logo Sign In

Trooperman

User Group
Members
Join date
15-Feb-2005
Last activity
15-Jun-2015
Posts
1,406

Post History

Post
#287664
Topic
Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/287664/action/topic#287664
Time
Originally posted by: Erikstormtrooper
Trooperman,

Please take as much time as you need. Don't beat yourself up or think you've failed.

Regarding taking Anakin out of the duel, can you use one of the shots of Dooku force-pulling a "thingie" off the wall (from the Yoda part) and throwing it toward Anakin? The impact would be implied, but we could then see Anakin hit the floor (I guess the rough part is still removing the smoke when Anakin's laying on the ground).


Great minds think alike, I guess- my current cut is edited exactly as you just described it. Dooku tears the object off of the wall and throws it at Anakin. You see the object fly towards the camera, you cut to Dooku, and then you see Anakin on the ground (implying that the object hit Anakin). It just doesn’t work well- it leaves you feeling cheated and makes it feel like a fan-edit. If Dooku hit Anakin with the object, you want to see the object hit him. At the very least you want to see Anakin fall to the ground. But the Anakin falling shot also contains the force lightning. It’s just not in the style to imply something as critical as that and not even show it. And yeah, the smoke is annoying, but if that’s the only continuity error, I can live with that.

One thing I had forgotten, though, is that TJDavis also offered to help with this scene. He’s the man behind the new droid analysis scene in SOTDS. Maybe he’ll be able to figure out how to remove the force lightning.
Post
#287612
Topic
Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/287612/action/topic#287612
Time
Originally posted by: Marvolo
Originally posted by: Trooperman
Hi everyone,

I really don't want to disappoint you guys, but I've basically failed. I'm not going to be able to deliver this on the 25th. I've actually had literally no time to work on this at all this entire month. I haven't even had time to visit this thread at all.

All I can say is that I'm really sorry and except for one hitch, everything is set to roll. It's just a matter of putting in the time to make it happen. The one hitch is that we can't figure out a convincing way for Dooku to remove Anakin from the duel without using force-lightning. I've talked with several people and nothing has worked. Keeping the force lightning would introduce a multitude of plot holes later in the sequence, so that isn't an option. I'm stumped on this one.

I guess all I can say is to forget about it, and then one day (could be a month from now, could be 4 months), I'll let you know that I finally did it. I'm not going to set and break another deadline. I can't give you an unfinished product. But "Shroud of the Dark Side" very much exists.

I don't want to release the rough cut because it's chock full of errors and I want you to see this the right way. But one person on this forum has actually seen the rough cut of this movie. He said, "Your work is so superior to the original edit that you cannot lose now."

After I release the movie, I'll let you know the reason it took so long- I think you'll understand.

Regards,
TM


About how to take Anikan out of the fight without force lightning, have you tried painting out the lightning and make it look like a force throw? I know you would have to remove the smoke coming off Anikan in the next few shots, but let me know what you think.


I've thought of that, but I don't think Adywan was able to pull it off convincingly enough.
Post
#287548
Topic
Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/287548/action/topic#287548
Time
Hi everyone,

I really don't want to disappoint you guys, but I've basically failed. I'm not going to be able to deliver this on the 25th. I've actually had literally no time to work on this at all this entire month. I haven't even had time to visit this thread at all.

All I can say is that I'm really sorry and except for one hitch, everything is set to roll. It's just a matter of putting in the time to make it happen. The one hitch is that we can't figure out a convincing way for Dooku to remove Anakin from the duel without using force-lightning. I've talked with several people and nothing has worked. Keeping the force lightning would introduce a multitude of plot holes later in the sequence, so that isn't an option. I'm stumped on this one.

I guess all I can say is to forget about it, and then one day (could be a month from now, could be 4 months), I'll let you know that I finally did it. I'm not going to set and break another deadline. I can't give you an unfinished product. But "Shroud of the Dark Side" very much exists.

I don't want to release the rough cut because it's chock full of errors and I want you to see this the right way. But one person on this forum has actually seen the rough cut of this movie. He said, "Your work is so superior to the original edit that you cannot lose now."

