Got resolve 16 reinstalled. Returning to the sound editing again. Currently working on the subwoofer and left surround channels.
Ran into a technical hiccup. My editing software updated to Davinci Resolve 17, but my computer couldn’t handle its full capabilities and refused to take the software past the title screen. I’m going to make the unwise choice of reinstalling resolve 16.2.8, since I know that version works fine. However, this whole update business is causing a small delay. I will get back to the sound editing as soon as I’ve gotten this taken care of.
Sound editing is now halfway done. Dialogue is finished, and I’m working on the subwoofer and surround channels next. Once those channels are done, I think the edit will be complete.
First two audio channels are finished. Four more to go.
Add in a random scene from the Star Wars Holiday Special to every movie with no rhyme or reason attached to it.
Opening crawl is done. Unless something else pops up, I think sound editing is going to be the final stage before I release it. My job has kept me really busy lately, so I don’t know how long it will take me to complete, but given that episode I’s sound editing took a week to finish, my guesstimate is that episode II’s sound will take two.
I had enough free time today, so I decided to work on the opening crawl while I was at it. I just started on the rendering and it will most likely be finished tomorrow.
Color grading is finished. Beginning work on sound editing soon.
Change the audio for all 9 star wars films and replace it with white noise.
Color grading is more than halfway done now. Here’s some more samples of my progress so far. I’ve also thrown in a couple samples of the deleted scenes in this grouping to give an idea of what the quality will look like.
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.
