brash_stryker

I also received my workprint today, and I was absolutely blown away. Really excellent work. I had the experience I've never had from a Fan-Edit before - that of watching a whole different film. It really is so different in mood as to be almost unrecognisable from the original. It just feels like it was made in the 70s.

Also, you never realise how much music is shoved needlessly into EVERY scene and transition in the PT until you hear the familiar roar of an engine travelling through space, or the pitter patter of rain on Kamino. Simply brilliant!

Thanks for outlining the method you used :) It should come in very handy when i get to that stage :)

Buuuuut, I want the visor red ;)

Well I've been testing out both Color and Colorista, and I've been very impressed with the 'Auto-balance' feature of both, where it automatically adjusts the colour balance based on how the whites should be.

Color figures it out itself, whereas Colorista gives you an eyedropper tool so you can select what parts should be white (clouds, trooper armour etc). I think I prefer the latter, as I doubt Color's method of guessing is infallable.

I'm not suggesting that this would be a totally effortless way of colour-correcting, but it certainly gives me a good starting point.

I've searched for a similar feature in vanilla After Effects, but have yet to find one. 

SilverKey said:

As meaningless as it is, I think the Yoda vs Dooku duel is the best we get in AOTC. They put way more thought into that one than in editing the one with Obi-Wan and Anakin. 

You're kidding, right? Lol. Sorry, but whilst the Dooku vs Obi/Anakin duel might be boring and lacking in any emotion, the Yoda duel is freaking terrible.

Aside from looking ridiculous, it completely undermines what Yoda is all about.

I've had a play around with Apple Color, and whilst the interface isn't as horrendous as I'd feared, it does seem to have a fairly steep learning curve - even something as simple as importing a file - which should be pretty self explanatory, I had to google because this program does things differently to anything else I've used in the past. Also it appears to be full of features that I will never use in this edit anyway. I'm going to download a demo of Magic Bullet Colorista II and see how I get on with it. It seems a lot more intuitive and you can use it both in After Effects and in your editing program.

However, I'd still love to know other people's preferences. Adywan seems to have set a standard for color-correction, and whilst I know he uses After Effects for this, I don't know what he uses (standard AE, the included 'Color Finesse' plugin or something else?)

Well if all goes to plan with my edit, the only examples of the Orange and Blue combo will be in the duel against Dooku. 2 Blue sabers vs an Orange one :)

SilverKey said:

Also, if Dooku is a rogue Jedi in an edit, he shouldn't use the lightning either. Maybe just Force push Anakin away.

This is something I've always wanted to achieve in my edit, but I wouldn't know how to remove the lightning. The way my edit is cut at the moment, Anakin charges at Dooku, Obi yells "NO" then we cut to Padme regaining consciousness. When we return to the Dooku scene, Anakin has already been incapacitated, though we don't know how.

The main reason I'm planning on using After Effects rather than Motion is the wealth of information and tutorials there are for it.

One example is Lightsabers. I think I did a search for how to create Lightsabers in Motion but there were a few different methods and the results didn't look that great IMO (though there was a great tutorial on how to create them in Shake, which is now discontinued)

After Effects on the other hand has a wealth of tutorials on it, most notably the one on Videocopilot, where they're even nice enough to supply you with their own presets.

It's not just about the lightsabers though. There are other things I plan to try out, but have only found tutorials for how to do them in AE.

Excellent video, Avatar :)

Any recolouring of Boba (I refuse to call him Jango anymore :p ) will only be done when I get to the more complex visual changes. I've seen quite a few tutorials on masking and it looks like it's very straightforward. It IS getting done, don't worry. :)

For my initial colour correction though, I'm just doing changes that can be done globally. Not specific details like armour, skies, etc.

And before I can do that, I need to decide on a program. I'm kinda leaning more towards Apple Color at the moment, and leaving After Effects for all the fine detail work that comes after the colour grading staqe.

However, I've heard Color can be quite an intimidating program to learn so we'll see how it goes I guess. I practically crapped my pants when I first opened up After Effects!

