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Macs Do Star Wars Dirty Work
bfl writes "The BBC is running a story about Lowry Digital Images and how they used 600 dual G5s and 400 TB of storage space to clean the dirt off of the old Star Wars reels, and upgrade the resolution to get them ready for their DVD release."
378 Terabytes Of Star Wars on 600 G5s
Movie dirt is a special kind of "noise" in images, from a statistical point of view. Thus special filters can be applied.
Apple has it on their own web site here.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Is it me or does it seem like they this cash cow is never going to run out.
If the dollar is an "I owe you nothing", then the Euro is a "Who owes you nothing." - Doug Casey
just imagine: ;)
they have 180 000 frames
1 frame = 70 MB
use your calc folks
The MACS made Greedo shoot first!
I wonder whether it would be too difficult to script a dupe checker with google's help.
I CANT WAIT! for the super extended hyperspace collectors addition where they replace Han with a pink bunny named Lulu Astro-whiskers and replace all the blasters with walkie-talkies!!!
~ All comments automatically moderated -1 since 2004 ~
While it is true that filters can be applied, why bother when you can just keep them clean instead?
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent - Isaac Asimov
Most people don't realize, much of the primary CG work done on the Star Wars films are done on Macs. But ILM signed contracts with SGI which prohibits them from acknowledging the contribution of any system other than SGI. Inside ILM, this contractual obligation is known as "the Jedi Clause." So the contribution of Macs and Mac users to these films go largely unrecognized.
"Hey, you know what would be cool?"
"What's that?"
"These G5s are pretty cool...we should make a beowulf cluster of them!"
"Well, we're obscenely rich, so..."
"Yipee!"
ILM used and contribute code to Film Gimp/Cinepaint.
ILM contribute code as a plug-in (OpenEXR). It would be interesting to know if Lowry Digital Images used Film Gimp/Cinepaint including the ILM developed OpenEXR plug-in in cleaning Star Wars.
Or... "Gee it was more fun the first time when I was 10!" Well, that's because it actually was a better-looking film.
I suggest you read Slashdot
Actually, it talks about Star Wars. I didn't see any mention of Indiana Jones. But nonetheless, the computing horsepower used to clean the film is impressive.
The PC Weenies: 11 Years of Online Tech 'Too
I love Apple and I love the spirit of competittion, I have been a Mac user much of my life. But why are Macs always treated like the retarded child of the computer industry? Look at the guy pictured in the article; he's smiling, he's so proud 'THEY DID IT!'
It seems like any time the Mac platform does something that is remotely interesting people rejoice and it is plastered everywhere. Would this story be on the front page if PCs were used? I doubt it, even if they were running Linux.
It's just like this weird thing where anything, even commonplace events get blown out of porportion just because Macs were used, as if the entire platform blows and it's amazing anything gets done, which is not the case. Maybe it is just the Mac user hubris as pictured above, but it comes across as this weird feeling I mentioned earlier. Touting that the macs 'can do!' things PCs do all the time makes them seem inferior and retarded, like they need the positive reinforcement.
Check them out on the previous slashdot articles for ESB and ANH. You can compare the improvements in the image quality. It's amazing how much improvement can be made and detail added in.
Can someone elaborate on how shot noise applies to optical systems, specifically, cinematography? Since the original source material is conventional 'analog' film, at what point is the noise introduced? How is it introduced? (Yes I realize that film is not a pure analog format; the resolution being limited by the grain size of the emulsion - but at the same time, it's not what we consider digital.)
There's a Starman, waiting in the sky / He'd like to come and meet us, but he hasn't got the time.
Amazon has a list made up by Chuck Kahn of movies that have been cleaned up by Lowry.
l is t-browse/-/1X2DZ42QS8OVB/103-1368633-4717431
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/listmania/
I've picked up THX1138, Once upon a time in the west, North by Northwest, The Ghoul and of course Star Wars.
The results are INCREDIBLE. Except for some obvious dubbing with sound, Once upon a time in the west looks like it was filmed yesterday. So does THX1138!
I've tried finding the Lowry Digital Web site. But INCREDIBLY it seems like they don't have one! Seems strange. You would think they would have a web site telling people the films they have done so people might go out and buy them.
If somebody knows it....PLEASE post it!
