going to be the original (1980) voice.

--LINK REMOVED DUE TO UPCOMING UPDATE OF FILE--

I, for one, love Avid Media Composer's color correction tools.  It lets you color correct each individual shot in your timeline, and you can save color-correction templates to use on similar shots so you don't have to go through the whole process 9 times when you use the same take that would require the same CC nine different times.

Though honestly, I'm not very good at CC work, and I don't know a whole hell of a lot about it.  I just used it to fix the contrast/brightness on a friend's black & white music video and found it very easy to use and intuitive.

According to Bill Hunt, editor of TheDigitalBits.com website, who attended the cast & crew screening of the finale, these are the episodes that will be extended on the DVD release, and by how long:

4x11 - 'A Disquiet Follows My Soul' - extended by ~10 minutes
4x18 - 'Islanded in a Stream of Stars' - extended by ~20 minutes
4x19/4x20 - 'Daybreak, Parts 1 & 2' - extended by ~20 minutes

That will make the finale about 2:40 total, not including commercials of course (which would have bumped it up to about 3 and a half hours had it aired uncut and in 1 part).  And the complete series DVD should come in July, with Season 4.5 coming a little bit earlier than that.

I'm going through HEIR TO THE EMPIRE right now.  I've been taking proofreading notes to maybe polish it up a bit more.  I'm not nitpicking you, I think you've done a fantastic job so far, but this should be as professional-looking as possible IMO.

Here goes:

- "THIS STORY TAKES PLACE FIVE YEARS LATER THE BATTLE OF ENDOR (IN 9 ABY)" should be "THIS STORY TAKES PLACE FIVE YEARS AFTER THE BATTLE OF ENDOR (9 ABY)," and I would consider getting rid of the "9 ABY" reference.
- Because "fragile" is used twice, I'd change the first sentence of the crawl to "It is a challenging time for the galaxy."  In fact, here's a suggestion for general changes to the crawl:

Episode VII (not 100% necessary, but I like the idea)
HEIR TO THE EMPIRE

It is a challenging time for the newly-
united galaxy.  The NEW REPUBLIC has
driven the remnants of the Galactic Empire
deep into the far corners of space.

Leia Organa Solo, pregnant with twins, is
in training to become the first in a new line
of JEDI KNIGHTS, under her brother, Jedi
Master Luke Skywalker.

But on the fringe of the galaxy, the last
of the Emperor's warlords has taken
command of the shattered Imperial fleet,
readied it for war, and pointed it at the
fragile heart of the New Republic.... (- note the four periods - the only movie that uses three is ROTJ)

Again, just a suggestion.  I think it feels more dynamic and a little "tighter."
- I'd remove any "thought bubbles," like Pellaeon thinking "So young ... "  It's not something we would get in the movies.  Not a big deal, though.
- Page 15: Luke says "Tell her that I lover her and that everything is fine 3PO..." - this should read "Tell her I love her, and that everything is fine, Threepio."  You don't need the first "that," "lover" is a typo, and the commas make it flow better.  Finally, every time a character shortens a droid's name (R2 or 3PO), you should spell it out (Artoo or Threepio) if you have room to.
- Page 21: "Most alien species are" needs a period at the end.  "Be on your guard Captain.  Lead the way Rukh." needs two commas - one after "guard," and one after "way."  A few panels later, Rukh says "Yess."  I don't know if that's intentional or not - either way, it's not a huge deal.
- Page 23: "Unwise perhaps, my Jedi friend.  Do you understand what this is?" feels a little awkward.  My suggestion: "That may not be wise, my friend.  Do you know what this is?"  It's simpler, and he doesn't know if C'Baoth is a Jedi or not, so it's best for him not to be explicit about it and chance C'Baoth's anger.  At a later panel, Thrawn says "All in time good Master," which should read "All in good time, Master..."  I'd also suggest changing C'Baoth's next line from "trifle" to "toy," as in "Do not toy with me," and to put a comma after "me" and before "Chiss."  Thrawn's last line on this page, where he says "...hidden to the Emperor himself!" should read "...hidden from the Emperor himself!"
- Page 24: I would change "Where is the fortress?  Are there other holocrons?" to "Are there more holocrons in this fortress of yours?"  It makes him seem smarter, not asking so many questions.  Thrawn's line "Many other holocrons, and more ... and they can all be yours!"  sounds redundant - "Many holocrons, and many more artifacts you couldn't dream of!  And they could all be yours!" sounds a bit better.  Thrawn's next line doesn't need an exclamation point - it makes him seem childish.  A period will do just fine.
- Page 25: C'Baoth doesn't need to say "Take me to your ship" at the end.  It's redundant, and its removal will help your line fit in the bubble a little better as well.
- Page 34: Not your change, but I've always hated Luke's little thing there - "That tapestry--and a touch of the Force...!" would be just fine if it's just "That tapestry..."  The last panel on the page, the lightsaber blade seems to be at an odd angle, but this could just be me.
- Page 37: Luke's "Yes, it is time I taught you how to build one." looks a little odd.  I think it could be solved by making "It is" into a contraction ("it's"), which would make the text take up a little less space, and it'd sound a bi more natural as well.  And if you could make Ben's line in the last panel match his actual ROTJ line, that'd be fantastic.

