newguy

nightstalkerpoet said:

Just wanted to let everyone know that I’m doing a BD encode of this for my SW marathon before TFA, and intend to be a proper organ donor. I love the colors on this, but will say that for some reason the audio on it didn’t hit my surround sound system well (no clue why, but it just plays a bit tinny). As such, I’ve constructed a stereo track for this as well. The BD I release will have only the stereo track muxed, but I’ll include newguy’s original surround track separately in case you want to remux yourself. (I create my BDs in BDtoAVCHD with Placebo speed and grain preset, but it limits you to a single audio track).

Hmm that’s weird, it sounds the same as all the other versions with the 97 Theatrical DTS track on my system (the dts-track bitstreamed to my reciever). This track is however “softer” then the new one on the bluray, the old one sounds better imo and have better dynamics. The new one is imo only louder and more compressed. I’m guessing that you apply compression when you downmix it if you think that its better that way?

Intruder said:

Does "V1" mean that there probably will be a V2?

Also, do you have plans on making this available on tehparadox? Would be much appreciated!

I just watched my version for real for the first time (as a complete movie) and I didnt find any "bugs" atm to justify a v2. But if I get a good source of the original mos eisley scenes I will redo that sequence and really despecialize it. 

No I wont be uploading it to tehparadox, but if anyone wanna do it, go ahead, I dont mind.

Funcha said:

I'm wondering if you still plan to release the unaltered color corrected Blu-Ray version. Would very much love to get my hands on that if possible. Thanks again!

 Not at the moment. Im sorry but one request is not enough to justify 2 days of encoding and a half day of editing. If i revisit it sometime in the future I will make sure to do a bluray version with just the CC.

Matt.F said:

 I also have to ask - does a semi-despecialized edition exist yet for ESB or ROTJ?

 Not atm. U might wanna check out kk650s versions though, it sound likes he have done a simulair thing as me but for the whole series. Havnt watched it so I have no idea about the quality though.

Funcha said:

Interesting about the audio fixes. Do you recall where you cleaned up the audio in spots? Would be interested in knowing what sections had issues. Thanks!

 Off the top of my head there were a pop sound when luke says "I care" to Leia on the Millenium Falcon and a loud hum when Han says "great shot kid" when luke blow up the death star.

Stotchy said:

Why did you need to use GOUT footage with Greedo?

Had to use like two frames from the flash when han shots Greedo.

GreenRebo said:

I watched your version today and loved it. The colors are great, and the way you handled the Mos Eisley scenes was well done in my opinion. Congratulations!

windowasher said:

Just wanted to chime in and congratulate you on your excellent color correction - absolutely beautiful. Thanks for all your hard work.

Cheers,

 Thanks! Glad you guys liked it. 

Stotchy said:

Can you please advise where the HDTV, GOUT and Harmy's shots were used?

HDTV - CGI rocks.

GOUT - Few frames from han shots Greedo.

Harmy - The rest.

Funcha said:

Got a chance to skim a few sections last night and I think it looks beautiful. Everything just looks like it should to me. Been a very long time coming! By the way, newguy, do you have the original DTS-HD file that you could upload for those that may want to mux it in with the video? If not, no biggie.

Do you do your final encodes in Premiere? Looks great from what I saw. Still very much interested in the full Blu-Ray version if possible. :)

What original? The bluray one wont match my version and the one I exported is not DTS-HD. When I release the bluray version I will include the dts-hd from the disc. The audio included is not just re-synced, Its mixed with other tracks and I removed some audio problems (a few cracks/pops/humming in the 97 DTS track were replaced with audio from the bluray and the 70mm 5.1 mix was used for han shots greedo and removal of jabba) and then did my own DTS encode.

I did not do the final encodes in Premiere, I exported it losslessly from premiere then used avisynth/megui/x264 for compression and conversion. I dont trust any editing software for that stuff ;)

Well thank you, as I said before, Im pretty happy with about everything exept some of the mos eisley stuff, but I wont revisit that untill I get a good source (most likely a good 35mm scan).

nightstalkerpoet said:

Let us know when it's up!

 It's up, enjoy guys! 

