Harmy

I always thought the tuskens were people. The were called sandpeople after all.

OK, guys, here's a little 15 minutes comparison of the latest workprint with the 04SE. It is not final and youtube compression f*cked it up a bit but it should give yo a general idea of what the colours will be. It shows the new flashes, the duel and some other stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXQdAsqKgw0

Awesome!!! :-D

TV's Frink said:

Ric Olie on the back of a Cyborg Dinosaur

That's an awesome image right there :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlbBA4ndyzI

Like I said, how about just using the whole R2's head from some other shot? It may be easier and look better :-)

Sorry to hear that. I read about your troubles on FB and totally understand that you must be exhausted.

Anyway, I'm sorry to start pointing these things out now. I know how disappointing it is when you post a clip you're really happy with and people start nitpicking. But on the other hand, I often did go back and fixed the shot and now I can be that much more satisfied with it.

But like I said, it is already miles better than the SE and it would be quite fine if it stayed the way it is in the clip.

Where did I say anything else?

Oh, I just watched Ady's latest clip again and I see that he actually did add a bit of impact shake to that shot I posted before, just much less. Sorry, Ady :-)

Another thing is R2's blue in the shots where we see him behind Luke in the x-wing. It is much better than in the SE but still doesn't seem quite right (and I totally understand why, I encountered the same problems when making the panels black for my edit). Would it perhaps be possible to just replace R2 from some other shot?

I would love to help you but I deleted the original rar files ages ago. Sorry.

I don't know what's causing it but maybe it would help to stop trying and then just give it another shot tomorrow?

I totally understand how frustrating this must be, I'd be jumping 10ft high, if this was happening to me.

Thanks. Also, I think that the shot where Luke crashes his snow-speeder would also benefit from this kind of treatment.

doubleofive said:

 

Klingon_Jedi said:

I've not heard of Harmy's. Perhaps I'll look into it. Are these the ones purists like me are looking for?

Yes. Using my comparisons as a base, he's changing everything he can back to the original, with AMAZING results.

 

*blush* :-)

Like I already said, the clip is really nice. There is one thing that surprised me, I always thought, that Luke's POV shot where he falls into the swamp needed some more impact. Here's a rough mock-up of what I mean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TljyJoKLMt0

Sorry to come up with this now and it wouldn't bother me if it stayed the way it is in the clip. Just thought I'd point it out :-)

Cool, thanks :-)

The new workprint finally finished rendering (after 13 f*cking hours,) so I'm checking it out now. I'm glad to see that the garbage matte removal seems to have worked nicely and so did the recolouring of the flashes.

I'll start working on some of the changes that h_h suggested later tonight but the release might still get delayed a bit as the encoding seems to be taking even longer than before and recolouring the laser blasts in the first shot will probably take quite long.

I may try fixing more of what h_h suggested but there are some shots that are quite impossible to do - like ground is too blue, sky isn't blue enough - 3PO is too desaturated, R2 is to oversaturated -  while I agree, I'm not a wizard. And sure it could be done through rotoscoping but I'm not going to rotoscope all the different elements in the whole film if it looks good (at least to me) just not like in the GOUT. We'd sooner have an official release before this project would ever be finished.

Yeah, I know and he looks a bit flat too but it's seriously the best I could do.

And the darkening bit of sky is sadly there too but it is such a minor issue, that it's just not worth redoing the whole shot again, sorry.

Badminton Jedi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ01jw-utvo&feature=feedrec_grec_index

RU.08 said:

And combining the gout with HD video would be a really bad idea...

I beg to differ!

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Despecialized Edition HD 

https://picasaweb.google.com/109609428403596349302/HarmySTheEmpireStrikesBackDespecializedEditionComparisons#

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd4aJ9IoRLY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9HeMEL7cww

STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz00ItrA2CE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfSq0VG3sC8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEzXVDDz0tY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZgZIzswT6c

OK, this is unexpectedly extensive :-) First, I'd like to say thank you and second, I'd like to give you fair warning that I'm afraid you won't be exactly ecstatic about my answer.

I went through your list and carefully checked every described shot in the WP. Well, here it is: bold is what I'm definitely trying to fix or have already fixed, bold italic is what I may be fixing and plain text is what I won't be fixing, either because I'm not a miracle worker or because I like it the way it is now (you need to take into account the red shift of the GOUT, which I'd say is causing a lot of the shots in it to appear the way you think is right - the canyon for example).

First shot: The rebel ship's laser blasts are dull and muted where they should be bright red.  The Star Destroyer's laserfire is completely white and dull with no colour at all, but it is supposed to be a vivid green.  Fixing these in some way is not optional: it must be done to make the iconic opening shot come across the way it should.  I would imagine that substituting the blasts from the 720p upscaled GOUT would be the easiest way, rather than painting them in by hand, but I couldn't say for sure.  The moon in the original is bluer, and the Star Destroyer was more white with a tiny hint of green shading, and not a flat grey.  Tatooine seems not quite right, but I'm having a hard time describing exactly how.

Second shot: (2'21)  Now the lasers are correct, but the rebel ship should have a dark maroon colouring, not bright red.  Tatooine seems too pink.

