Sir Ridley

I don’t remember, but I probably made a default 50mm camera and then scaled the text instead of adjusting the camera settings. It all worked out in the end, but figuring out the proper camera settings would be the “right” way to do it, for sure. There are a couple of photos of the filming of the OT crawl where you can see the camera and the back lit crawl which could be used for figuring out the dimensions of things.

I think the wiggle scales down so adding it to a comp is a good idea. I also did a logo zoom the other day (I originally used the TFA logo) and I noticed how the speed is hard to get right since it’s not linear, I ended up having to do a lot of keyframes. Perhaps it would be a good idea to make the logo recede in 3D instead of just scaling it down since I assume that was originally done with a camera move as well. It was also tricky to make the logo look right as it scales down, it’s supposed to blur in a certain way, similar to the crawl.

Shopping Maul said:

https://medium.com/@goddammitstacey/star-wars-the-last-jedi-has-a-writing-problem-a19897a9c8b9

Underneath the JGL article is this even better (IMO) article on the writing of TLJ. This one pretty well sums up why the Holdo plot was a mess…

I agree that finding DJ by coincidence was weird, that’s her best point. I somewhat agree that characters are in a similar position at the end of the movie, but if you think about it they somehow managed to fit in a lot of character growth. Poe learned a lesson or two, Luke changed his mind about things and gave hope to the rebellion and the galaxy, Finn decided to be a part of the resistance and not just help Rey, Rey decided to be a hero and not just depend on Luke, Kylo decided to go his own way and not just follow Snoke…

I think Holdo not telling Poe the plan was reasonable based on his behavior (and when he finally learned the plan it leaked to the First Order, loose lips sink ships). Holdo having to stay behind and pilot the ship could be explained in many ways. Perhaps she had to manually calculate the trajectory of the light speed maneuver, perhaps the auto pilot can’t do advanced things like that, or perhaps it could but she would have to program it beforehand and by the time she would be done there wouldn’t be time to get out anyway. Maybe the movie could have given us a reason, but I wasn’t bothered by it.

The fatness and fading into the distance are closely based on the TFA crawl. https://i.imgur.com/3KBqQuu.png

Perhaps it would look a bit different if I based it directly on the OT (which I assume TFA did in the first place). I haven’t studied the OT crawls much so I can’t say for sure.

Illustrator is probably not a bad idea once you know how to format everything. I did it inside After Effects just so I could tilt and edit the text on top of the real crawl and line everything up.

So, specifics. My text is in a separate 4K composition where I do all the movement (excluding gate weave, getting to that later) and fading of the text. Apparently my focal length is 50mm. Don’t know how I ended up with that number, but it works. Although I have to stretch the text layer about 200%. Maybe 23mm and no stretch works just as well, but this is what I ended up with. 36mm film. Aperture 25,5.

The angle is -79,8 (for matching the TFA crawl). Since this composition is where I edit the text I also keep a guideline layer to see how wide the paragraphs should be. And on the text layer I have a bunch of effects. A yellow Glow, to make the text a tiny bit thicker. And then a Refine Hard Matte which makes it a bit thicker again and smudges out some details when it goes blurry in the distance. And then a 0,5% Camera Lens Blur which doesn’t do much. And then a Set Matte which adds that little gradient fade in the distance of the text. A Simple Choker which makes the edges a bit less soft and more contrasty. A soft red Drop Shadow which makes the edges of the text warm and cozy. And finally a Fast Blur that just softens everything a bit. Now, all this may sound like nitpicking (and it is), but have a look at this with/without effects image and you can see it’s not completely pointless: https://i.imgur.com/SvKgO9O.jpg

And then on to the composition where I put everything together. I scale down the text layer to 50%. And then for the gate weave I put a Transform effect on the layer (you could use the built in Transform property, but this way it’s easy to turn on or off). Alt-click the stopwatch for Position and type in the expression: wiggle(6,0.5). This gives the text a slight jittery motion. Aaaand that’s it. Sprinkle some film grain on top if you want.