I'm beginning to re-evaluate which method I'm going to use for my colour correction. A couple of the options available are Plugins for After Effects or Final Cut, however, seeing as I'm colour-grading the entire source video (at least for the parts I need) this seems a bit unnecessary when there are dedicated and professional applications at my disposal.
However, opinion on what's best seems to differ quite a bit. 

My options:

1. After Effects' standard colour correction tools - I did the above picture (not the red visor one) using its 'Color Balance' feature
2. Color Finesse Plugin (bundled with After Effects so I already own it)
3. Magic Bullet's Colorista Plugin for Final Cut or After Effects - Has had rave reviews.
4. Final Cut's integrated 3-way colour correcter - Something tells me it won't be as capable as the others.
5. Apple Color - The only dedicated and standalone option in my list (and I already own it)
   
   
   

 Anyone care to venture an opinion?

I've never actually watched it (hence why it's still pristine) however I know there's a torrent of it floating about somewhere where someone's made it digital. I can't remember where I got it.....fanedit, myspleen any of the myriad other geeky websites I used to frequent......no clue.

I do, however, know that they got James Earl Jones back especially to record the new dialogue, just for the game.

Edit: Something tells me it was daveytod.

A quick google search also tells me it was indeed Dave Prowse in the suit, and that they also had the same Cinematographer that did the films. What an effort for (what I hear is) a crap board game.

I'm still not convinced the correction looks right. Is there a green tint apparent there to anyone? I need people with an eye for this sort of thing (and possibly better monitors) to give feedback/suggestions. Angel? Ady?

I see! Hadn't noticed so no damage done :p

I actually have the Board game I mentioned if Ady was to need some additional Vader footage for whatever reason. It's never been played so converting from that via a firewire VHS deck would no doubt result in as good a quality as you're going to get from a resource that old.

I'm liking the vader screen, I must say. I didn't think I would. What footage did you use for it? If there was a concern about reusing footage, there's plenty of Vader footage on the video for the Star Wars Interactive Boardgame (which has been converted to DVD by someone at some point)

Actually I'm struggling to think where you got that shot. Is it from the boardgame? lol

Ripplin said:

Of the three examples shown, I definitely like the second one best. Looks the most natural, I find.

That's handy then. No more work for me! :p

Well I've been trying to get my head around after effects, just tinkering around trying to get a feel for the program. Colour correction is so hard if, like me, you don't have an eye for what looks right.

Nevertheless I had a stab at colour correcting Boba's battle with Obi Wan (This is just meant as part of the initial colour grading of the whole film (hence why he still has a blue visor).

Thanks, The Cutter. Yeah I was delighted with how well it bridges into the love theme. Couldn't have worked out better.

In regards to sound design, you seem to be the expert on it, judging from your edit. What do you use to mix your sound?

Interesting idea...I'll have to give that a go in my edit. Still doesn't address the Obi Wan issue though. In fact it gives him even less time to walk to where he reassures Anakin.

Maybe he felt the urge to use force-speed off camera :p

He walks off frame just before Anakin says "she hardly even recognised me, Jar Jar". If you watch the Phantom editor's cut, you'll see what he had to do to fix it. I don't think you can cut it without cutting Anakin's line, and Obi's subsequent reply would have to go with it.....

The only thing about having them ignore Jar Jar and have him not speak is that a frame by frame rotoscope of Obi Wan walking is required along with a motion track to show him walking back into frame earlier than when he did originally (while Jar Jar speaks). Otherwise, he comes out of nowhere and would not have had time to walk the distance he did.

Thanks for the positive comments!

Yeah it addresses the reused Battle Droid music, and the blatant "THEY'RE EVIL" imperial march whilst keeping some kind of continuity.

The track is from the soundtrack of KOTOR2 and is really the only one that seems to fit the movie and feel sufficiently OT.

I don't know about adding any into the battle. There's not much to work with. Between those two clips, I've pretty much used up the whole track - it is videogame music afterall.

If I find a place where it'll work, I'll give it a shot.

Thanks...I think ;)

Speaking of clones, some of you may be aware that the clones have their own theme in my edit.

It plays in 2 variations:

First, when the Clones are introduced to us - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL9_JOrm0o8

Then in the finale which is much more dramatic - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eVNlF3wpdI