Official Star Wars Thread
Re: Official Star Wars Thread
More Star Wars humor...
All images courtesy of flyboy.net Original art linked to from various websites on said-site...
All images courtesy of flyboy.net Original art linked to from various websites on said-site...
Last edited by Daniel on February 23rd, 2011, 3:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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That Donald picture is awesome.
So, I skimmed over the past few pages, and noticed that there is ZERO mention of the Red Letter Media reviews of the prequels! They are really good, and pick apart all the problems that the prequels had.
http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/
Each one is about an hour and a half/two hours long, so be prepared for a long haul. It's totally worth it though. They are fantastic.
So, I skimmed over the past few pages, and noticed that there is ZERO mention of the Red Letter Media reviews of the prequels! They are really good, and pick apart all the problems that the prequels had.
http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/
Each one is about an hour and a half/two hours long, so be prepared for a long haul. It's totally worth it though. They are fantastic.
Ewwwwwww.... You kidder!
Honestly, you take a look from film to film, the sabers actually change a bit.
The rotoscope was a lot better in Empire than in Star Wars. There were a lot of goofs in the first film that weren't repeated in its sequels.
Shades of colors haven't been the same from the OT to the Prequels. Prequel colors tend to be darker, more saturated than the same in the OT. The blue sabers in the OT sometimes were such light shades that those sabers almost looked white. (Not gonna touch the original Star Wars trailer and what was done with the sabers there. That way leads to madness!) They also put pointy-points on the sabers in the last film.
I don't care as much anymore as long as they look sort of consistent. I'm just quoting off the top of my head what I noticed. There are people that.... well, you just have to watch and see what they discuss about the handles in the prop forums!
It's downright scary the minutiae that they get into!
Honestly, you take a look from film to film, the sabers actually change a bit.
The rotoscope was a lot better in Empire than in Star Wars. There were a lot of goofs in the first film that weren't repeated in its sequels.
Shades of colors haven't been the same from the OT to the Prequels. Prequel colors tend to be darker, more saturated than the same in the OT. The blue sabers in the OT sometimes were such light shades that those sabers almost looked white. (Not gonna touch the original Star Wars trailer and what was done with the sabers there. That way leads to madness!) They also put pointy-points on the sabers in the last film.
I don't care as much anymore as long as they look sort of consistent. I'm just quoting off the top of my head what I noticed. There are people that.... well, you just have to watch and see what they discuss about the handles in the prop forums!
It's downright scary the minutiae that they get into!
Re: Official Star Wars Thread
I haven't seen the 2004 Star Wars edit, Ben.
(Puts hands over ears and chants) -- "Lalalallalala.... Lalalalalalala.... These aren't the films I saw when I was much younger... Llalalalalalalala.........."
(Puts hands over ears and chants) -- "Lalalallalala.... Lalalalalalala.... These aren't the films I saw when I was much younger... Llalalalalalalala.........."
... And onto the real reason I learned to do the Photoshop "Glow" effect for the McQuarrie concept art.
Simply put, this painting may be my favorite Star Wars image. Period.
When I got reacquainted with the image (years later) after pulling it up on a Google Image search, I got obsessed.
Eventually I'm going to buy a high-quality reproduction of the painting. AND the statute if I can still get it on sale by the time I can afford the art reproduction. McQuarrie doesn't sell this image directly any more from his store but there are licensed dealers (and not so-licensed) on e-Bay who do....
For now, I've mocked it up as both a Desktop image for my computer and as a pre-production modification for a joystick controller I'll buy later in the year. I created these images for the past 3 days.
Here's the image I use for my Desktop Mac now =>
It took HOURS to create this in Photoshop. First, I had to find the best quality image I had of the original painting. After that, I Grayscaled it. I isolated (with the Lasso marquee tool) the figures and lightsabers from the original background since I wasn't going to use it in the final modified image. THEN, I really went crazy....
Using the lasso again, I isolated "Luke's"/Deak's lightsaber and copied it onto a new layer. I did this as well for Vader's saber, helmet 'eyes', his power regular/armor control panel, and his blaster.
