Color Correcting the Dragon Box - 3 Part Spectacular

[FPSSJ4_Goku]

snip

I...don't see a difference at all

Look at the green tint around the lines of her hair and eyes, also her skin is generally kind of blotchy with green spots in the raw DBOX, all of which are a product of chromatic abberation, which is removed in our version.

Well, the second image is less...yellow, I guess?

[vanner64]

roseofpain asked

Has anyone been able to fix some other things besides color correcting?
Like dot crawl, edge enhancement, chroma correcting, etc.?

The answer is "yes" the Seed of Might Merge for DBZ (and filtered versions for DB and DBGT) correct those things asked about. I think it's only fair that if someone asks if those things are fixed to actually show an example rather than just saying "Yeah it's fixed trust me bro."

I think it's fair to say those issues aren't as obvious as poor colors, but fixing them creates a better image to build upon as a foundation for color corrections.

[Trachta10]

Cel reference


Dragon Box


AI filter with auto CC (not an upscale)

[nward50987]

New Color Corrections I did today!
Let me know what you guys think!

https://imgsli.com/MTExOTY5
https://imgsli.com/MTE2Njcx
https://imgsli.com/MTEyMDE1

[jjgp1112]

New Color Corrections I did today!
Let me know what you guys think!

https://imgsli.com/MTExOTY5
https://imgsli.com/MTE2Njcx
https://imgsli.com/MTEyMDE1

The black levels are too high - look at the lines on the shadows of Trunks jacket and Goku's wrist bands in the first two. The dark details are obscured

[nward50987]

New Color Corrections I did today!
Let me know what you guys think!

https://imgsli.com/MTExOTY5
https://imgsli.com/MTE2Njcx
https://imgsli.com/MTEyMDE1

The black levels are too high - look at the lines on the shadows of Trunks jacket and Goku's wrist bands in the first two. The dark details are obscured

Yeah. I see what you're talking about. Haven't really noticed those. I know that one of the reasons is that I wanted Goku's hair to be fully black without destroying the details. But it looks like I went a little too far on that. I will work on that. Thanks!

[Trachta10]

a test with AI that does auto cc, I think quite satisfactory results

Spoiler:

[desu]

a test with AI that does auto cc, I think quite satisfactory results

Spoiler:

How come Goku's clothes are colored differently in the ops/eds from the episodes? I know it's the same case for the episodes without CC but never understood why.

[FPSSJ4_Goku]

nope

How come Goku's clothes are colored differently in the ops/eds from the episodes? I know it's the same case for the episodes without CC but never understood why.

Perhaps they used a differently colored cel vinyl paint for the opening? lansing posted the colors that Toei used for the anime, so you can browse through those and see if you find anything worth talking about.

[roseofpain]

The colors in this AI upscale are very accurate
https://youtu.be/1fsK8KnL9Eo

[ikaos]

The colors in this AI upscale are very accurate
https://youtu.be/1fsK8KnL9Eo

Nope.

[supersaiyamangod]

The colors in this AI upscale are very accurate
https://youtu.be/1fsK8KnL9Eo

Nope.

What does this image have to do with it?

[jjgp1112]

The colors in this AI upscale are very accurate
https://youtu.be/1fsK8KnL9Eo

Nope.

What does this image have to do with it?

Goku's eyes are literally turquoise fam

[ikaos]

Spoiler:

The colors in this AI upscale are very accurate
https://youtu.be/1fsK8KnL9Eo

Nope.

What does this image have to do with it?

His eyes are literally blue, even without the guidance of the color picker (the middle percentage number should be under 4%, not 14%, assuming a properly white-balanced eye), you should be able to see the the eyes are way off color when compared to the white screen on the right.

[Pride9000!!!]

The colors in this AI upscale are very accurate
https://youtu.be/1fsK8KnL9Eo

This shot should look something like this https://imgsli.com/MTIyMjQx

[Someoneimportant]

Wow this is a great thread! Lots of passion for sure, from all sides. I’ve been kind of reading through it to see where it ended up. Lots of information to digest.

