Episode 1 and 2, final versions done (this time I really hope, because it starts playing with my nerves!).
Episode 3 framing is 11% by now. There will be some mistakes to correct for sure, but all in all the work is going fast.
I did not want to see the movie in theater but I must say that I like the TV series. It's a cool show for kids and it is, more or less, smart enough to please the adult fans too. I even laugh at the "Jedi Jar Jar" episode, that's saying a lot... (I also kind of like the rodian "Lando-like" character in that episode. Nice reminder of the OT.)
From time to time the show even takes the worst little irritating things that the fans hated in the PT and turn them into good fun. Of course it don't turn the PT to gold, but making interesting little stories in the PT world is all we can ask from a show like that.
All in all, a nice surprise.
Anakin is already a great pilot when they meet, but Kenobi is amazed at how strongly the force was with Anakin. He thought he could instruct Anakin as well as Yoda. He was wrong.
Strange how this is actualy a better definition of Qui Gonn. Unless in Lucas mind the PT turns this line to another lie from Obi-Wan to Luke. Or he just fucked up big time once again...
The lie in ANH could just be Obi-Wan covering up the fact that he killed Anakin, which would alarm Luke quite a bit.
Yeah, but if Obi kills Anakin not knowing he is Vader that would be a little strange in ROTJ when Yoda and Obi seam to know it. I guess we could assume that they discovered the truth between EP3 and EP4; or add a scene in our "new prequels" where Yoda tells Obi that the Jedi have discovered the identity of Vader but the audience never knows until ESB.
God it's tricky.
I mean this kind of dark effect surrounding the picture:
Now I have a better quality version of EP1, it's done.
Work on EP2 is done, I am rendering it by now.
The 4:3 cropping and "camera movements" are sometimes a bit different than in the test DVD. I also added a few vignetting effects on some shots and change some text cards as Ripplin told me.
Work on EP3 can start.
I guess my will to have french subtitles will delay a bit the release date, but not much.
Later, Darth Vader comes in, he and Obi-Wan fight, and Vader reveals that Obi-Wan was his master. (This way, we know Anakin was starting to become evil, but don't know which of Obi-Wan's students is Vader until ESB.
I always thought Lucas should have done something like that. A new prequels story arc needs the "who is Vader" approach, and don't need an answer until ESB. Maybe even without giving any hint. The main character of the prequel could be Obi-Wan and not Anakin. Obi struggling against the rise of Palapatine.
Who says it has to be CG.
Mmm, maybe the guy who started this thread...? ;)
But I agree, he also talked about 2D. And I also think a combination of technics could be helpfull for a project like that.
No takers, huh? lol
I guess we just trow ideas for now. I think that, if we really want it to be made, we need to have some of us to write complete stories (I mean just 2 or 3 pages, not real scripts). Then take the best ideas for a final story that please everyone. That would be a good start.
But franckly, making hours of good, coherent, CGI movie would required an incredible amount of time and coordination efforts that I am not sure we can achieved, even with all the best intentions.
But maybe we can focus on making a nice short movie that shows some good ideas of what could have been the prequels, I don't know.
(How does someone go from being a Jedi to a Count anyway?)
I guess "Count Dooku" was an hommage to Lee's "Count Dracula". Another "cool" idea from George.
Better yet, Qui Gon could have been the Seperatist leader in Episode II.
Cool indeed, and a nice way to not have too many characters with only 5 minutes of screening presence.
To me the problem with the 97 SE Jabba is (other than it is now poor CGI for our days standards) that he has too much facial expressions, it was disctracting from the 83 puppet. The 2004 Jabba, even if it's far from perfect is a step in the good direction IMO. Of course the real problem is that the scene itself did not had much thing to the movie. I did not like seeing Jabba in TPM ether because I like my Jabba mysterious until ROTJ.
I also think Obi-Wan need to be unsure and shaky as a master and constantly looking up to a person for guidance who is no longer with him. Qui-gon is the master Obi-Wan wants to be.
I don't know, I think it would be nice to see Qui-Gonn turning under the influence of Tyrannus during episode 2. After all he is a bit of of a rebel among the Jedi.
It would had a conflict for Obi-Wan between staying true to the Jedi code, on Yoda's side, and becoming a part of the separatists with Qui-Gonn (you know the deleted scene of AOTC where Dooku/Tyrannus tells him that the Republic is under the influence of Sidous). That way it could make sens that Obi tells Luke that Yoda was the master who trained him, because he was on Yoda's side during the Clone Wars and he don't forgive Qui-Gonn what he did.