Funcha said:

I play everything on Blu-Ray so I humbly request a full 1920x1080 file. Would prefer not to reencode and possibly lose quality. If it goes into BD-50 territory wouldn't bother me a bit. Also, are you going to include the DTS-HD lossless or just a DTS 5.1 file? I'm hoping the former as so much work went into this, might as well make the audio as great as can be too. :)

 I'm going to upload the version I got now at myspleen first. When I get some feedback I will upload a bluray compatible uncut version. I think this is a fair compromise. So if anyone have any special despecialize preferences they can make it themself with the uncut version if they enjoy my source. I really dont wanna upload four different versions of it straight away.

About the audio, it's 1509kbps DTS 5.1 audio. Considering the audio source (the 97 theatrical dts disc) is not that high def if think that it's just a waste of space with a larger audio format. And imo there just wont be any gain of going there. And I can say that the video compression is pretty good as is so I'm pretty happy about the encode as is (at 200% zoom it's pretty much visually transparent from what I see in the view finder in premiere, when I swap between sources I cant see any change in the picture). It could most likely look better on a artistic level (sharpening, contrast, colors etc), but that is more a mather of taste and the grade is most likley not perfect either since I dont have the tools or the time to be that accurate, but on a technical level it's imo as good as it gets considering the source (some scenes will just never look good, it's not like having a raw source), you can always go lossless and bigger but for the viewer that just is pointless in this case.

So I just need a invite for said torrent site and I should be good to go. So as soon as any kind person sends me a PM I will start the upload.

Platitude said:

Your work with the colors is very nice!  Are you planning on doing this for just this film or for all of them?

Jetrell Fo said:

It would be great to see all 3 films done like this.  I'd be happy to upload it if you send me a disc to do it from.  PM me and let me know.

:)

 Dunno, this took me alot more time then i expected so I don't think so. But if there is a high demand of it I might rethink that.

Stotchy said:

Can someone please explain the differences in the color correction and process here vs KK650's latest star wars 2.2 release? Screenshots of both look great.

 I don't know KK650's workflow so I can't really answer that.

nightstalkerpoet said:

Also, earlier it was asked if you would release the complete Bluray with your color correction, and you said it might be possible. Would love to get my hands on that! Also excited to see your finished project as well. Congrats on getting so close to completion.

 I will upload this first to get some feedback, it takes some time to fix a uncut version so I dont wanna fo it twice if there is some problems with my CC etc.

Oh and by the way... I'm done! Exported and compressed and all. The version I have now is a 1920x816 23GiB MKV version with a DTS 5.1 sountrack. It fits a single layer bluray disc but the videostream is not bluray compatible. I guess that I will only upload one version so do you guys want that, or a bluray compatible verison in 1920x1080 (you will still have to build the bluray, but no need for a reencode)?

Still don't know the best way to upload it for you guys, if you have a good method feel free to send me a PM.

Update!

Pew, I'm finally finished with the CC :) I have a couple of more things to fix and then I'll have to rewatch the whole thing to see that everything looks ok, but then I'm pretty mutch ready for export and encoding :)

Harmy said:

newguy said:

Harmy said:

I have no problem with anyone using my stuff as a source for their projects, so feel free to use anything you may want.

And yes, I did the CC shot-by-shot based on a scan of an I.B. Technicolor print, which had a lot of color inconsistency and I must admit that if I was to do it over, I'd go for a bit more natural and consistent color-palette, much like what you're doing here.

 Thanks, so far I've only used the speeder scene from mos eisley and the censored blaster impact (were is this sourced from btw? The detail is on par with the bluray).

https://plus.google.com/u/1/photos/109609428403596349302/albums/5932164278535972945/5932166480978474338?pid=5932166480978474338&oid=109609428403596349302

https://plus.google.com/u/1/photos/109609428403596349302/albums/5932164278535972945/5932166538969673938?pid=5932166538969673938&oid=109609428403596349302

Having a hard time to match the mos eisley scene with my version though, I wish I could get my hands on a non manipulated clip of this scene. Is the source for that from Team Negative1?

 I could provide the original clip if Team Negative 1 give their blessing but it has a lot of grain and dirt and it also has a big "Saving Star Wars" logo in the lower right corner, which I had to paint out.

 That would be great, ty, I'll send u a PM!

New screens of some blue hue removing http://share.pho.to/9EPOg

Stotchy said:

 Cool! Thanks.

What source will you be using to remove the CGI rocks from in front of R2?

As said above, the 1080p HDTV version.