Or better- get working now on those funny Porky's movies. Or Manos, that's another gem that needs improvement.
I suggest you read Slashdot
And here I would just have used some photo-wash. At least, that's what you use when you develop film :)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I'm sure they had to handle the originals for duplication and remastering along the way, I'm pretty sure they would have thought to take precautions handling the film. They're not stupid.
I'm very glad to hear that this technique of using the data in several frames of footage really does exist today. However, where can I get my paws on it? I've at many times wished for higher quality in various clips I've DLed, and found myself annoyed at knowing that in the sum of the data of a scene the information is there, but I can't access it. With whatever they're running at LDI, I could access it.
Also, imagine if you will what you could learn by running this on the footage of the JFK assassination? Or all those UFO sightings? This could be the conspiracy buff's dream. =)
All rites reversed 2010
Seriously, if you're going to devote that kind of hardware to a restoration, why can't you be bothered to pay a guy to airbrush the lightsabers in rather than use the blurred crap that was the result of the cleanup? The lightsabers (in order to look good onscreen) need a white core with a coloured edge. The DVD version blurred them so much the white core is entirely gone and they're just coloured smudges all the way through.
This just in, story released about re-release of Star Wars has been re-released for /.'ers to re-read.
Can't you realize that redoing the same posts over and over again is easily recognized by frequent readers of this news repository. Comments often respect that the editors are only human, but such a repeat of a mistake makes most redears reluctantly repeat the same jokes that they made the last time this was reposted.
My apologies....really!
The real litigious bastards...
Greedo shoots's first, greedo shoots simultaneously, deleted scene jabba 1, deleted scene jabba 2, greedo first + jabba 2, greedo first + jabba 1, jar-jar on tattoine, jar-jar + greedo 1 + jabba 2, boba fett vocie 1 + jar-jar 2 + pink lightsabre + jabba 2, ad infinitum.
Firstly, the sound effects made Star Wars an innovative film,(ironic that sound doesn't really travel through space) Many theaters upgraded their sound systems specifically for Star Wars. Secondly, many features of Star Wars quickly became standard in filmaking. The films the newer generation sees are all derivative. Its like listening to Robert Johnson after growing up with Led Zepplin. I respect the blues, but its not so much fun to listen to, sorta like going in a nearly empty basement of an old house.
the true nature of this love story, as evidenced by later incarnations.
Node 23543: "What's the sickest thing you've done for cash?"
Node 25685: "I once had to render a goat hobbit monkey sex video...I was depressed for a year!"
Node 65423: "I had to do pitch correction on three hours of Britney Spears audio! I still find myself waking up and crying like a baby..."
Node 27928: "Once, I had to work on a Lucas proje..."
All of the other nodes: "Say no more! You poor bastard!"
Unidentified node : "You whore!"
The sound effects made Star Wars an innovative film,(ironic that sound doesn't really travel through space) Many theaters upgraded their sound systems specifically for Star Wars (and now upgrades are fairly regular) For those who didn't grow up with Star Wars though, its like listening to Robert Johnson after growing up with Led Zepplin (or Metallica?). Johnson sound so sparse, and there's such a variety of influences in more modern music that old blues is sometimes like going in a empty basement of an old house. Its great for five minutes.
...here he is!
Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. - William Shakespeare
Every system has it's uses...
Your statement is like suggesting to use a toaster to grill a steak. It's not the best tool for the job, but just because it's not the best tool for that particular job doesn't mean it's really helpful when you want to make a meal.
Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but copyright will always protect me.
Nevermind.
Get the best tool for the job..
While most of us are stuck with lesser quality 'white box PC clones'...
---- Booth was a patriot ----
You're BOTH misreading it. Macs and SGIs worked side by side. SGI gave ILM special favors, in return for ILM pretending the Star Wars films were exclusively done with SGI machines.
Sit down and think about it for a moment. Consider what the reaction would be if you decided to clean the Sphinx so it looked new, or redo some famous bridge in the latest hitech materials (let's say
Clifton Suspension bridge in Bristol UK in *titanium* just so it lasted forever).
Somehow, you've *lost* the original both in spirit and implementation. Somehow, you've *lost* the historical context...
I could go on. But I won't bore you (have already he says chuckling).
Even though Movies are in some sense "thought stuff" where is the dividing line between preservation (of the original thought) and re-invention (feels like re-interpretation)?