I am thinking about making french subtitles option under the english cards.
I know I could/should have rendered an empty screen then have an option between english and french...
But I think that having the scratches and noises added ON the english text is better, so if I really wanted to have the same effect on a french version I would have to reframing the entire movie once again. Franckly I think this french subtitles at the bottom of the page are enough work.
The original films set up a certain level of pretend realism and lightsabers etc worked fine with that. Virgin births do not.
I guess you could say that it was the Force that influenced midichlorians to create Anakin. You know, the prophecy thing.
In some early scripts it was Palpatine who creates Anakin through midichlorians manipulations (he almost say that in the opera scene if you read between the lines). Of course it's a bit silly because even Palpatine could not foreseen that Qui Gon would find Anakin on Tatooine...
Anyway I always thought that midichlorians could (should!) have been an interresting sub plot instead of just a disturbing useless addition to the world of Star Wars.
So...would this be like a real picture book, with individual pictures and either text or narration (that would be great!)
That would be a great idea for a complete re-interpretation edit of Star Wars. Just music and narration with individual drawing looking pictures! The editor could change the story has he wants to.
But I still want to see this effect in movement, this will add something even more special to this edit. Nice idea.
I hope I can have a last look at Part 2 before the final release, too.
The thing is that it takes 2 days to render the frames just for one episode,
so for part2 I think will send to you a test divx without all the old filters (just to see if the text cards are okay), it will takes less time rendering and downloading.
Now I am rendering episode 1 (text changes could be made though) This evening I will start on reworking the episode 2 cropping (should be quick). Episode 2 should be in a rendering process this week end. Next week I am working on EP3.
Thanks for watching it Ripplin, I am waiting for your PM.
I have made some 3D models myself a long time ago:
I don't have much time to make 3d models these days, but in 2 or 3 months maybe.
I don't like that. I think it's important to show the conflict in him.
Well I understand, but I think there's enough scenes to show the conflict (the few lines that follow that scene for exemple). It is also important to show a darker side of Anakin. Once Obi-Wan is not there, he is not afraid to let his anger free. By the time of episode 3 we can assume that Palpatine already have a strong influence on him.
You don't really need to crop/ zoom the LFL logo, the background for the entire shot is black. Good effort though.
Yes I will not tuch that logo, but it really was more than a simple zoom problem. I don't want to tell you what the problem was because it's so ridiculous (and franckly I don't know how to explain it in english...) I complicated the editing process to a point you can't imagine!
Now it will be faster to work, and the part2 will benefit from it. :)
Well in fact I think it was more complex than a simple zoom problem, I need to remake all the new 4:3 cropping. But now it will be a lot faster and easier for me to do it. I worked in such a wrong way I can't believe it!
The most obvious exemple is the Lucasfilm logo :
Before:
After correction (do not pay attention to the color tint):
I know this problem apparently do not shows too much in the test DVD, but once you know it's there, it is distracting.
I still hope in a two weeks release anyway.
Thanks Ripplin, I think I found a way to rid off the stairstepping effect. But It will take quite some time to achieve. So I guess you now have some time to point the other defaults of the edit to me before I release the final DVD. I will try to be not too long. I hope a release in two weeks now. I know, I already said this sort of thing several times, but it would bother me, after so much work, to release a product that could be a bit better with a little more work.
You're right ... but if you look through my list of suggested edits so far you'll see I've resolved that issue by cutting out the part where she tells Indy her name and rank
As Jack Loyd said: Oups...
I think I skiped that one, I just keep an eye on this thread from time to time. Nice work by the way.
INDY: KGB on American soil? Who is that woman?
The problem is that Jones already called "that woman" by her name earlier in the movie at the Area 51. Am I wrong?
Part1 is finished. Well, I am a bit pissed about video quality but all in all it is very watchable. I think the main problem (other than the usual compression artifacts) comes from the zoom I needed to add in order to fill the 4:3 ratio without having top and bottom black bars. It creates some stairstepping from time to time:
http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/7549/defaultkm1.jpg
I am waiting on Ripplin's opinion on a DVD test. I will probably try something to improve the video quality this week end, but I am not sure it will work. I guess this DVD test will most likely end as the final result.
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