After I release the movie, I'll let you know the reason it took so long- I think you'll understand.

Regards,
TM
Post
#284229
Topic
Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/284229/action/topic#284229
Time
Sorry this is taking so long, guys. All I’m trying to do is lock the video, but I’m running into one stupid MPEG problem after the next. Bizarre glitches I can’t seem to get rid of. What’s happening is in many cases I’m having to encode a file with encoding errors in it and then patch it up after the fact in Womble.

This is taking way more time than it should. If I ever do this again, remind me never to edit directly off of the original MPEG files using Vegas software. I’ve blown so much time as a result of that mistake.

Don’t get me wrong-- I really love this movie now and the creative part/editing was a lot of fun. Again, can’t wait until it’s done and people watch it. But this stupid stuff really tries my patience…
Post
#282857
Topic
Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/282857/action/topic#282857
Time
Sorry guys- I was out of town and then my power went out (it's still out). So....

C3PX put it really nicely- nobody wants 3PO and Anakin/Padme take him along with R2 to Geonosis. Kind of fits with his "lot in life". Then, R2 and 3PO argue, and what happens is that the headstrong R2 goes in to try to help Anakin and Padme, while 3PO stays on the ship and misses out on all of the fun.

I think this fits better with the original SW. You' remember 3PO's attitude when R2 wants to go a particular way on Tatooine.

"No! I'm not going that way." "You'll be malfunctioning in a day, you near-sighted scrap pile!"

So likewise, in SOTDS, he avoids the danger and doesn't follow R2 (why would he, anyway? They just met. He has no attachment for the droid).

-----------

Lately there was some concern that the 3PO scenes wouldn't work (they felt too "constructed"), but I recently nailed the pacing through a simple dialogue reversal and the removal of a line, and now I'm sure that this is definitely how it will be. No 3PO in Episode I.

And that IS an interesting backstory, but at least at this point I see no way to have it happen both ways....

TM
Post
#281187
Topic
Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/281187/action/topic#281187
Time
Yeah, the delay was caused not only by real work taking precedence, but by major computer problems and also the fact that I want to rerecord most of the Anakin dialogue to reflect what I've learned about doing ADR.

I agree that Nanner's voice at 17 (lowered a tiny bit) is perfect for Lama-Su. He's an alien and I think my new script combined with your acting created a memorable character that I wouldn't change at all now.

PM sent, Weezer

Some good news- I figured out the Uncle Owen problem. The problem was I was trying to cram too much stuff into the scene. After cutting a line, reversing the order of two lines, and getting the pacing right, the scene plays great. Can't wait for you all to see the intro of C-3PO into the series- as someone mentioned earlier, it really fits in with his "lot in life".

Good stuff!
Post
#280931
Topic
Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/280931/action/topic#280931
Time
Originally posted by: Weezer12
I don't want to be rude or anything, Trooperman, but...any remote idea of when this thing will be finished?


Don't worry about being rude. On the one hand, I know what I'm doing is kind of a gift to all of you and you have no right to complain (ha ha!), but at that same time, this'll be out much later than promised, and you contributed your voice to the movie. So you have license to complain.

I'm reluctant to set another deadline and then break it, but I'd be very surprised if this wasn't out by the end of June. Hopefully it will be out by May 25th.

And if you'd like a really solid date, there is NO WAY this will be out later than July.

Oh, and if you get a chance, Weezer, I realized recently I need a pickup stormtrooper line from you. No rush because I haven't gotten to final mix yet, but I'll PM you with the line if you're still able to record.

Hey, look at the bright side. This'll come out before Jay's new software does
Post
#280900
Topic
Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/280900/action/topic#280900
Time
Hi everyone. I'm really sorry for the lack of updates.

Yes, the project's still going. I've encoded a great deal of the video by now. There are still a couple of shots that aren't working- one in particular is critical to making the Dooku/Anakin confrontation work without force lighting. In this version, Dooku uses the force to throw an object at Anakin, knocking him to the ground. Thing is, I had to use reversed, cropped footage for the oject, and the result is less than stellar. If he has the time, I might ask Adywan if he could create a new shot to make it work.