Unfortuntately, I had to freehand-erase pixels around the separate visual elements layers to get a nice, clean outline. There are things that you can't automate on Photoshop or use Magic Wand or Lasso on... You have to do them BY hand and that takes a lot of extra time. I'd say 80% of my effort on this image was erasing cleanly so that the separate elements had nice edges for glowing.
For the lightsabers, I chose to use the original glow color (or close enough to it) that McQuarrie used in the painting.
For Deak, I chose to use orange-yellow glow for his figure in emulation of his saber color. Deak's respirator glow was done in a brown shade for slight image isolation. (I know it looks green on some monitors, but oh well...)
Vader's 'eyes' were done with a red glow to emulate the look in the original Star Wars film. His lightsaber glow was done violet-blue (original color) while his armor regular was decorated with yellow glow for separation purposes. Since the blaster is unique to this earlier Vader concept, I chose a darker violet-blue the glow effect.
One thing many people are not aware of is that you can do a COLOR BALANCE readjustment on Grayscaled images (after you switch back to RGB or CMYK mode for the image). I chose yellow for Deak and violet-blue for Vader. Deak's COLOR BALANCE is in synch with his outer figure glow while Vader's violet-blue contrasts the red glow around his figure.
Here's the art as I composited it for the joystick I intend to mod later this year =>
Color choices are obvious for the sabers. I wanted to emulate the colors used in what I consider the best personal duel in the Star Wars saga. I didn't like the "Wire-Fu" in the prequels and felt even the duel in Jedi was somewhat less personal. I still like fight sequences to be a bit more believable and well-choreographed. There are huge doubts in my head that the Jedi and Prequel duels fit my standards. Photos are sourced Googled images. The top button labels are "blue" for the original unaltered McQuarrie Vader saber and bottom labels are "yellow" for Deak's saber. The START button glow is green to separate from the saber colors above it and also hints to Luke's saber in Jedi. Glow's in the composited image are all about contrast. I don't want the Glow's to blend into each so that's why there is all the color switching.
All labeling and text on this joystick faceplate art is done with Freeware Star Wars (Jedi?) font sourced from a freeware website. I went with crazy with glowing on all labeling except for the Star Wars intro title. I had to do some slight modifications here since the Font as-is does NOT line up like the movie title does. This consisted of some slight chopping to the first "S" in the title and some filling in of spaces that are native to the Font. A slight glow effect was added to the "Star Wars" title since with the mods I was forced to do it was no longer anti-aliased crisply. The glow effect covered up the "jaggies" nicely. Minor plastic surgery work but the final "Star Wars" image label IS faithful to the film's opening title.
Seems like my mad perfectionist days aren't quite behind me.... yet.
Simply put, this painting may be my favorite Star Wars image. Period.
When I got reacquainted with the image (years later) after pulling it up on a Google Image search, I got obsessed.
Eventually I'm going to buy a high-quality reproduction of the painting. AND the statute if I can still get it on sale by the time I can afford the art reproduction. McQuarrie doesn't sell this image directly any more from his store but there are licensed dealers (and not so-licensed) on e-Bay who do....
For now, I've mocked it up as both a Desktop image for my computer and as a pre-production modification for a joystick controller I'll buy later in the year. I created these images for the past 3 days.
Here's the image I use for my Desktop Mac now =>
Using the lasso again, I isolated "Luke's"/Deak's lightsaber and copied it onto a new layer. I did this as well for Vader's saber, helmet 'eyes', his power regular/armor control panel, and his blaster.
Unfortuntately, I had to freehand-erase pixels around the separate visual elements layers to get a nice, clean outline. There are things that you can't automate on Photoshop or use Magic Wand or Lasso on... You have to do them BY hand and that takes a lot of extra time. I'd say 80% of my effort on this image was erasing cleanly so that the separate elements had nice edges for glowing.
For the lightsabers, I chose to use the original glow color (or close enough to it) that McQuarrie used in the painting.
For Deak, I chose to use orange-yellow glow for his figure in emulation of his saber color. Deak's respirator glow was done in a brown shade for slight image isolation. (I know it looks green on some monitors, but oh well...)
