I have a question; if Binary sunset is suppose to be pink/red/orange rather than blue/purple does this mean that when Luke comes rushing up out of the garage looking for R2D2 that the sky here should also be pink/red/orange too?
Many Thanks
I apologise if I came across a bit strong, as I said I understand he doesn't want to get into any trouble over it. ;)
I can't help but notice he didn't say anymore about the print/source that shot came from. Why is it that this kind of high quality source always seems to fall into the hands of those who dont want to share it with the community at large? :(
Ignorance is bliss, IMO if someone has access to such a high quality print/source and is planning to do a restoration but has no plans of releasing it to the community then they should keep it to themselves rather then rubbing salt in the wound!
Great work as always Zombie84 :D
@Zombie84 Many Thanks for putting that comparison page together, it was a really interesting read, very helpful! :D
@Bkev Thank you for the kind praise, knowing that so many people are interested in this just makes me even more excited about working on it. :)
@msycamore I too wish their was a pre THX source that could at least equal the GOUT for horizontal and beat it for vertical resolution. Believe me if such a source was available I would do my best to get my hands on it ;) For me once G-Force's and my own enhancements are applied to the GOUT the only real issue I have is the DVNR smearing, it's a shame there isn't some sort of de-ghosting filter that could at the least make this less obvious. Thank you for the continued support and don't stop fantasizing because the moment we do Darth Lucas wins! ;)
@EyeShotFirst Thank you for the kind praise. :)
Now for an update. I watched Star Wars through last night and I am happy to say I was VERY HAPPY with it! :D I re-rendered the video with the latest suggested tweaks over night, so I just need to export, encode, and author this, watch it through one last time to make sure I am happy with it, and if I am that will be Star Wars finished. :D
If anyone is interested in making DVD covers for this project that would be greatly appreciated I would request however that you base them on the following VHS covers as these are the ones I grew up with. :)
Star Wars:
http://www.swonvideo.com/vhs/vanhuk1994.htm
The Empire Strikes Back:
http://www.swonvideo.com/vhs/vesbuk1994.htm
Return Of The Jedi:
http://www.swonvideo.com/vhs/vrotjuk1994.htm
Many Thanks :)
@myscamore which LD transfer would you suggest I use? The only non THX transfer I am aware of is the Dark Jedi/Sega JSC preservation and I was under the impression this is not a very good transfer?Chewtobacca said:
msycamore said:
Personally I would be more happy to see someone take a stab at the pre-THX LD transfers instead, but every attempt to get the films colortiming closer to its original state is always welcomed. :)
+1 on both counts!
Those screenshots look great, Lee. :-)
I've certainly noticed the colour-shift / smearing of the red from the Tantives engines. :)Nerfherder said:
Is it just me, or is there evidence of halo-ing and a little video colour-shift (smearing to the right) going on with the engines of the Tantive IV at the very beginning of the GOUT? I noticed this when I first got the DVDs, and it's only evident on the section containing the original crawl that was spliced in...
- John
I just tried out a 10% saturation increase (going from sat = 1.0 to sat = 1.1 is 10% yes?) and it doesn't seem to hurt anything so I'll keep this change. :)zombie84 said:
I think the saturation could be bosted by about 10% as well, at least for most shots, to match Technicolor levels without sacrificing anything. But these still look very nice. Good job!
Thanks myscamore I have adjusted the binary sunset scene following your suggestions. Zombie84's suggested saturation increase seems to help with the overly cool colour palette. I was probably over zealous with my attempt to dial down the excess red resulting in the cooler colour palette. As I say the saturation boost seems to help fix this.msycamore said:
Nice results! IMO and this is just my opinion as there's as much opinions when it comes to color-timing as there is colors, you should go a little warmer. Star Wars IMO had a very warm color palette.
The sunset:
The colors in the wide shot look way off and unnatural to my eyes, the lower sun is too pink and the sand have a sickly green/yellow tint.