TV’s Frink said:

I thought it was Fake News Gothic.

It’s real. The News, the Gothic. All of it.

The coat hanger is similar, but that one affects how you feel about a character. He seems dangerous and evil, but then you see that maybe there’s more to him. And the diversion is deliberately made by the character to intimidate other characters within the movie. But the iron is just an iron with no importance to story or characters and the diversion is purely for the movie viewers.

EvenSteven said:

Is the steam iron gag a problem for you guys? A lot of people who mention that scene say it belongs in Spaceballs, not Star Wars. I don’t have a big problem with it but I might cut it out in my fan edit anyway.

As I see it it’s a fun gag and beautifully done, but it takes me out of the movie, which is why I would cut it. Instead of making me care more about what’s going on it basically says “gotcha, bet you thought this was an important ship but it was just an iron, anyway, moving on now”.

I made the crawl for Hal 9000’s TFA: Restructured v2 in After Effects. As you may or may not know, the real crawl for TFA was also made in After Effects.

Here’s the crawl I made next to the original crawl:
https://i.imgur.com/3KBqQuu.png

Basically what I did was make a tilted text layer in 3D space that’s filmed with a virtual camera. I did all the text formatting inside After Effects. The title is set in News Gothic Bold Extra Condensed and the rest of the text is in News Gothic Bold. The prequels used Univers Ultra Condensed for the title.

One thing that helps is to animate the text layer at twice the resolution (as a separate composition) and then scale it down, this makes everything look and move smoother. These things are the easy parts, then there are a lot of little details that give the right look to it. The original trilogy crawls were made by actually filming letters with a camera, and the sequel trilogy crawls were made in After Effects with the goal of looking like they were actually filmed. The prequel trilogy crawls are a bit more “perfect” and digital, but still have the depth of field effect. If you want a more retro look like the OT and ST, you’d want to get the right depth of field and add some gate weave as well as effects that get the right look of the text itself, perhaps some film grain too. I have seven effects just on the text to get the right softness and look of the depth of field.

I could send you a template, or just describe things in more detail if you’d like.

DominicCobb said:

ChainsawAsh said:

Hal 9000 said:

Worst line was the one about the “big ass door.”

See, that one didn’t bother me at all. I didn’t even notice it until someone here brought it up.

I did notice it and liked it.

I notice your positivity and I like it.

Daxtreme said:

The only humor I feel is really, undoubtedly out of place and truly bad is the “your mom” joke at the beginning.

This was… horrendous

That’s the worst one.

My favorite joke might be when Hux says “I’ll take it in my quarters” and giant angry Snoke appears.

Dr. Krogshöj said:

I hope there will be a fan edit that cuts some of the excessive humor, but not all of it.

One that needs to go in my opinion is BB8’s AT-ST antics. How did it get in the cockpit?! That one needs to go, and so does Chewie’s porg eating scene.

I also also think Snoke’s death scene would work better if we didn’t see Luke’s lightsaber BEING turned, just that it WAS turned right after Snoke is impaled.

Which humor is seen as excessive is probably very personal. I would cut some humor, but I’m fine with the AT-ST and the porg eating. And you might be right about the Snoke scene, that’s something I will try to do and see how it feels.

Daxtreme said:

Sir Ridley said:

Daxtreme said:

Leia spacewalk untouched? : (

Not so much the actual sequence but the editing is horrendous.

What about the editing? I don’t have any ideas about changing it but if anyone comes up with something I would try.

When Leia is in space we cut to some First Order things for wayyyyy too long before it comes back to her doing the spacewalk.

At the very least I’d re-arrange the scenes for this to be more smooth.

(Personally I’d remove the spacewalk entirely but yeah…) 😛

I see, I didn’t notice this but good point. I’ll look at that.

