I got dibs on Sailor Moon. I’ll be basing my restoration on the R2 DVDs and will try to make them 4K HDR if I can manage it in Avisynth (I hear there’s an AVS plugin for converting SDR to HDR).
How’s it looking thus far? And do you plan to do this with other features as well, such as King Kong, 42nd Street, and Casablanca?
Have you ever thought of using Topaz Gigapixel AI for the upscaling?
I’ve committed myself to only using freeware for restorations. I find freeware to be most effective if you’re inventive enough, plus there’s no cost in using freeware.
Only from the top and bottom. I can understand not wanting any cropping whatever if you’re combining a 4:3 DVD with a 4:3 laser videodisc, but when you’re dealing with VHS, which very often, if not always, has a bit of picture distortion at the bottom of the frame (my VHS copy is, of course, no exception), it just can’t be helped if you’re going for consistency, which I am in this case. Besides, I watched my entire VHS copy cropped to 1.66:1 just to be sure it’d work, and all the titles managed to fit rather well. Plus, the DVD, which I intend to use for most of the restoration process, has some artifacting of its own in a single shot, and cropping to 1.66:1 hid it quite nicely. One key objective of a restoration, after all, is to make the program look good.
This project concerns the restoration of the animated adaptations of David Macaulay’s architectural books for PBS, part of my planned 50th birthday celebration for the network.
As we speak, I’m working on Castle, the first in the series. I’m hoping to get this special restored within a month or two. The program will be presented in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. I have taken a lot of things into consideration when deciding on the framing. Among them: the complete version, which features added exposition about Master James of St. George (the real-life inspiration for the character of Master James of Babbington, voiced by none other than Brian Blessed) at the end of the second live-action sequence, is only available on old videocassettes issued before the 1994 rebroadcast; the DVD release from Paramount has some distracting artifacting in a single shot; and I wanted to ensure the best possible widescreen framing for the purpose of alleviating those flaws, making the presentation look as even and consistent as possible, and sacrificing as little of the picture as necessary and possible. Needless to say, great precautions will be taken in the reframing, and it won’t be a straight center cut all the way. I will be using the DVD as my source as much as possible, with my VHS copy coming in for the opening and closing bumpers (yes, even including the original videocassette promo at the end) and the aforementioned extended ending of the second live-action sequence. Audio will be English 1.0, with subtitles in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. AviSynth will be used to upscale the sources, and FFMPEG is being used to deinterlace them before upscaling. Audio remastering, if and whenever necessary, will be undertaken in Audacity. Subtitle tracks will be created in Aegisub. The complete video program will be edited in Blender.
Looks promising thus far. Give it a little more time, and it’ll look even better for your patience.
Anyway, here’s an initial version of the restored still picture that will function as the Time Life Films logo at the end of each episode.
Let me know what you think.
Good point. At any rate, for this project I’ll very likely work on just one or two episodes per month, to give myself room for the other projects.
Over the next year, I will work on a reconstruction of the original PBS broadcast version of Lord Clark’s Civilisation, based on extant sources I’ve been able to dig up on Google.
The format for all 13 episodes shall be as follows:
Each episode will be presented in 1080i30 with the original monaural English audio, in a manner that ensures perfect compatibility with the Blu-ray format, and I will try as best as I can to recreate the Xerox underwriter announcement and the closing Time Life Films logo. The reason why preserving this version of Civilisation is so important is because it was the first event program to ever be broadcast on PBS, as well as one of the first programs on the network.
I’m currently watching A Bucket of Blood in 1.37:1 on my PBS station. Soon as I get materials for capturing in higher quality direct from my DVR (my TV tuner is currently out of commission due to circumstances beyond my control), I’ll post screencaps here, complete with station bug in the lower-right-hand corner of the screen.
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.
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.
Looks promising.
Toy Story: 1 terabyte
Toy Story 2: 4.5 terabytes
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.)
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’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.
Done. I’m intrigued to know how the current color correction test looks.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I’m pretty sure the R1 release has a disclaimer about music-related censorship or something like that somewhere on the packaging, though I don’t remember all the details. Either way, it’s why I got the R2 DVDs.
Presenting a preservation of the Marvel Studios 10th Anniversary Film Festival!
I already posted an early version of Iron Man on a certain members-only Italian forum of Reddit exiles, but after numerous delays brought about by personal and technological issues, I ultimately decided to move general production here. While preparing my 3D logo restoration of Toy Story, I’ll study my early version of Iron Man so I can prepare for an improved version, taking notes on where to open up the aspect ratio and on how I could improve further in the future.
The features, and the collections in which they’ll be included, are as follows:
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
ORIGINS
TEAM-UPS
FAN CHOICE
Each movie, as they’re restored, will be released both individually and as part of an ISO collection. Individual released will be made available as raw files, P&S and widescreen DVD ISOs, and Blu-ray ISOs; collections will solely be available as ISOs. Both anaglyph and full-color options will be available for those that will be released in 3D, indicated by a 3D somewhere in the title.