With all of this being read; I have to say that I’m not entirely sure if I agree with the notion that cel colour is completely accurate look to the show and what one should be going for when colour correcting. I mean it makes sense to have as many potential references but trying to have cel colours on something as compressed as the Dragon Boxes looks like it is just begging for artifacts to show up. It just isn’t feasible with the material that’s available out there. Unless you have film reels ready for use, you aren’t going to be getting close to that with the Dragon Boxes. At least I haven’t seen anyone do it successfully yet. Given the fact that Dragon Ball was broadcast initially in standard def 480i when it was brand new, with even more compression than what there is currently on the Dbox, I highly doubt the creators intended the cel colours to be the final look of the show.

Kai’s colours do look nice though which is pretty cel accurate, but in a way, it does seem revisionist to the original show. Since there was a 20-year gap between Kai and DBZ, with different people working on both, you really can’t say for sure that that Kai is what DBZ is supposed to look like or how it looked like when it broadcast originally.

The colors in this AI upscale are very accurate
https://youtu.be/1fsK8KnL9Eo

This shot should look something like this https://imgsli.com/MTIyMjQx

That looks great! This is honestly about as far as the Dragon Boxes should be taken. Fix the white balance and then fix some of the oversaturated or incorrect hues. Like not having pink looking characters or radioactive skies.

[Pride9000!!!]

Wow this is a great thread! Lots of passion for sure, from all sides. I’ve been kind of reading through it to see where it ended up. Lots of information to digest.

With all of this being read; I have to say that I’m not entirely sure if I agree with the notion that cel colour is completely accurate look to the show and what one should be going for when colour correcting. I mean it makes sense to have as many potential references but trying to have cel colours on something as compressed as the Dragon Boxes looks like it is just begging for artifacts to show up. It just isn’t feasible with the material that’s available out there. Unless you have film reels ready for use, you aren’t going to be getting close to that with the Dragon Boxes. At least I haven’t seen anyone do it successfully yet. Given the fact that Dragon Ball was broadcast initially in standard def 480i when it was brand new, with even more compression than what there is currently on the Dbox, I highly doubt the creators intended the cel colours to be the final look of the show.

Kai’s colours do look nice though which is pretty cel accurate, but in a way, it does seem revisionist to the original show. Since there was a 20-year gap between Kai and DBZ, with different people working on both, you really can’t say for sure that that Kai is what DBZ is supposed to look like or how it looked like when it broadcast originally.

The colors in this AI upscale are very accurate
https://youtu.be/1fsK8KnL9Eo

This shot should look something like this https://imgsli.com/MTIyMjQx

That looks great! This is honestly about as far as the Dragon Boxes should be taken. Fix the white balance and then fix some of the oversaturated or incorrect hues. Like not having pink looking characters or radioactive skies.

In terms of the colors (hue) you should aim to have the most accurate colors. Using various sources like: Cels, broadcast, promotional material, colour codes, other home releases...

Find the most accurate one or take the avrige result you get and use it as a reference. For CC above i used the two images of Cels as a reference https://i.imgur.com/pCk8v00.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Mb8nHDf.jpg

[lansing]

There is no need for guesswork when you know the exact color used for the character model

[Someoneimportant]

There is no need for guesswork when you know the exact color used for the character model

Disagree. Even with the colour chart you posted is completely unusable on the Dbox footage without causing artefacts, and given that most of the colour is far outside of BT601 color space, it is completely unthinkable that those colours are anywhere close to accurate or that they should be used for colour correction. It just doesn't make sense.

[lansing]

There is no need for guesswork when you know the exact color used for the character model

Spoiler:

Disagree. Even with the colour chart you posted is completely unusable on the Dbox footage without causing artefacts, and given that most of the colour is far outside of BT601 color space, it is completely unthinkable that those colours are anywhere close to accurate or that they should be used for colour correction. It just doesn't make sense.

I don't even understand your argument. How is the problem of you having artifact have anything to do with the color chart being accurate?