TheDarkestKnight

TDK UHD was released a couple of days ago. I do not have a 4K Blu-Ray drive and I’m not even sure my motherboard would support the protection on the disks.

However, I have heard the following about the new transfer. 1) The color timing appears to be much more closely in line with theatrical prints. I’ve also found a few screenshots which look nothing like the BD version. 2) Edge Enhancement is not apparent if not non-existent in this relates. 3) Finally the bad news: The 1080p BD included is still the same the disk.

It looks unlikely that WB will release a proper 1080p now. That being said, when the day comes I shell out for 4K, I’d still like to insert the full IMAX shots in the film composited with the 4K version. It may not be possible given some scenes are only on the DVD, but I’ll still give it a go.

ChainsawAsh said:

So stretch009 posted a 2.40:1 version of this on MySpleen. I asked this in a comment there, but figured I might get an answer here more quickly:

Does cropping the IMAX stuff to 2.40:1 require reframing differently for each shot (to conform it to the 2.40:1 DVD, which I presume is the same framing as the theatrical 2.40:1 was), or is it just a straight crop on top and bottom throughout? And does anyone know which of the two stretch009 did for his constant-height release on MySpleen?

For the IMAX scenes each shots needs to be reframed to be line with the DVD. There is also one shot at the end of the movie where Alfred burn the letter that is different for the 35mm. I haven’t been able to check out stretch009’s version yet so I can’t tell you which he used.

I’ve been busy lately so sorry I haven’t been on the board in a while. Good news, I’ve finished the first pass of the film as it is up now. Bad news, I leave for university in less a week where the wireless situation is complicated.

A few things about the release: 1) Everything except the opening right is matched to the screener. That means there are still some slight sifts in color as well and contrast issues. I will look into using other sources to correct the screener as it’s the only source that contains a reference for the whole movie. 2) Because I leave so soon I’m afraid that I won’t be able to put out an IMAX release until Winter.

Last of all, in regards to the new blu-ray edition that is coming out, I can’t wait. I eagerly wait for there arrival and for this project to become obsolete. I hope they will be ready by next summer for the 10th anniversary of the film, but who knows. However, until then, I will keep working to make this project better. When the new edition does arrive, if they do not contain the full IMAX scenes, there’s a good chance I will match those and release an IMAX version.

While this project, in my opinion, still has a lot of work to be done, I honestly believe that it is becoming the best way to watch this movie at home. This all would not have possible without all of your support, help, and critiques. Thank you all, and I sincerely hope you enjoy the first release.

It’s a bit of a blue, but a good deal brighter than the Blu-Ray. However, on the BB prologue, the same shot is that bright cyan. As I have mentioned earlier, I will later try to see if it is possible to adjust the screener to better match the BB prologue, as it includes a variety of shots from the movie. For the time being, however, I will adjust everything to match the screener.

Since that shot is a standalone and no other shots are in same location, there’s a chance I can match it to the BB prologue without it seeming out of place. Once every scene has been corrected, I have list of shots that I’d like to do more work on. I will be sure to this shot to that list.

Using the full IMAX shots will be a separate release. So there will be a version with the all the original Blu-Ray IMAX shots at 16:9.
Then I will add in the full IMAX shots for a separate release. The shots that require the DVD upscales I will try to composite together with the Blu-Ray shots to maintain the most detail (like how I composited together the BB prologue with Blu-Ray to keep the framing the same).
Finally, after this I will make another release with all the shots cropped to 2.40:1 for those with anamorphic projectors.

Papai2013 said:

Possibly yes.

Are you planning on adding the IMAX scenes in 1.43:1 as well and with a common width (vertical expansion for the IMAX scenes)?

Yes. Once I’m finished with color correction for the whole film, I’ll make a new timeline with adjusted resolution to allow for the IMAX scenes at a width 1920 pixels and swap all the 16:9 shots with the true IMAX aspect ratio shots.

Oh haha. Yes, that scene is quite red in the screener. As the corrected version looks very close to the screener though I will probably leave it as is for the time being.

I do intend to go back after putting out a version 1 (possibly before) and seeing if there’s a way to better balance the colors of the screener. As many scenes have high black levels and saturated shadows, while others seem to look natural.

I may look into adjusting the screener to match the BB Intro better, as at the end it has several scenes throughout movie. Of course, the timing of those two sources may have been different.

Noted. I’ll be sure to look for a shot that better shows the eyes in that scene and compare the screener with the corrected version.

It’s been a long time coming, but with another year of university behind me, I finally have some free time again. Here are some stills of the project. For time’s sake, I’ve been going through on a scene by scene basis. Once finished with that, I’ll go back over the film and adjust any shots that need major correction and match them individually. While it’s far from perfect, it’s certainly an improvement over the Blu-Ray.

