My Attempt to Improve the Orange Bricks

[JustAlex1997]

For fun, I decided to use a free photo editor to improve a screenshot from the Orange Bricks. I'm pretty happy with the results, and I'd like to show them here.

Funimation's remaster:


My remaster:


Please let me know what you think!

[KPike87]

Looks a touch too dim, but otherwise the colors are great! Unfortunately there's just no way to fix the OB's greatest offense, the vanishing lines, without a frame by frame fix (oh, the irony). Because of that, there's no real point to color correcting the OB's, but it's still interesting.

[Robo4900]

Looks a touch too dim, but otherwise the colors are great! Unfortunately there's just no way to fix the OB's greatest offense, the vanishing lines, without a frame by frame fix (oh, the irony). Because of that, there's no real point to color correcting the OB's, but it's still interesting.

Their greatest sin is the cropping.

If they weren't cropped, they would be a flawed-but-acceptable release. Not good, but acceptable.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Looks a touch too dim, but otherwise the colors are great! Unfortunately there's just no way to fix the OB's greatest offense, the vanishing lines, without a frame by frame fix (oh, the irony). Because of that, there's no real point to color correcting the OB's, but it's still interesting.

Their greatest sin is the cropping.

If they weren't cropped, they would be a flawed-but-acceptable release. Not good, but acceptable.

No doubt, though i'd have much preferred if they just took the digibeta masters they already had and put them on there albeit with better encoding.

[JustAlex1997]

Looks a touch too dim, but otherwise the colors are great! Unfortunately there's just no way to fix the OB's greatest offense, the vanishing lines, without a frame by frame fix (oh, the irony). Because of that, there's no real point to color correcting the OB's, but it's still interesting.

That's unfortunately the problem. The image was so bleached that there wasn't much else I could do with the tools given to fix it (especially Gokou's skin). I appreciate that you like the rest of it.

[JustAlex1997]

I'm also considering adding a light sharpening filter and making the grain I added a little more noticeable. I was playing around with the filters after posting this, and I was liking the results.

[JewyB]

Looks a touch too dim, but otherwise the colors are great! Unfortunately there's just no way to fix the OB's greatest offense, the vanishing lines, without a frame by frame fix (oh, the irony). Because of that, there's no real point to color correcting the OB's, but it's still interesting.

That's unfortunately the problem. The image was so bleached that there wasn't much else I could do with the tools given to fix it (especially Gokou's skin). I appreciate that you like the rest of it.

Would increasing the saturation and lightness minimal amounts not help with this slightly? Obviously too much saturation/lightness would look bad but maybe bumping both up by a 5/10 value might just nudge it in the right direction.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Looks a touch too dim, but otherwise the colors are great! Unfortunately there's just no way to fix the OB's greatest offense, the vanishing lines, without a frame by frame fix (oh, the irony). Because of that, there's no real point to color correcting the OB's, but it's still interesting.

Their greatest sin is the cropping.

If they weren't cropped, they would be a flawed-but-acceptable release. Not good, but acceptable.

Agreed on the cropping, although even without a crop I'd hesitate to call the orange bricks acceptable. The singles maybe. I used to own the orange bricks, but the glaring and deleted lines of animation took a lot out of the experience. Even in motion it's an incredibly jarring way to watch the series. Season BDs are vastly superior, ditto the 30th anniversary remaster from what I've seen, although both still have issues.

JustAlex1997's remaster may be a bit on the dim side, but it's still an improvement.

[JustAlex1997]

Looks a touch too dim, but otherwise the colors are great! Unfortunately there's just no way to fix the OB's greatest offense, the vanishing lines, without a frame by frame fix (oh, the irony). Because of that, there's no real point to color correcting the OB's, but it's still interesting.

That's unfortunately the problem. The image was so bleached that there wasn't much else I could do with the tools given to fix it (especially Gokou's skin). I appreciate that you like the rest of it.

Would increasing the saturation and lightness minimal amounts not help with this slightly? Obviously too much saturation/lightness would look bad but maybe bumping both up by a 5/10 value might just nudge it in the right direction.

I probably could improve it a little bit. As I did mess with a lot of that to make this, though, I'm not sure if I could make a huge improvement to it. If I do tinker with it a little more, I'll see what I can do to brighten it a little.

[JustAlex1997]

Looks a touch too dim, but otherwise the colors are great! Unfortunately there's just no way to fix the OB's greatest offense, the vanishing lines, without a frame by frame fix (oh, the irony). Because of that, there's no real point to color correcting the OB's, but it's still interesting.

Their greatest sin is the cropping.

If they weren't cropped, they would be a flawed-but-acceptable release. Not good, but acceptable.

