Phase3

Both clips look fantastic! 😃

SomethingStarWarsRelated said:

Oh yeah, I don’t think I ever told you but, Chase3, your upscales are certainly the best I’ve seen yet!

Thanks very much! 😃

I wonder if the paid version of Starlight gives you adjustment options? Or if not, do you think there are elements from the Starlight version you (or anyone) might comp in? maybe lower the opacity so it blends? I don’t know, I haven’t tried anything yet. 😛

I’ll check the system requirements first; my computer is getting quite old, so I’d need to find out if my current hardware could handle it.
I’m in the process of upscaling and restoring some other SW footage (ROTJ Jerjerrod scenes, Star Tours footage, ROTS shots from VFX reels), but I will definitely look into this Starlight model.

Mackey256 said:

I used Topaz Starlight pretty extensively in my Clone Wars restoration project and while it did great with animated footage, I often had to upload the same clip several times to get multiple versions. I then had to edit those versions together taking the best frames of each upscale. For some shots that was 8 or 9 different uploads of the same two second shot. In the end I still had to recreate some elements with Photoshop for the best version of a frame.

Ultimately it worked for what I was trying to accomplish, there isn’t a place for it here. Phase3 did a truly fantastic job on these shots!

Thanks for your kind words!😃
What you did on those Clone Wars shots was fantastic! 👍🏽

SomethingStarWarsRelated said:

So I used up all but 2 of my Topaz’s Starlight credits on old home video clips (which do look pretty dang good btw). With the 2 credits I had left, I ran a clip of Palps from the deleted senate scene in AOTC (Phase3’s upscaled version:

https://streamable.com/bjbpl8

This looks pretty dang amazing. Much more definition in the face.

Sorry, I couldn’t make a comparison video…you’ll have to compare it yourself! 😛

As per our PM conversation:

The image has too much AI processing; it now looks like an AI-generated image, instead of a human being.

Fine details have been scrubbed away, making his face look too smooth, almost waxy; plus there is less detail in his clothing.

Midtones and highlights have been exaggerated, and it’s slightly oversaturated too.

Take a look at his eyes, and areas around his mouth - compare this video to the original video, or my upscale, and you’ll see they’re quite different.

I’ve heard a lot about this Starlight model, however if this is what it produces, then I will stick with what I currently have.

hharlan23 said:

Just to be sure?

The blue tint was added for the 1997 Special Edition.
The walls are actually a brownish-red.

GabinDayback said:

These might as well be the best upscales of ROTS unused scenes. They would work flawlessly re-added with “The Skywalker Saga” blu-ray boxset.

Congratulations on a job well-done!👏

Thanks for your kind words – that’s very much appreciated!

JoyOfEditing said:

Suhweet! Shoot me a PM of that bad boy when you get the chance.

I’ll get the video processed and upscaled, then I’ll send it you. 😃

Dazman said:

Nice, we have some skin details on closeup shots! Thanks for your trouble again Phase3!

I’m glad that you like it!

JoyOfEditing said:

YES YES YES YES!!!

Are the other cut fighter shots on that same reel?

There is one other shot, of a different N-1 exploding, which at first glance appears to be longer than what is shown in the film. 😃👍🏽

O00ll00O said:

Of course, that’d be great!

For my edit, I already have the TPM Blu-ray transferred, plus I have the SFX-only track along with separate music tracks for the film, so it will be very easy to rearrange that scene!

Awesome work again on the deleted scene footage by the way! It’s fun seeing it in Joys edit 😃 A lot of people think up-scaling is just dropping a file in and hitting “upscale”, but I know it’s a ton of work tweaking things to get it right and appreciate it!

Thanks for your kind words! Haha I wish it was as simple as just clicking one button to upscale a video! 😄
There’s a huge amount of testing and tweaking settings in order to get a good upscale.

With regards to the N-1 starfighter getting shot, the footage on the DVD documentary is of very low quality, so it didn’t upscale very well.
Bobson Dugnutt informed me that there was a higher-quality behind-the-scenes shot on the Blu-ray bonus disc. I will upscale this shot and create a new composition, so there will finally be a higher-quality version of this deleted scene.

