poppasketti

PM sent!

Hey Darth Muffy! (may I call you Lord Muffy?) Let me take those one at a time.

Darth Muffy said:

• Reinstated a modified version of the balcony scene overlooking kids and horses being beaten, though removing strong hints that Finn and Rose will be able to act upon the town before they leave
  (Helps pacing and also builds on Finn and DJs talk about good vs bad sides when on ship)

Had to triple check to make sure, but I used the scene exactly the way Hal has it! I think I left it out of the V3 change-list but I can add it in so it’s clear!

• Added Emperor laughing over Luke’s vision as he gazes into Kylo Ren’s mind in flashback

Definitely did this too! It’s in the V3 Palpatine changes list.

• Removed Snoke saying he would destroy “the entire island” on Ach-To (seems odd without having established Caretakers live there which Rey cares about)

I think even without the caretakers, it seems like the appropriate amount of ghoulish overkill for a villain like Snoke. There is other life on the island, and of course some Jedi history, and it seems like Snoke would just gleefully want to wipe the whole thing out. Ghoulish overkill!

• Removed Rey’s triple-TIE combo shot, with the Falcon’s involvement in the battle being first revealed with its shadow sweeping by and a single TIE being shot down

I always liked that shot, and I think the flow of the scene was naturally leading up to that release and relief. It doesn’t bother me or feel too good on Rey’s part. It’s the kind of thing where if Luke had done that in the original Star Wars we would’ve loved it (I think).

• The shot of the rebel alliance insignia ring at the very end has been removed, since it ties into a sequence removed from this version of the film
  (Hal credits you for this change but you didn’t use it in your own edit?)

I did use this change! It’s in the V3 Non-Palpatine section of the change-list!

Yeah, I’ve gathered from your posts last year! Maybe we should start a new group, Fanediting with Children.

Haha, thank you Steve! I’ve heard they do occupy your time somewhat 😉

RogueLeader said:

Wait, are you about to be a real poppa?! If so, that’s the best kind of busy. Congrats man!

Thank you! 😃

Whoa, I missed quite a few posts! I appreciate the enthusiasm but most of those ideas are ones we’ve discussed long ago. They either don’t bother me the same way, or fixing them would create new problems.

Ultimately, it’s an imperfect movie, but for now, this edit is the best I can make it.

Feel free to keep posting ideas, and the discussion is great, but like I said, I’ve been pretty busy and am likely to only get busier (hint: my username)!

Hey ziggy, good to hear from you!

I did do something with Snoke’s eyes in the throne room; not when Rey is being held, but when Snoke is cut in half. It’s sort of a tease of the true power behind Snoke as his mask slips before death.

I don’t think I have any unfinished business that comes to mind here really. The Palpatine teases were the biggest update that felt necessary to help smooth out the trilogy. Other than that, though, I don’t have any plans or new ideas for this project moving forward. Life’s been pretty busy and seems like that will only be increasing; but who knows, maybe a rewatch someday will inspire something new!

PM sent!

Yassss, jonh, happy new year buddy!

Hey MR!

Yeah I think the trick is going to be separating the tower from the foreground trees, that way you can adjust the color independently. It is too dark and saturated there now, and now you can see the drift more. Does anyone have the raw image of the tower that was used to comp in the shot?

edit: oh and for grain I would honestly just add the noise filter since the object is so small and the grain filters render very slowly. Maybe set it to 3-4%?

You can use a curves or levels filter to adjust contrast, although it won’t work if the tower isn’t separated from the background yet (since you’re using the still). When you get the tower as its own layer you can adjust the blur and contrast easily! Also make sure to add some grain to any still layer you add to the sequence!

Hey MR! I think you nailed the tracking! I think you just need to reduce the contrast (raise the black levels) on the tower and blur it a little bit, since it’s off in the distance. It should be less sharp than the trees. Also, does the tower cover any trees or are the tree already roto’d in front? It’s hard to tell!

Icecream2448 said:

My god! Just take any recent footage of Bryan Cranston and call it a day 😉

Great! Hal, I made the Vimeo link downloadable, so if you select “original” you can grab the prores.

Thanks for the help and feedback, everyone. It’s nice to be able to contribute a little again!

Ok, here’s one more refinement pass of the Coruscant additions (same link as before):

https://vimeo.com/494722697
pw: fanedit
(new FX shots at :06, 1:24, and 1:26)

For this I fixed the edge error on the first shot, added light-wrap effect (bleed) to the Star Destroyer near the brightest part of the planet, removed the specks on the planet images, and even added a teeny tiny bit of light-wrap to Kylo in the last shot! I kept these light bleeds pretty subtle, because every time I tried to push them further they really started to feel added, if you get my meaning.