TJDavis' dart identification scene came out great. There were only a few shots to play with, but I really think it's a convincing and good scene now.

I'm about to encode the droid factory scene today. Asteriod field, Coruscant chase, nightclub, search for Kamino, fist fight, Lama-Su, and a lot of other stuff is either encoded or about to be encoded.

Only hurdles video-wise standing in the way are: a couple of unstatisfying shots, lightsaber rotoscoping (still haven't completed all the shots yet), and the credits.

Also, I'm having trouble making the Uncle Owen scene work. It's a matter of getting the mouth/expressions of the original actor to mesh with the new dub. I'll see what I can do.

I guess one good thing about switching computers was that I was able to see the movie on another monitor. It looks a bit different, but I am very happy with it. The different colors and the grain make it much more watchable for me.


But I'm really sorry for letting you all down, everybody; I feel awful when I make promises and don't live up to them. My life is very hectic and although working on this is the most fun, all the other stuff has to take precedence.

But it's all on my PC, and getting better and better every week...
Post
#278581
Topic
SW fonts
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/278581/action/topic#278581
Time
Hi everyone,

I was wondering if any of you have access to the font AltGothNo3d (the font that matches the subtitles on the OOT starting in '93). Not AlternateGothicEF, just AlternateGothicNo3d. My computer recently crashed and I have lost it and need it to continue on my project.

Any help or PM would be much appreciated! Thanks a lot,

TM
Post
#277830
Topic
The legendary "Starkiller Ranch" Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/277830/action/topic#277830
Time
Jar-Jar is in English.

Nute and the Nemoidians are recorded by Sluggo's friends who speak an obscure language I can't remember at the moment, so they are subtitled. I think they did a fantastic job, especially after I lowered their voices a bit.

They actually took my English lines and translated it into the other language, so even for the handful of people that may speak that language, the subtitles actually match up with what is said!
Post
#277780
Topic
The legendary "Starkiller Ranch" Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/277780/action/topic#277780
Time
This is good discussion! No time to respond to everything, but....

The most I can do for SOTDS at this point regarding Maul=Grievous is to possibly find Ian McDiarmid saying something like "I have a surprise for you" or "I have something to show you", or anything similar we can find. I can use this as the last line of the Palpatine/Dooku scene. I haven't seen any other Ian McDiarmid movies, though.

I really haven't started thinking about the music yet. I've been thinking that the video editing needs to come first, with the sound next, and the music last. Is that the wrong way to look at this?

Actually, funny enough, my method of editing is music first. Very basic video cutting will come first, but then I'll screen the scene without music and rack my brain for possible cues. I'll try a few out in rough synch with the scene. Then I cut the video to the music. Sound effects come last.

I do this because with a real film, a composer will write cues to the film and hit certain synch points as the shots progress. This is kind of the reverse. The music cues are pre-written, so by cutting the film to the music and reverse-engineering it, you get the illusion that the music is written especially for the film.

Unless you've heard it in another film, which gives it away pretty quickly
Post
#277407
Topic
Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/277407/action/topic#277407
Time
Originally posted by: andy_k_250
Glad you've gotten things up and running again! It was really depressing to read about all of your recent troubles.

Are you still shooting for a May release date?

q]

I hope so. That's the plan, although I'll warn you now that despite my earlier words, there's the possibility that I might have to keep it longer if I get off on my timetable. I'm really hoping I can pull a May release date because I really like the idea- completed on the 30th anniversary of "Star Wars".

It all depends- I have a couple surprises up my sleeve....
Post
#277396
Topic
Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/277396/action/topic#277396
Time
My extreme thanks goes to Adywan, who saved the day yet again by suggesting the “Version D” update to Vegas to solve my problem. Now, everything is how I had left it.

A big part of the reason for this big delay (as I may have mentioned), is that I was editing directly off of the MPEG-2 files (for hard disk space reasons), rather than converting to uncompressed AVI. What I didn’t realize is that I was using software notorious for screwing up on MPEG-2, especially with frame-specific editing using 3:2 pulldown for 24 fps. I don’t know how many hours were wasted trying to get simple cuts and transitions to work. Looking back, of course, I realise I should have just used AVI. I wound up having to export all of the shots I used for transitions as AVI anyway, because there was NO way to get it to work otherwise.