Vader's 'eyes' were done with a red glow to emulate the look in the original Star Wars film. His lightsaber glow was done violet-blue (original color) while his armor regular was decorated with yellow glow for separation purposes. Since the blaster is unique to this earlier Vader concept, I chose a darker violet-blue the glow effect.
One thing many people are not aware of is that you can do a COLOR BALANCE readjustment on Grayscaled images (after you switch back to RGB or CMYK mode for the image). I chose yellow for Deak and violet-blue for Vader. Deak's COLOR BALANCE is in synch with his outer figure glow while Vader's violet-blue contrasts the red glow around his figure.
Here's the art as I composited it for the joystick I intend to mod later this year =>
All labeling and text on this joystick faceplate art is done with Freeware Star Wars (Jedi?) font sourced from a freeware website. I went with crazy with glowing on all labeling except for the Star Wars intro title. I had to do some slight modifications here since the Font as-is does NOT line up like the movie title does. This consisted of some slight chopping to the first "S" in the title and some filling in of spaces that are native to the Font. A slight glow effect was added to the "Star Wars" title since with the mods I was forced to do it was no longer anti-aliased crisply. The glow effect covered up the "jaggies" nicely. Minor plastic surgery work but the final "Star Wars" image label IS faithful to the film's opening title.
Seems like my mad perfectionist days aren't quite behind me.... yet.
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Specs for the nine-disc set:
Special Features
STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA ON BLU-RAY is presented in widescreen with 6.1 DTS Surround Sound. Special features include:
DISC ONE – STAR WARS: EPISODE I THE PHANTOM MENACE
Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Ben Burtt, Rob Coleman, John Knoll, Dennis Muren and Scott Squires
Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
DISC TWO – STAR WARS: EPISODE II ATTACK OF THE CLONES
Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Ben Burtt, Rob Coleman, Pablo Helman, John Knoll and Ben Snow
Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
DISC THREE – STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH
Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Rob Coleman, John Knoll and Roger Guyett
Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
DISC FOUR – STAR WARS: EPISODE IV A NEW HOPE
Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Carrie Fisher, Ben Burtt and Dennis Muren
Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
DISC FIVE – STAR WARS: EPISODE V THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Carrie Fisher, Ben Burtt and Dennis Muren
Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
DISC SIX – STAR WARS: EPISODE VI RETURN OF THE JEDI
Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Carrie Fisher, Ben Burtt and Dennis Muren
Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
DISC SEVEN – NEW! STAR WARS ARCHIVES: EPISODES I-III
Including: deleted, extended and alternate scenes; prop, maquette and costume turnarounds; matte paintings and concept art; supplementary interviews with cast and crew; a flythrough of the Lucasfilm Archives and more
DISC EIGHT – NEW! STAR WARS ARCHIVES: EPISODES IV-VI
Including: deleted, extended and alternate scenes; prop, maquette and costume turnarounds; matte paintings and concept art; supplementary interviews with cast and crew; and more
DISC NINE – THE STAR WARS DOCUMENTARIES
NEW! Star Warriors (2007, Color, Apx. 84 Minutes) – Some Star Wars fans want to collect action figures...these fans want to be action figures! A tribute to the 501st Legion, a global organization of Star Wars costume enthusiasts, this insightful documentary shows how the super-fan club promotes interest in the films through charity and volunteer work at fundraisers and high-profile special events around the world.
NEW! A Conversation with the Masters: The Empire Strikes Back 30 Years Later (2010, Color, Apx. 25 Minutes) – George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Lawrence Kasdan and John Williams look back on the making of The Empire Strikes Back in this in-depth retrospective from Lucasfilm created to help commemorate the 30th anniversary of the movie. The masters discuss and reminisce about one of the most beloved films of all time.
NEW! Star Wars Spoofs (2011, Color, Apx. 91 Minutes) – The farce is strong with this one! Enjoy a hilarious collection of Star Wars spoofs and parodies that have been created over the years, including outrageous clips from Family Guy, The Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother and more — and don’t miss “Weird Al” Yankovic’s one-of-a-kind music video tribute to The Phantom Menace!