The shot of Luke is incredibly close to how it looked in FOX-promotional material for the SE before it went looking like night in the '97 video release. It's been a while since the '97 SE played in cinemas but I clearly remember that I reacted when I first saw the SE on video and thought it looked weird and couldn't remember it looked that way in the cinema. Anyway, it looks beautiful, the photo of the Technicolor screening have more pink in it though.
A little more red in the close up of the suns and it would look much better.
Again... just my opinion, what you've accomplished so far is really nice. Keep it up! :)
Increasing the saturation is much like increasing the contrast you have to restrain yourself otherwise you end up doing more harm then good to certain areas of the picture. I have already increased the saturation as much as I feel comfortable with because we have to remember that while you can polish a turd until its so glossy you can see yourself in it, this doesn't change the fact that it's still a turd on the inside. :(
Nerfherder said:
Awsome-zilla!!! However - and please don't think I am nit-picking - I think just a TAD more colour would bring it closer to those Technicolor print shots, unless it's my laptops screen of course...
At any rate it's leaps and bounds better than the stock 2004 GOUT, and shocking that Lucasfilm couldn't even be bothered to do a basic colour correction to it like you have here for its release. Just goes to show what some love for this film and technical competency with video tools can reveal.
I salute your technical prowess, Sir!
:D
I thought it quite ironic myself when I was comparing before and after shots earlier today with the untouched GOUT looking as black and white as it did it made me think about George Lucas' stance on the colorisation of black and white films. LOLThe Aluminum Falcon said:
Wow Lee! Those colors look fantastic! They're so vibrant and completely unlike the monochromatic (in comparison) GOUT! I think you've hit the correct grade :-)
Thanks Jetrell. :)
I don't want to jump the gun as I won't know until I have watched this on my 26" LCD TV, but I think this colour grade might be the one! :D
Thanks rockin! :D
rockin said:
:O
Shockingly awesome Lee.
I never knew there was more life left in the GOUT source. It almost looks like a totally different source.
I certainly prefer the look of the sabers in your version Harmy. :D
Is that an offer? Because if it is count me in! :pdark_jedi said:
The Aluminum Falcon said:
dark_jedi said:
I came across my original capping of the 97 SE Laserdiscs, and LOL they were already IVTC'd...
Are you gonna release these? The more preservations, the merrier, especially since you already IVTC'd them...:)
Damn dude, you wanna just come over and copy everything I have?
Thanks Zombie that sounds like it could be quite useful! I too hope to have some screenshots to share by the end of the weekend. ;)
Many thanks for all the useful pointers zombie84. :)
EDIT: @AluminumFalcon at this stage I have no idea when Star Wars will be finished, it could be a few days it could be a few weeks, it all depends on when I hit that sweet spot with the colour grading. ;)
Do you mean Obi-Wan? If so I am actually doing the opposite, even with the general saturation boost and dialling down the reds his shirt and cloak are still rather washed-out and red. So I have isolated this washed-out brown colour and re-coloured it to match what I see in the Technicolor photos.
zombie84 said:This could be very interesting. Also, the wording in your post is a bit unclear--are you de-greening Owen's shirt in that shot?
I completely removed the black/white/colour adjustments in G-Forces script so all black/white/colour changes are being made by me as part of the colour grading process. I have already boosted the contrast as much as I feel comfortable with. It's interesting you should mention it as I have had to restrain myself from increasing it too much because its so easy to end up with crushed blacks if your not careful. :(
zombie84 said:Also, this is something that I posted in my thread on the colouring, but I recommend a bit of a contrast bump to the image. The GOUT is relatively flat, I don't know if the G-Force gamma change solves it completely, but the DVD itself definitely could use a bit of a kick here to get things popping more.
As the title suggests this project will be my attempt to replicate the Technicolor aesthetic seen in the photos from the Senator Theatre Technicolor I.B. showing for the whole of the Original Trilogy. Now as Technicolor stopped making Imbibition prints by the time The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi were made, whatever this project produces for those two films will be at best examples of what could have been.
At present I am working on Star Wars as that is the film we have a source of reference for. Once Star Wars is complete I should then be able to use the same colour correction settings to re-color the other two films, tweaking the settings for Empire and Jedi as necessary.