Cleaning up stuff can look dreadfully like you're
trivializing stuff that was in some sense important, (and remember that the bias of the person cleaning it will be the bias of someone 20-50 years downstream of the originator).
Leave well alone, and be very careful. You want the original "limits" that made magic to stay.
When the only "print" of Star Wars that is left is
a 20 times reprocessed thing, can we say we understand the movie?
It turns out that a huge part of the film restoration/cleanup work is done using programs from MTI Right now huge film libraries are undergoing scanning and cleanup using MTI's products in preparation for high-def DVD release (once the standards get, uhm, standardized)
These MTI workstations might have highest software/hardware cost ratio of any widely deployed system. The hardware costs are a couple of thousand dollars, and the software is well over $50,000 per system. But, they get the job done like nothing else, and it is my experience that studios demand that particular software for their restoration.
It's not a completely automatic process by any means. The software can do a lot on its own, but it does require an artist to painstakingly review and correct the things that the software misses, or to guide the software to a correct solution.
A friend of mine who is building a large restoration facility would love to have a Linux solution, but unfortunately none exists at this point.
Thad Beier
I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
There go people ranting again about things they know nothing about...
My toaster makes great steaks!
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
The important thing is, where can I find a torrent?
The original versions of the films also didn't have the new editing, new scenes, new shots, all of which greatly diminished the pacing and believability of the film.
There's a reason they give Oscars out for editing. --It really doesn't take much to ruin an otherwise good work. A single nail standing up on a water slide can make the whole ride a lot less enjoyable. And the re-release versions of Star Wars had a whole hardware store's worth of junk added!
Every three minutes while watching that thing, I felt, at best that I was having to deliberately overlook stupidity, (like those new digital droids floating around Mos Eisley which it was clear from the actors' body language, were not really there and thus created a discordant effect), to my feeling like I was being stabbed when Luke Screamed while falling down the throat of Cloud City.
So yeah, if I was a kid today watching those lousy re-release versions of Star Wars, I'd also think my elders were doddery and out-dated for raving about them; that they needed a patronizing pat on the head and a, "There, there, old timer; I'm sure they seemed like nice films in your day."
The wide-screen, color and sound restored, but otherwise un-adultered LD copies from the mid nineties are the best versions available of the original trilogy. --There are yet to be any pirate copies of those ripped to DVD floating around, but there damned-well ought to be!
Some of you out there have the capability to create these. DO IT. Star Wars is a vital part of our culture, and what Lucas is doing to erase it is as insidious as any 'terrorism'. --If Phantom Menace hadn't sucked, there is a good chance we could have avoided being in Iraq today.
-FL
Film doesn't last forever. Without restoring old media or transferring to new media periodically, the original works *will* be lost. It's already happened to a lot of old movies that were stored away in supposedly safe places. Those films have degraded to the point where they can't even be copied in less than 100 years.
You can complain about "biased" restorations and lack of historical context all day, but in the end I would rather see a cleaned-up Sphinx than a pile of shattered sandstone with a tour guide standing next to it to describe what the Sphinx used to look like!
0 1 - just my two bits
hey hey, settle down now, i am a mac user, and i wrote this not too long ago.
bear in mind that to average joe sixpack, the bottom end machines determine who has the cheapest computer.
just trying to make fun of things.
scott king
to fix all the bad acting in the films... that seems like it would be a worthwhile investment for film restoration.
What Lucas did was to abandon the laws of physics in favor of entertaining the audience. True that sound won't travel through empty or very sparse space, but you could STILL have interesting sound effects. Every time something blows up, as the shock-wave passes the viewer you would expect to hear *something* in real life.
Now, yes it's much more interesting to hear the explosion as it happens, even though in real life you'd certainly have to deal with the shock-wave carried sound or (assuming space in this far-off galaxy is full of air) a huge delay between the time you see the explosion and the time it takes for the sound of that explosion to reach you.
The physics of movies has, i fear, spoiled the expectations of all future space travelers. Sound in outer space? Blasters? Deflector shields? And my biggest peeve: 2-D shock waves (a la praxis)? That's some FUNKY distribution of mass there.
Even 2001 had problems with physics- like stars sweeping by as an astronaught repairs the outside of a ship.
