Color Correcting the Dragon Box - 3 Part Spectacular

[nward50987]

> So people who were looking at cel color for reference were not intended to try to match the cel color?

A good colorist looks at references without the intention of copying all the values, yes...what's so difficult to understand about this? There's a reason why "referencing" and "copying" are two different words

Here, show me what you got by color correcting this with your mehtods:


> And where are we now? What "significant" color corrected samples/screenshots do we have? We are, like I said, running in circles.

lmao speak for yourself. Many have achieved satisfying color corrections for DBox, heck even Ashura himself did hence why he started this thread to teach people. It just seems though there are mostly two types of people who still continually bring this thread back: A) the people whose head Ashura's guide went right over and so they to this day are struggling or B) new users who never got to read the OP with its pictures.

Anyway, like I say go ahead and color correct that above screenshot with your value matching method so we can see what it looks like to no longer be running around in circles.

Not sure if anyone is going to do this one but I don't mind. (Even though he was talking to someone else.)
DBox

My CC


My CC is based off of the OG Broadcast, Boing Broadcasts, Kai and Level Sets aka (i think) Steve Franko's CC.

[Shaddy]

Uh, are you deleting these images off of imgur right after you upload them? Kanzenshuu doesn't have its own image server.

[nward50987]

Uh, are you deleting these images off of imgur right after you upload them? Kanzenshuu doesn't have its own image server.

Yes, I did because I forgot to put comparisons on imgur and I found imgsli but confused it for imgur. Here is a repost of both images and imgsli links. Sorry about that and sorry if i'm overdoing stuff.


Goku CC
https://imgsli.com/OTg4NzU
SSJ Gohan CC
https://imgsli.com/OTg4NzM

[DatHenson]

Seeing Enigmo sneak his way in here distresses me
We do have to be careful though in how we color correct though. A lot of film to tape edited media will have lighting conditions shift per scene given time crunch + different studios working on an ep. And that's without factoring analog effects!

Like, take this Cel of Sonic OVA vs the footage. Analog effects completely changed it!



And as noted, Dbox being DVD means worse color range and bitrate, so contrast for vid levels will always be "off"
Relying on cels entirely will lead to issues, so we should probably see how colors are treated in good restorations of other media made at the time for similar lighting conditions in scenes. Luckily we have the Z movies (though Funi's BDs either are green tinted, or too contrasted with DNR slapped on)

Otherwise, I'd personally just do white balance and tint removal + black levels tweak

Here I did;
White Balance (eye for use)
Levels
Color Channel (Green channel with Red component and blue tweaked

[nward50987]

Here's what I do to my personal liking. I'll be using this picture for an example
Note: I used Photoshop CC 2018 for this.
First I went into Channel Mixer and changed all Red, Green and Blue values to this (Took a little inspiration from Trachta10's method)
and you'll get this image after changing the values

Next, I used Color Balance, went to highlights and put it up to blue by +6
What this does is put a little bit of a blue tint in there to remove the tiny bit of yellow tint that's in there. It's really noticeable to me but might not be noticeable for you idk.


After that, I used Selective Colors, Went to Cyans and changed these values. *MAKE SURE IT'S ON ABSOLUTE AND NOT RELATIVE.*
What this does is that it makes the sky and other cyans like Bulma's hair and for some reason Goku's undershirt and wristbands(?) a bit more accurate depending on some shots you use. Sometimes it'll look like Kai and in other times (in this case Goku vs Vegeta fight) leaning towards the Original Broadcasts of Z.


Finally, I used levels and to me it corrects the black and whites + makes the characters stand out a bit more.
And here is the final product!

Here's how it looks before and after!
Before:
After:

Here are some more comparisons using the same exact methods I used. Let me know what you guys think and thanks for reading all the way through.
https://imgsli.com/OTg4NzU
https://imgsli.com/OTg4NzM
https://imgsli.com/OTkwMzM
https://imgsli.com/OTkyNDU
https://imgsli.com/OTkyNTI

[Trachta10]

Dragon Box selecta vision upscale


an user tried to fix all the sharpening and haloing


my attempt to cc

[Trachta10]

test cc episode 2

[Trachta10]

test color correction episode 2 (6 minutes)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N3O9eW ... sp=sharing

compared to level sets

[Trachta10]

new test

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1izozSi ... sp=sharing

[HarveyPlissken]

I wonder if you plan to do this kind of remaster for the all 508 episodes? Because seriously, this looks fantastic. What I would give to acquire a bootleg Blu-Ray of this, with the Japanese Broadcast Audio and English subtitles included.

The Level sets may have been shitcanned, but this might be the best thing for fans and collectors.

[Lorium_O]

r2j dragon box:


my cc:


I have trouble making the sky blue here for some reason.

[KPike87]

r2j dragon box:


my cc:


I have trouble making the sky blue here for some reason.