Icecream2448 said:

AMAZING! The last shot is perfect now.

screeching halt, suddenly time for complaints Buuut wait… is Coruscant cut off in the opening shot on the bottom left corner for a second? It’s pure black. Or is it another Star Destroyer?

Of course, it’s another Star Destroyer!! No, good catch, I’ll fix that today or tomorrow.

Also, MR, good call about the black dots, I had wondered what those were supposed to be. Like you said, an easy fix with clone stamp, thanks for pointing that out!

So those small fixes plus I’ll try a tiny bit of light bleed and I think we’re there.

As for the Vader castle shot, Hal, if you send me the shot and the castle still image (if you have it!) I can put it in my queue, but again, this may be a case of me kind of disappearing for another couple of months! So if anyone else gets to it first, by all means!

Yeah, I think I’ll try that! Can’t do it tonight, but maybe in the next day or so I can take a look. Thanks!

Hey Nev, I actually made another pass (same link as above), and I think I locked down the shot a little bit more. The ship matte shouldn’t be dancing all over as much, and the planet stays mostly in place. The ship does continue to drift forward because I think that motion was always intended.

Thanks everyone!

Nev, I’ll take another look, but I used the opening shot of TFA as a reference for whether there should be any light wrap effect (bleed) around the ship. There isn’t any in TFA and it has a cutout effect. I think it’s because the light is not emanating from the planet. In the image you sent, the flare is coming from the star, not the actual planet.

I can look at the wobble, but I think it’s mostly an illusion because of the camera shake. It is a weird shot, the parallax happens in the original between the Ship and stars as well (which makes sense given the distance).

Ok, here’s an updated pass at the Coruscant addition! It’s the same link as before:

https://vimeo.com/494722697
pw: fanedit
(The new FX shots are at :06, 1:24, and 1:26)

For the first shot, I enlarged and moved the planet more prominently into the frame, and I was able to extend the shot by a full 24 frames to give it more time to register (Hal you will need to extend the audio like you said).

For the last shot, I made a few refinements. First, I made the rings on the left less circular and more oval. Then, I was actually able to get a good track using Mocha, which made the window frames considerably more stable, and all of the roto should be greatly improved. It might not be quite perfect, but I scrutinized those edges as best I could and this may be about as good as I can get it!

That’s an option too! At first I had it bigger and more in frame behind the SD but something felt like it was too “loud” to me. And I didn’t want to put it bottom left because I felt like it would feel off with the lighting on the ship. I kind of wanted some of the planet to peak over the SD so that some of the light on it could be coming from the glow of the planet. I can try slowing it down a bit first and then see if I can make it register more before the cut.

Thanks for all of the feedback, and hope everyone’s having Happy Life Days!

The matting on the window isn’t perfect, partially because the shot is a very difficult track with all of the reflections and camera movement (Mocha couldn’t handle it at all, so I’m stuck with the AE trackers and manual corrections). I honestly wasn’t sure that last shot was going to work at all because of this! I can make another pass at some point to smooth that out as best I can, though it will probably never be perfect.

I think extending that first shot may be doable. I’ll see if using After Effects frame interpolation can get us a few extra frames (ideally 24 for a few extra second). Shrinking the planet in that shot may also make it a bit less distracting. We’ll see!

And yeah, that light source on the big ship was something I was looking at. There does appear to be an off-camera star shining down from above, which you can see just as the smaller ships whip past the camera. That’s where the ship supposedly gets it’s light. At first, when adding the planet, I actually put it at the top-left of frame, because it felt pretry natural with the lighting. The trouble was, it didn’t feel like it matched the position of the planet in the final shot, which was the most important factor to me. I suppose the ship could have rolled over between the shots, or even the conference room could be upside down? But I felt like matching the framing closely would be best! We’ll see!

Wow, thanks everyone, so glad it’s working!

Nev, I hear you on the rings! I can fix that. The less oval ones on the left are from a different image. I added those bright lights in the dark side of the planet because I was worried people wouldn’t recognize it without them!

Hey everyone,

I finally had a little free time and was able to make an effort to add Coruscant into the board room meeting scene!

https://vimeo.com/494722697
pw: fanedit

The new FX shots are at :06, 1:23, and 1:25. There’s no audio because the clip I had to work from didn’t have audio, but I can add that later!

DominicCobb said:

For those without AE I think an alpha render would be a good alternative.

Looks great, Luka!

I agree with what others have said about applying it to the original and let others add LUTs and other version tweaks.

If you do go the Alpha route, though, make sure you set the alpha to “straight” in the render settings, otherwise it won’t blend well with the footage underneath. If you’re using video copilot’s saber effect, the rendered file with the alpha channel may also blend differently that than it did in AE. You may need to test it in premiere to see if you need to set a blending mode (“add” or “screen” would be my guess) to better merge it with whatever footage is put underneath.