Thanks! I was kind of worried about whether I took it too far with the color desaturation. The HD preservations I’m using were a lot more colorful before, so I wanted to be sure.
I’m about 20-25% of the way through the color grading for Episode II. After getting a lot of negative feedback over the green tint I applied to Episode I v2, I’ve decided to remove the blue tint I was applying over Episode II and go for a more desaturated look instead. I intend to apply this new color grade to Episode I in the future as well.
The more technical explanation: I’m starting with increasing the yellows, cyans, and magentas, and reducing the reds, blues, and greens in the hue vs. sat curves. I’m then reducing the black areas to 0 in the lum vs. sat curves. I follow this up by adjusting the custom RGB curves, but only to reduce clipping rather than to adjust it to however I want. I’m then finishing it off by reducing the dynamic range of the blue color channel. That is, lowering the brightest blues and raising the darkest blues.
The less technical explanation: I’m going for an even more film-like appearance by saturating yellow, cyan and magenta hues while removing luminance from the black areas. Then, I’m topping it off by lowering the contrast of the blue channel while increasing the contrast of the red and green channel, giving the film a more yellowish glow. On occasion, I’m making a few adjustments here and there to ensure that the whites and blacks stay within the constraints of HD.
Click on the expand tab for samples of the color grading I’ve done for Episode II so far.
Hire Gilbert Gottfried via the website Cameo to record one line of dialogue for a Rise of Skywalker edit.
Palpatine: “I have been every voice (Snoke) you have ever heard (Gilbert Gottfried) INSIDE YOUR HEAD!”
Are you kidding? You never hire Gilbert Gottfried to say just one line when he can say all the lines!
I’ve been getting a few negative responses to the color grading on v2 so far, and I suppose I need to address the elephant in the room. Namely the green tint.
My reasoning behind the decision to give Episode I a green hue was more or less a reaction to the overuse of reds on the blu-ray releases. I have no idea why George Lucas is so insistent on making everyone’s faces sunburned, but whatever the reason, I wasn’t satisfied with it. So when I did the color grading for Episode I, I wanted to reduce those reds as much as possible. I also went ahead and increased the blues and greens, with green being slightly more saturated than blue.
However, as someone else has said to me, this doesn’t work so well in certain areas of the film. Namely the Tattooine scenes, since the planet doesn’t look right with a greenish tint on it. So I’ve come to the difficult decision of going back and taking care of the color grading again. My main focus is still going to be on Episodes II and III for now, but I’m going to work on changing the color grading for Episode I on the side (or at least, when I have the time).
So, I’m bringing the reds back again, but since I still hate those reds, my strategy is to desaturate the color this time around. I’m still going to keep the yellow, cyan and magenta adjustments I made to the hue vs. sat controls, but I’m also going to adjust the lum vs. sat controls and desaturating the shadows as well, giving an even more film-like image. I will also be keeping my fancy-schmancy tinting to a minimum, only adjusting the red, green, and blue channels to keep the image broadcast safe. And I’m topping it all off by lowering the dynamic range on the blue channel, reducing the brightest blues while raising the darkest blues. Here’s what v2 looks like now:
And here’s my new adjustments for the moment:
I’m also thinking of using these new adjustments for my edit of Episode II as well.
Add LEGO Yoda death sound to Yoda’s death in ROTJ
Better yet - photoshop in a 2001 Honda Civic next to Yoda’s hut.
We could even have Yoda say “2001 Honda Civic. Four wheel drive, it has.” while he’s training Luke.
Can I have the link?
I will most likely get in trouble for this as it’s NSFW, but add this line to the Luke and Kylo Ren confrontation at the end of TLJ. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, kids!
Finished v2 of episode I last night, and I can now turn my full attention to episode II now. I just made a few more minor cuts. (and I mean minor. The addition of a name here, a transition there, etc.) I’ll return to the color grading soon.
V2 is now available. PM me for the link.
Just finished testing v2. I like what I see, and I’m gonna release it tomorrow. PM me for the link.
I’ve just gotten through the hassles of exporting and converting for v2, and I’m planning to test the new MKV file either today or tomorrow. If everything looks good, I will be releasing v2 very soon (hopefully within this week). It’s been a wild and crazy ride finishing v2, but I think it’s ready for release.