That's all I've got for now, I've got to run at the moment, but I'll pick up at page 38 later and go from there.

skyjedi2005 said:

Salvation might ne complete and utter shit considering it is pg-13, i hope its a Hard pg-13 what the R used to be.  Hopefully it is not another die hard 4.

Actually, 'Salvation' hasn't been rated yet, and the director has said he wasn't thinking about any rating at all while making it, and that the studio basically said they didn't care what it was rated.  But if the MPAA gives it an R and says "but if you change these 2 things, you can get a PG-13," they'll probably cut the two things and get a PG-13.

There's one nude scene with Moon Bloodgood that he already said would be in if it was R, out if it ended up a PG-13.  My bet's on this one being rated R.  T3, on the other hand, may as well have been PG-13.  There was no "edge" in that movie at all, and what, two fucks as opposed to MANY in T1/T2?

Please tell me you don't seriously think an uncompressed 2-hour movie, even as still (uncompressed!) frames with no audio, would be even close to small enough to fit on a DVD or flash drive?

Maybe Puggo would be able to give you a raw frame from his project so you can "work your magic," as a test to see if it's worth going through the whole thing.

Sumguy21 said:

What? HDR makes everything look pretty surreal. It can definitally come out well in photos with lots of detail.

Detail isn't everything.  We don't need to see everything that's there as clear as day - what we can't see is sometimes as important as what we do.  In today's digital world, people are forgetting that more and more quickly, always wanting to have "more detail!" and "sharper!" and "brighter!" and "no grain because it has to be bad, right?"

I'm just not a fan, and I don't think an HDR-like quality is good for Star Wars at all.

1 - Probably Baltar, or the angel version of Six manifested in physical form like in "Six Degrees of Separation" and left it.  I'd say Baltar, though.

2 - I always took that as Boomer herself, at least her Cylon half.  For example, she could have been sleepwalking or something, and she subconsciously put it there.

3 - Clearly Baltar's Cylon detector was ALL about finding actual Cylons.  My understanding is that after Boomer's test, he modified it so everyone got "green" tests.

4 - It didn't! :-)

DarthBo said:

I have no idea what you mean with "they overlap", because as far as I can hear, each track is just fine. Can you give an example of a bad transition?

What exactly does "gapless mode" do?

I'm guessing it overlaps tracks, to hide the usual 2 silent seconds that are added to the beginning and end of mp3s.

Just get the flac versions and/or disable "gapless mode"

Gapless playback just means that there is 0 seconds of silence rather than 2.  Most albums I have would sound terrible with 2 second pauses between tracks (Abbey Road, Dark Side of the Moon/The Wall/any Pink Floyd really, or anything where one track is supposed to "flow" into the next).  It doesn't overlap tracks, it just doesn't pause between them.  If there is silence built into the audio track itself, the silence will still be there.

By default iTunes adds 2 seconds of silence between tracks because that's the standard for some retarded reason, but when you tell iTunes that a song or set of songs are "part of a gapless album" (checkbox in the "Get Info" menu under "Options"), then it gets rid of the pause.  I set every single song in my library as "part of a gapless album," even if the original CD has 2 seconds of silence, just in case.  I've never had a problem with it, and on albums that do have one track flow into the next it's (obviously) worth the little extra effort.

What he's saying is that, somehow, the end of one track will repeat at the beginning of the next, instead of one ending and the next beginning.  I think it might be a problem with his copy, though, because I'm sure everyone else would have noticed something so drastically wrong as well.

What I thought he meant at first was that there's silence built into the beginning and end of each track, in the waveform itself, making true gapless playback impossible, which would make more sense.  But if each track has an ending and the next a beginning, and they don't flow into each other as if it's one song anyway, I don't see it as a huge issue.  But apparently this isn't what he meant.

I think that's far too bright and contrasty, like an "HDR" ("high dynamic range") photograph.

I've never seen an HDR photograph that I thought looked remotely good.

Dangerous Incorporated said:

ChainsawAsh said:

I GUARANTEE you that you're just thinking of the pan & scan version, which cuts off the sides of the film to fit it on a "fullscreen" 1.33:1 TV.  That shot has always been there, I remember it, it's on my GOUT DVD.  IIRC it's *after* Han enters the base, but I could be wrong.  If not, I highly, highly doubt that there were two identical shots, one right before Han enters, and one right after.

And about the extra Wampa stuff, I don't believe much of the footage has ever been released other than a few moments in trailers (like C-3PO tearing the sign off the wall).

Do they show P&S versions at the theatre? Cuz thats were I saw it and Im sure it was widescreen.

Well, if you saw it in theaters and it wasn't there on video, you saw the P&S version on video which cropped out the protocol droid.  That was my point.  It's there on the widescreen version, it's not there on the P&S version.