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Laserman

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Members
Join date
11-May-2004
Last activity
6-Sep-2007
Posts
903

Post History

Post
#255210
Topic
Paint Wars: A New Hope
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/255210/action/topic#255210
Time
Originally posted by: Karyudo
Did a little experiment: Took your "Episode IV" crawl screen, and converted it to various formats.

BMP: 1.37MB, uncompressed, edges sharp
JPG: 139kB, lossy compressed, edges blurry
PNG: 23kB, losslessly compressed, edges sharp

That is why converting first is best, and why you should not convert "cartoon-like" line art to JPG.


But if he did that his uploads would only be 6 times faster....


The X0 version will add animation to restore this version to the way the Author originally intended it ;D

http://www.mudgee.net/ot/paintwars2.gif
Post
#255169
Topic
STAR WARS: EP IV 2004 <strong>REVISITED</strong> ADYWAN *<em>1080p HD VERSION NOW IN PRODUCTION</em>
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/255169/action/topic#255169
Time
BTW, I forgot to say it looks very, very good.

To nitpick though I think the colour correction inside Ben's hut is a little too bright, the upright area behind Ben's head has blown out.
It is meant to be ian interior of that dingy old hut, so it probably should lean towards the dark side instead of towards 7-11.

Edit: I can't spell nitpick!
Post
#255149
Topic
STAR WARS: EP IV 2004 <strong>REVISITED</strong> ADYWAN *<em>1080p HD VERSION NOW IN PRODUCTION</em>
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/255149/action/topic#255149
Time
There is a problem with the size of the Death Star, there doesn't appear to be any agreement on size, and it is hard to judge distances in Space anyhow.
Some references quote 120km, some 160km and some 900km. I had this problem myself when doing some new scenes for Jedi a few years back.

I'd just scale them so it 'looks right' in comparison with the other films, currently it looks like they are too large in comparison.
To that end I found this the most useful reference by far.
http://www.theforce.net/swtc/ds/#dimensions
Post
#255142
Topic
Adobe AE Questions
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/255142/action/topic#255142
Time
Originally posted by: GhostAlpha26
Ok I got it, I went into Photoshop and found that hitting crt+ the double quotes button creates a grid overlay on an image and I could easy snap the cut out section right back into the same place on the following frames. Best part was it took about 3 minutes to correct all the frames.

I still couldn’t have progressed this far without everyone’s help, Thanks again guys. I don’t think I’m done though so don’t go too far away


That is why I suggested photoshop, when it is only a few frame and sub-pixel accuracy isn't required it can sometimes be the fastest method.

I'm glad it worked for you - post a pic!

You don't really require a PHD to us video editing programs, but they are setup to allow great freedom with editing tasks, and with freedom comes necessary complexity.
If the camera moved in that shot and perspectives changed etc. they still need to be able to get the job done, which means tracking warping, matchmoving etc.

It is all about knowing your programs well and using the best one for the particular job, sometimes it will be photoshop, sometimes shake, sometimes a combination of MAYA, Shake and Photoshop.

The programs today are amazingly powerful, but it does mean that you really want to work through the tutorials and spend a bit of time learning them rather than diving in at the deep end. It is a good idea to have a few lessons before jumping into a formula 1 racer and expecting to be able to drive it around the track.
Post
#254889
Topic
.: The XØ Project - Laserdisc on Steroids :. (SEE FIRST POST FOR UPDATES) (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/254889/action/topic#254889
Time
That motiondsp stuff is interesting, our blackmagic system does almost exactly the same thing, but add the capability to use multiple sources as part of the process.

I didn't think anyone else was working on this type of image recovery, as its application (I thought) would be so limited - but I hadn't thought of the 'mobile video' market.
Post
#254864
Topic
.: The XØ Project - Laserdisc on Steroids :. (SEE FIRST POST FOR UPDATES) (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/254864/action/topic#254864
Time
Originally posted by: Zion
Good summary Laserman. You forgot the part though where I synced up the SC to the TC print and found it has about 100 less frames than the DC and 9 telecine cadence changes.


