...but for how long it'd be available I wonder.
Check out this page. http://isohunt.com/torrents/?ihq=true+tears Check out the True Tears 01-10 1080p Full-HD torrent with both traditional and simplified Chinese subs. And the best part of this is you can just add you own English sub in .ssa format. Wait no, that isn't the best part.
The best part is, that THERE ARE SEEDS!!! Looks like I'd finally be able to start watching this series (Rozen's subs were also getting hard to find). And it's downloading at a decent speed, anything 2-digit I consider it as decent enough already. And it's doing 50kb/s currently and increasing. No doubt it'll reach 3-digit sooner or later and I'll have the entire content downloaded in a day or two.
And the nice part about this is, they use the original source file and just added the .ssa subs files. While you need to install VobSub to read the subs which isn't much of a problem, this leaves the source file well and untouched. In fact IMHO I believe all subbings in the future should be done this way - one unified raw (or any raw) that can be used with any fansub. No more will we need to care about which has better video quality and which has better/more accurate subs (or karaoke/color-usage for that matter, or typesetting, which I personally don't care nor like since it screws up the original video). Since there's all this talk about modularity, why not implement it here also?
The first episode is 861MB big. That's... huge. For a H.264 encode. Even if it's a Full-HD one. That's more than 4, perhaps 5mbps.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
April 2008 - Another Anime 'harvesting' season, in a different way:
Previously I talked about the vast number of shows that were ending in Mar-Apr 08. This time, I'm going to talk about the shows that are starting in Apr 08. And boy, remember when I said that the ending list of Mar 08 is the longest list I ever saw? Well, with 34 titles that are airing in Apr 08, looks like the future won't be boring either.
Now I'm amazed at how many different slots they have for all these Anime.
And, out of the 34 (Lets filter!), To Love-Ru, Kyou Kara Maou, Allison to Lillia, xxxHoLiC, Itazura na Kiss, Code Geass, Kyouran Kazoku Nikki, D.C.II S.S., Vampire Knight are OBVIOUSLY going to be good. Ok, minus Allison, since probably only I'm thinking it's going to be spectacular (the story didn't turn out as great as I've hoped), but the rest are all big time famous names, so I don't see any reason why they wouldn't do well. (Especially D.C.II S.S., it better be good enough so as to not shame the legacy of D.C., that had different versions released over a long period of four years)
And out of the rest, ...i can really say that all of them look quite promising, maybe just that some do no appeal to all audiences. Well, I'm interested in 26 of them (out of all 34), and might watch roughly 10 or slighly more. (Well, I'm sorry that I'm not interested in these genres - aimless/pointless/senseless fighting, romance comedy with too little romance/comedy and too much ecchi (sorry To Love-Ru fans), Mecha/Sci-Fi/Space Age without the common-sense (*cough*), wierd wannabe-style settings including those of wives, maids, ancient Japan and monsters (but I do accept if they are good, and usually if they are they will be VERY good, especially for the first two. Nothing in-between success and failure here.), and almost all if not all sports in general.
That stringent requirement leaves me with... why not just talk about my likings instead - Moe, moe, and more moe. Okay, serious, I enjoy comedy and romance alot. Perhaps maybe comedy, or is it romance? Can't really tell. But for a while I thought it was comedy. BUT, the comedy must be a good one. Those that I've watched recently are good, but I remember a period of time one or two years ago when a whole lot of the population was enjoying bad, low-class comedy. It was tragedic. And romance, my requirement for romance is quite low actually, as long as it has romance almost all the time you'd see me watching it. So yes, the March harvesting season is godsend. But I still can tell what a bad romance show is.
And drama, I love drama, and certain amount and style of action. I love human/human fights, gunfights especially. But those exist mostly only in Hong Kong movies.
And daily-life/slice-of-life. While these two look similar they are far from each other. Daily-life = wierd happenings in an otherwise normal high-schooler's life = quite a whole majority of many B-grade settings out there. Slice-of-life = small bits and pieces of life in a normal/can be abnormal life. Daily(school)-life = Rental Magica (not a very good example but I hope it works), slice-of-life = Aria, get it?
(Ok, many may not agree with my definition and classification. That's okay. There's no proper definition to these genres yet.)