Agreed on the cropping, although even without a crop I'd hesitate to call the orange bricks acceptable. The singles maybe. I used to own the orange bricks, but the glaring and deleted lines of animation took a lot out of the experience. Even in motion it's an incredibly jarring way to watch the series. Season BDs are vastly superior, ditto the 30th anniversary remaster from what I've seen, although both still have issues.

JustAlex1997's remaster may be a bit on the dim side, but it's still an improvement.

I'm replacing the Orange Bricks with the 30th Anniversary Blu-rays. They could be a lot better, but they're acceptable considering the price. I have the first season pre-ordered already.

And thank you.

[Matches Malone]

Trying to improve these would be like trying to improve old milk, nothing you can do will fix the core problem.

[JewyB]

Trying to improve these would be like trying to improve old milk, nothing you can do will fix the core problem.

As an avid cheese lover you take this back immediately!

I probably could improve it a little bit. As I did mess with a lot of that to make this, though, I'm not sure if I could make a huge improvement to it. If I do tinker with it a little more, I'll see what I can do to brighten it a little.

I think it looks good, just yeah agreed on it being a little dark. I would play around with it myself but i have never given colour correction a go so i'd just be winging it in Krita.

[JustAlex1997]

Edits have been made based on feedback and my own issues. Saturation has been increased to improve the dim colors, the clarity of the image has been slightly increased, and grain has been increased to be more noticeable. We're getting into pink skin territory, so I think this'll be as far as I can improve it.

[JustAlex1997]

Trying to improve these would be like trying to improve old milk, nothing you can do will fix the core problem.

As an avid cheese lover you take this back immediately!

I probably could improve it a little bit. As I did mess with a lot of that to make this, though, I'm not sure if I could make a huge improvement to it. If I do tinker with it a little more, I'll see what I can do to brighten it a little.

I think it looks good, just yeah agreed on it being a little dark. I would play around with it myself but i have never given colour correction a go so i'd just be winging it in Krita.

It's actually pretty easy with the website Pixlr. This is my first time editing images for anything besides memes, and it's going pretty smoothly.

[Planetnamek]

not bad, pretty good actually.

[Robo4900]

I used to own the orange bricks, but the glaring and deleted lines of animation took a lot out of the experience. Even in motion it's an incredibly jarring way to watch the series. Season BDs are vastly superior, ditto the 30th anniversary remaster from what I've seen, although both still have issues.

I'd rather have some parts look distracting due to line erasure than have all semblance of subtlety and texture in the image completely destroyed.

The Orange Bricks are far from good, but the season Blu-rays are far, far worse. The 30th anniversary sets win points for finally not being cropped, but they're still unwatchably distorted.

[ArmenianPepsi]

That actually looks pretty decent, makes me think of a cropped D-Box with the colors. The fact you were able to make that from the trainwreck Orange Bricks is applaudable

[JustAlex1997]

That actually looks pretty decent, makes me think of a cropped D-Box with the colors. The fact you were able to make that from the trainwreck Orange Bricks is applaudable

I appreciate the kind words! Yeah, this process has made me shake my head at Funimation with even more disappointment.

[Metalwario64]

That doesn't even look like an Orange Brick screenshot. It loos more like the Season BD to me. It's a way too blue for those episodes, and not only that, but it's half the resolution and heavily compressed, so what's even the point?

Here's an actual Orange Brick screenshot from one of the overly bright Season Two episodes (where brighter details are crushed)"



And here is my correction of it:



Now, if this was a screenshot of Gohan, then his skintone would still be gone. However, most people act like all of Season Two is this bright, when in reality it's only about 4 or 5 of the entire set. It never should have happened, and I'm not defending it, but I honestly think most of Season Two looks pretty decent:

Spoiler:

[JustAlex1997]

That doesn't even look like an Orange Brick screenshot. It loos more like the Season BD to me. It's a way too blue for those episodes, and not only that, but it's half the resolution and heavily compressed, so what's even the point?

Here's an actual Orange Brick screenshot from one of the overly bright Season Two episodes (where brighter details are crushed)"



And here is my correction of it:



Now, if this was a screenshot of Gohan, then his skintone would still be gone. However, most people act like all of Season Two is this bright, when in reality it's only about 4 or 5 of the entire set. It never should have happened, and I'm not defending it, but I honestly think most of Season Two looks pretty decent:

Spoiler:

The disc drive on my laptop doesn't work, so I was unable to get a screenshot myself. I used a result from Google after specifically looking for Orange Brick screenshots, and this looked like one to me. As for the size of the image/etc., this was more about color correction and adding grain than creating a 100% accurate representation of the image. Were it not for the disc drive problem, my first move would've been to get a proper screenshot myself (which I've done in past threads).

As stated, this was just a fun thing for me to attempt.