Toy Story (1995) 1.5K restoration in 3D (a WIP; v1.0.3 currently available) — Page 2

I just ordered a German VHS of Toy Story for just $7.77, including S&H, and I’ll be comparing it to the German version of my 3D restoration source when it comes in.

At present, I have or am about to have videocassettes of Toy Story in the following languages:

• English
• French (Canadian)
• German
• Japanese (subtitled)
• Spanish (Latino)

Each tape will be used to help me prepare the matting to 1.85:1, the international titles, the subtitle tracks, and/or the special features. I’ve yet to acquire tapes in the following languages:

• French (European)
• Italian
• Spanish (Castellano)

And I might not be able to collect either of those three for about a month or two, as just preparing for the international 3D versions has drained my meager finances a quite bit.

Update on this. After some futzing around in Blender, I was finally able to get the original closing credits sequence post-converted to 3D, and I’m currently rendering the complete left eye of the feature as of writing. It could take a while to finalise, but I’m working on the actual feature right now.

At press time, I’m conducting a test render for color correction purposes at a horizontal resolution of 720 pixels, the same that Pixar used for lighting tests. Once that’s finished, hit me up with a direct message, and I’ll send you the color correction test, which will use both eyes overlapping each other.

Charles Threepio said:

At press time, I’m conducting a test render for color correction purposes at a horizontal resolution of 720 pixels, the same that Pixar used for lighting tests. Once that’s finished, hit me up with a direct message, and I’ll send you the color correction test, which will use both eyes overlapping each other.

Got it.

Perhaps the reason I haven’t yet received any feedback yet is because I had to split it in an archive to send it? In that case, I suppose I shall have to send a lower-resolution version.

Charles Threepio said:

Perhaps the reason I haven’t yet received any feedback yet is because I had to split it in an archive to send it? In that case, I suppose I shall have to send a lower-resolution version.

Well that and I have absolutely not idea how to open the file

It’s almost done rendering, this time at 360 horizontal pixels (the resolution Pixar used for animation tests). I’ll send the smaller file via WeTransfer, like last time, as soon as it’s finished.

ETA: I’ll be sending it as an MOV file, like last time, but it’s small enough I won’t have to send it as a split archive this time. The sooner WeTransfer allows for larger transfers than 2GB at a time, the better. Also, be sure to let me know where any improvements can be made.

Anyone who receives one of my color correction tests for this, remember: I’m trying to make it look like a 35mm print, the way it would’ve looked on the big screen.

Could you send me a link? This is a really cool project and I am very interested in it

Done. I’m intrigued to know how the current color correction test looks.

I’ve made a further color correction over the weekend to tone down the reddish-pinkish tint on Woody and Buzz’s faces and am currently awaiting input on how well I did there.

One color correction test further will be performed, to reduce the brightness just slightly, and I may send it to everyone who’s posted in this thread.

I’m proud of you and this restoration mate, and I always thought Toy Story 1 had a 2K DI at first, but when I seen this as 1.5K I thought that I needed my eyes checked haha, anyways good job and good luck my friend

The DI of the first two Toy Story films is 1.5K–more precisely, 1536x922. Apparently, the animators were trying for a 1.85:1 aspect ratio but made the vertical aspect ratio a tiny bit too high. Current prints are cropped to 16:9, for a 1536x864 resolution, which is the resolution at which I’m preparing the restoration before cropping it further to its theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratio, or 1536x830. (Interesting to note, the first 2K DI from Pixar ever to be produced was for A Bug’s Life, at 2048x871, which I doubt I’ll be able to replicate effectively in Blender.)

Oh wow! I didn’t know that, that is really cool, would you happen to know how much storage did the first two Toy Story films take up for digital storage at Pixar at that time?

Toy Story: 1 terabyte
Toy Story 2: 4.5 terabytes

For 1995 and 1999 that is not too bad, pretty good file size for the first few complete computer animated films

Toy Story 4 was rendered at 4K

I might make some further tweaks to the color correction based on the current revision, and label it Color Correction Test v2.0. After I finish the color correction definitively, I’ll send out red/cyan and SpaceSpex (yellow/blue) 3D coloration tests, to verify which of the two look better, and then I’ll perform further optimizations to the superior anaglyph format.

This is interesting. But just one question… Why 1.5K? I know that the film was originally 1536 × 922 (at least according to Google), but that’s not a consumer resolution so I’m struggling to understand why you’d want it mastered in that resolution today. Just for kicks and giggles so that it matches the original? And if that’s the reason, then why bother with 3D if the original wasn’t ever 3D? I’m just confused… We’d have to re-encode it to burn to a Blu-ray…

I’ll just blow it up to 1080p, then. Besides, I had to do the original master for this restoration somewhere between the 1080p of the feature and the 576p of the logos I’m restoring (IIRC that’s the highest resolution where you can find Toy Story with its original logos at present), and I figured the original 1.5K resolution was close enough to the median.

ETA: As for the 3D, it did get converted in 2009. I should know, I saw it on the big screen.

How is the project coming along?

I ended up deciding to redo the upscaling of the opening and closing logos with Avisynth, since I realize they’d look better that way.

Update: I’ll post the textless teaser trailer in 2D and 3D tomorrow, which just so happens to be the 25th birthday of the original teaser trailer (from what I can tell, it was attached to the theatrical release of Pocahontas).

Also, since my last update I’ve acquired the American 3D Blu-ray and Ultimate Toy Box collection. Unfortunately, Disc 3 of the latter (the Special Features disc), from which I’d been hoping to grab content for a deluxe edition of this restoration kind of like the laser videodisc release, came in scratched all to hell, so if anyone has a clean rip of that disc and can send it to me via PM, I’d much appreciate it.

As promised, here’s the textless teaser trailer, in 2D and 3D. What do you think of the color correction job I did?

UPDATE: This version of the textless teaser trailer is outdated due to unintended compression when combining the video and audio files with FFMPEG. A corrected version without video compression has been encoded.