I suggest you read Slashdot
OK if they cleaned the dirt, but how do you manage to "upgrade the resolution"? From *which* resolution? I thought the recorded resolution exceeded even that of DVD's.
Do they mean "we sharpened the image" or what?
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Although the sharpness and lack of scratches/dirt is great, the color quality is pretty awful in the restored DVDs. The saturation is way too high; for example, sometimes it looks like ObiWan is wearing lipstick, the desert sand often looks bright orange, and C3P0 looks like he was painted with a flourescent marker or something. In the Millennium Falcon scene when Luke is training lightsaber, his lightsaber is bright green for some reason - even though it was originally pale blue.
If not for the wonky color, I might be able to stomach the Lucas changes; as it is, I much prefer watching my bootleg DVDs based on the pre-special edition Laser Disks, which are basically perfect except for slightly lower sharpness than it could be.
I'm just wondering why they needed that much CPU power.
A dust spec is on one frame. Therefore it's not on frames before nor after. Therefore, some mpeggish variation should detect a massive change, and erase it, filling in the middle chunk mpeggishly.
Hardly computationally intensive, compared to what one computer can do. Maybe it's needed for all the disc storage space.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
The circuit senses capacitance. Do a Google search on "touch light switch" (no quotes) and among the first of 840,000 results will be our friends at X-10.
You know, a wet tissue or paper towel might clean dirt off film better than 600 Macs. Just a thought.
Wish I had the points to mod you up. Not only do you get FireWire, high-speed Internet, built-in wilreless capability (in a desktop), but you also get software that manages your pictures ($80), allows you to create simple movies ($129, for anything halfway decent on the Windows side), create your own music (lots of cheap midi-capture apps in Windows, so this is a wash). The only sticking point is that Word or Excel doen't come with it, but I always suggest that customers find used copies of Office 2001 (it runs native under X and has all the features you need---heck, Word 5.1a still woks in Classic under OS X).
Plus, you can surf without worry. I've convinced four of my customers to switch and that's the one thing they mention to me more often than anything else; the absence of worry about malware and spyware. I just installed a used PowerMac G4 for an elderly couple here in Hawaii and they love the freedom of it. I started trying to convince them to make the switch almost $1000 ago and now, I'll only see them for their regularly-scheduled tune-up. They won't be paying me for spyware, malware and virus removal again.
It's pretty hilarious how many people are asking, "why can't you just wipe off the negatives, or dunk it all in a photo-wash bath, or ..."
Wiping off negatives pretty much always scratches them, and even if dunking negatives in a photo-wash bath was perfectly safe on such old film, it would do nothing for scratches.
Additionally, the BBC article mentions that there were often cases in which a couple of layers of film were bonded together (for special effects), and there was sometimes dirt and/or scratches between those layers.
Furthermore, the whole problem of the color having faded over the years was not something that simple cleaning could help with - although they did a terrible job with the color (WAY too punchy, sometimes just not the right colors at all).
Lastly, the way in which they were able to analyze groups of frames to reduce film grain and increase resolution was only possible using computers. So no more of this "why couldn't they just..." silliness!
The only change made to ANH in the 80s was to add the "Episode IV" text to the opening crawl (references here and here). The rest of the movie was untouched until 1997.
Free Hans!
been on slashdot before, but they may not have mentioned the Macs.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
URL:http://www.electricimage.com/
I'm just wondering why they needed that much CPU power.
.retarded.
A dust spec is on one frame. Therefore it's not on frames before nor after. Therefore, some mpeggish variation should detect a massive change, and erase it, filling in the middle chunk mpeggishly.
At 70 MB a frame, we're well beyond your typical "mpeggish" resolutions. I'm not even sure why you bring up MPEG any way, as they're working uncompressed. Doing any sort of cleaning on MPEG files would be. . . just. . .
Hardly computationally intensive, compared to what one computer can do. Maybe it's needed for all the disc storage space.
Of course you could do this with just one computer, if you were very very patient. The idea is that this is being done as a business, and clients expect results within certain time constraints, known as deadlines.
Furthermore, it is computationally intensive. Did you even RTFA?
And lastly, what the heck is "Impiuos"? is this a new line of cars from South Korea?
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
Why is it, people jump up and down, wave and point, and strut around proudly when macs are used ?
They're just computers, niche ones at that.
