DrDre

emanswfan said:

I’ll try and cap the bitrate for future previews, I just tend to render larger files for previews for internal purposes.

Anyhow, computer isn’t holding up so much these days as it creates a burning smell now if I try and do anything too resource intensive, but I should hopefully have a new machine by sometime this summer, which will be a beast of a desktop, and will be ridiculously more powerful than any machine I’ve personally owned in the past. A full TPM release will be ready soon after, the project files are just sitting on an SSD waiting to be rendered.

In the meantime, here’s a screencap I edited with my latest grade PRIOR to adding the print film emulation or film grain. I graded it to the german theatrical release as reference with further adjustments to give it more clarity.

Looks amazing! If you’re going for a film look, I would personally adjust contrast and saturation a bit:

I’ve updated three more sets of shots:

Harmy and I haven’t discussed it, so maybe, I guess. 😉

It’s been a while, but after having reviewed the earlier shots, I’ve updated the indoor shots to have better color dynamics and separation (outdoor shots will follow):

djsmokingjam said:

DrDre said:

You need to close the figures that open automatically, when you import an image. Once the figures have been closed the button should be available.

Thanks for answering DrDre - do you mean the fields next to “Number of color spaces” and “Smoothing parameter”? If so those have numbers in already when opening the application, and any attempt to delete them just lead to numbers (10 and 0.1, respectively) coming in automatically once you leave the field, and the button still not being available.

No, the figures that show the images.

You need to close the figures that open automatically, when you import an image. Once the figures have been closed the button should be available.

Trachta10 said:

I tried to match this images

reference (kai)
https://i.imgur.com/3AYCi8R.png

test image (dragon box)
https://i.imgur.com/nx6OxJS.png

but the result does not convince me
https://i.imgur.com/7vyx5Sc.png

I’m doing something wrong?

Try it with smoothing 0.1, and 50 color spaces.

rebothejedi said:

This is so cool! I’ve had this question for a while and I was hoping someone could answer me: It seems like any time star wars is found on 35mm it is pretty beat up and the colors are very wrong. How do you know when color grading that your colors are accurate?

The Technicolor prints aren’t beat up, although they tend have a green cast. There’s also the Derann prints, which have great color, and the 1997 SE prints, which are very similar to the Technicolor prints colorwise.

Here’s where we are with the colors:

Here’s the first pass for another scene from reel 2:

It’s been a while due to a very busy work schedule, but here’s another scene:

Here’s another short set of scenes:

It’s been a while, but here’s the first pass fot two scenes:

idir_hh said:

Boohoo I was a nobody until I won the jackpot and got the chance to be in Star Wars, making me a world star and multimillionaire. Poor me😥- John Boyega /GQ magazine

I think there’s a little more to it than that. I admire John Boyega for speaking out knowing full well this may jeapordize future carreer opportunities. Some things are more important than fame, and money. I can’t disagree with him either. Finn was transformed into a big joke. I also don’t agree with the whole “you won the jackpot, so you should shut up” schtick. He earned the role with his talent and hard work.

Dave Filoni here is the director of a series, that might suit us.

John Favreau, producer of the Mandalorian. Dave here is telling me you’re looking for high quality Star Wars.

If it’s a good show.

Good show? You never heard of the Mandalorian?

Should I have?

This is the show that created baby Yoda. It’s good enough for you old man.

OutboundFlight said:

NeverarGreat said:

Of course, this leaves open the possibility that some new cultists could just clone him again, which rather ruins the finality of the whole exercise even if they say ‘no really, he’s defeated forever this time!’

This. I know this isn’t at all what they were going for, but if there is anything the ST taught me it’s that the galaxy will just be in a never-ending loop of war. The “Star War” will never end, and Palpatine’s resurrection is just symbolism for the cycle of war. But I’m assuming this kind of intellectual and artful theme is just a dumb coincidence. It’s actually just they needed another villain because RJ killing Snoke broke Abrams and Terrio’s minds.

Honestly, even a single small scene about Palpatine’s spirit being “weakened” from the cloning process and how this time once you kill him he’s gone for good would have been fine. But they don’t bother explaining it so I guess Palpatine will be showing up ever 30 years now to destroy all but one Jedi…

I don’t buy the cycle of war concept in Star Wars. It’s often used to defend the choices made in the ST by either pointing to Lucas’ rhyming concept, or to real history. However, in Lucas’ six episodes, while there were obvious similarities, the outcome was very different, and ultimately the son made very different choices from the father. Worse yet, the cyclical nature of war with the never ending return of stormtroopers, rebellions, and Palpatine clones turns the saga into a very cynical exercise, which to me is the anti-thesis of what Star Wars used to be about.

Rodney-2187 said:

In my opinion, the idea of Palpatine returning is something that had to be addressed if they want to move on from these characters. Clones and cloning have been a part of Star Wars from the beginning. Obi-Wan mentions the Clone Wars when we first meet him. In a universe with cloning, whenever an evil mastermind is destroyed, it isn’t gong to take long for the idea of a clone to be mentioned. Especially if that mastermind has previously mentioned extending life and is strong with the Dark Side. Even the old expanded universe novels had clones of Palpatine.

The Rise of Skywalker isn’t perfect. No movie is. But if you look past the flaws and focus on the good time, I think it’s a lot of fun. It’s probably the last time we’ll see Luke, Leia, Han, and Lando. At least portrayed by the original actors. It was really great to see them again.