Harmy said:

I have no problem with anyone using my stuff as a source for their projects, so feel free to use anything you may want.

And yes, I did the CC shot-by-shot based on a scan of an I.B. Technicolor print, which had a lot of color inconsistency and I must admit that if I was to do it over, I'd go for a bit more natural and consistent color-palette, much like what you're doing here.

 Thanks, so far I've only used the speeder scene from mos eisley and the censored blaster impact (were is this sourced from btw? The detail is on par with the bluray). Having a hard time to match the mos eisley scene with my version though, I wish I could get my hands on a non manipulated clip of this scene. Is the source for that from Team Negative1?

Ah, always thought of "working as  intended" as a possibility, since the rest of your work is so meticulous. The work i'm doing isn't really for "purists" though since I'm fixing some of the problems with the original (which imho should have been fixed in the SE), but if I would make a more purist version i probably just base it of the GOUT since it's color accuracy is pretty good, and just boost saturation and contrast.

Codemansaid:

How much more work is needed until a release? And will it be released as a torrent or direct download?

Dunno, there isnt that much work left though, just need some time in my schedule to finish it. It should be done within a month if I would have to guess.

I don't have any account on any direct download service so I'm guess I will put up a torrent and leave my computer on for a week and then see how it goes. When I have a "final" version of it (I guess I will have to change some things after feedback) and if there is any demand I will prob put it up for direct download.

Intruder said:

Interesting project, I really like the colors and denoising in the third screenshot. Can't wait to see more! Could you maybe show one of the scene with the sandcrawler rolling over the dunes?

 Sure, but this is a example of a scene that is pretty hard to CC, there is no white or gray areas to use to white balance it, nor does it have any skin tones to grade after. However, based on the sky and clouds this should be somewhat accurate (and afaik the crawler supposed to have a rusty reddish tone). Harmys version of this is brown and teal.

Stotchysaid:

I am really excited to see the finished version of this.

Are you color correcting the whole bluray before you make your edits?

I only ask as this would be an invaluable resource to the OT community, particularly if you released a high bitrate version.

Your screenshots look great!!

No, I'm not correcting the whole bluray, but if people would like an unaltered bluray version it's not that much more work (1-2h). But I guess that rendering and encoding this project will take a few more hours than that :P The problem is more my upload speed i guess since i'm only have 10Mbps fiber upload connection. Getting two versions out there will take more time then one.

Just making a post so you guys know that the project isn't dead :) I just havn't had enough free time yet to finish it. But I'm 1h40 through now so at least I'm making progress.

Here's a sample of some matte color missmatch correction http://pho.to/9EPOg (work in progress). I'm having some problem with the workflow for that since AE dont have any build in scopes which makes CC a bit of a struggle, so I have to use the scopes in premiere which makes it a bit of a headache since I have to go back and forth. 

I have also noticed that the color balance in the gout is actually pretty accurate throughout the film, to bad that it has contrast issues and desaturated colors, but it works pretty good as a base reference. But ofc all the matte balance issues is still there (black level issues and different white balance).

Update

Haven't been able to do much work lately, but I got some work done today so I'm about 1h25 in now. I need to go back and revisit most scenes that needs to be rotoscoped though since i skipped some of them e.g. were two parts of the image need separe CC, since the color of the matte doesn't mach the rest of the shot most of the time (this can be seen in the hangar screens below: in the bluray version the space outside is black but the shadows inside are blue, which makes the opening to stick out as sore thumb).

Some more screens added http://share.pho.to/8rg92

Wazzles said:

newguy said:

*Used my own GOUT version when that fat CG creature walks in front of speeder, hopefully I can get my hands on the same source that harmy uses (i.e. not gout), since it's much better http://share.pho.to/8v5P3 (mine vs gout)

 You could also use the actual despecialized 2.5 release, even though it's in 720p. 

 Yeah I thought about that, don't wanna "steal" some ones work though, but if it's ok with him I will use it.

towne32 said:                                                                                       ...

I agree. But I will leave most of it in as of now, and go back later to see if I can despecialize it more. As of now it will do to remove the biggest focus stealing CGI things. I agree that the rats/driods etc are annoying but they dont steal that much focus, so I think it actually will do more damage if you have to use a bad source to get rid of them, and I'm not a huge fan of the original scenes anyway, some of the weakest and worst looking shots in the gout. But the one when they are stopped by the stormtroopers had to go, blocking the whole frame with a fat cgi dinosaur is awful and destroys the whole shot, some goes for the robot and jawa falling of dinosaur.