Blu-Ray

Screener

Corrected

Blu-Ray

Screener

Corrected

Blu-Ray

Screener

Corrected

Just finished the Blu-Ray version of the prologue. Now onto the rest of the film.

Due to school, work is proceeding at a much slower rate than I would like. The prologue scenes also take the longest to correct since other sources are being composited in. As of right now, roughly 4 minutes of the film have been color corrected and matched to the blu-ray framing.

I hope to get much more done during the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks of the school year. The prologue right now is almost identical to the BB_Prologue, save the framing has been changed. Once I have moved on and corrected some of the 35mm shots I will try to upload some comparison stills and clips.

It’s better, but it seems a touch a too bright to me. Although it is difficult to say what exactly the right brightness is, due to the inconstancy of the screener. The left always seems to be a little dark and right a little bright. The hue shifts are very slight, but I think I see what you mean.

Again, I’m curious to hear everyone else’s thoughts on this too.

Edit: After reviewing the comparison with screener and not just a side by side, it looks like the skin tones in the manual grade are missing a bit of the blues that the screener has.

To my eyes, the color correction tool still seems to do a better job for the overall image. The blue and green hues seem very close to me.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

It could be a while before completion. I will be heading back to school in a few days which means less time to work on the project, but I’ll still be working on it when I can.

As far as I know the colors of the other two films do not have any major issues. BB suffers from low data rates as it is the same encode used for the HD-DVD. TDKR however looks brilliant.

Just tried the debugged version. Looks like the artifacts are gone. Thanks DrDre, this tool is quite possibly the greatest thing since microwavable bacon.

Yes. All shots are being corrected to the screener, except for maybe the prologue which could use the BB Prologue’s colors. There will be a version with all the full, un-cropped, IMAX shots taken from the special edition and full-screen DVD.

Odd, I tried the LUT in DaVinci and the same thing still happened. I’ll try to see if I can install Premiere on my Windows partition and see if all works there.

Papai2013 said:

For the Full IMAX (2.40/1.44) version, you’ll need to use the prologue from the 1.44:1 BD source, not the BB source which is cropped to about 1.66:1.

I’m compositing both sources together. This will not change the 1.44:1 aspect or framing of the special edition scenes. Here is a quick and dirty demonstration. Of course, for the actual IMAX project, the frame size will be 1.44:1 and not 16:9. This is just a proof of concept.

First, I color correct the Special Edition scene

Then, the BB scene is aligned with the special edition. The edges are then feathered so it blends into the picture better.

The two frames are composited together to keep the colors of the BB disk where possible, and where it has been cropped the corrected Special Edition frame is used.

Now this example is a bit sloppy, but I think it illustrates the point. Notice the yellow newspaper bin and the green signs especially. Both are a touch too bright in corrected frame. This way, the true colors are preserved where possible. This also rids the image of any slight haloing that has been caused due to contrast adjustments (Especially noticeable in scenes with the zipline, and the banker’s tie).

I don’t see why not!

I am aware of the different aspect ratios. I am correcting TDK shots and using them as reference for framing. Then I align the BB shot with the Blu-Ray and feather out the edges for where the BB disk has been cropped. The result is the same framing of TDK Blu-Ray, but the colors and dynamic range are mostly from the BB disk. Notice the greens and yellows in the shot especially.

Dark Knight Color Matched

Dark Knight with BB Composited on top

Note that this technique will also be used for the Full IMAX shots, I plan to release a version for both aspect ratios. Right now I’m tackling 16:9 as that is the most accessible since most have 16:9 monitors and sets. It won’t be long after that the full IMAX scenes will be ready.

I’m still running into some problems when using LUTs exported from ColorMatch. It appears to only happen in scenes with blown out highlights

The reason I’m using LUTs is that my only machine is (sigh) a Mac. I have a small Windows partition to run the ColorMatch program, but I can’t do much editing on there though due to the size of the partition.

For the prolouge, I think when possible I’ll composite the BB shots over the corrected Blu-Ray shots. ColorMatch works well enough that there’s no distracting seams in the image after a little feathering is applied.

I’ve tested this on the first few shots and it’s worked rather well. The differences are slight, but it gives the best color and dynamic range.

This also looks like it’s giving better colors too. Look at Lau’s face vs. the last grade. It’s definitely closer to the screener now.

This is true. I want to say in film I see blacks on the waveform from around 5-25 on a 10-bit scale. If it is possible the blacks will be raised to around there depending on what the darkest point is. If there is a considerable amount of noise though, it will need to be kept closer to 0.