I disagree. That would be equivalent to arguing, if we clone Hitler, there would be another Nazi Germany, which is ludicrous. The clone would have Palpatine’s DNA, and Force potential, but he would not have lived Palpatine’s life, or have his experiences, which involves being trained by a powerful Sith Lord. He would just be a guy, that looks like Palpatine. In either case TROS completely glosses over the nature of Palpatine’s return, so I don’t really see how it really addresses cloning, or how it adds a sense of finality to his death. He returns somehow, and then dies again in a rather lame fasion. As with everything in TROS it’s pretty half baked (imo). I will agree it can be entertaining if you shut down your brain, but to me that sadly puts it in Michael Bay territory for me. In that context seeing the old gang just isn’t worth it to me.

NFBisms said:

i am both thoroughly impressed and absolutely hating the progression of this technology

Yeah me too! Just had a big discussion on facebook who wrote:

"For Walt Disney, and companies like it, that own so much intellectual property that is built around the likenesses of human actors, in addition to animated characters, this kind of digital mask has the potential of extending the ability to keep much of this property alive even as the actors age or die.

“Solo” and “Mary Poppins Returns” both underperformed commercially, and I think one of the main reasons the two films did so is because the look of the characters is not consistent with the original visualizations.

Not every character can be a James Bond."

I can’t tell you how abhorrent this concept is to me, the idea that the artistry of great actors is reduced to someone doing their best impression of a much more talented person with some digital makeup.

I definitely prefer the prequels. The sequels for me add very little to the mythos narratively, visually, and in terms of lore. It looks great, and the acting is miles ahead of the prequels in many cases, but it lacks substance and depth. It reminds me of those fake Western towns, where it’s all facade, but nothing behind it.

No, I’ve just had a holiday, and Star Wars Despecialized 3.0 has priority right now.

JadedSkywalker said:

Can we say once and for all that what Reliance did was not a restoration but rather destruction by digital video noise reduction. I would not classify what they did as a restoration. They removed more than scratches or grain added in the process of print duplication. They went well beyond grain management and even further than Lowry. The rumor is the process was automated, the dnr pass. It was not reel by reel.

With Disney seeing these as archival i doubt they will ever do restorations worth a damn.

You can say that, but speak for yourself. While it is far from perfect, the new 4K master is miles ahead of the 2004/2011 master. I’m kind of fed up with the negativity, and the hyperboles. It would be great, if we can get a proper restoration of the OOT, but given the OT’s history, I will take what I can get.

adywan said:

A lot of the CG done for the 1997 SE wasn’t even rendered in HD. Many of the elements were rendered in 480p due to budget and time. Nothing was rendered higher than 1080p. The negative was restored along with many of the original separate elements. The problem is that every re-composited shot in all 3 films were only done in 1080p. The elements were scanned @1080p, digitally re-composited into the computer, sharpening filters applied and then laser printed back onto film. The resolution of those shots is stuck @1080p.

DrDre said:

Sure, but the resolution wasn’t there in the first place, because the optical compositing severely degrades the image quality. In any case for the 4K release the effects shots were rendered at 4K resolution.

Only the added stuff done for the 2004/11 versions were redone (most but not all) for the 2019/20 Disney+/UHD releases . All of the original 1997 additions remain the same. There is a reason why ROTJ looks much better than the other two films. That’s the one that was the least tampered with digitally. 4K Star Wars looks like crap in many addition or digitally re-composited shots when compared to shots that haven’t been tampered with.

With the effects shot using the vistavision camera, even after optical compositing, the resolution doesn’t suffer too badly. It was the constrant handling and dupe grain that caused most of the degredation. And, if these same restored elements were digitally scanned and re-composited today, they would look amazing. better than any shot redone for the SE

Sure, and if the tons of films that were mastered at 2K resolution over the past decades were redone at 4K, they would look amazing too. Many movies are stuck at 2K resolution or below, or in the case of effects driven films contain elements at different resolutions. Star Wars is not exceptional in that sense.

Z6PO said:

But weren’t the compositing of SFX shots redone digitally? That is every original SFX shots made of multiple layers would have each of these layers scanned (at which resolution?) before being assembled in a computer. To the effect of a better image quality (no generational degradation) and no matte lines.

So even when there’s no CGI, the digitally recomposited shots would be stuck at whichever resolution they were scanned.

Sure, but the resolution wasn’t there in the first place, because the optical compositing severely degrades the image quality. In any case for the 4K release the effects shots were rendered at 4K resolution.

Cthulhunicron said:

Was it possible to do 4K scans in 97?

For the 1997 SE the negative was physically restored, so no scan was made. Here’s an extensive description of the restoration process:

http://fd.noneinc.com/secrethistoryofstarwarscom/secrethistoryofstarwars.com/savingstarwars.html

Brodnation said:

DrDre said:

Here’s an update of the color grading including a new scene:

Looking very good. Just a little note:

Frame 2 seems oversaturated and pushed too far-red and the highlights on the last shot are drifting a little purple IMO. Other than that it looks great Dre!

In a scene by scene color grading you cannot tweak individual shots. That would be a shot by shot color grading. I also don’t agree it is oversaturated, or that it is too red. For a shot by shot I might add a bit more yellow, but not much. This is how it appears on the 1997 SE print as well. It is supposed to look sun burned. It’s more yellow on the tech prints, but those suffer from a green cast, hence the yellow. The last shot is actually supposed to be more magenta, since the scene takes place near sun set.