Darth Venal

Why Revenge though? Surely the reasons for Jedi not taking revenge are well known at this point. And why reorder the cast billing so oddly?

Well just coming into contact with people from Mos Espa doesn't mean anything.

My Dad was from Palermo. If I go there, will people stop me and tell me about him?

EyeShotFirst:

"I live in Tennessee but I know hundreds of people from Kentucky. What's your point?"

You already know those people, which isn't the same thing as knowing the son of someone you used to know if you never met them.

That's a strangely satisfying image.

I think in the shot where Teebo or whoever it is gets killed, we could digitally add flames to him so it takes the "poor, dead Teddy bear" edge off and makes it more gruesome. I might give that a go, even digital removing a limb or two.

:-)

C3PX:

Since Luke's father and Darth Vader were two different people when the first SW was made, Luke growing up with the Skywalker sirname didn't matter. Had George thought of the whole hiding Luke from his evil father thing while he wrote the first film, I am sure he would have seen fit to change his sirname

Actually, that wouldn't have made any difference. Why? Because he didn't have to give Anakin the same surname. Luke Skywalker could have been the changed name, but he instead chose to keep Skywalker as his father's surname.

I don't really see why it had to be changed anyway, because Vader was never going to return to Tatooine and wouldn't have known he had a son to go looking for.

If only we'd seen them talking about naming the child, "Luke for a boy, Leia for a girl", then Padme's unlikely death-throes clarity in the naming of the kids wouldn't have come across so badly in Episode III. That conversation would have been a brief but welcome relief from the misery we get between them for most of the movie.

Mielr:

A whole lot better than we're likely to get from Lucas, anyway

Now that's just absurd. I'm sorry, but you're talking nonsense. Blind Lucas bashing achieves absolutely nothing. Yes, we all take a major issue with the odd colour tinting on previous releases, but the actually detail level of the image is as good as the format allows.

And the Theatrical versions will be released in a superior version. If you don't believe that, just wait and see.

Yes that's very good indeed. I used the Mustafar matte as well. I'll post later. I do think it should be further away from the planet though, as that is the reason Mustafar is so volcanic, because the tidal forces of the planet are so strong. To develop into a stable, habitable world, the Endor moon would most likely be quite a bit further away. And most gas giants have rings. I found it odd that Geonosis, which clearly isn't a gas giant, would have a ring, as it certainly doesn't have the tidal pull necessary to hold rings.

I prefer to keep the science as real world as possible, so I'll be adding rings to mine.

Vaderios:

Im confused...

what is the name of the ewok planet?

what is the name of the other planet?

which of them is bigger?

The Ewok planet is a moon, and it's commonly referred to as Endor.

The planet it orbits is actually Endor, but confusion meant people called the moon Endor.

It is simple now, both the gas giant planet and the forest moon are called Endor.

The planet is MUCH bigger than the forest moon.

How you doing today anyway? :-)

How anybody is expected to believe that, I have no idea. As if, as if the material not used for the Special Editions wasn't preserved after the efforts they went to to clean up those very prints in order to then produce the Special Editions.

That's why the bullshit excuses about why the appalling transfers of the Theatrical Editions on DVD are so aggravating - "we really struggled to find prints that were up to the job".  Er, right.

It certainly would make it easier, that's for sure.

Although I don't know why people think the planet would "have to" appear in the sky all the time during the battle. After all, if the camera POV isn't pointing in the direction of the Endor moon, then it's quite feasible that it won't be pointing in the direction of the planet, either.

What would be quite beautiful, although it's only really feasible if you redo the entire sequence, would be to have the battle take place between the moon and the planet. But that's pretty complex given the material we have to work with.

Those look great Vaderios! I don't think you missed much illumination on the floors, because they're not polished glass and so wouldn't be so reflective.

There seems to be something of an obsession with putting reflections in everywhere. Has no-one heard of matt surface finishing? :-)

Well, it would only mean night would be bright when the moon was between the Endor planet and the star, otherwise it would have night time when it's on the other side of the planet.

Darth Lars:

Something that I still think stand out like a sore thumb are the soldiers in the back. They look like ghosts. Can they be made to look like the other soldiers?

Could the hole in the floor be lit more? Perhaps add some glow?

I think that the color of the walls could still be tweaked just a little bit. The walls are still a little bit purple and some highlights in the floor are still a bit more blue than the walls. Perhaps add just a little bit blue to the walls. Just a small step - not even halfway to how it is on the DVD. The walls are grey, but they are lit by a cold light.