As for crapping on about 32bit fpu and, oooh, 3.5gb ram, seriously, does anyone care ?
Not exactly special favors since it was a formal agreement, you can still find the press releases at SGIs site.
ILM never pretended nothing. Maybe they didn't go out of their way to mention it to regular media (which are pretty clueless anyway) but Macs were certainly mentioned in more serious publications like Cinefex and AWN.
And there is mention of Macs in other projects like Van Helsing on a Mac magazine.
Usually though Macs are given distinct sequences, they might work on the same project as SGI/Linux machine but a lot of times its for specific things (matte paintings) or given specific sequences (R2 flying in Ep. 2, or the Naboo ship on Ep. 1).
Besides credits on films are negotiated as well.
With the dell you must buy antivirus software and possibly a better firewall or spyware detection software. You must buy a third party burner program (try using built-in xp burning..).
There's good freeware for filling in where the xp burner is lacking, mainly burning iso's. AVG antivirus, AdAware, and Spybot S&D are good free anti-virus/malware programs.
I think if I were to actually purchase a Mac, I would probably go all out on a Power Mac to make it worthwhile. But for the moment I'm on a $470 Dell (double the storage of the Emac, but lacking elsewhere) running Linux because I'm a student's budget.
The question is, then, will the 70mb/frame version of the movie fit on Blu-ray media or HD-DVD?
But at +5 Insightful, it seems you're not alone. The people here scare me sometimes.
And thank-you for being the smart-alec who sits in the back row and prevents good patterns from evolving through the constant application of smarmy remarks. --Hiding your painful level of low self-esteem by trying to transfer your feelings of self-consciousness to others.
Go get not-laid somewhere else.
-FL
The article also mentions the high floating point performance of the Mac which isn't down to Apple but actually thanks to IBM and Motorola's PowerPC CPU.
I think many of us would like to build and run a PowerPC computer, but I'm not paying megabucks for a Mac simply to replace the OS with Linux.
I paid the going retail price for a Windows screen reader and got a free Unix computer!
ILM has never been an all-SGI shop, they used to be a primarily Mac/SGI shop.
My friend who worked at ILM back around the late 1980s (the time frame we're talking about here) told me how their digital matte process ran on a custom app written exclusively for Macs. John Knoll personally gave me a copy of Photoshop
Anyway, it is not surprising that much of this process is shrouded in mystery, ILM is very secretive. Even unto this day, the ILM street address is a not-very-well-kept secret, their name doesn't appear on the building, or in any published literature. My friend at ILM told me that employees were prohibited, upon penalty of termination, of EVER having an email address with their real name, or ever using their real name anywhere on the internet. They were concerned about the legions of Star Wars weirdos getting ahold of an employee's info and stalking him.
Here's what I mean. .
There are very few instances in our culture when nearly everybody is focusing on a single event with such openness and enthusiasm as when Phantom Menace was nearing release.
During a time like that, it is possible, (it has happened before), to put across messages which everybody will hear at the same time, and react to by possibly adjusting their behavior at the same time. The mass consciousness of the entire industrialized world had turned the static way down, and was listening.
The messages in Star Wars are important and several. .
1) The idea of Big Government being evil. The good guys in Star Wars were, very literally, the 'terrorists'.
2) The Phantom Menace was a story about how a democratic government can quickly be manipulated into fascism. --The means by which it was done in the Phantom Menace were nearly identical to how it was done through 9-11. --That is, a deliberately manufactured attack was used to create an emotional reaction among elected officials so that dangerous measures could be quickly pushed through and voted into power; measures which later caused the downfall of democratic government. (This is what happened with 9-11, patriot act). Had the story been properly told, it could have done its job in alerting the populace to the possibility and dangers of such manipulations.
But this didn't happen. Lucas dropped the ball. I suspect, given the stakes today, he was possibly influenced; there was a time twenty years ago when he understood and indeed created many of the rules he broke in making the Phantom Menace.
There were several other layers as well which could have created positive effects on our populace but did not. --The films could have reinforced standards of moral behavior, (through the actions of the Jedi). Instead we now have American soldiers, (kids in their twenties), acting like savages, performing torture on other humans.
Myths and Stories are perhaps the most powerful way to teach behavior to a culture. Star Wars was one of the pillars of our society, but it has been corrupted.
-FL