Funchasaid:

Newguy, there are a couple of other things you might want to consider reinstating. The censored blaster flashes on the imperial troopers in the docking bay command center and the detention center might be doable? Not sure if adding them would throw the soundtrack out of sync or if it could still work.

I will look in to that, if I can rotobrush in gout material seamlessly I will. Sync is no problem, since I have to do it anyway as I go to fit the 97 DTS to the bluray/my version, and had to use some of the 77 six track mix aswell for jabba removal and han greedo scene

More screens added!

http://share.pho.to/8rg92

Update

Made great progress the last few days, I'm about half way through now and finally finished with tatooine and mos eisley (prob the most time consuming part).

Changes: (these will be the only changes done which are not CC related)

*Removed the CG rocks in front of r2d2 (1080p HDTV version used)

*Used my own GOUT version when that fat CG creature walks in front of speeder, hopefully I can get my hands on the same source that harmy uses (i.e. not gout), since it's much better http://share.pho.to/8v5P3 (mine vs gout)

*Restored han and greedo scene (timed and cut as in gout)

*Removed jabba scene and restored the original transition

*I also made some cut changes to the opening of mos eisley to improve the flow after removing some of the CG-antics, don't know if I will keep it this way, but it flows so much better then both the SE and the gout version so I might. Cut order now is: establishing shot (second half of the same shot as the foolish cg robot), speeder speeds straight ahead on the streets of mos eisley (SE shot), speeder stoped by stormtroopers (gout). I.E. two of the gout shots is missing/1 1/2 from the SE, but the direction of movment in those shots when edited toghether with the other ones just rubs me the wrong way. Thoughts?

Nocturnaloner said:

Very cool, I will definitely get this when it's available.  Question: what's the actual size of the movie on the commercial disc, with just the English angle and soundtrack?

 The bitrate on the bluray is around 34Mbps i think, so it should be roughly about 35GB depending on audio bitrate.

I'm glad you guys liked it. One thing I would like some input on is how the pod cover should look, should it be blue in both scenes (it's desaturated then blue in the bluray) or should both be desaturated?

towne32 said:

Looks nice. Hopefully no offense taken indeed about the color. A different end goal than Harmy, clearly.

I get it that he is trying to get it to look like the orginal filmprint (hence that greenish warm look as seen in 4th screenshot), the problem is that it's so inconsistent. The white walls in the opening scene goes from neutral, to cold, to red, to green from scene to scene. The thing is that your eyes adapt really quickly so you don't really spot it when you watch is as a normal movie (I didn't), but if you watch it togheter with video scopes or side by side with another version it becomes really apparent. My guess would be that they didnt do a CC before they did a filmstock grade. It's superhard to do a grade when the colors isn't consistent in the first place. I might be wrong though and it doesn't really destroy the overall excellent work, no ones perfect, mine will prob have tons of bugs to if you look close enough :) Working as intended is always a possibility as well :)

And it shouldbe noted that some of the stuff will never look good, some of the tatooine scenes are pretty much beyond saving, it's not like working with a raw format were you can pull the colors all over the place, some time the picture just fall apart when you go to far from the original.

Introduction: just another star wars fan project…

First of all i wanna say that I don’t really follow the Star Wars fan edit scene so this might already be done and/or might not really be that interesting to most of you, but this a personal project of mine that I’m doing anyways so I thought I might as well share it here since some one might find it interesting.

Anyway, I saw Harmy’s Despecialized version a few weeks ago and got really inspired of doing a similar project but for the version that I grew up with and actually prefer to the originals (expect for a few changes): the specialized editions. But as most of you are aware of the contrast and colors on the bluray are pretty much worthless so the focus of this release will be to make a complete color correction of the bluray as well as a few changes (only Han fires; CG rock, Jabba scene and some of the Mos Eisley CG will be removed) and it will be released and synced to the 97 theatrical DTS surround soundtrack. What I’m basically doing is what I think should have been the bluray release of Star Wars.

I will put a lot of effort in to provide the highest picture quality possible, that means that my whole workflow will be in a DI-format (Prores) and it will end up as a 1080p 25GB (single layer BD) file using x264 2pass slow preset. I’ve tested the workflow and quality wise it’s pretty much transparent to the original bluray. The tools I will be using is Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Colorista II and avisynth.

