I prefer Poppasketti’s version taking away the iron joke and the other things that show how out of touch Rian was.
To clarify, the iron joke removal is Hal’s change for Legendary. I just kept it for Rekindled!
Whatever flavor you like! Looking at it again, I’m actually going to tone down the murkiness on the regular ones and repost so the heads don’t pop so much. Just wanted to introduce a little haziness (it is haze) to cover the bodies a little bit and leave more to the imagination.
Awesome! Great work Poppasketti!
But is there a green with no murkiness?
Just rechecked your original request and fixed it! It’s there now!
The Palpatine clones shots have been rendered and posted to the “Master Clips” folder on my drive. PM me if you don’t have the link!
There’s three versions, one with green bacta, one with red, and one with green that has larger bodies and less murkiness (a specific request).
Palpatine Clones - Green
Palpatine Clones - Red
Palpatine Clones - Green - No Murkiness
Palpatine Clones - Red - No Murkiness
I keep playing with a “T” sound and I keep changing it! Sometimes it sounds smoother to me without it, but then it feels missing. I’ll keep playing, and post something for others to use when I feel good about. I can move this to the other TROS thread because I don’t think it’s something for this edit.
This is going to sound like a stupid question, but… how exactly does one make these adjustments to mouth movement? What kind of software does it require?
Not a stupid question at all! Here’s a quick tutorial that pretty well matches what I did. Basically, I didn’t actually change the mouth movement (no deepfake or anything). In the film she says “Rey Skywalker”, and the camera lingers for a bit. Fortunately, her head moves very little during the shot. So I essentially snipped out the part where she says “Skywalker”. I found a frame from the end of the word “Skywalker” where her mouth closely matches the end of the word “Rey”. Then a bit of rotoscoping and motion tracking in After Effects finished the job. Again, it helps that he head moves very little in the shot.
Hehe, yeah, I guess this scene has too much baggage, best to leave it alone!
Multiple versions of the Palpatine clones will be done and posted soon! They will be at the same link as my other work, so feel free to PM me if you don’t have it.
Might be tricky with the mouth movements but could you try making “just” and “Rey” closer together? Even if it’s just a frame or two. I think that’s the thing that’s bumping for me.
https://vimeo.com/414395138
pw: fanedit
Gave this another shot, cutting 1 frame like you suggested, and I think the line flows a bit better now. I also finished the morph effect instead of contacting the youtuber since I’d have more control of it that way. Thanks Chase Adams for sharing! That channel also released a quick tutorial on how they did it, which is incredibly similar to what I did, for those interested.
I see your point, Hal, about this feeling like a subverted expectation! To me, it’s what I always wanted her to say, because it’s her making peace with who she is (whether a nobody or a Palpatine). But perhaps it would work best in a Rey Nobody version.
To be honest, I always liked the ending myself. I love hearing the bells as Rey rides down the sand again. I like seeing BB-8 following along with her (theirs was the first relationship I clung to), as she literally buries the past. This is the kind of epilogue stuff I enjoy.
I could see BB-8 riding along with Rey just for this little mission, and Chewie lending her the Falcon for it. I didn’t get any sense that this was a final settlement for Rey, or that she and BB-8 wouldn’t see their friends again. It came off to me like a short trip to pay tribute and give closure to a place that connects herself to the past, to Luke, reminding her of her own overcome struggles in a similar world.
I think if the rest of the movie were better this ending would have gone over very differently, but I could be wrong. Maybe it says something about me, but I like ending in quiet desert isolation, a book-end to where we began in 1977. Big victory celebrations feel cheesy to me, which is why my least favorite endings are ROTJ and TPM. In TROS, I was happy to have both the celebration/hugs as well as the somber ending.
Chase Adams, I did tweak it! Not sure it’s fully dialed in yet, but getting there perhaps.
DominicCobb, that may be possible, I’ll look into that!
The audio is actually the hardest part. I might just need to turn the levels down, but finding good audio of Rey saying “just” that matches the tone of the scene is difficult. I scoured all three films! I’ll listen again fresh and tweak it.
Also, I just updated the link with the face morph from the YouTube shot Chase Adams sent. I’ll ask if that person would be willing to share that shot, but if not, I’ll keep going down that path myself and finish it.
(same link)
https://vimeo.com/414395138
pw: fanedit
Ha! That’s a more complete form of the morph effect that I just started. Maybe I can ask that person to share that shot.
As for the clip, I think prefer the back and forth with “Rey who?”. It gives her a chance to think about her story and where she comes from, acknowledge those who came before her, and then say, finally with pride: “I’m just Rey.“
Ok, so this idea isn’t done (face morph is still rough proof of concept), but it’s a first pass. I really want it to work, but I’m not sure yet. One thing I know is whenever the force ghosts at the end are complete (preferably just Ben in addition to Leia and Luke), we could add those in!
https://vimeo.com/414395138
pw: fanedit
Looks aaawwweesoomme! Agree with everyone about your talent, speed and enthusiasm for trying everything and tweaking to perfection!
jonh, are you suggesting we reshoot the reshoots?!
Changing someone’s hair in motion like that would actually be extremely difficult, and I think anything I came up with would probably look worse!
For obi wan, anakin and luke, I have photographed my hand, and for yoda, I did a montage with the ROTS yoda arm …
frankensteins
That is brilliant!!! Awesome work, as always, jonh!
Red or green?! So I shrunk the bodies some more and added a little murkiness to the water to help cover. I also made each face slightly different.
Palpatine Clones - Red
Palpatine Clones - Green
EDIT: I extended the clips to show the entire scene for context, specifically for the red. The original scene had both red and green vats, so I kept that, and just changed the large main vats to red. Switching everything to red would mess with the coloring/reflection/lighting too much.
Hal 9000 said:
a cartoonishly large schlong.
🤔 Now that’s an idea!
Much better, only thing I see that could be nitpicked is his size, mainly the broad shoulders.
Definitely digging the red though.
Yeah, that’s a tough one. The shoulders are tricky, but will take another look when I can!
Can I just go on record as saying that my god, Poppasketti, you certainly do not get enough credit! You are honestly one of the most talented VFX people I know!
Thank you, that’s very kind! But I think there are many at OT.com and in this thread that demonstrate at least as much talent. It’s what’s so fun about being here!
Darth Sadifous suggested making the fluid red when first discussing this idea, and as soon as I tried it I liked it. It brings color contrast to the scene, it feels a little more Palpatine to me, and I found the green vats a bit cliche. I could try the green, though, if that’s what people prefer!
Ok, here’s a version without the lightning scars and scaled down a bit! Still need to tweak the track a little.
Palpatine Clones - Clear
PW: fanedit
Yeah that was my question too. People seemed to think it should be more post-lightning deformation Emperor Palpatine than Senator Palpatine. I could try the other way though!
Have you tried to give them slightly different expressions?
I could look into that! It seemed to me like all of the Snoke’s had the same look, almost like the incubating star-baby in Space Odyssey.
It be cool if someone could replace the vats of Snoke clones with ones of Palapatine instead.
I’m not sure if this is something for this edit, but here’s a first pass at this idea:
Palpatine Clones
PW: fanedit
Also, I just want to say I love the work being done here. It’s really fantastic and inspiring to see!
Poppasketti, if you’re still out there listening, tell us what you think you could pull off! 😄
What would the heads look like? Senator Palpatine (middle-aged Ian McDiarmid) or the lightning-deformed emperor?
Already sent the PM!
Thanks guys! And thank you, Ash, for posting to the spleen!
Ha! Whenever you get to it is fine, Ash! Thank you!