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Mackey256

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Members
Join date
6-Apr-2003
Last activity
6-Aug-2025
Posts
574

Post History

Post
#115336
Topic
Storing Laserdiscs?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/115336/action/topic#115336
Time
I once read an article (I'll try to find it and post the link) that had the true story about laser rot. Apparently a guy did a study of 99 laserdiscs and found that one of them got worse over time. The aluminum inside the disc began to oxydize. He called it laser rot. Everything I've read about it say that it's mostly caused by disc missuse. Mostly bending of the disc and poor handleing. I would say just be nice to your discs and they will be nice to you.

I'm off to find that link now...
Post
#114641
Topic
Land Of The Dead
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/114641/action/topic#114641
Time
I have been waiting for this movie for only about 20 years

I knew I wasn't the only one but I didn't want the be the one to ask the question.

I just can't get enough of the grue and anything new by Romero automatically falls into that catagory. I am way more exicted about this then anything else that has come out in the past five years.

I'll be there opening night. I can't wait.
Post
#113758
Topic
Computer & Camera Advice
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/113758/action/topic#113758
Time
As a film editor myself I have to tell you right out. Apple is a better choice for that.

Having said that I can also say; you can get an avid setup for your windows PC fairly cheap. Or if you wanted you could use Premiere so that your final edited product can be imported into After Effects with no problems. I use a plug-in for Final Cut Pro called "Automatic Duck" which costs around 500 bux but it works great. Premiere can do that without the need for a plug-in.

The one problem you will run into is the render times. If you’re doing a lot of heavy editing and rendering you’re really going to bog down your computer to the point of a crawl. (At times) Just keep that in mind and be ready for that.

As far as a camera it comes down to how much money you have. "Picture quality is just a matter of price. The question is how good do you want your film to look?"

I work with some higher DVPRO50 equipment but then again it's not coming out of my pocket. For my own personal camera I have a GL2 and a XL1 (Both Canon cameras). I could go on and on about cameras but really it's a little like speakers in the respect that it's all relative to how you view things and how your final project looks. By that I mean that even with a little 400 dollar MiniDV camera (both cameras above are MiniDV by the way) you can add enough effects and filters over it to make it look great. Picture "Man on Fire" and think of how that film looks. It never had accurate colors in it. It was always shifting in hue and saturation. This can be done easily with After Effects (I do it in Final Cut Pro). If you do that your little film will great.

If I was to recommend a camera to you I would say the GL2.

I hope this helps. It's more of a ramble on my part than anything.

Post
#113077
Topic
Beer: Revisited
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/113077/action/topic#113077
Time
I have been there many times before but thanks for the heads up. A great place to get beer for sure. I live in Rockford and we don't have one.

Does anyone out there brew their own beer or am I the only one?

It's like you guys read my mind and combined the two forums I go to. Beer and Star Wars. Man is this heaven?
Post
#112103
Topic
Rotoscoping help
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/112103/action/topic#112103
Time
I've never really used premiere all that much but I know it's somewhat similar to Final Cut Pro.

I would see if you can export it as a .tiff format. That should give you just a bunch of individual frame that don't lose any resolution.

It's impossible to have a quick fix for making light saber and have them look good. After Effects will make your job a little easier but I have an FX guy to do that so I can't help you with that program. For the light saber stuff I would use Photoshop because that is what I know.

Take the DVD footage and take out the light saber and the glow up the healing tool and clone stamp.

This should give you a clean plate to work with. (this will be the most work too)

Next add a new layer and put a straight white line on it. (hold shift to make sure it straight) I would suggest for this one shot a brush about 8 pixels. I used 10 px for my last photo and it was too thick.

Now this is where I get different for the tutorials I have read. It's more work but it makes the blade look more natural (IMO) I take that white like and make three more layers of it (duplicate layer).

Next I change the color of three of my white blades to blue (or green/red depending on whose saber you are doing).

I take the one white layer and put a blur more filter on it. This will make it look smoother in the end.

Next take the three blue lines (or green/red) and give them a glassine blur filter. I would start with the number of px used for the original blade and get bigger. Sense we used 8px for the blade the first glassine blur I would use would be 8. Then the next layer down I would use a 16px glassine blur. And finally the third blue layer down I would use a 24px glassine blur.

That step is really where you can play with your image a lot as far as blade glow so get that right. It will take experimenting to get the blue color right and to get the glow right.

OK SAVE NOW BECAUSE IT COULD GET MESSED UP!!!

Take the four light saber layers and make them one layer (Merge visible) but make sure the background plate is still a different layer.

switch the blending mode for this layer to screen and go to blending options. Once here give it an outer glow. Also change the color of the glow to the same color used for the glassine blurred blades.

Play around with these setting until you think it looks right. It varies a lot depending on what scene you are using.

Lastly (I haven't tried this personally) try to play with a grain filter so that each frame will have its own grain. This should give each one an independent look so when played back they will look more natural.

This is how I do it but it may be too much work. I think they look good and more importantly I think you may end up with the effect you are looking for.

Hope it helps.
Post
#112015
Topic
Rotoscoping help
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/112015/action/topic#112015
Time
Try using a glausian blur in increasing increments. to give the glow a more natural feel.

Example
If the blade is 8 px. wide start with 8 then do 16 and so on until it looks good. It might make it look a bit natural.

Oh and don't forget the use screen as a blending options. It lets more of the background come through.
Post
#111853
Topic
Info & Help: looking for... other ld-rips to dvd movies ex. blade runner int cut, songs of the south, frighteners dir cut - and much much more...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/111853/action/topic#111853
Time
not really because your cutting about 15 minutes out of evil dead 2 and another 5 out of army of darness. OK so that's like 20 minutes. The first movie is around an hour and 20 plus the hour or so of evil dead2 (after cuts) and another hour and 25 for army of darkness.

Your looking at around 3 hours and 45 minutes

Not too long...
Post
#111771
Topic
Star Wars DVD Covers
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/111771/action/topic#111771
Time
OK so awhile ago I reposted my old covers. I tried to find that post but I couldn't. Anyway in that post I said I might be working on some new covers. Finally today I set out to start and finish them and I did.

The results can be found over here. The only draw back to this is the low quality images I had to work with. So what you see if what you get. Unless someone out there has better images for me this is the final product.

You can see those over here.

http://b.1asphost.com/mackey256/covers.html

Let me know what you think. I might even do more. Perhaps sooner than a year from now too.