The Making of Star Wars (1977, Color, Apx. 49 Minutes) – Learn the incredible behind-the-scenes story of how the original Star Wars movie was brought to the big screen in this fascinating documentary hosted by C-3PO and R2-D2. Includes interviews with George Lucas and appearances by Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.
The Empire Strikes Back: SPFX (1980, Color, Apx. 48 Minutes) – Learn the secrets of making movies in a galaxy far, far away. Hosted by Mark Hamill, this revealing documentary offers behind-the-scenes glimpses into the amazing special effects that transformed George Lucas’ vision for Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back into reality!
Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi (1983, Color, Apx. 48 Minutes) – Go behind the scenes — and into the costumes — as production footage from Return of the Jedi is interspersed with vintage monster movie clips in this in-depth exploration of the painstaking techniques utilized by George Lucas to create the classic creatures and characters seen in the film. Hosted and narrated by Carrie Fisher and Billie Dee Williams.
Anatomy of a Dewback (1997, Color, Apx. 26 Minutes) – See how some of the special effects in Star Wars became even more special two decades later! George Lucas explains and demonstrates how his team transformed the original dewback creatures from immovable rubber puppets (in the original 1977 release) to seemingly living, breathing creatures for the Star Wars 1997 Special Edition update.
Star Wars Tech (2007, Color, Apx. 46 Minutes) – Exploring the technical aspects of Star Wars vehicles, weapons and gadgetry, Star Wars Tech consults leading scientists in the fields of physics, prosthetics, lasers, engineering and astronomy to examine the plausibility of Star Wars technology based on science as we know it today.
=================================================
Um...actually pretty lame! No "From Star Wars To Jedi" from 1984 (trilogy retrospective) and I could easily leave the Warriors documentary, plus there's lots of other TV specials left out, and what about the archival material from the LaserDiscs and previous DVDs?
An "Alien" all-in, totally encompassing, definitive collection this is not (again), though I'm happy to have the three making ofs for the original films (though, of course, the original films aren't really in the box).
Still, the Star sucker in me has naturally pre-ordered!
UPDATE:
Pretty fair appraisal from an Amazon reviewer on what's half-good/bad about this release:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3127NK81S ... &linkCode=
Special Features
STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA ON BLU-RAY is presented in widescreen with 6.1 DTS Surround Sound. Special features include:
DISC ONE – STAR WARS: EPISODE I THE PHANTOM MENACE
Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Ben Burtt, Rob Coleman, John Knoll, Dennis Muren and Scott Squires
Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
DISC TWO – STAR WARS: EPISODE II ATTACK OF THE CLONES
Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Ben Burtt, Rob Coleman, Pablo Helman, John Knoll and Ben Snow
Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
DISC THREE – STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH
Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Rob Coleman, John Knoll and Roger Guyett
Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
DISC FOUR – STAR WARS: EPISODE IV A NEW HOPE
Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Carrie Fisher, Ben Burtt and Dennis Muren
Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
DISC FIVE – STAR WARS: EPISODE V THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Carrie Fisher, Ben Burtt and Dennis Muren
Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
DISC SIX – STAR WARS: EPISODE VI RETURN OF THE JEDI
Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Carrie Fisher, Ben Burtt and Dennis Muren
Audio Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew
DISC SEVEN – NEW! STAR WARS ARCHIVES: EPISODES I-III
Including: deleted, extended and alternate scenes; prop, maquette and costume turnarounds; matte paintings and concept art; supplementary interviews with cast and crew; a flythrough of the Lucasfilm Archives and more
DISC EIGHT – NEW! STAR WARS ARCHIVES: EPISODES IV-VI
Including: deleted, extended and alternate scenes; prop, maquette and costume turnarounds; matte paintings and concept art; supplementary interviews with cast and crew; and more
DISC NINE – THE STAR WARS DOCUMENTARIES
NEW! Star Warriors (2007, Color, Apx. 84 Minutes) – Some Star Wars fans want to collect action figures...these fans want to be action figures! A tribute to the 501st Legion, a global organization of Star Wars costume enthusiasts, this insightful documentary shows how the super-fan club promotes interest in the films through charity and volunteer work at fundraisers and high-profile special events around the world.