And super powers! Magic to be precise. And those fantasies. I love them a lot. Plus lately these magical fantasy shows are actually producing better fights with more eye-candy than those genres that were supposed to be good at it.
And finally, most importantly,
A dose of moe-ness, a huge dose
Moe-ness is good
I told you, lolis are the future
So that's it for Apr 08 and today's post. Hope you and I enjoy a good Anime time in the short future.
Now I'm amazed at how many different slots they have for all these Anime.
And, out of the 34 (Lets filter!), To Love-Ru, Kyou Kara Maou, Allison to Lillia, xxxHoLiC, Itazura na Kiss, Code Geass, Kyouran Kazoku Nikki, D.C.II S.S., Vampire Knight are OBVIOUSLY going to be good. Ok, minus Allison, since probably only I'm thinking it's going to be spectacular (the story didn't turn out as great as I've hoped), but the rest are all big time famous names, so I don't see any reason why they wouldn't do well. (Especially D.C.II S.S., it better be good enough so as to not shame the legacy of D.C., that had different versions released over a long period of four years)
And out of the rest, ...i can really say that all of them look quite promising, maybe just that some do no appeal to all audiences. Well, I'm interested in 26 of them (out of all 34), and might watch roughly 10 or slighly more. (Well, I'm sorry that I'm not interested in these genres - aimless/pointless/senseless fighting, romance comedy with too little romance/comedy and too much ecchi (sorry To Love-Ru fans), Mecha/Sci-Fi/Space Age without the common-sense (*cough*), wierd wannabe-style settings including those of wives, maids, ancient Japan and monsters (but I do accept if they are good, and usually if they are they will be VERY good, especially for the first two. Nothing in-between success and failure here.), and almost all if not all sports in general.
That stringent requirement leaves me with... why not just talk about my likings instead - Moe, moe, and more moe. Okay, serious, I enjoy comedy and romance alot. Perhaps maybe comedy, or is it romance? Can't really tell. But for a while I thought it was comedy. BUT, the comedy must be a good one. Those that I've watched recently are good, but I remember a period of time one or two years ago when a whole lot of the population was enjoying bad, low-class comedy. It was tragedic. And romance, my requirement for romance is quite low actually, as long as it has romance almost all the time you'd see me watching it. So yes, the March harvesting season is godsend. But I still can tell what a bad romance show is.
And drama, I love drama, and certain amount and style of action. I love human/human fights, gunfights especially. But those exist mostly only in Hong Kong movies.
And daily-life/slice-of-life. While these two look similar they are far from each other. Daily-life = wierd happenings in an otherwise normal high-schooler's life = quite a whole majority of many B-grade settings out there. Slice-of-life = small bits and pieces of life in a normal/can be abnormal life. Daily(school)-life = Rental Magica (not a very good example but I hope it works), slice-of-life = Aria, get it?
(Ok, many may not agree with my definition and classification. That's okay. There's no proper definition to these genres yet.)
And super powers! Magic to be precise. And those fantasies. I love them a lot. Plus lately these magical fantasy shows are actually producing better fights with more eye-candy than those genres that were supposed to be good at it.
And finally, most importantly,
A dose of moe-ness, a huge dose
Moe-ness is good
I told you, lolis are the future
So that's it for Apr 08 and today's post. Hope you and I enjoy a good Anime time in the short future.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Sketchbook: full color's: Comments
(I realized that lately I've been enjoying most of the Anime I watch. (Most, because Myself; Yourself and D.C. II were big-time letdown. Even though they are supposed to be like the best stories out there) Either my standards have dropped greatly lately, or the recent Animes were really good. Mushiuta still has active forums over at the Chinese fansubbers' sites, even though the Anime is obviously only a half-done job versus the original story. Stuff like ef don't even need to say. So hopefully it isn't my standards that have dropped.
Plus, while i previously said I wait till the entire series gets finished before getting the whole series in one shot, truth is i already got the whole series a while back but ended up 3-months late in watching it.
Also, I should stop wasting time typing intros that are not related to the post. It is a bad habit and takes away the impact of the actual opening.)
If there's one phrase that can describe this series very well, it'd be "Aria in present day".