Third shot: (2'27)  Strong pink tint to the entire frame.  The rebel ship again should be maroon, not bright red.  The pink cast affects the engine glow and the explosion.

Interior rebel ship: C-3PO almost always appears dull yellow instead of his strong gold colour from the original.  R2-D2 is usually far too blue (should be a darker tint and less saturated).  The walls of the ship may possibly be 'too white' if that's possible, or maybe there's still some blue-casting to them; it's hard for me to say for sure.  To me the very slight red tint from the '97 SE looks a lot more natural.

2'49: 3PO is especially dull in this shot and R2 is much too vivid.  Reds are far too strong, seen in the 'sunburned' skin tones of rebel troops and the reflections on 3PO.

2'56, 2'59: 3PO is dull, and R2 blueness punched up too far (also applies to the shots immediately afterwards).

3'10: The white level is pretty blown out in the background.

3'20 - 3'25: White level blown out, and the closeup of the rebel's face is too pink.

3'29: The white level is again blown out.

3'31, 3'34, 3'36: Strong pink tint to fire/explosion and its reflections on the walls, all of which are much more orange in the original.  Every single flash frame in the laser battle is a rather hideous shade of magenta.

3'37, 3'39, 3'42: The coloured lights in the background behind the stormtroopers are too saturated.  They should be obscured much more by the smoke--3'42 is quite the worst offender for this.

Speaking of the smoke during this shootout, in both the GOUT and 70mm film scan it has a blue-grey look, while here it is a plain white.  Something about this just seems off, but I don't know what could be done about it.

3'49: A strong blue cast to this entire closeup shot, most visible in the rebels' shirts.

3'53: Red lights behind the rebels are strongly oversaturated.  Rebel shirts a bit too blue, and lasers slightly pink.

4'06: 3PO is again dull yellow instead of strong gold.  R2's blue is very punched up, but the rebels' shirts are the correct shade.

4'09, 4'11, 4'13: R2 blue punched up too much again.

4'47: The red level is very oversaturated.  Rebels running by in the background have lobster skin-tones, and reflections on 3PO pop out way too much throughout the scene.

4'54, 5'01: The reds again seem too strong, and have a pinkish tint. The 'columns' on the walls should be somewhat greener.

6'19: R2 blue may be punched up a bit?

6'31, 6'39: Slight blue cast to the frame?  I'm not sure if this is actually wrong or not.

6'37: Magenta explosion flash.

6'47: Pretty noticeable garbage matte box around the escape pod.  It is blue while the space around it is black.

6'55: Red tint to the shot inside the escape pod?

3PO and R2 arrive on Tatooine: The sand and sky are somewhat desaturated.  3PO is dull but the blue levels of R2 and the escape pod are punched up (seems especially noticeable at 9'27).

R2's blue level is more appropriate at 9'37.

9'58: The landscape seems pink-shifted.

10'46: The sky is not blue enough.

10'54: The canyon should be lighter/redder, not dark brown.  This applies to the entire scene, but especially this shot.

11'44: Smoke from the Jawa's gun is pink-tinted.

12'45: Green tint on sandcrawler lights.  Not sure if this is incorrect or not.

Sandcrawler interior: first appearance is very dark.  Crushed blacks particularly bad here.

14'54 - 15'31: This entire scene inside the sandcrawler is heavily red-shifted, especially noticeable on 3PO and on the ceiling behind him.

15'48: Sky not blue enough.

16'03, and throughout entire droid sale scene: Sand desaturated; sky should be more vivid blue; 3PO dull yellow instead of strong gold; R2 blue very oversaturated (especially in closeups).

Interior moisture farm garage: 3PO consistently dull yellow instead of stronger gold.  R2 sometimes bordering on oversaturated but not quite crossing the line.

20'24: Leia hologram should be less aqua, and the flashing light portions should be brighter in this shot.

20'21: The background outside behind Luke looks slightly blown out.

21'29: R2's blue is punched up again.

22'16, and elsewhere in dinner scene: The rocky walls and ground behind Uncle Owen are desaturated, especially at first.  They should have a moderate brown level, not plain white.

22'34, and elsewhere: Uncle Owen's clothing is missing its yellow hue.  The original version had a slight green cast throughout this scene, which is not present.

22'53, 23'35: The light at the left of frame is slightly pinkish.  In the original it is orange.

23'27, 23'36, 23'45, 24'00, 24'07: Whites in the background are a bit blown out.

The sunset scene is kind of problematic.  It looks rather dull at 24'11, too red at 24'28, and the closeups of Luke seem washed out (possibly a limitation of the source since the 2004 version is very dark).  The sky behind him doesn't seem bright enough, but its actual hue is fairly good from a subjective point of view.

24'46: Garage interior was more green-shifted originally (minor).

25'10, 25'17: The sky's blue should be a bit stronger, particularly through the binoculars.

25'26, 25'34: The ground seems bluer than it should.  In the original it maintained a hue more distinct from that of the sky above it.

It looks stunning!

PM sent.

Yeah, I noticed that too. I don't know why that is and I'm afraid I can't do anything about it.

dark_jedi said:

I will ask Frink for help, he is good at finding shit.

none said: You know who else is good at finding shit? Mr. Google.

:-)

True that.