TIE fighter's original color - Not what you think.....

Well, it looks like we have an audience. Who would have thought that a half maroon TIE fighter would go viral? Yeah, it's out there in multiple places. Gotta love the George-bashing comments (not)! Look, when you're trying to figure out how to do what seemingly is impossible, you try some wild ideas and see where they lead. I'll try to get some additional info about the "what the hell were they thinking" aspect of this and get back to you. Meanwhile:

... looks like they've got some yellow panels on the ball there near the window.............

Good catch. Didn't notice it. Some of the wedges are damaged/smudged and that affects the color. But I looked at the two-toned TIE wedge again and scanned a different strip. Yep, there is definitely some form of paneling going on there -
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Full res, cropped -
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A different frame -
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So it's definitely on the model, not the film.

As an aside, these wedges were shot on a filmstock called 5247. While the original camera negative holds up well if treated properly, the corresponding workprint stock does not. It fades rather quickly (within about a year) with the cyan portion of the record going first. This is what the frame above looked like before any color correction -
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Talk about purple. Sheesh. Thankfully, the scanner can correct most of that. Yeah, you're relying on an algorithm to correct the color and it may not be perfect. But relatively speaking, it looks good to the eye.

Anyways, after the workprint comes back from the lab, the strips get cut up and taped to a sheet of acetate -
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When viewed on a light table, you can see the exposure changes at a glance because you can see multiple frames at once. Like I said before, information is usually scribed on the film as a reminder of how the wedge was shot.
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All of these seem to be exposure wedges as they (or portions like the engines) just seem to be getting lighter or darker.

That's wedging 101.

Gene
 
God, I want to see EVERY SCRAP of film exposed for this film, model-wise. It ALWAYS sends chills up my spine, and I'm a grown man.
 
Gone viral lol. Starwars.com has got to rely on you Gene
to tell them the history of their own stuff.

It's those yellowish panels that give it a thoughtful finished look. I hope someone gets around to building one like that. Personally I don't think the maroon is that objectionable.

Thanks for keeping the images coming. I've got all the essentials; Chronicles, Star Wars to Indy, Sculpting A Galaxy. But as it turns out I wind up here reading instead.

So what else you got?

Chilly spine. Check.
 
I am LOVING this. Thanks Gene. I will get around to building one like that, Paul - I honestly do like it!
 
Gone viral lol. Starwars.com has got to rely on you Gene
to tell them the history of their own stuff......So what else you got?.....

It's been suggested that I release all of the images en masse and call it 'WookieLeaks'. :lol

I wish there were more sexy stuff in there, but the majority of the stuff was mundane - mostly focus charts and lens grids. But I guess this proves that you still can find little gems here and there.....

Gene
 
Thanks for the thread, in the recent Encore's "Creating the Impossible" doc. on ILM, there were a few other purple model shots, and curious do you think they are similar to these TIE tests or a separate issue. What's going against these being similar to the TIE tests is that they are from ESB. I'd lean towards degrading film, but it's weird in the first pic that two of the three SD are purple.

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Then there's the orange StarDestroyer?

encorecreatingtheimposs.jpg
 
These are great images! Perhaps the Imperials were going by the red colour scheme of The Old Republics fleet? As an in universe explaination, it wouldn't seem that far fetched to have some red colouration in TIE's etc - if the prequels were shot before the originals of course XD
 
Just discovered this thread! AWESOME PICS Gene! THANKS so much for posting!!! (y)thumbsup

Yes, it is crazy to STILL find out more about this film after all these years! :cool
 
Fantastic Thread - just discovered it!

So actually the TIE's started out life as blue (Colin Cantwell Prototype), then Gray-Blue (mostly gray) and Maroon were considered, then a bluer gray for ESB and ROTJ - is that right?

I'm really surprised to learn that they used LED's (or at least tried them) - back in 1976 LED's weren't as "evolved" - they were not very bright, but they had the advantage of not getting hot. Compared to the bright and hot Quartz-Halogen lamps that they were using as engine effects for the other ships, LED's were not a bright source at all.

Perhaps they did a seperate pass with only the LED's on, and all other lights off?

However the ILM TIE/Red LED trend continued because we know that four red LED's were used on the TIE Bomber.
 
What the hell...... it's May 4th.

By sheer coincidence, I found another box of notes as I was going through some of Edlund's boxes earlier in the week. Since it's Star Wars day. And since Jason is working on another TIE build...... Hey, do we really need an excuse for this crap? :)

TIE-Note.jpg

The date on this sheet of paper was 8/26. Based on the reference to clouds and Alderran, as well as the other notes on the sheet, this can only mean Aug. 26th, 1975. So, this is one of the earlier notes talking about the process of matting the "TIE Ships" and the color issues they will pose. The "double pass" system referenced in the note is (I believe) similar to the technique Trumbull utilized for the Enterprise on ST:TMP, where they record two passes of film to get the beauty and matte passes. I'm not sure why it was an issue, but it was stuff like this (and the desire for motion blur) that led Richard and ILM to look into and choose a bluescreen system for the miniature opticals.........

And no, there wasn't a paint formula enclosed. Sorry.

Gene
 
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