There's this tranquility in the series; nothing much happens, yet it doesn't get boring; Nothing important happens, yet you wouldn't want to miss out on anything; The show should feel short since there's nothing much really, yet it feels like you've watched quite a lot of stuff and there's lots more to go; Your mind feels at ease, yet time seems to have slowed down (usually time "slows down", or one has the impression that the time is moving slower when the mind is active but said person is not concentrated on any task, probably the reason why the mind feels at ease is because it is very active yet doing nothing? if you get what I mean, else it'd be a highly-clocked CPU that's idle).
Plus, there's the warmth and fuzziness as you watch this show, kinda like what a person feels when he/she's in another person's chest, be it mother, lover, or older sister (don't get the wrong idea you onee-chan maniacs).
That's why I call it "Aria in present day". Plus Makino Yui's singing makes it even more similar.
The first Anime I thought of when I saw this Anime is Hidamari Sketch, since both are slice-of-lives involving painting. But the approach is totally different. Hidamari Sketch is more comedy (no doubt thx to director Shinbo Akiyuki - Think PaniPoni and Zetsubou Sensei) and about small events and things of everyday life, while Sketchbook: full color's is about the everyday life that really is a lack of events, and how to approach this life. Good job IMHO, especially when the source is a 4-koma manga which is supposed to have punchlines. Though I cannot imagine how the original source would fare. (Lucky Star, for example, fares pretty badly in its original form IMO)
Now now, after all these theoratical talking, how does this show really perform? One very important key factor I consider is the ability to keep the audience wanting to continue watching the next episode, and is what I consider as the actual performance of the show, since it's job is done after you watched it and wasted your time on it. Yes, this factor carries a very high percentage in my rating system. Yes, storyline, plot, directing, artwork budget, even character design are important, but how it really captures (semi-literally) the audience is a mix of all these. And about this, I originally wanted to just watch the first episode on the way to my workplace (and watch Jigoku Shoujo Futagomori on the way back), but turned out I also watched the second and third episodes during lunch break (and even when I originally only wanted to watch one more), and the forth episode on the way back, draining the battery to the max.
Looks like there will be more than one series I'd be marathoning through this weeking. (The originally planned one is ef)
And whether it is worth the ~8 +- 0.3 rating on AniDB.net, I'd say, yes. Although not more, but definitely no less. The probable ratings can possibly reach as low as 2~3 since not everybody like this kind of story, but it's still a good show.
Try watching it if you're an Aria fan, or if you simply like slice-of-life, or this kind of show in general. But if you haven't watched Aria yet, you should watch that one first. :D
Plus, while i previously said I wait till the entire series gets finished before getting the whole series in one shot, truth is i already got the whole series a while back but ended up 3-months late in watching it.
Also, I should stop wasting time typing intros that are not related to the post. It is a bad habit and takes away the impact of the actual opening.)
If there's one phrase that can describe this series very well, it'd be "Aria in present day".
There's this tranquility in the series; nothing much happens, yet it doesn't get boring; Nothing important happens, yet you wouldn't want to miss out on anything; The show should feel short since there's nothing much really, yet it feels like you've watched quite a lot of stuff and there's lots more to go; Your mind feels at ease, yet time seems to have slowed down (usually time "slows down", or one has the impression that the time is moving slower when the mind is active but said person is not concentrated on any task, probably the reason why the mind feels at ease is because it is very active yet doing nothing? if you get what I mean, else it'd be a highly-clocked CPU that's idle).
Plus, there's the warmth and fuzziness as you watch this show, kinda like what a person feels when he/she's in another person's chest, be it mother, lover, or older sister (don't get the wrong idea you onee-chan maniacs).
That's why I call it "Aria in present day". Plus Makino Yui's singing makes it even more similar.
