adywan

TML said:

Speaking of the Obi-wan/Vader duel, I know you're not taking suggestions ady, but you might want to enlist the help of this guy for some ideas and maybe even a few extra shots ;)

Pure

Magic

That is some bass ass CG skillz there ;) I can't belive some of the comments on those videos though. Do they seriously think that it looks good?

Chewtobacca said:

adywan said: Ok, well some quick news. The HD version WILL be a blu-ray version.

Will this still be at 720p then or will you be upscaling to 1080p?

No, i will be keeping it at 720p so i can keep the bitrate high for a BD25

well i noticed at the gadget show that there was quite a difference in 3d quality between manufacturers. I wasn't impressed by the sony or panasonic tvs but the samsung and LG tvs performed very well with great 3d depth. one thing i found out is the headache issues seem to be caused by flickering on the glasses. but this isn't anything to do with a problem of the glasses but energy saver bulbs and fluorescent lighting as these flicker slightly and the glasses pick this up. turn the lights off and these issues are gone.

Thanks vbangle. i needed some good luck after everything that happened. can't wait to get my hands on these gadgets. they said that it will be anywhere between 7 to 28 days before i will receive them so i guess i'll have to be patient. funny enough i'm pretty sure it was on the stand or the one next to it that we had our picture taken with R2-D2:)

Ok, well some quick news. The HD version WILL be a blu-ray version. Now i know some will moan that they don't have a blu-ray burner, but this isn't really an issue as you can just rip the main movie m2ts file and this will play on pc's and media players, or for better compatibility use tsmuxer to remux the m2ts to a ts file and this will play on almost anything. Now i do have my reasons for this which i will explain:

There will be a real 3D featurette that i want to add to the special features, but this would be most likely be exclusive to the HD blu-ray version. Now this won't be the old red/cyan anaglyph type but proper 3D. You will be able to see some behind the scenes footage filmed in 3d, including all of the models and the Wampa. Now why have i decided to do this, you might ask? well i've just had some great news (which i really needed since my dad has now suddenly caught pneumonia in hospital after having his operation last week). I went to the gadget show live at the NEC on wednesday with my daughter and we decided to enter as many of the draws etc that were there. Well today i have just had a phone call to say that i have won one of them: a Samsung 46" 3DTV, 4 extra pairs of glasses,  3D blu-ray player plus a fuji W3 real 3D camera with 3d hd video support. 

So i might as well use this new technology, so blu-ray it is. Now i can put 3 versions of this featurette on the blu-ray so everyone will be happy: a real 3d version, anaglyph red/cyan version and standard 2d version

Oh yeh, and anyone who uses facebook please don't mention this on there as i'm going to keep this a secret from my kids until i have received them and everything is set up. I want to give them a surprise.

You always need to compensate for overscan when building menus. Most 1080p TV's now have 1:1 pixel mapping or similar function that eliminates any overscan so you have to keep this in mind when making your menus. adding any borders will show up on non-overscan TVs. make sure you have the overlay markers on in dvda so you can see both the overscan safe area (outer marker lines) and the object safe area (inner marker lines). All you would need to do to your menu is shrink some of the main objects down a little and reorganise them. something like this (snapshot in dvda so you can see that it works inside the safe areas and will also look good on a non-overscan tv)

just click on the image to view full size

your 720p tv will still have overscanning unless it has a 1:1 pixel setting, which most 720p tvs don't have this capability, so there will be some degree of overscanning. This isn't a problem with your DVD but with your tv. That is why dvda has the safe area markings on the menu screen so you can plan out your menu highlights to compensate for any overscanning.

If you are adding the text in dvda then you don't need to do this, but i prefer to have the text created at the same time i create the menu video so i can have fade in effects etc

yeh, the dvd player settings was what i thought, which is why i asked to see the menu and movie on your TV. I was a bit confused when you said that the movie displayed fine so i wanted to see if the movie was actually being squashed too, but that you weren't noticing this on the tv because your movie has the black matte bars. Stretch to fit is definitely what you need to use, not zoom, for the menu in DVD architect.

Also, if you have done the menu in photoshop, duplicate the text files as individual separate layers, save the whole image as a psd image file file , then right click on the highlight button on your menu and change the button style to image only, select the highlight tab on the button properties window, then change the style to custom, select the image that contains the layers for mask, then the layer and adjust the image on the menu until the text highlight aligns with the text on the menu. you will now have a nice button highlight instead of using the standard rectangle highlight and it will look more professional

OK, everything looks fine in dvda. now the only other thing i would ned to see is if you can take 2 photo of your tv with the video playing. 1 with the menu and then 1 with the main movie playing

when playing the menu on the tv do the button selection highlights still match their placement that you set in dvda or have they shifted place significantly?

Well it can't be the TV if it is displaying the movie correctly. it has to be something to do with the menu. What i really need to see is a snapshot of your menu in DVDArchitect. So if you can snapshot the whole screen, not just the menu picture, i may be able to help.

take a snapshot of your screen while playing the menus and then post the picture here. I use DVD Architect and it sounds to me like your menus are 4:3 and the 720p tv will be set to widescreen (16:9) which will add the black borders at top & bottom on a 4:3 video

Alexrd said:

adywan said:

It was meant in jest, but you only originally mentioned it as a defence from people attacking prequel apologists, so it did seem that this was your purpose or else why even mention it?.