MissJackie said:

Hey everyone 😃 I have an idea for an edit before snoke dies remove the shots of rey’s lightsaber turning

Maybe…

NeverarGreat said:
Of course, there are probably better ways to do this in After Effects, but this is the low-tech solution.

http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/WK7NNN8X

Ha, that’s the exact method I used though, but in After Effects. One difference is I could motion track some shots instead of manually moving things around. But I had to manually move many things too. Also I used masks and morphing and stuff, but the basics are the same.

About the key frames, instead of doing every other frame or every single frame I would recommend a different method. First do the first and the last frame. Then do the middle frame. Then do the frames in the middle of the gaps, and so on. Play back the sequence from time to time and adjust/add key frames where needed. Only do as many frames as are necessary to make the motion smooth and accurate. If you do every frame you might end up with a very jittery motion.

Daxtreme said:

Leia spacewalk untouched? : (

Not so much the actual sequence but the editing is horrendous.

What about the editing? I don’t have any ideas about changing it but if anyone comes up with something I would try.

HerekittykittyX said:

Sir Ridley said:

Here’s my change list thus far, with changes I’m not sure about in parentheses:
• (Rewrite crawl)
• Trim or cut Poe’s tooling with Hux
• Cut BB-8 headbutting the X-wing electronics
• Trim Paige’s bombing to make it a bit less drawn out
• (Add ending from TFA with Rey arriving on the island and transition into first scene with Luke, edit sky as needed)
• (Recut to have Rey pick up the thrown saber before going after Luke)
• Cut shot of Luke drinking milk and instead show the creature looking at Rey at that point
• Cut Rey’s line “I’ve seen your daily routine, you’re not busy”
• (Cut Luke’s first “everything you said was wrong”, because I feel like Rey wasn’t completely wrong and I dislike how it was used twice like a catchphrase)
• Trim Luke tickling Rey
• Fix continuity error where Finn’s bag is outside then inside escape pod
• (Trim or cut Maz’s call)
• Trim Canto Bight balcony scene, specifically Rose’s line “I wish I could put my fist through this whole lousy, beautiful town”
• Trim or cut BB-8 getting filled with coins and shooting them out
• After Finn and Rose escape, edit the sewer lid to be mostly or fully closed
• In the fathier sequence, cut some of Finn’s lines: “stop enjoying this”, “too much cover”, “make them hurt”
• Cut steam iron “ship”
• (Trim or cut BB-8 controlling the AT-ST)
• Cut Finn’s line “did he just…?”
• Cut Rey’s line about how Kylo should put on a cowl
• Cut Rey’s first lines of voice over when she is in the mirror cave
• (Add visions of violence and destruction to when Luke “looks inside” Kylo’s mind)
• Fix Yoda’s face a bit
• (Make Yoda more blue/pale and transparent like other force ghosts)
• (Extend final Yoda shot like Hal 9000 proposed and/or move scene to other spot in the film like darthrush proposed)
• Cut Poe saying “big ass door”, perhaps edit to just “big door”
• Recut to show Rose coming to save Finn earlier in the suicide run sequence to imply that he needs to be saved rather than having us believe he will successfully sacrifice himself
• Stabilize crate when projected Luke sits on it, like Hal 9000 said

This is how to do a edit of the last jedi i agree with 90% of it but i would just cut out cantobite out entirely and just have finn and rose say we need a code breaker and keep phasma vs finn.

They explain what happens on canto bite to poe right before they go in to snokes ship.

Eh, I thought Canto Bight was mostly fine. Not the most exciting part but I think it needs to stay.