The first Anime I thought of when I saw this Anime is Hidamari Sketch, since both are slice-of-lives involving painting. But the approach is totally different. Hidamari Sketch is more comedy (no doubt thx to director Shinbo Akiyuki - Think PaniPoni and Zetsubou Sensei) and about small events and things of everyday life, while Sketchbook: full color's is about the everyday life that really is a lack of events, and how to approach this life. Good job IMHO, especially when the source is a 4-koma manga which is supposed to have punchlines. Though I cannot imagine how the original source would fare. (Lucky Star, for example, fares pretty badly in its original form IMO)
Now now, after all these theoratical talking, how does this show really perform? One very important key factor I consider is the ability to keep the audience wanting to continue watching the next episode, and is what I consider as the actual performance of the show, since it's job is done after you watched it and wasted your time on it. Yes, this factor carries a very high percentage in my rating system. Yes, storyline, plot, directing, artwork budget, even character design are important, but how it really captures (semi-literally) the audience is a mix of all these. And about this, I originally wanted to just watch the first episode on the way to my workplace (and watch Jigoku Shoujo Futagomori on the way back), but turned out I also watched the second and third episodes during lunch break (and even when I originally only wanted to watch one more), and the forth episode on the way back, draining the battery to the max.
Looks like there will be more than one series I'd be marathoning through this weeking. (The originally planned one is ef)
And whether it is worth the ~8 +- 0.3 rating on AniDB.net, I'd say, yes. Although not more, but definitely no less. The probable ratings can possibly reach as low as 2~3 since not everybody like this kind of story, but it's still a good show.
Try watching it if you're an Aria fan, or if you simply like slice-of-life, or this kind of show in general. But if you haven't watched Aria yet, you should watch that one first. :D
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
March-April 2008 - Anime Harvesting Season
By "Harvesting", what I mean is that instead of following the Anime every week which can become a pita (pain-in-the-ass) if not done regularly (and i don't have time to do it regularly either), have to wait for the next episode which kinda kills the fun, and pisses people off when it gets stalled or even dropped, or even finding out that it is a piece of crap...
...I usually wait till the entire series gets finished before getting the whole series from the best fansub, or even DVD-rip.
Anyway look at the list on AniDB.net of shows ending in Mar-Apr 08:
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=latestanimes&last.anime.month=3&last.anime.year=2008&last.anime.type=end&do.last.anime=Show
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=latestanimes&last.anime.month=4&last.anime.year=2008&last.anime.type=end&do.last.anime=Show
(I specifically included Apr because it contains Aria final season -> it's final according to *sources* and I've already read the final manga chapter. How, there's Ghost Hound too, and Bamboo Blade and Gunslinger Girl, but somehow tmp. rating for GSG is quite low... i can't help but to think that it is just bad; the first series' popularity was already pretty much hype IMHO)
Jan, Feb, Apr, compared to Mar, they have only that few shows. Well, this Mar 08 ending list is the longest of any list in the calender I've seen so far. This is due to many shows in Oct 07 deciding to go 26 eps while many shows in Jan 08 deciding to go 13 eps, so they all end at Mar 08.
So for all this while, I've been knowing that there are many good shows out there but just couldn't download because they're not complete yet.
After all these get fansubbed, it will be a bountiful season. :D
BTW the previous harvesting season was Dec 07, with like 10 good ones and 5 crappy ones that I'd love to watch (lol). Only watched 3 of the crappy ones and 2 of the good ones, 2 more soon to watch.
And in this Mar 08, the number of ending shows that's worth mentioning... 18 (22 plus Apr). Or plus minus two from that number since some shows are worth mentioning to some but not to others.
Have fun picking up which good shows to watch from here, and for those that continuously watch good luck trying to catch up and finish all at the same time, then be stuck because there isn't much good shows for Feb-Mar-Apr 08.
...I usually wait till the entire series gets finished before getting the whole series from the best fansub, or even DVD-rip.
Anyway look at the list on AniDB.net of shows ending in Mar-Apr 08:
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=latestanimes&last.anime.month=3&last.anime.year=2008&last.anime.type=end&do.last.anime=Show
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=latestanimes&last.anime.month=4&last.anime.year=2008&last.anime.type=end&do.last.anime=Show
(I specifically included Apr because it contains Aria final season -> it's final according to *sources* and I've already read the final manga chapter. How, there's Ghost Hound too, and Bamboo Blade and Gunslinger Girl, but somehow tmp. rating for GSG is quite low... i can't help but to think that it is just bad; the first series' popularity was already pretty much hype IMHO)
Jan, Feb, Apr, compared to Mar, they have only that few shows. Well, this Mar 08 ending list is the longest of any list in the calender I've seen so far. This is due to many shows in Oct 07 deciding to go 26 eps while many shows in Jan 08 deciding to go 13 eps, so they all end at Mar 08.