It's actually supposed to be more green here. So to me this actually looks pretty good, just need to up the contrast a bit.

[Lorium_O]

Spoiler:

r2j dragon box:


my cc:


I have trouble making the sky blue here for some reason.

It's actually supposed to be more green here. So to me this actually looks pretty good, just need to up the contrast a bit.

Thanks, I edited the image to be able to fix Goku's inaccurate skin and gi colors, then I let my software get rid of the color cast

I followed your advice for increasing the contrast and here's what I got:

R2J DBOX:


Color Correction:


References:
Level Sets for Hue and Contrast.
Kai for skin colors.
Original Broadcast for Brightness.


I can't really make Vegeta's clothes bright blue since that would need a low contrast which, as a result, creates a color cast in the image.

[KPike87]

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

r2j dragon box:


my cc:


I have trouble making the sky blue here for some reason.

It's actually supposed to be more green here. So to me this actually looks pretty good, just need to up the contrast a bit.

Thanks, I edited the image to be able to fix Goku's inaccurate skin and gi colors, then I let my software get rid of the color cast

I followed your advice for increasing the contrast and here's what I got:

R2J DBOX:


Color Correction:


References:
Level Sets for Hue and Contrast.
Kai for skin colors.
Original Broadcast for Brightness.


I can't really make Vegeta's clothes bright blue since that would need a low contrast which, as a result, creates a color cast in the image.

Looks good! Decided to throw my own hat in the ring, this is what I got:


I think it came out decent I suppose, but Goku's gi looks a bit dark, and the sky is greener than I'd like.

...But they sky does sorta look like Kai.

Spoiler:

[Lorium_O]

Looks good! Decided to throw my own hat in the ring, this is what I got:

Spoiler:

I think it came out decent I suppose, but Goku's gi looks a bit dark, and the sky is greener than I'd like.
...But the sky does sorta look like Kai.

Spoiler:

Nice! You got rid of the tint pretty well.

I personally like to use kai as a reference for saturation and skin colors. It's also a good reference for the rocks' colors imo:

Spoiler:

Compared to my cc:

Spoiler:

Dbox:

Spoiler:

Yours:

Spoiler:

Level sets:

Spoiler:

Your probably shouldn't use it as a reference for anything else though due to the color cast and it being slightly overexposed.

[Trachta10]

some comparisons

Spoiler:

Blu-Ray season sets


Kai


Level sets


30th


Dragon Box upscaled + fake grain + cc

Spoiler:

Blu-Ray season sets


Level sets


30th


Dragon Box upscaled + fake grain + cc


Film scan

[Lorium_O]

some comparisons

Spoiler:

Blu-Ray season sets


Kai


Level sets


30th


Dragon Box upscaled + fake grain + cc

Spoiler:

Blu-Ray season sets


Level sets


30th


Dragon Box upscaled + fake grain + cc


Film scan

The hell is this "color correction"


Allow to compare it to the Level Sets real quick


You literally just destroyed the colors. Who made you think this looked good. :/

Your image looks like it has white grain.

[jjgp1112]

some comparisons

Spoiler:

Blu-Ray season sets


Kai


Level sets


30th


Dragon Box upscaled + fake grain + cc

Spoiler:

Blu-Ray season sets


Level sets


30th


Dragon Box upscaled + fake grain + cc


Film scan

The hell is this "color correction"


Allow to compare it to the Level Sets real quick


You literally just destroyed the colors. Who made you think this looked good. :/

Your image looks like it has white grain.

I mean in yours, the colors are so askew Vegeta's bodysuit is damn near purple, so maybe be a little less mean when critiquing somebody else's work.

[Lorium_O]

I mean in yours, the colors are so askew Vegeta's bodysuit is damn near purple, so maybe be a little less mean when critiquing somebody else's work.

You're right, I apologize for being so mean.

My main point was that the image is basically destroyed because of the bright image, and it's really not something I would go for. The colors are basically dead and they don't even blend together.

Again sorry for being rude and I hope I am understood.

[Trachta10]

some comparisons

Spoiler:

Blu-Ray season sets


Kai


Level sets


30th


Dragon Box upscaled + fake grain + cc

Spoiler:

Blu-Ray season sets


Level sets


30th


Dragon Box upscaled + fake grain + cc


Film scan

The hell is this "color correction"


Allow to compare it to the Level Sets real quick


You literally just destroyed the colors. Who made you think this looked good. :/

Your image looks like it has white grain.

The source is not perfect so of course you will have problems of that type

Overall this dragon box upscale looks far superior to the level sets, at least in colors
Can't you see how the level sets in not white balanced and has the blacks so crushed that there is literally not detail?

If you're going to criticize like that try to at least be good at your own color corrections.
Because you're not particularly excellent


Your corrections are a long way from having colors that somewhat resemble what the show should look like


and of course with this I am not saying that mine are perfect