Adywan ran into this problem with his project, but unlike me, he was smart, bought a really big hard drive, and edited off of AVI. If I ever do this again, that’s what I’ll be doing. I probably could have cut the production time in half had I known this at the beginning….

But it’s all there! So after installing a couple more programs, I’m back in business.

-TM
Post
#277394
Topic
The legendary "Starkiller Ranch" Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/277394/action/topic#277394
Time
Aargh! I just lost everything I just typed...

I definitely think we should go with Ep. III next. As someone said, Ep. I is pretty far removed from the actual meat of the story. The OT is already great, in my opinion. The logical next step after Ep. II is to continue and tackle the cringeworthy badness that is Ep. III. As I finish up Ep. II over the next couple months, I think it'd be good to discuss some basic plot points.

Big ones:

-How do we make Anakin's turn (and subsequent stay through Ep. III-VI) to the Dark Side believable and logical?
-Does Darth Maul=General Grievous? If so, how? If not, how do we salvage that whole section of Ep. III (without filming new footage- I don't have a Panavision handy)

With Adywan onboard, he has the SPFX tools and knowledge to make more radical changes possible.

Also, cinematography-wise, Ep. III is a huge improvement over Ep. II, especially for the Anakin/Palpatine scenes (which I wish there were more of). Less work there.

Also, GoodMusician's complete Ep. III score will make music much easier than it was with Ep. II. I wound up replacing the majority of the music for SOTDS, simply because the tracks were hacked up and mixed far too low in the soundtrack. And as GoodMusician said, very little music has been released otherwise. So that'll be a lot easier.

And I'll be back for Anakin, along with all of the other actors in SOTDS, as far as I know. So it looks like things would be set to go after SOTDS. I'm kind of tired of doing this right now, but I'm sure I'll help edit part of the movie. I relish the idea of redoing the scenes involving Anakin. Thinking about fixing the Grievous scenes, lightsaber-fighting Yoda, and etc. just gives me a headache at this point.

But that's stuff to be worked out later. Now if those two basic points can be hammered out, we'll have a starting spot
Post
#277387
Topic
Big issue with Vegas 5.0 - please help!
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/277387/action/topic#277387
Time
Thanks for the help, everyone! I'm very happy because after installing Vegas 5.0d and opening a few of my files, I discovered everything the way I originally had it. Thanks so much.


Originally posted by: adywan
Originally posted by: klokwerk
Adywan, does Vegas have a problem with the Lagarith codec? That's the one I use (since Huffy crashes my computer no matter what I do about it). I was going to be starting a major edit later in the year and I don't want to have this kind of problem. I believe I'm using one of the version 6's.

I was using Vegas 6 when i began my edit and i use the lagarith codec without any problems.
Originally posted by: Trooperman
You guessed it. This is Vegas 5.0c and I am editing directly off of the MPEG-2 DVD files. I hope Version D fixes these problems.

Yeh, i thought you might be working with MPEG2. Vegas is ok when you are working with just a couple of edits using mpeg2 but i had hell if i tried to do anything extensive then it really started playing up, the same way you mentioned. I can't remember is 5d fixed this problem though. I think you mentioned that you are working from the NTSC DVD. The problem with Vegas that it sometimes fails to remove the 2:3 pulldown correctly and can cause loads of problems. There is a way around this but you do need a lot of hard drive space. Open up the dvd files in DVD2AVI. in the "Video" tab select the field operation as "forced film", then the colour space to "RGB24", then "clip & resize"
- set the filter type to " precise bicubic" and the "video aspect" to "free" and slide the resize slider to max to show 720 x 480. now you can export your video. using something like picvideo mjpeg codec the file size will be about 30gb but could be smaller for ntsc. Now you have your 24fps film but it is split into 2gb chunks. Its a pain that this program does this. Now you can load your first chunk into Virtualdub. once you ahve done that select "append segment", select all the other chunks and import them. now you can export. just select "no audio" in the audio tab and "direct stream copy" in the video tab and export. now your video is joined so you can delete all the split chunk files.

