Color Correcting the Dragon Box - 3 Part Spectacular

[ect5150]

I want the dragon box movies so bad!! Color correction looks awesome

The color cast on some of the movies doesn't seem to be that bad:

Click to enlarge:

Although I only tried messing with movie 6 so far (have had zero success making Metal Cooler more 'blue-ish' while maintaining the integrity of the rest of the picture)

I see more of a difference with the original DB Dbox.
Click to enlarge:


And, as Zestanor mentions, I'm doing all of this in AVISynth. So all you need is my script (PM me if you ever want them) and original DVDs to get my results.

[Metalwario64]

(have had zero success making Metal Cooler more 'blue-ish' while maintaining the integrity of the rest of the picture)

Why should he be blue? He's reflecting the green Namekian sky.

[Fulicer]

I want the dragon box movies so bad!! Color correction looks awesome

The color cast on some of the movies doesn't seem to be that bad:

Click to enlarge:

Although I only tried messing with movie 6 so far (have had zero success making Metal Cooler more 'blue-ish' while maintaining the integrity of the rest of the picture)

I see more of a difference with the original DB Dbox.
Click to enlarge:


And, as Zestanor mentions, I'm doing all of this in AVISynth. So all you need is my script (PM me if you ever want them) and original DVDs to get my results.

Maybe the colors of the movies are better overall.

[ect5150]

Maybe the colors of the movies are better overall.

Keep in mind the initial screenshots shown:



For some reason, some episodes/movies are better than others with this topic.

[Fulicer]

Maybe the colors of the movies are better overall.

Keep in mind the initial screenshots shown:



For some reason, some episodes/movies are better than others with this topic.

True. But I have all of the Dragon Box movies, except the for the Dragon Ball ones (I will buy the latter on a later date), and I get the impression that they often fair better compared to the TV episodes. It might be because they used higher-quality film for the movies. I can't say for sure.

[superrayman3]

Here's a few comparison shots from my first attempt at Color Correcting Dragon Ball Movie 3, Let me know what you guys think.

[ect5150]

Here's a few comparison shots from my first attempt at Color Correcting Dragon Ball Movie 3, Let me know what you guys think.

Looks like you've got the hang of it---

I will ask one question though. How does Bulma's hair look? I always find when I'm altering the picture (such that the sky turns to a nice blue) I either turn Bulma's hair blue or there are artifacts in her hair. Also, on a personal note, I used to think Bulma's blue hair was fine -- but someone pointed out earlier in the thread with animation cels --her hair is greenish, not blue-ish. This makes me question the colors in the FUNI BluRays, as nice looking as they are.


Speaking of animation cels, can anyone find any of Metal Cooler from Movie 6? We always talk about green and blue skies in these discussions, but apparently animation cels with original backgrounds are very rare. I didn't know if we could move the same coversation to him instead as he seemed to go from blue-ish to green-ish.

[Metalwario64]

Amazon's page for the 'Double Feature' DVDs has animation cels for each film, probably courtesy of FUNimation, as I've noticed a few of these cels being used as "screenshots" on the covers (namely movie 2, which even has a promotional cel as a "screenshot").

Coola's color is nearly exactly the same as the sky.

Here's a cel:


Here's a FUNimation single DVD screenshot for comparison:


Lastly, here's a Double Feature screenshot (notice how the blues were pushed in this one, making the sky more of a teal shade):


Out of curiosity, can we get a Dragon Box version of that shot?

[superrayman3]

Looks like you've got the hang of it---

I will ask one question though. How does Bulma's hair look? I always find when I'm altering the picture (such that the sky turns to a nice blue) I either turn Bulma's hair blue or there are artifacts in her hair.

Whoops I forgot to add a pic for that, here's what her hair looks like

Also, on a personal note, I used to think Bulma's blue hair was fine -- but someone pointed out earlier in the thread with animation cels --her hair is greenish, not blue-ish. This makes me question the colors in the FUNI BluRays, as nice looking as they are.

It's actually pretty tough to say for sure I think the hair color varies depending on which animation studio did what and I have a few reasons for thinking this, as I was watching the promos and trailers on the DBOX the movies disc I noticed some major inconsistencies between movie promos and trailers for each film, for example on the first extra on the DB Movie 1 extras when Bulmas hair is shown

You'll notice that her hair looks a bit bluish when compared to what the animation cells show, but when you watch the theatrical trailer for the movie (second extra)






You'll notice that her hair while inconsistent for the most part also has a more blue lookin color, first choice on DB Movie 2's extras


Trailer for movie 2

The first option on DB movie 3's extras


If we had some screenshots from the original Japanese Broadcast to compare with the animation cells that would be helpful in figuring out what's Bulma's hair is supposed to look like.

Speaking of animation cels, can anyone find any of Metal Cooler from Movie 6? We always talk about green and blue skies in these discussions, but apparently animation cels with original backgrounds are very rare. I didn't know if we could move the same coversation to him instead as he seemed to go from blue-ish to green-ish.

If I had some animation cells for Metal Cooler from Movie 6 I'd be more than happy to share them with you.

[Zestanor]

For the DB movies, you could check the Japanese VHSes, and for Z the Laserdiscs for Bulma's hair color.

[superrayman3]

For the DB movies, you could check the Japanese VHSes, and for Z the Laserdiscs for Bulma's hair color.