O00ll00O said:

I propose:

1.) Anakin’s ship is hit, THEN R2 screams
2.) Make the shot that hits the wing slightly louder as it must’ve done decent damage to make him spin out, crash land, and eventually shut down
3.) Add cockpit error alarms/warnings right after the blaster hit
4.) Once he starts flying through the hanger, after the first person view in the cockpit, it cuts to R2 and then play a sound effect of him slightly fixing the ship

I love that idea! It would be very easy to implement; O00ll00O would you mind if I borrow your idea for my own edit?

That looks great! 😃

Mackey256 said:

For those wondering about my process I made this quick video talking about the changes I’m making. Hopefully it helps someone with a similar project in the future. (Sorry it’s long)

https://youtu.be/yGyl9eoWi00

That is a fantastic video, which I hope more people will see, as it clearly shows the huge amount of work that goes into restoring footage. Rotoscoping, plus creating clean, accurate background plates is not easy by any measure; I hope that people who see it will appreciate the work that went into it!

Mackey256 said:

Nice work! These look great!

Thanks for your kind words!

I’ve upscaled the deleted scenes from ROTS, which were all sourced from the ROTS NTSC DVD. Each video is a H.264 1080p MKV, with 5.1 AAC audio plus captions.

To note:
No colour correction has been done; I’ll leave that for each individual editor to decide upon how they wish the video to look.

If you’re interested in these upscales, send me a PM and I’ll send you a link. Requests made in this thread will be ignored – simply send me a PM instead.

Screen-shots:
Original video:

Upscaled:

Original video:

Upscaled:

Original video:

Upscaled:

Original video:

Upscaled:

Original video:

Upscaled:

Original video:

Upscaled:

kg1977 said:

help with a cantina shot

does anyone have this shot from the original in 1920 wide or even UHD format they can PM me.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15Y2VtdgAAs5KqaUqjmlEooH5qWJrKRB8/view?usp=sharing

My clip I have is 1280 and has some pixelation in the shadows so when uplscaled to 1920 it’s noticeble, rather have a clean clip. I don’t have UHD despecialized as a download but I am sure its in that too. If anyone can cut the clip and PM me (with or without audio doesnt) that would help…thanks in advance

I’ll send you a high-quality version of that clip today.

Mackey256 said:

That said, I’m still quietly working on my own version of the series. Mine’s aiming to be a 100% broadcast style cut, recreating how the episodes originally aired, complete with intros and outros where possible (aside from a couple of truly lost bits we just don’t have). I’m still refining a few tricky shots and making some last tweaks before it’s ready for prime time, but I’m hoping to have it finished in the next few weeks.

That sounds fantastic! The more restorations and preservations we have, the better! I’m definitely interested in seeing your version. 😃

kg1977 said:

wow these are great!. The Upscaler I use (Hitpaw) is ok for clean shots but these B rolls I think it struggles. Even with AI enhancement it still is not this good. Are you using Topaz? or something more robust? This is fantastic!

Can you share the files upscaled so I can color match align and crop to aspect ratio as replacements? would be great to have these as better quality. I have some B roll for ANH that could also benefit from a boost…working on ANH up to fight int the cantina (3 more days) than was planning to jump back to raiders and try hammer out the 2.0 in the next 30 days after that.

Thanks

I’m glad that you liked them! Yes, this was done using Topaz. I have only upscaled that one jungle scene so far; I’ll export the video and send you a link via PM.

Mackey256:
Background replacement and making new compositions are difficult tasks to do; you’ve done a fantastic job at restoring these scenes – well done!

Thanks also to GabinDayback for all of the work that has gone into this project!

Mackey256 said:

Just for fun I’m experimenting with a few shots to see if I can improve them. It’s been fun analyzing how this show was put together.

For instance, I’ve been working on cleaning up this speeder shot, as it gets cut off early in the DVD version.

Chapter 9 - Opening Shot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV7bljJZA40

Very few “Next Time” and “Previously” on segments are available online from what I can find. The “Next Time” segments are literally 3 second teasers for the next episode while the “Previously” segments are a bit longer but easy to edit.

Chapter 9 Previously & Next Time HD Rebuild

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpeEHE4Lp0c

I did take a stab at a few missing segments which were replaced by wipes on the DVD Versions.

Chapter 8 Ending - Replaced with a wipe on DVD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzV4LRUd2og

Chpater 9 Ending - Replaced with a wipe on DVD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJSl9X54A50

While neither of these two tests are prefect, they are blink and you’ll miss them changes. Both shots are under 15 frames of content. It would still be nice to have them back at some point.

