Starchaser 3D

[Chris Solo]

Several years ago (a LIFETIME ago) I was looking into doing a release of Starchaser The Legend of Orin in true 3D. Life got "complicated". Now, after a new house, a boat explosion, an extended burn unit stay and a few surgical procedures later, I am finally back to the project. For sources I have a scan of a 35mm release print with over/under 3D (left eye top, right eye bottom), commercially released flat blu-ray (left eye), stereo track from the scan, mono track from the blu-ray and stereo track from the laserdisc. I have done some work with the scan only and have successfully created SBS 3D tests. The scan has a bit of gate weave at start of each reel (five reels in total) and I'm having no luck remedying that. Being able to complete a project using just the scan will be very doable by me. However, ultimately I would like to use the blu-ray for the left eye and the bottom image from the scan for the right eye. The scan would benefit greatly from someone with more experience in stabilization and film cleanup (scratches and dirt removal, etc). Any takers, please message me. I am forging ahead on my limited ability but really want to get this done. I know 3D is not widely used these days outside of projector based home theater rooms, which I have, but if there is any interest from anyone let me know. Thanks. Sorry for the decade long delay.

[dvdmike]

Wow, you overcame a lot there!
I saw this in the cinema as a kid and haven't seen it since bar maybe VHS as I wanted it in 3D again.
I think there are plugins for gate weave but the 3D may be an issue with alignment.

[Chris Solo]

Wow, you overcame a lot there!
I saw this in the cinema as a kid and haven't seen it since bar maybe VHS as I wanted it in 3D again.
I think there are plugins for gate weave but the 3D may be an issue with alignment.

Actually, if relying solely on the print, alignment is easy peasy because the top and bottom view are locked together in the frame (see attached image).  I created two separate clips, one of the left and one of the right by resizing them and then combined the two new clips into a 3D project in Resolve Studio.  I did the first few minutes of reel 1 yesterday and the 3D is flawless.  It starts to get problematic when I try to switch out the left eye from the scan for the bluray version because of the framing of the bluray (it is a bit cropped) coupled with the gate weave of the scan.  I could do the entire film just relying on the print and I will probably do a version of it untouched (gate weave, scratches and dirt, faded) and then spend some time trying to make it look good.  I have the paid version of Davinci Resolve Studio installed but I need to learn it better.

[Chris Solo]

I have the paid version of Davinci Resolve (but can only run up to version 19 on my PC) and I downloaded the 30 day trial of DRS Nova MTI Film. I'm going to work on one reel at a time removing dirt, dust, scratches and hopefully will be able to figure out how to stabilize all before the trial runs out. Then I can take the cleaned up project into Davinci for color correction and 3D output. Any other software I should be looking at? I have the audio side covered.

[Chris Solo]

Here is a sample of the progress. This is the opening shot of reel 3. The beginning and ends of each of the reels are really bad. But I am using MTI Film's DRS Nova and its awesome. I only have 18 more days of my free trial left though so I am trying my best to get all six reels stabilized, de-warped and hand correcting any major issues before I lose access. I will have to rely on photoshop and Davinci Resolve Studio after the trial is up unless anyone knows some other free or cheap options. There are some issues still that I have to iron out in the shot but it is really getting there.

https://youtu.be/ppcLd3S_w8Q

[Nick_M]

I'd rather see this without "restoration." Yeah, it looks cleaner, but the rotoscoping on that ship. Yikes! The plain scan looks much more natural.

[Chris Solo]

I'd rather see this without "restoration." Yeah, it looks cleaner, but the rotoscoping on that ship. Yikes! The plain scan looks much more natural.

I'm doing a release untouched as well. Regarding the rotoscoping, as I noted in my post with the link: "There are some issues still that I have to iron out in the shot but it is really getting there." It looks much better now as I have adjusted the colors and fine tuned the mask and deleted a mask that I accidentally left on when I rendered the video. This is very much a work in progress. I'll upload another video at some point. When I'm done, I'm releasing a a completely untouched grindhouse version, a cleaned and and somewhat restored version and a restored version that uses the left eye view from the commercially available blu-ray. Each version will also include SBS, anaglyph and frame packed releases.

[Workerparasite]

This is an excellent idea. I hope you're going to make this public, as the 3d on this movie is excellent. And yeah, I think untouched would be preferable.