Sadly I don't have any Japanese VHS tapes for the original DB movies so I can't really compare my color corrections to anything if someone could post a few screenshots from the Japanese VHS tapes of the DB movies then we'd have something to go by.

[ect5150]

Thanks Metalwario64 -- that shows a lot (and why I have problems adjusting his color while keeping the sky the same... because they are the same indeed.

Here's a cel:


Here's a FUNimation single DVD screenshot for comparison:


Here's a Double Feature screenshot (notice how the blues were pushed in this one, making the sky more of a teal shade):


Japanese Dragon Box shot here (remember, we'd need to adjust the brightness by 10%, so it's slightly darker than it should be I guess)



By the way, the FUNI shots are technically off if you look at the rocks near Goku's knee-cap... but I don't think it matters.

It looks like the green from the Dbox is the most accurate... and possibly saturated a bit -- but the others are worse by comparison (of course, an issue could be "how well was the animation cel scanned in?") Although it still looks like it has just a hint more green in it than it should. I'm sure someone here with more Photoshop experience than I could make the animation cel and the Dbox shot extremely similar with a few small adjustments.

[ect5150]

It's actually pretty tough to say for sure I think the hair color varies depending on which animation studio did what and I have a few reasons for thinking this, as I was watching the promos and trailers on the DBOX the movies disc I noticed some major inconsistencies between movie promos and trailers for each film

I understand the point you are trying to make, but the purpose of this entire thread came about because the DBoxes colors aren't reliable -- so it's not really appropriate to base your argument on what you find in them. Plus the promos and trailers didn't all go through the same remastering process (I think the GT Special was crap if I remember correctly). This is why I'm asking for animation cels.

That said, I would be interested in seeing how the green went to blue back then. I wonder if the lights used to transfer the film weren't 100% (therefore adding a little bit of unintended color to the mix). Something added in a little more color and I don't believe it was digitally done when DB was first aired in Japan.

[superrayman3]

I understand the point you are trying to make, but the purpose of this entire thread came about because the DBoxes colors aren't reliable -- so it's not really appropriate to base your argument on what you find in them.

I understand that the DBOX colors aren't really reliable but I have to slightly disagree in this case because from what i've seen it appears that the Promos/Trailers were actually pretty faithfully preserved when compared to everything else I compared the Movie 3 trailer to the actual movie and well just see the difference for yourself:
(The left pic is the Movie the right is from the trailer, if your wondering why the trailer pic is in 4:3 that's they way it is on the disc).

Plus the promos and trailers didn't all go through the same remastering process (I think the GT Special was crap if I remember correctly). This is why I'm asking for animation cels.

Maybe the Promo's didn't need to go through the same remastering process as everything else because they were just fine from the start just my 2 cents.

That said, I would be interested in seeing how the green went to blue back then. I wonder if the lights used to transfer the film weren't 100% (therefore adding a little bit of unintended color to the mix). Something added in a little more color and I don't believe it was digitally done when DB was first aired in Japan.

Maybe but we'll never know for sure let's see what Ashura thinks and get his take on the situation since he has more experience than both of us.

[Metalwario64]

It looks like the green from the Dbox is the most accurate... and possibly saturated a bit -- but the others are worse by comparison (of course, an issue could be "how well was the animation cel scanned in?") Although it still looks like it has just a hint more green in it than it should. I'm sure someone here with more Photoshop experience than I could make the animation cel and the Dbox shot extremely similar with a few small adjustments.

Yeah, here's the cel with only the contrast tweaked to be similar to the Dragon Box footage:


The greens are definitely a bit more blue on the cel.

Here is the cel with Dragon Box footage spliced in for comparison:


Also, note Goku's much more red tinted gi.

Out of curiosity, I also did the same with the FUNi single DVD footage:


Actually, despite obvious saturation boosts, in some ways I think these colors are a little bit closer. The top of the sky is very similar (mostly near the top left), as are Coola's colors and Goku's gi is nearly spot on. Though, the horizon is closer on the Dragon Box footage.

[Corpsecreate]

Heres my personally colour corrected/filtered version:

[ect5150]

...compared to everything else...

This is the main issue -- what do you want to consider "reference" ?

[superrayman3]

...compared to everything else...

This is the main issue -- what do you want to consider "reference" ?

What I want to consider reference is something that actually looks like it should which in the case of Movie 3's trailer the colors look exactly how they're supposed to, and to better show my point here's another comparison pic this time it's going to be the color cast info.

Like last time the actual Movie 3 shot is on the left, the Trailer shot is on the right.

[AnimeMaakuo]

.

[Ashura]

Plus the promos and trailers didn't all go through the same remastering process (I think the GT Special was crap if I remember correctly). This is why I'm asking for animation cels.

Maybe the Promo's didn't need to go through the same remastering process as everything else because they were just fine from the start just my 2 cents.

My guess is that most of the promos are on video while the films were on, well, film. Thus why the colors on the promos hold up better.

If you guys are looking for reference, you can either use the Dragon Book that came with the Dragon Box, or you can look at some of the anime guides. I can't recall the titles for them, but Kei had given me a list a while back and might share with everyone else.

While these are cels converted to CYMK, they're pretty helpful anyway... since it's one of the few references there are.

I currently don't have a lot of time to keep up with this thread, but I'm glad you guys are experimenting and improving the process.