ChainsawAsh said:

Sir Ridley said:

Here’s my change list thus far, with changes I’m not sure about in parentheses:
• (Rewrite crawl)
• Trim or cut Poe’s tooling with Hux
• Cut BB-8 headbutting the X-wing electronics
• Trim Paige’s bombing to make it a bit less drawn out
• (Add ending from TFA with Rey arriving on the island and transition into first scene with Luke, edit sky as needed)
• (Recut to have Rey pick up the thrown saber before going after Luke)
• Cut shot of Luke drinking milk and instead show the creature looking at Rey at that point
• Cut Rey’s line “I’ve seen your daily routine, you’re not busy”
• (Cut Luke’s first “everything you said was wrong”, because I feel like Rey wasn’t completely wrong and I dislike how it was used twice like a catchphrase)
• Trim Luke tickling Rey
• Fix continuity error where Finn’s bag is outside then inside escape pod
• (Trim or cut Maz’s call)
• Trim Canto Bight balcony scene, specifically Rose’s line “I wish I could put my fist through this whole lousy, beautiful town”
• Trim or cut BB-8 getting filled with coins and shooting them out
• After Finn and Rose escape, edit the sewer lid to be mostly or fully closed
• In the fathier sequence, cut some of Finn’s lines: “stop enjoying this”, “too much cover”, “make them hurt”
• Cut steam iron “ship”
• (Trim or cut BB-8 controlling the AT-ST)
• Cut Finn’s line “did he just…?”
• Cut Rey’s line about how Kylo should put on a cowl
• Cut Rey’s first lines of voice over when she is in the mirror cave
• (Add visions of violence and destruction to when Luke “looks inside” Kylo’s mind)
• Fix Yoda’s face a bit
• (Make Yoda more blue/pale and transparent like other force ghosts)
• (Extend final Yoda shot like Hal 9000 proposed and/or move scene to other spot in the film like darthrush proposed)
• Cut Poe saying “big ass door”, perhaps edit to just “big door”
• Recut to show Rose coming to save Finn earlier in the suicide run sequence to imply that he needs to be saved rather than having us believe he will successfully sacrifice himself
• Stabilize crate when projected Luke sits on it, like Hal 9000 said

I agree with almost all of this, but I’d keep both “every word in that sentence was wrong” lines and I’d definitely cut the fathier chase, implying that DJ just got them out and to his ship like others have suggested.

I really hope some of the deleted scenes are worth including and in good shape…

I don’t mind the fathiers, they were pretty fun. A bit prequely maybe. And the sequence reinforces some of the themes of the movie and introduces the kids from the end sequence, so I’d keep it. I’ll trim it a bit.

Yeah, looking forward to seeing the deleted scenes! There should be something worth including. Hope they’re more complete than the ones from TFA, and without the time code.

I don’t see how the beam could enter hyperspace partway through. The speed of the beam should come from how fast it is pushed out from the weapon, unlike a ship which propels itself forward and can enter hyperspace using its hyperdrive.

Interesting. I’m with you on the Starkiller planet size.

Let’s say the Starkiller beam moves at lightspeed. I guess the stars would be elongated or look like that cloudy blue tunnel from the “point of view” of the beam itself. Would the beam be visible for “outside” viewers? And would it travel through lighspeed “lanes” or freely in a straight line from point A to point B? Do objects in lightspeed enter a different dimension or are they simply moving too fast to be seen? If it’s just moving fast but is a long continous beam I assume it would still be visible and look about the same as it does in the movie.

Hal 9000 said:

Good change list! Really looking forward to what you produce.

Thanks! 😃

Welcome to the community! Glad you liked the edit, I certainly enjoyed working on it.

To answer your questions, yes, I think these things could be done (but I don’t see the need to, except for maybe shrinking the Death Star). Why do you think Starkiller Base should fire through hyperspace?