Under the expand tab, you will find thumbnails demonstrating the color differences between v1 and v2. In the examples below, v1 is on top, and v2 is on the bottom.
Most of you will notice that the contrast is lower on v2. This is normal. V1 was adjusted under the wrong black and white levels, and I incorrectly placed the blacks and whites too low and too high. On a 1080p HDTV, the black and white levels on v1 suffered from clipping. V2 has been adjusted to correct that problem. The contrast should look much better if you watch it on a 1080p HDTV.
Not sure about a clip, but I could attempt uploading screenshots again. Still ignorant on how to upload them on this forum, though.
Going through the final stretch on the color grading. I’m going to make two final adjustments, and then, I think v2 will be close to ready.
The adjustments are simple, but effective. I’m adjusting the “hue vs sat” and “hue vs lum” controls. Desaturating the red, green, and blue colors and saturating the yellow, cyan, and magenta colors. This will make v2’s color scheme more film-like and desaturated since a lot of 35mm films use a yellow, cyan, and magenta color process instead of RGB.
I got an external blu-ray drive for my birthday, and I ripped my blu-rays for the prequels onto my new mac. (And yes, these are the rips I intend to submit to fanedit.org for v3.) I tested out the “hue vs sat” and “hue vs lum” on the new episode I rip and I can testify that it already looks better than the blu-ray discs. (Especially with the loss of the ugly red tint that was in there originally. Yuck.) I’m confident the same results will apply to v2.
Just giving out an update. I’m two-thirds of the way through color grading with curves. I’ve made it through Tattooine and I’m working on the Coruscant scenes.
Things are going slowly but surely. I did say that I was giving episode I a green tint, but due to the Tattooine scenes, I’ve lifted up the blues in order to make the sands less greenish. I’m curious to see what the reactions will be, but I’ll take the blues and greens over the reds we got on the blu-ray.
Eyepainter, I’d like a link to your fan edit of Episode 2.
Also, sending you my condolences for your family situation.
Thanks for the kind words regarding my mother, Darth.
As of right now, I only have a demo of episode II, which is low quality. It isn’t the final version, and a lot of things are incomplete (such as video transitions, sound editing, and color grading). I’ve even rearranged a few scenes since releasing it. However, it does give you an idea of which direction the edit is going for. I’ll PM you a link to the demo, and when episode II is completed, I’ll be happy to send you the link to the official release.
My Mac Pro has arrived. I’ve been spending some time getting it set up. I still have a lot of stuff to take care of, but the basics are looking good. However, my Mac is distracting me from completing v2, so I’m going to take a break from getting things taken care of with my Mac and go straight to finishing up v2. It’s been a long and exhausting journey, but I want to get it finished ASAP. I still have a lot of work at my day job, but I’m hoping to finish v2 within the next couple of weeks.
lol YES
Redub Boba Fett in the Holiday Special to sound New Zealandish.
Or redub him to sound like Jar Jar Binks.
The “download quote exceeded” thing is very common when downloading RAR files like HAL9000’s. Usually, the best thing to do is wait a few hours and try again. The download quote might exceed again, but it will continue to download the files. I know it’s inconvenient, but good things come to those who wait.
I’ve begun work on the color grading. I’ve started with the opening ship landing assassination attempt on Coruscant. So far, I’ve managed to change the color scheme from white to blue. I won’t know what the rest of the color grading is gonna look like until I’ve done it all, but I’m guesstimating that a lot of the white color scenes (specifically Coruscant and Kamino) are gonna end up with a similar blue tint.
I personally don’t have a problem with this, as I always felt like the white color scheme was boring to look at. But I figured it wouldn’t hurt to inform everyone in advance.
I’m doing a similar thing to v2 of my episode I edit in that I’m giving it a green tint in order to liven it up.
Finally! Finally, I got to escape from my relatives. Yeah, sorry it took so long to get back, but I should be free of distractions now. Anyway, while I was dealing with the relatives, I learned how to use the curves on Resolve. Let’s just say I’ve gotten spoiled by them. So much so that I’m grading it again. I promise this is the last time I’ll play with the color grading for v2. Then, I’ll release it.