NEW! A Conversation with the Masters: The Empire Strikes Back 30 Years Later (2010, Color, Apx. 25 Minutes) – George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Lawrence Kasdan and John Williams look back on the making of The Empire Strikes Back in this in-depth retrospective from Lucasfilm created to help commemorate the 30th anniversary of the movie. The masters discuss and reminisce about one of the most beloved films of all time.
NEW! Star Wars Spoofs (2011, Color, Apx. 91 Minutes) – The farce is strong with this one! Enjoy a hilarious collection of Star Wars spoofs and parodies that have been created over the years, including outrageous clips from Family Guy, The Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother and more — and don’t miss “Weird Al” Yankovic’s one-of-a-kind music video tribute to The Phantom Menace!
The Making of Star Wars (1977, Color, Apx. 49 Minutes) – Learn the incredible behind-the-scenes story of how the original Star Wars movie was brought to the big screen in this fascinating documentary hosted by C-3PO and R2-D2. Includes interviews with George Lucas and appearances by Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.
The Empire Strikes Back: SPFX (1980, Color, Apx. 48 Minutes) – Learn the secrets of making movies in a galaxy far, far away. Hosted by Mark Hamill, this revealing documentary offers behind-the-scenes glimpses into the amazing special effects that transformed George Lucas’ vision for Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back into reality!
Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi (1983, Color, Apx. 48 Minutes) – Go behind the scenes — and into the costumes — as production footage from Return of the Jedi is interspersed with vintage monster movie clips in this in-depth exploration of the painstaking techniques utilized by George Lucas to create the classic creatures and characters seen in the film. Hosted and narrated by Carrie Fisher and Billie Dee Williams.
Anatomy of a Dewback (1997, Color, Apx. 26 Minutes) – See how some of the special effects in Star Wars became even more special two decades later! George Lucas explains and demonstrates how his team transformed the original dewback creatures from immovable rubber puppets (in the original 1977 release) to seemingly living, breathing creatures for the Star Wars 1997 Special Edition update.
Star Wars Tech (2007, Color, Apx. 46 Minutes) – Exploring the technical aspects of Star Wars vehicles, weapons and gadgetry, Star Wars Tech consults leading scientists in the fields of physics, prosthetics, lasers, engineering and astronomy to examine the plausibility of Star Wars technology based on science as we know it today.
=================================================
Um...actually pretty lame! No "From Star Wars To Jedi" from 1984 (trilogy retrospective) and I could easily leave the Warriors documentary, plus there's lots of other TV specials left out, and what about the archival material from the LaserDiscs and previous DVDs?
An "Alien" all-in, totally encompassing, definitive collection this is not (again), though I'm happy to have the three making ofs for the original films (though, of course, the original films aren't really in the box).
Still, the Star sucker in me has naturally pre-ordered!
UPDATE:
Pretty fair appraisal from an Amazon reviewer on what's half-good/bad about this release:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3127NK81S ... &linkCode=
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Re: Official Star Wars Thread
It's a good set, but I have to admit to disappointment. For all the talk, for years, of a huge BD set... there's a lot left out that could have been there. The REAL OT for starters, of course, but way more beyond that. They didn't exactly comb the archives for vintage video material, aside from the deleted scenes. Even the doc from the OT DVD set isn't on here, nor the new trilogy DVD extras (by the sound of it), never mind From Star Wars to Jedi. At least Making of SW is there, though I do have that on tape anyhow. Guess I'll be keeping all my previous versions.
But, yeah, I'm definitely getting the BD set, even as I wonder when the next one will come out.
But, yeah, I'm definitely getting the BD set, even as I wonder when the next one will come out.
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Re: Official Star Wars Thread
I have The Making of Star Wars and SPFX: The Empire Strikes Back on Laserdisc .. but the last time I watched 'em, I noticed early signs of 'laser rot' .. so, I'm glad to see both (along with Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi) included on this BD set.
Here's hoping decent-quality 'original cuts' of the classic films will make their way back onto home video, eventually. Their absence seems more due to 'spite' with each new release.
Here's hoping decent-quality 'original cuts' of the classic films will make their way back onto home video, eventually. Their absence seems more due to 'spite' with each new release.