Chapter 9 - Replaced with a wipe on DVD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGTfRVtQKcU

One more blink and you miss it shot. This is also the result of a wipe being added to the DVD version of this shot.

Like I said, I’ve just been playing around with these in my downtime. I just wanted to share what I’ve been playing with.

Hey kg1977,

With regards to upscaling the behind-the-scenes, B-Roll, plus alternate & deleted footage, it’s definitely possible to get decent-quality videos from the source material, and retain as much original footage as possible.

Some examples: on the top are screen-shots from your v1.6 Raiders edit, along with upscales that I have done (upscales only – no colour correction has been applied):

Thanks for your kind words! 😃

kg1977 said:

To an extent, the following shots from the latest shot list (which I did update today-see very first post) or here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gAUSRGFmFMHpOTdD8OqQZD-qPDdnvd05/view?usp=sharing

are “B” grade, so I know the ones you mean.

“B” grade is to describe ones that are the more rare deleted scenes that are not as good of quality as the more common and widely circulated ones. In some cases, these deleted scenes are not even in 1280 resolution and in some cases 800 as the highest avail. As such, they will have a different quality (even enhanced and upscaled to 1920/1920 cropped to 1:2.35 ratio).

In looking at the latest shot list, I would assume these are the ones you are referring and would be shots 1,2,10,11,18 (some of it), 21,22,23,29,32,47,51(to an extent), 53

I may produce a 1.8 before 2.0 that excludes these as I can certainly see people not wanting them if they are not at least 1280 upscaled and of decent enough quality to blend in. In some cases (I think you mentioned a few) the quality may be hard to swallow on anything larger than a 27 inch TV.

That being said, some of those did have a final pass on them using some some new software this spring that I think is about as good as it going to get on some of “b” grade scenes. These final tweaks at quality will be in 2.0 so hopefully that attempt works better.

I do value your feedback and if you do see any deleted that are not these numbered shots, that you feel need to be better color matched to the original do let me know the shot/the shots number.

As far as audio, I have to convert much of the deleted scenes that are stereo to 5.1 yet as well as do a balance out of it post conversion. The audio is usually the last I do right before the final version or in Raider’s case, 1.8 and 2.0. I would probably finish 2.0 and then go back and remove the “B” footage for 1.8. So there will be a final pass for audio specifically before calling it done.The reason I even release versions with audio that is still in process is that even with stereo a decent receiver can translate it to surround somewhat acceptable (sony/ pioneer receivers etc). But yea I hear ya. Don’t worry I’ll mix it as best I can on some of the deleted - mainly it’s just getting dialogue in the center channel and balancing the other channels.

For those of you who have been following this one, know I have taken a break from it to switch gears over to ANH. I want to at least get that up to the cantina and then finish ESB V1 and I plan to get back to Raiders in June, so not too much longer I will be diving back into this one.

That all sounds great; yes, the deleted scenes you mentioned were the ones that stood out the most in terms of the colour grade and audio. I have been following the changes you’ve made to ANH (which are great!), so hopefully once that’s done you’ll be able to get back into Indy again. 😃

hawkfrost300 said:

These look so great! Would you consider sharing a link with me?

I’ll send you a PM!

Hi kg1977,

I’ve just started watching v6 of your edit, and was wondering if the restoration you’re doing on the deleted scenes are still a work-in-progress or not? The clips are of significantly lower quality than the main film, plus the colour correction doesn’t match the main film either.

You’ve written that you have restored deleted scenes; which software are you using for this?

Are you upscaling the footage? Some of the deleted clips, such as the shot of Satipo walking in the jungle, as well as the shot of the Jovitos Indians shooting their poison darts at Indy, are almost unwatchable.
If you’re upscaling, it would be worth doing more tests and experimentation with settings to get better results.

Is the audio for the deleted scenes a work-in-progress too? There was a big shift in audio quality for the scene of Satipo falling through the hole. Did you not have the soundtrack or separate SFX to make the scene work? Right now it’s not seamless at all, and the colour grading makes it look like a different film altogether.

Also, is the audio for the deleted scenes 2.0 instead of 5.1? It would be worth converting the audio to 5.1, which would go a long way to having a more balanced sound in the edit.

Please know that this is constructive criticism – your ideas for the film are great, so it would be a shame to not have high-quality audio and video throughout the entire film.