ETA is when it’s done. I have a full time job so dunno when I get time to finish it, been working with it for about a week now and I’m already 20min in, so lets hope that I will continue in that rate.
 

Color correction

I will do a cut/cut CC of the whole film, and it should be noted that this will not be a “regrade” of the film, I’m pretty much relying heavily on the RGB-parade, waveform and vectroscope to make sure that contrast is spot on in every scene, that objects that are supposed to be white are white and not green, blue or red (although it will probably be slightly on the warm side throughout the film), and that skin tones are on the skin tone line on the vectroscope throughout the film. So my objective is more to make sure the colors are accurate and not what I think look best/trying to imitate what the original print looked like. My first plan was actually use Harmy’s version as a reference but I found pretty quickly that his CC and contrast are very inconsistence (no offense) and there are some scenes that have a lot of weird things going on color and contrast wise. I will also remove all the weird magenta smoke and flashes throughout the film. the GOUT will be used to some extent as a reference when it comes to shadow detail, exposure, smoke color etc.
 

Screen samples

I hope that I don’t upset anyone when I include Harmy’s version as a reference here, I figured that since they are so popular they should make a good reference. Since the first scene on tatooine look so much worse then the rest of the movie I ran it through MCTemporalDenoise, it’s not perfect yet, but it looks much better then the original at least.

(mine on the bottom)

http://share.pho.to/8rg92

http://share.pho.to/9EPOg

UPDATE:

I’m done, the file is now available on teh internetz
 

    
I don’t support piracy in any form, this release should only be shared among legal
owners of the official movie and are only intended for the originaltrilogy.com community.

Thanks to Harmy for allowing me to use his excellent work, and to the rest of the guys over @
originaltrilogy for their input and support.
 

Changes:
*Complete cut/cut color correction of the entire movie.
*Removed magenta flashes throughout the film.
*Fixed some of the matte color inconsistency
(e.g. CC and removal of bluish shadows in special effects shots).
*Some cleaning of the first scene on Tatoine with 3CPO and R2D2.
*R2D2 no longer hides behind CGI rocks.
*Recut the opening of the Mos Eisley part to remove some of the horrible CGI.
*Restored the original Han and Greedo scene.
*Jabba scene in Mos Eisley removed and original transition restored.
*Fixed the color inconsistency of Lukes lightsaber on Millennium Falcon.
*Restored blaster impacts.
 

Video sources:
Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope 2011 (1080p Blu-ray Remux)
Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope 2004 (1080p HDTV)
Star Wars GOUT 2006 (NTSC DVD, upscaled and remastered by me)
Harmys Star Wars Despecialized Edition v2.5 (720p 17.8GiB MKV)
Harmys Star Wars Respecialized Edition 97 (720p 10,7GiB MKV)
 

Audio Sources:
English 5.1 1997 Theatrical DTS (sourced from Harmys Respecialized Edition)
English 5.1 1977 70mm six track mix (sourced from Harmys Despecialized Edition)
English 6.1 2011 DTS-HD (sourced from the Blu-ray)
 

Tech Specc:
File size                                    : 22.9 GiB (Fits 25GB Singel layer BD)
Duration                                   : 2h 2m 52s
Overall bit rate                         : 26.7 Mbps
Container:                                : MKV
 

Video
Encoder Settings                        : x264 r2538 121396c 2pass preset slow
Format profile                            : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC             : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 5 frames
Bit rate                                      : 25.2 Mbps
Width                                        : 1 920 pixels
Height                                       : 816 pixels
Display aspect ratio                   : 2.35:1
Frame rate mode                       : Constant
Frame rate                                : 23.976 fps
Color space                                : YUV
Chroma subsampling                  : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                    : 8 bits
Scan type                                   : Progressive
Stream size                                : 21.1 GiB (92%)
 

Audio
Format                                       : DTS
Bit rate mode                             : Constant
Bit rate                                      : 1 509 Kbps
Channel(s)                                 : 6 channels
Channel positions                       : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                                    : 16 bits
Stream size                               : 1.30 GiB (6%)
Language                                   : English
 

Sub (Greedo only)
Format                                       : UTF-8
Language                                   : English
Forced                                       : Yes