In other news, I’ve got a few updates. I got some money from my mom’s life insurance for Christmas. So, I spent some of that money on a Mac Pro and I’m hoping to switch all of my editing work towards that computer instead. I expect that it will be very useful for my fanedits in the future (I’m confident that episode III is gonna be completely edited on this Mac).
I also bought a new microphone, since the one I was using for my commentary is a cheap pile of garbage (which is why my commentary track still hasn’t been completed). I will be working on the commentary track as soon as either 1. The microphone arrives and/or 2. v2 is released.
In addition, I’m considering buying an external blu-ray drive, so that I can rip the transfers from my blu-ray discs. This would give me a good chance of submitting my edits to fanedit.org, which is something I’ve wanted to do. However, this is going to be a while, and I still prefer the Schormann files over the blu-ray discs (especially Episode I for the film grain and muppet Yoda). But, for those who are curious, I will probably call the blu-ray rip v3. So yes, a lot of interesting things are about to happen soon. For now, though, I want to devote myself towards finishing up v2 within this month, because I’ve delayed it long enough. Hang in there, folks! V2’s a comin’.
Eyepainter said:
Jango is to Epsiode II what Jar Jar is to Episode I.Ha, so tragic and so true!
Sorry, Prion, but I tried (and it ended up being a disaster).
I’m glad that you tried, though. It’s nice that you were open to the suggestions to try new approaches. Also good reference to know how far you can push the film until it breaks.
Looking forward to what you make of it!
Thanks!
So I tried theprion’s suggestions on Jango Fett, and it ended up being a disaster. I started by removing Obi-Wan’s first meeting, but it derailed the structure of the edit. There were now too many Anakin/Padme scenes and not enough Obi-Wan scenes to cut or transition to.
Then, I came up with another idea to work around this problem. I rearranged everything so that we would start with Obi-Wan’s investigation first, then Anakin and Padme’s plotline would start about halfway through instead. It didn’t work either, because some scenes didn’t transition well into each other. For example, there were several scenes where Obi-Wan is either entering or exiting doors on Kamino. So one scene would begin with Obi-Wan exiting a door, but in the very next scene, he’s exiting another door. So for continuity reasons, that wasn’t going to work.
After those two attempts, I gave up. Sorry, Prion, but I tried. Jango is to Epsiode II what Jar Jar is to Episode I. They’re both characters I want to get rid of, but can’t because they’re already so heavily ingrained into the film that it’s extremely hard, if not impossible, to remove them.
Remove John Williams’ classic Cantina Band from episode IV and replace it with Jedi Rocks. It’ll be like poetry in that it rhymes.
Eyepainter said:
I’m not sure where I said that Jango wasn’t on Geonosis.Sorry, I meant to write “doesn’t die on Geonosis” and got lost in the train of thought.
My only concern is that Mace Windu’s entrance might be needed. Having just a bunch of random jedi appear out of nowhere seems a little vague and hard to follow.
You’re right, I had completely forgotten of Mace’s entrance. First thing that comes to mind would be removing Jango from the shot to be replaced by one of the neimoidians, but I don’t know how feasible (or worthwhile) that is to the scope of the edit.
I’m having the same train of thought. I’m not a CGI expert, so I really wouldn’t know how to replace Jango if I tried.
I have been entertaining the idea of getting rid of Obi-Wan’s visitation with Jango. This would mean that Jango attacks Obi-Wan on Kamino, most likely because he’s trying to assassinate him. It would also mean that Jango is allied with the separatists (which works for my edit). But it comes with a big drawback. My edit has Zamm muttering “Bounty hunter… From Kamino… Called…” before she (or it) dies. I did this to get Obi-Wan to Kamino sooner rather than later, since I believe that less is more, but I would have to change it to the theatrical version again if I made that call. This would mean I would have to bring up the archives scene where Obi-Wan can’t find his planet (a scene I never liked since it goes nowhere), and I would have to bring back Dexter Jettster (ugh). So I’m kind of in a bind with this. I’ll give it some more thought while I’m celebrating Christmas.