Here’s my change list thus far, with changes I’m not sure about in parentheses:
• (Rewrite crawl)
• Trim or cut Poe’s tooling with Hux
• Cut BB-8 headbutting the X-wing electronics
• Trim Paige’s bombing to make it a bit less drawn out
• (Add ending from TFA with Rey arriving on the island and transition into first scene with Luke, edit sky as needed)
• (Recut to have Rey pick up the thrown saber before going after Luke)
• Cut shot of Luke drinking milk and instead show the creature looking at Rey at that point
• Cut Rey’s line “I’ve seen your daily routine, you’re not busy”
• (Cut Luke’s first “everything you said was wrong”, because I feel like Rey wasn’t completely wrong and I dislike how it was used twice like a catchphrase)
• Trim Luke tickling Rey
• Fix continuity error where Finn’s bag is outside then inside escape pod
• (Trim or cut Maz’s call)
• Trim Canto Bight balcony scene, specifically Rose’s line “I wish I could put my fist through this whole lousy, beautiful town”
• Trim or cut BB-8 getting filled with coins and shooting them out
• After Finn and Rose escape, edit the sewer lid to be mostly or fully closed
• In the fathier sequence, cut some of Finn’s lines: “stop enjoying this”, “too much cover”, “make them hurt”
• Cut steam iron “ship”
• (Trim or cut BB-8 controlling the AT-ST)
• Cut Finn’s line “did he just…?”
• Cut Rey’s line about how Kylo should put on a cowl
• Cut Rey’s first lines of voice over when she is in the mirror cave
• (Add visions of violence and destruction to when Luke “looks inside” Kylo’s mind)
• Fix Yoda’s face a bit
• (Make Yoda more blue/pale and transparent like other force ghosts)
• (Extend final Yoda shot like Hal 9000 proposed and/or move scene to other spot in the film like darthrush proposed)
• Cut Poe saying “big ass door”, perhaps edit to just “big door”
• Recut to show Rose coming to save Finn earlier in the suicide run sequence to imply that he needs to be saved rather than having us believe he will successfully sacrifice himself
• Stabilize crate when projected Luke sits on it, like Hal 9000 said

Hal 9000 said:

Is it, “The Republic is no more”?

It might be weird to go straight from, “The Republic is no more” to, “We have their location…” I think the scene is perfectly fine as it is in V2(.1), but I can’t rule out the possibility that compelling things like this will emerge.

Yeah, the conversation might flow weirdly. Either way, it’s a good suggestion, for another time.

Hal 9000 said:

Which line is that?

I don’t remember the exact wording, but I think there’s a line that could replace the “the republic is wreckage/has been swept aside” line. I just wonder if it would feel odd to have the exact same line in both TFA and TLJ. Perhaps it could be changed in some way. Once we have all the TLJ audio there’s a lot more to work with if we want to splice together a new line.

I could help with audio processing for the final touch once you have the recording you want, but not until January so I’ll leave you to it for now. Nice work.

Great job with that time code removal! However, you can still see a faint outline of her braid so perhaps you need to adjust the mask a bit.

MalàStrana said:

Hal 9000 said:

Once that’s done, I’ll probably have to turn my eye to THE LAST JEDI.

The Last Jedi: A Not So Gentle Restructure - by the awesome creators of TFA: A Gentle Restructure

I think the structure is fine, but then again I didn’t give the structure of VII any second thoughts before this idea was brought up. Personally I would trim some sequences a bit, tone down some gags, adjust some effects and add a few deleted scenes (if they seem worth adding). And I hope they come without a time code…

Here’s the Leia scene without regrading. One shot is still graded (the one where Korr Sella looks up and Leia enters the frame). I did the braid removal on that shot on top of the color grade so it can’t be removed, so keep that in mind.
https://mega.nz/#!zElyiSYY!EnuPRDufn5ys1vWMnyFNWL5Y51CNH2QQEgkGte7uOgs

And here’s the leg shot, I went for a new crop instead.
https://mega.nz/#!mM0hyK7L!2Z9Wo7GC5DWRa35mNFmlBhr6beVfFPnYuwqdQE91OaY

😃

darthrush said:

So excited to see the new version coming together so nicely! I would love if one of ya’ll could point me to a tutorial on how you do these effects. I am pretty fluent in Premiere but haven’t touched After Effects yet.

If you know Premiere (and Photoshop) you can apply some of that knowledge to AE. I think the best collection of tutorials is this one: http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/
Some of the most important concepts to learn are keyframes, masks and tracking. Watch a few tutorials and experiment. And if you have specific questions I don’t mind helping!