No. I mentioned because you were "attacked" by fanatics due to your edit/vision/opinion/whatever, and that made me remember the article's reported attack.

Extremes exist everywhere, be it PT or OT fans.

I misunderstood your intentions. i apologise

dark_jedi said:

adywan said:

WhatsMyName said:

Plus, the whole Luke Leia, Bro, Sis deal. That was planned when GL first wrote Star Wars. Does anybody there watch documentries?

But it wasn't. George said himself in one of the original documentaries that he didn't know who was going to end up with Leia: Luke or Han. leia was never the sister. Luke was to have a sister who was to be introduced in a later episode of the saga but, because GL decided to end it all at 6, he couldn't introduce her. he also need a reason why Luke would get so mad at vader and the sister angle was to be his breaking point. So Leia, who was the only main female character in the saga, became the sister.

Which one specifically? I would like to hear this myself, as I am sure others would to, and know for sure, instead of taking everyone's word for it.

It was in the making of star wars. he says "who she's going to end up with is still anyone's guess. what i will say is that Luke is more devoted to her than Han.."

Edit: found a video of it on youtube @ approx 2:20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G87jhIeTk0w&feature=related

Plus there is a deleted scene from ESB where Luke and Leia move in for a kiss in the medical bay. If she was indeed intended to be his sister all along then George is one twisted guy ;)

WhatsMyName said:

Plus, the whole Luke Leia, Bro, Sis deal. That was planned when GL first wrote Star Wars. Does anybody there watch documentries?

But it wasn't. George said himself in one of the original documentaries that he didn't know who was going to end up with Leia: Luke or Han. leia was never the sister. Luke was to have a sister who was to be introduced in a later episode of the saga but, because GL decided to end it all at 6, he couldn't introduce her. he also need a reason why Luke would get so mad at vader and the sister angle was to be his breaking point. So Leia, who was the only main female character in the saga, became the sister.

Alexrd said:

adywan said:

So Alexrd, you will need to find some other evidence that OT fans are as mental as the PT/Lucas apologist/gushers ;)

That was never the purpose of my post.

It was meant in jest, but you only originally mentioned it as a defence from people attacking prequel apologists, so it did seem that this was your purpose or else why even mention it?.

Bobby Jay said:

Alexrd said:

It was on some review site. I'll search for it.

EDIT: Here it is.

Have I missed some sort of joke here? I read that article a few years ago and took it to be a tongue-in-cheek look at the prequels. Maybe I'm being naive but the author seemed to use humour (perhaps misplaced) to mock PT gushers.

That's my interpretation, it might be wrong. I personally wouldn't use it as evidence that the author is a PT nut.

Edit: Sorry, just read the comment section of the article and the author himself admits it was a joke. Now I need to know if you guys knew it was a joke and where playing along or if you just over reacted?

Actually, after reading gabe's comments. he only admitted that the "slashing" incident was a joke, but not the article. Bit of a lame joke if you ask me. So Alexrd, you will need to find some other evidence that OT fans are as mental as the PT/Lucas apologist/gushers ;)

Well here are some pictures of the Enterprise model taken at the time of filming the episodes:

http://www.startrekpropauthority.com/2008/05/uss-enterprise-original-series-11-foot.html

Definitely a less detailed weathering job done originally

I have to say, that after viewing the battle several times, i don't even notice that original AT-ST aren't there. the 2 shots they were originally in have been changed so it doesn't even look like something is missing from these shots

I once tried to explain the merits of digital effects to a kid on line at a comic book store. He slashed my neck with a Magic: The Gathering card protected within a thick mylar sleeve. I still bare the scare to remind me to keep my mouth shut. I learned a valuable lesson that day—people take the Star Wars universe very, very seriously. Why, just minutes before the incident I was having a civil discussion with my attacker about abortion rights. We disagreed by the guy didn't raise a finger, I mention the fact that I like digital Yoda and BAM, I wake up in the hospital.

So he was having a discussion about "abortion rights" with which his "attacker" disagreed with his views and starts on about how he likes digital Yoda and then the guy attacks him . More like he was being a prick and this guy just had enough. sounds to me like he was just after an argument. he doesn't give any proper details about what happened and what lead up to this

I stopped reading his article after this:

Empire Strikes Back is more or less universally accepted as the best of the Star Wars series. I agree that it is the best film with the word Star Wars in the title. I would, however, argue (against my better judgment) that it is actually the worst Star Wars film. It’s too realistic, too emotionally centred, too well acted, too well structured, and too empathetic. It's a real movie, with real characters that an audience really cares for.

And there we have it. The type of person who thinks the prequels are a brilliant trilogy of films.