Star Wars in Technicolor DVD Label
For this project I am using the G-Force enhancement script on the video from the NTSC DVDs of Star Wars & Empire, and the PAL DVD of Jedi, albeit without G-Forces levels, colour correction and subtitles commands, I have also modified the scripts to output at PAL resolution rather than NTSC, this was I can do both without loss of quality. 😄 For the Audio I have Belbucus’ theatrical audio for Star Wars and his '93 PCM captures for Empire and Jedi however these are kind of my plan B as I would ideally like to use dark_jedi’s captures of the theatrical audio for Empire and Jedi when they are released instead. For the alien subtitles I have recreated the theatrical subtitles (placement,size,timings) using myscamore’s avisynth script as a guide. Naturally I would like to thank G-Force, Belbucus, dark_jedi and myscamore for their contributions to this wonderful community.
For the colour correcting I am using Apple Color 1.5. I have played around with several different ways to get the GOUT to look like the Technicolor print but the one that seems to work best is to increase the GOUTs saturation then dial down the reds so neutral colours are no longer tinted, and then selectively correct individual colours for example even with these adjustments Obi-Wan’s cloak and undershirt are still rather washed-out and red, so isolating the HSL range of this washed-out reddish-brown I can selectively colour correct it to be a more greenish-brown as in the Technicolor print. Similarly I can isolate the HSL range of skin-tones and adjust them to avoid the “carrot people” look.
As I want to be able to copy these settings over to the other two films when I am done I am not correcting on a scene by scene basis but rather building up a colour grade that is applied to the whole film. That said there is one exception in Star Wars and that is the binary sunset scene, which I have colour corrected to more closely match what I understand to be its original colouring (Lighter, more reddish/orange than blue/purple.)
I think that covers all the basics of this project, if you have any questions I would like to hear them. 😃
Thanks Jetrell! :DJetrell Fo said:
Impressive...............most impressive. I AM excited.
Thanks for the preview Lee.
Thanks for the feedback Rockin and who says LaserDisc is obsolete? LOLrockin said:
Hey Lee, I had chance today to have a look through your THX ANH preservation, and it looks pretty sweet.
I upscaled it via my PS3 for further enhancement and it was awesome. ;-)
Neither the French Audio or Coffret set had any special features on the LaserDiscs, so there was nothing to include. ;)ColinK said:
Lee, are there any 'extras' on these LDs? Will you be doing them too?
Thanks for the kind words Zombie84 its really all your fault I am doing this in the first place, if you hadn't started your GOUT Automated Color Correction thread I never would have thought of doing this. ;) I am about to start a new thread for this project so if you dont mind I will answer your question in my opening post. :)zombie84 said:
Your Technicolor version is looking pretty fantastic. What/how did you use to correct it and when is it coming out?
Once again VERY VERY COOL AvP! Many Thanks :D
Thanks Chewtobbaca I thought this was the case but just thought I would check :)Chewtobacca said:
The NTSC GOUT versions for ANH and ESB are better sources than the PAL, so use those and incorporate PAL conversion if you must. The script for ROTJ is already written for the PAL GOUT because in this case it is the better source.
This seems like the best place to ask this so here goes. If I were to modify these scripts to output to PAL instead of NTSC what would be the best source to use?
Many Thanks
I have both the Coffret set and a copy of the set Moth3r used for his preservation and I am sure they are both from the same master. ;)skyjedi2005 said:
Is it confirmed that your THX 1995 set comes from the same master as Moth3r's ?
I'm using G-Forces script before colour correction, albeit without the scripts colour correction and subtitles commands. I've also modified the resize command to resize to PAL resolution.The Aluminum Falcon said:
Wow! I love those screen shots from the Technicolor Reproduction Project! Finally, I can watch an original version of Star Wars with a more proper saturation level. Out of curiosity, are you just going to use the plain, unrefined GOUT as the base, and, if you do, will you filter/enhance it, aside from the color? Alternatively, are you going to use G-Force's script, the LFL Pwnage, or DJ's V3?
Thanks everyone! :) I just thought I would let you know Star Wars (ANH) from the coffret set is on its way up to the newsgroup.