Don't forget moving landing lights in the floor and patrolling TIE fighters outside.

Well, I don't want to change everything. I don't mind the officers at the back as they're varied from the mass of troops and I might add troops behind them.

The walls are not purple, they've been desaturated. And they're lit with white light, so they wouldn't tint. The floor isn't finished yet, so any blue will be removed and I'll probably add some glow from the forcefield.

I don't know if I'll be adding back in TIEs outside, we'll see.

But I think that the planet should look smaller than Endor. Compare with how the Earth looks from the Moon.

The planet Endor is a gas giant and would look much bigger than Earth from the Moon if they were at the same distance. However, it's unlikely a gentle, habitable moon would exist at that distance because of tidal forces, so it probably should be place further away. It's all about perspective as to "how big" it looks, so a person's perception of what looks right or wrong sort of depends on whether they understand what is being shown.

Vaderios:

Good job!

I was wondering if its a good idea adding background elements that indicate that the death star is still a work in progress station. Id rather see all the droids gone ;)

Well, I removed all the background "construction" elements because I never believed that they wouldn't have had even one completed landing bay ready for the Emperor's arrival. I will add more realistic construction elements to other mattes for other areas.

Love your idea for the more dynamic battle, by the way.

 Added the planet that endor orbits.

The planet Endor orbits is actually called Endor. Originally it was called Elnar, then changed to Endor before Jedi was released. The reason the moon ended up being called Endor was pretty much because so many people confused the words "the forest moon of Endor" to mean it was called Endor, when it originally meant Endor's forest moon. So, they're now both called Endor.

Okay here's a nearer-to-complete matte for the Death Star hangar bay. I've replaced the shuttle with a model shot and layered back some of the finer detail from the original painting. I'm pretty happy with it.

Right, right! Yes, they could be very similar to that sort of thing. Anyone have any HD images of that part of AOTC? :-)

But you've just reminded me of how I thought they didn't make Geonosis different enough from the terrain of Tatooine, especially when they were intercutting. 

Which part of AOTC?

Shanerjedi:

Underground parking? :p

Seriously, that is great Venal. As others have mentioned, there does need to be some atmospheric haze added to the palace to take its sharpness down a notch. But truly wonderful work.

I don't know if I would add a canyon to the other side of the shot or just center the palace more into the shot and make the cliff it's perched on more mystical or something.

Well I don't really want to make it mystical, I want it to look as real world as possible. I know what you're getting at with the sharpness, but if you see the full hi-res image it doesn't need it as the entire image is sharp. It looks sharper here because it's scaled down substantially. If I add more haze it will be after I've finished the overall composition. I don't want to deviate too much from the original design, so I'm not likely to change the layout. Thanks for your suggestions, though.

EDIT: Oh, and yes, I'm definitely looking at underground parking.

Yeah mock-ups are a great way of seeing it without actually tampering with the movie. They're a great way of sharing ideas and getting more accurate opinions on what works and what might work better.

Well, it all depends whether you want to go inserting new scenes through the movie. Most people don't seem to like doing that, and let's face it, it was unsuccessful tinkering with the movie that got many so many of us passionate about restoring the movies as best we can in the first place.

I can't wait to finish it, but I really need some hi-res screen grabs. If anyone can help me with one of that scene, with the guards off the shuttle, I'll buy you dinner.

Well, we probably don't see him in the flesh because we don't need to - he is the "phantom" menace, after all. And we do actually see him in the flesh at many other points in the movie, really, just not as Sidious.

There's no real reason we shouldn't see Palpatine in the flesh in Empire, if someone was inclined to add that. And in Episode III, we do see two-way hologram conversations.

Anyway, I was tinkering with the Death Star hangar shot of the Emperor's arrival. I always hated that matte painting - the shuttle is wrong (as it is in all the paintings in Jedi) and some elements are just far too badly painted.

I've tried to correct the shuttle as much as I can without having access to a model to re-photograph it (which would definitely be the best option for realism), removed the mess from the back left corner and removed the saturated colour. Oh, and added part of Endor just to see how it would look. I think I prefer it with just stars, but it was worth a try.

And with the live action composite in (roughly)...

I think he meant show a scene on Coruscant where Vader is the hologram to Palpatine in his office with the cityscape in the background, not putting a background in the hologram.