ESB- Everything about it is good= worse movie:
PT - Everything about them is crap = best movies.

jeez

SilverWook said:

Which is really sad to think about. There was a time when a certain tv starship actually drew more visitors to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum than the real spacecraft on display. Imagine what a draw the Falcon could have been in some venue!

Maybe some rich fan will build their own full size replica someday...

someone's already planning it with an AT-AT:

http://atatforamerica.tumblr.com/post/4394511190/the-dream-an-at-at-for-america

doubleofive said:

 

topdawg193 said:

Those proposed changes were among my few nit-picks with the original release as well, so I'm happy to hear that they may be getting addressed. My only other suggestion would be to restore Obi-Wan's and Vader's confrontation aboard the Death Star, such that Vader's sabre is already lit when Obi-Wan meets him. In Revisited, Obi-Wan is the first to ignite his sabre, and I always thought that that had a significant (and unwelcome) narrative effect; it appears that Obi-Wan is not acting defensively, but rather offensively, which seems to go against both his and, later in Empire, Yoda's instructions about using the Force for knowledge and defence, never for attack. And likewise, by being aggressive and very much on the hunt for Obi-Wan here, it seems more in keeping with Vader's character and motivation to have him make the first move, as it were.

I brought this up with Adywan a while ago and he is considering it. He made Obi-wan light up first because he did in Episode III, but I pointed out that I think Luke failed at the cave in ESB because he lit up first.

 

I've had a lot of time to think about this whole scene since then and it will be staying the way it is now in the HD version. I've heard it so many times that having Obi-wan igniting first changes it from the "defensive" point of view to "the attacker", but this is not the case. Obi-Wan was never being defensive. So many have failed to notice one thing about the duel: Obi-Wan is the one that attacks Vader first and is not, as many state, taking the defensive stance. Vader doesn't even make a move before Obi-Wan lunges at him.

Quackula said:

Optimist in me says that they aren't actually buying into it THAT much, they're just playing along because they're obsessive fans of the 'saga'. Of course I don't really know TF.n like some of you guys do.

No, they are indeed f***ing mental. Many of the members over there completely buy the revisionist crap that the SE's were Lucas' "true vision" and that the changes were all done because he didn't have the technology at the time to do the things he wanted. So it was impossible to have Greedo shoot first because of FX constraints?? Idiots.

I had to deal with all their type of crap when i did ANH:R. Death threats and threats of violence because i dared to "change Lucas' vision". I just can't believe how many buy into all this crap.  They refuse to believe that vader being Lukes dad, leia being the sister etc was not his original intentions, even though there is video evidence of Lucas stating this was not the case from the 70's & 80's. I find it really strange just how blinkered some people can be.

Now, not everyone over at thefreakynutters (tfn) can be tarred with the same brush as i have seen many who can think for themselves and don't believe the rubbish, but they seem to get shot down pretty quick by the mindless zombies.

There is a filter for virtualdub called logoaway that does a pretty good job at blurring out a counter. you could try that. It has many different blurs and all the settings are easy to customise

Angel said:

PS: and its Angel! vaderios is gone ;)

How were you able to change your username? I didn't think that was possible.

Just a few more things to do to the AT-AT model and it will be ready for painting.

Now if only THIS PROJECT had already been completed, it would have saved me a lot of work ;)

It was a shame that more AT-ST shots weren't included into the hoth battle and that none will feature in ESB:R, but i would rather have no AT-ST's than have ones that miraculously disappear between shots

jodydandyboy said:

Why couldn't George Lucas leave the original Star Wars movies along and never make those prequels. That guy looks ugly these days, he's soo fat, what's up with Lucas's neck? Is he trying to become Jabba himself or something?

jodydandyboy said:

After Star Wars Episode One came out, I heard a bunch of pissed off Fans were going to highier a Bounty Hunter to go after Lucas, lol. I wonder what happened to that?

I'm sorry, but what has any of this got to do with my edit? And i really don't like personal attacks on someone appearance like that. say what you will about his creative decisions with all things star wars since the mid 90's, but saying crap like this is just infantile. I'd appreciate it if you kept crap like this out of my thread.

ImperialFighter said:

adywan said:

It was a difficult build because the model kit had so many sections that were far from screen accurate, but i think i've got it accurate enough to hold up against the studio models. I've even added a form of mechanism into it so that it will give the impression that it is walking without having to resort to stop motion, which will be good enough for the fleeting moments this model will be seen.

Where did you get this quote from IF? I can't remember ever saying this or that  i was adding a mechanism inside the AT-AT.

I have the Sumvision Cyclone MKV 2 media enclosure and this seems to play anything i throw at it (apart from files that have used the newer mkvmerge with its compression header, but running it though an older version first, which only takes a few seconds and everything plays fine). It outputs DTS fine. You can either stick  a drive into the enclosure, use an external hard drive , or both. transferring files is easy as you just plug it into the PC or use it over a network.

I do have a feeling that they have done something so bad to the OT that they know it will all blow up, so they shut the forums down before anything is seen. Probably something like completely replacing Sebastian Shaw this time with Hayden, replacing the puppet Yoda in the OT with a CG version or some other monstrosity.

It doesn't look good :(