Now open vegas and import your project. once this has done go to the project media manager. right click on your main video file in the media manager and select "replace" and swap it for you avi footage. now save the project under a different name so you still have a back up of the original mpeg2 version incase somethings gone wrong.
Now there is one thing that vegas does that is annoying. with some avi and other files it adds them as field based footage even if it is progressive. so right click on the footage in your timeline and select properties. change the field order to "progressive". check each section of video on your timeline to see if it has changed them all to progressive.

hopefully 5d will fix the problem for you so you don't have to go through all that. But to be safe for any future edits convert the mpeg2 to lossless avi first



Thanks for all that advice, Adywan. The issue was hard drive space. I thought, "Why use all that HD space for AVI files when I can edit right off of the MPEG files?" Silly me. I wasted a huge amount of time getting Vegas to work correctly with MPEG-2 editing to the frame. Looking back, I should have just converted to AVI and saved myself the headache.

However, 5.0d seems much more reliable already. Not only are all the cuts where they should be, but version D recognized the AVI files as widescreen, unlike version C, where I had to specifically tell each AVI shot that it was in widescreen.

Let this be a warning to all who use Vegas 5.0C on MPEG-2 files. Don't do it!
Post
#277203
Topic
Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/277203/action/topic#277203
Time
The only thing better than a setback is…

TWO setbacks! Especially when the second involves…

Messing with EACH shot in the ENTIRE film to compensate for a stupid Vegas 5.0 glitch that screws the movie up pretty much any time I cut from one shot to another.

Read this

On a somewhat good note, I finally seem to have found a foolproof way to “under-sample” my audio tracks to get the on-set feel. The recordings are still clear, but they sound a little bit more harsh and garbled, which is what I wanted. I can’t wait to work further on these tracks.

Too bad I can’t seem to get past the video encoding stage…
Post
#277202
Topic
Big issue with Vegas 5.0 - please help!
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/277202/action/topic#277202
Time
Please help!

Hi- I’m the editor of the “Shroud of the Dark Side”, an extensive edit of Ep. II that would have been coming out in the very near future had I not ran into a variety of creative problems with my computer. It ended by removing the HD and installing alternate hardware as well.

In the meantime, I’m editing on a Compaq PC (Nvidia card), hoping to get some work done while waiting for some things to arrive. However, I have a big problem. After opening up one of the project files in Vegas 5.0, I realized that in every shot I had spliced together is two frames off. So every shot or set of shots in the film is now…two frames off.

This is a major problem for obvious reasons- I’ve cropped and color-timed each shot differently from the ones surrounding it, and I’ve done a lot of resequencing. Many times, when there’s a splice, I get two frames of a shot I never intended to be there. This is BAD.

Long story short, has anyone experienced this issue, and if so, is there any way to get around it, short of redoing all of the source files and padding them with 2 extra frames at the beginning to avoid this painstaking work? (which still wouldn’t work for the various AVI inserts)

I’d be so grateful if any of you have any ideas on how to fix this or helpful comments. Thanks so much for your help.

-TM

P.S. It’s not this particular PC that’s the problem, by the way. The same thing happened on my other PC, the editing PC, some time ago last year. When it happened this first time, I just relented and changed every shot in the project to eliminate the problem. But now that it’s happened a second time, I’m really not looking forward to trying to do it again (especially since I had pretty much the whole thing cut perfectly just the way I wanted it before this happened).
Post
#277199
Topic
Star Wars Prequels/Original Trilogy: The Complete Scores (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/277199/action/topic#277199
Time
Ep. II would be great, but I know how hard it is because I've tried myself. In many cases there is so much voice/FX bleed that I couldn't use the original music tracks.

Listening to your Ep. III soundtrack, I'm really impressed by how much of the music is "clean", considering that only an album's worth was released (besides games and so forth). My favorite cue in this movie is "The Death of Dooku II". The creepy counterpoint as Palpatine "comforts" Anakin gets me every time