Here's an excerpt from an e-mail someone forwarded:
"I actually composited that shot working for a company in Hollywood. The two black blobs around the outside of the emperor's eyes were g-mattes to conceal makeup defects that didn't look quite right. With the theatrical release on standard release print stock the g-mattes like all the other g-mattes blend into the surrounding black areas going un-noticed. Not untill the use of lower contrast video film stocks did the density mismatch become apparent."
-Jim H
Look at this frame from Return of the Jedi. If you look on the right side, you will see a large flatly colored area. This is some lens reflection or misaligned matte, that doesn't move throughout the shot. Painting techniques will most likely be employed to remove this error.
This is a blown-up portion of a frame from JEDI. Look in the upper right hand corner of this frame. See the two glitches shaped like an "H?" I have slightly enhanced the area where two TIE fighters are composited on top of the Milennium Falcon, rather than behind it. Long hours and hundreds of elements contributed to this minor oversight in optical printing. Another digital paint fix-it.
When an element is filmed for one of the Star Wars Movies, it is done so in front of a blue screen. This screen does not fill the whole frame, but merely surrounds the silhouette of the model or actor. To matte out the excess flags, lights and stagehands, black cards are positioned and photographed in front. Eventually the developed film will have different densities between bluescreen and black card. Video shows this error dramatically.
Look closely at the leg of the Rancor Monster at left. Notice the heavy black line on the left side of the leg? This is called a matte line, and is a result of either a bad bluescreen pull, or misaligned elements. It can be erased in digital. (although at a price for a lot of hand work).
Look under the landspeeder. See the orange glow? Well, to show the vehicle hovering, rather than close to the ground, the animation department erased the undercarriage of the car dressed as a landspeeder, and moved the shadow down. The result of their efforts is a mismatched color that is very annoying. This problem -- as can be seen on the other pages -- was remedied by bringing in the original plate, and cloning portions of the image in digital. A much more transparent technique.
Seen here outside the cantina is yet another dewback. It barely moves its head in the shot, but as can be seen with the stormtrooper sequence, replacing this creature with 3D animation is very effective.
A prime example of a missing scene is the sequence including Jabba the Hutt. With digital techniques, it is possible to bring Jabba to life, where before it was far too expensive. This way the director's original vision can be captured. Whether this is good or not is yet to be determined.
At left is a scene from the 1983 version of Jedi. It used the matte painting directly below it. The painting was sandwiched between the actors and the background to further expand the scope of the shot. The smoke was inserted to hide the effect.
This is an impressive technique, and I would assume pushed the limits of what paintings were used for. In digital, this is a simpler process, and will be used extensively to expand the Star Wars Universe.