I have trouble keeping track of all the voodoo that you do.

So that is about 4 seconds less footage than the definitive.

Post
#254805
Topic
.: The XØ Project - Laserdisc on Steroids :. (SEE FIRST POST FOR UPDATES) (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/254805/action/topic#254805
Time
Jeez Mr K, your posts always crack me up

I can understand that people get somewhat frustrated with the wait from time to time, but I can promise you that we are ten times as frustrated with it. I really hoped it would be done by now and I could sit back and watch it rather than still be working on it, but a lot has happened this year that ate up a lot of time that could otherwise have been spent on the project. The tyranny of distance also is a factor, if the four of us were in the same town (or even the same continent) things would go much faster.

I know it doesn't look like much is happening, so at the risk of turning this thread into a blog, I thought it would be good to give everyone a heads up!
This is a quick rundown of what has been going on behind the scenes with the project in roughly the past month.

We purchased the PAL and NTSC GOUT and took a good look at it. It was obvious that the DVNR problems were all still there.
A high quality capture of the SC was going to be required to fill in any scenes destroyed by DVNR in our X0 capture (same scenes that are crappy in the GOUT are crappy in the X0 capture of the definitive LDs).
So I posted my PDI card over to our 4th Member (He who shall not be named) where the LD player is, and we purchased a second set of the SC laserdiscs so that we could TooT the capture to save cleanup time and improve the picture etc.
It takes about 2 weeks for the card to get there from Australia. Zion posted the Colourimeter over as well to make sure the capture system was calibrated correctly.
Then we did a bunch of tests using the Video Essentials laserdisc to calibrate and get the best capture we could. A couple of days were taken up getting the capture ready to go and comparing the PDI to a newer card - but we ended up using the PDI again.
Doing the captures is no small undertaking when each capture is over 80GB, and we had a few hiccups getting it all to work, but got there in the end.
The LDs were then captured for ANH, and checked for dropped frames and any other problems. It was then cut into segments, aligned and then TooTed and burned to a stack of DVD-Rs.

They were then posted to Zion, who went through and IVTCd the capture to get it back to 24fps which took a while because of cadence changes etc. and then timecoded it for reference, then joined it all into one file.
Zion then burned the result to DVD-Rs again to post the capture back to me.
In the meantime he extracted a couple of scenes for me to get started on and I downloaded them and started working on noise reduction and getting them ready for the BlackMagic system, and see if we could make them fit in seamlessly with the X0 definitive capture.
I spent probably about 40 hours or so on the two scenes getting them set up, colour matching, warping and aligning and trying different methods so that when the discs arrived I would be ready to go. We posted images back and forth to each other for critiquing and I kept making adjustments accordingly.
I drafted two articles about noise reduction and the BlackMagic system and Zion went about making them presentable and capturing images to use for them etc. We all proofread the articles and made a ton of changes, there is still a little bit of editing to do on those.
Zion also did some astounding new work on the menus for the disc and we went through a lot of changes for them as well. It isn't like anything I had seen before - very very cool.
In downtime or when I got sick of staring at my nest of shake noodles I got on the site and answered as many questions as I could, and for the first time really read some of the fan edit threads to see what was happening there and see if there were any developments that might be useful for us, as well as join the discussion on some of the edits.

Mebejedi was away for most of the month, so he had a well earned break from this stuff.

So in the past 30 days or so we effectively did nearly all of what (for example) Cowclops did in putting together a set from laserdisc, as well as prepping the BM system for the SC footage, writing two articles, and spending a fortune on international postage (which is what the donations go towards).

In the midst of this Zion had to find somewhere to live and moved house, I had to spend a week up in Sydney for tests (it is a 4 -5 hour drive from my house to the hospital, so it eats up a lot of time each time I have to go), "Voldemort" was away for two weeks after doing the capture, and MBJ was away for most of the month.
Still, it was a fairly productive month even with the disruptions, but we didn't get as much done as I would have liked.

