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Screenshot Comparison of Remastered "Star Wars" Effects

StarWars.com has written a brief article entitled "Episode V: What Has Changed?" that highlights the effect shots that were actually updated for the 2004 DVD Special Edition, but will also be included in the Original Trilogy DVDs that get released on September 12th.

One of the more fascinating parts of the article, if you're a tech-head like us, is the piece on Garbage Mattes, accompanied by a high-contrast screenshot to accentuate the point::

"About a dozen or so improvements cited in this visual guide refer to improvements of garbage matte artifacts which may be difficult to spot. A garbage matte is a visual effects rotoscoping technique used to isolate models against a bluescreen. An effects artist defines a box-like area around the image of the model to help in compositing. The limitations of photochemical compositing often resulted in tell-tale "artifacting," visible remnants of the garbage matte around the model that appear as faint, animated boxes."

It's not that often we get to see this many side-by-side comparisons of remastered film clips (it's not like we have a dual-head TV to do something like this ourselves), so it's really cool of Lucasfilm to release these, even if it did cause some poor intern to get carpal tunnel. You can quickly see that it is a good thing to alter films of this caliber when transferring them to DVD.

Now this doesn't mean we're going to be rushing out to our local retailer and nabbing these the day they come out (we're waiting for Mr. Lucas to pull a Peter Jackson and release a "Super Extra Special Edition: With Force" that houses branching versions of the original and re-worked versions in one package). But for those die hard purists out there that can't wait to erase Han shooting second from their minds forever, September 12th is just around the corner.

Click here to go straight to the screenshots (all 151 of them!)

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Posted by on September 3, 2006 01:22 PM
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Like the true dork I am, I actually reviewed each of the 151 screen shot comparisons. What will be interesting to see is exactly how much "clean up" is done to the "theatrical releases" that will be coming out September 12. Personally, I think they should deliberately insert crappy film artifacts and tinny sound to mimic the experience I had watching "Star Wars" in a crappy drive-in theater. Much more authentic!

-- Posted by: Three Eyed Toad at September 5, 2006 12:47 PM

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