Unfortunately we can't do this for a living, so available hours each week are limited.
Three out of the four Members are married, so our inconsiderate families often want some of our time that we could be spending doing this
Family life eats up scads of time.
If I was single and living in my parents' basement we could probably knock the whole project over in 3 months.
Just as an example I was expecting to get a ton of work done today but we woke this morning one to find one of our pipes broken and the water destroyed our vanity unit, so I spent from 9am till 8pm or so replacing plumbing in the house. (We are too far from the nearest town to call a plumber).
No big deal, but its the sort of thing that happens and throws the project out for another day.
During the week I had Kiddie school stuff to attend to and all the usual family stuff to do. That pretty much leaves the occasional weekend day and the middle of the night to work on this stuff after the rest of the family has gone to sleep. That is when most of the work happens, between about 11pm and 4am.
It isn't unusual for time allocated to be working on this to be stolen by a family emergency or having to fix something or get the car registered yadda yadda yadda, but if you asked anyone in my family they would say "You're always working on that bloody Star Wars thing - isn't it finished yet?"

So that is pretty much what has happened in the last month - we have been toying with the idea of a blog or similar for the site so you guys can see a bit more what we are up to, as prepping articles for the site takes a very long time.
Wadda you think, good idea/bad idea?
Post
#254719
Topic
Adobe AE Questions
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/254719/action/topic#254719
Time
If you are coming from DVD then download DVDDecrypter and VirtualDubMod.
Rip the DVD down with DVDDecrypter using file mode. (I think it is the default anyway)
Then open up virtualdubmod.
Then FILE/OPEN VIDEO FILE/ and choose the .VOB file you wish to open (that DVDDecrypter created)
Click OK on any of the other questions it asks about audio etc.
It should load the file after a minute or three.
Go to the start of the bit of Video you want to work on, and press Mark In button(The second last button on the right at the bottom of screen)
Now move forwards a few frames to the end of the bit that you want to work on (you can move forward a frame at a time by pressing the right arrow key on the keyboard)
Press the Mark Out button (the last button) and the bit of selected video should show as blue on the timeline.
Then go to File/Save Image Sequence and choose something lossless like a .tga file or similar.

That's it - you have you sequence of images and can play in photoshop or any other program really.
Post
#254630
Topic
Adobe AE Questions
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/254630/action/topic#254630
Time
It is easy in combustion or shake to paint through to the previous frame - if you can't sort in in AE, and it is only a few frames you could always just export the few frames to photoshop and do it there, just load each frame into a separate layer and use the extensive paint tools then save each layer back out again as a separate image when done.
Post
#254384
Topic
hardware advice
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/254384/action/topic#254384
Time
If you must stick with AGP get the Radeon X1950PRO, if money is an issue though, get the X850PRO or the X700.

As for monitors I'd still not use an LCD for colour work, especially dark scenes, but if going that way, the Eizo is an excellent screen, but do they still make it? I last used one back in Christams of 2003!
The 213T isn't bad, had good colour but struggles down around IRE30 or less, it must also be hard to find now, I haven't seen one for over 2 years. I used one for a while for vector work, but found it useless for video editing - although the colour was acceptable the detail went to smearsville when scrubbing video back and forth - my guess is the response time was just too slow.
The 204b I haven't seen.

The spyder does OK on LCD screens, but can give inconsistent results at the darker end, make sure you run the calibration a few times to check that you are getting a reliable calibration.
Post
#254281
Topic
The legendary &quot;Starkiller Ranch&quot; Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/254281/action/topic#254281
Time
I'd suggest someone with basic 3D skills start working out the blocking for the effects shots. At least get a feel for camera angles, framing and timing.
If you start to put those scenes together in rough animatic form, you can see if the ideas work and it will make it a lot easier for your 'effects department' when the project gets to that stage.
The person wouldn't need a lot of skils, you can use prebuilt models from the SWMA as stand ins, all you really need is a basic understanding of a 3D package and an understanding of camera moves.

I can help people out with training materials, I'd love to offer myself up for the effects stuff, but I'm kinda snowed.