So for all this while, I've been knowing that there are many good shows out there but just couldn't download because they're not complete yet.
After all these get fansubbed, it will be a bountiful season. :D
BTW the previous harvesting season was Dec 07, with like 10 good ones and 5 crappy ones that I'd love to watch (lol). Only watched 3 of the crappy ones and 2 of the good ones, 2 more soon to watch.
And in this Mar 08, the number of ending shows that's worth mentioning... 18 (22 plus Apr). Or plus minus two from that number since some shows are worth mentioning to some but not to others.
Have fun picking up which good shows to watch from here, and for those that continuously watch good luck trying to catch up and finish all at the same time, then be stuck because there isn't much good shows for Feb-Mar-Apr 08.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Restoring The Quality Of Cartoon/Anime Videos: Part II
Add: Summary: Just use MSU Smart Deblocking, MSU Cartoon Restore, Resize, Sharpen filters in this particular order.
I recommend Insane Artifect Reduction and 48-60 for sharpen for very noisy/blur videos, and Strong Artifect Reduction and 24 for a balanced improvement. Try Medium and 12 if you just want that subtle improvement without any visible side effect.
FYI, the pictures you see in this guide have been treated with Insane Artifect Reduction and sharpen by 48. The side effect is not so visible in still pictures, but can be seen more clearly in the actual video. Since in "enhancement", we aim to improve/restore the quality of the video without visible side effects, that's why you should also try the Strong/24 setting.
(If this part really came before Part Ia, the intro would be "Part Ia presented us with an interesting conclusion: that the MSU Cartoon Restore filter is close-to-useless or useless or even counter-productive when used with a source that is too clean with too much details. The main problem here is the lack of noise to reduce and the drop in sharpness. Now lets see what happens when we apply the sharpness filter which also introduces more noise in the process for the restore filter to reduce. Two filters that act on each others' side effects, will the outcome be overall better or even worse?")
I was in the shower, thinking that this works with varying degree depending on how bad the source is - poorer sources will see more noticable improvement. And since this works by reducing ringing and other edge noises and such, after all of these is removed, or rather, it would be possible to reduce this artifect totally leaving a "pefect" quality product.
But the quality of the video can only be improved by reducing artifecting; the sharpness remains the same (reduced slightly actually), and it has always been the determining factor in many current-day high-quality encodes.
So I thought, archerly hor... ("actually" in Singlish (Singaporean English)), I can apply a sharpen filter, then apply this Cartoon Restore filter to remove the sharpening artifects at the edges. Smart, isn't it?
Well now, I need to get ready to book in back to camp. But now you have an idea what I'm going to do, so stay tuned! :D
(But a teaser: It's good. And it looks to be an alternative to warpsharp, maybe even the replacement :))
Ok, continue...
Source #1 this time is Lucky Star OP (a.f.k.). The reason this clip came to my head immediately was because I've compared an upscaled-sharpened Chinese version of it versus the a.f.k. release, and the Chinese version does appear better at first but after resizing-sharpening, a.f.k. still won.
Now, lets reduce the artifects that's been keeping us from applying sharpening.
Resize only
Resize + Sharpen (strength 48)
Resized + Sharpen + Restore
As can be seen, the sharpening produces quite a bit of unwanted noise. The restore manages to reduce a lot of these noise at the expensive of a bit of sharpness, but the quality is on the whole better than just resize.
Now lets look at a more complicated picture.
Here, sharpening is important and produces a big improvement over resizing only. However, the amount of noise produced is proportional to the improvement of sharpness.
Resize only
Resize + Sharpen
Resize + Sharpen + Restore
Lose a bit of sharpness but lose a lot of sharpening artifects. That's just great. It's amazing how this filter reduces so much edge noise while not reducing sharpness by too much.
I also looked into whether it's better to do the restore or sharpening first. Do I create the noise first then reduce it later, or reduce potential noise before the sharpening? Lets see which is better.
Resize + Restore first + Sharpen
Not much of a difference. But to me restoring first gives just that slightly sharper and cleaner picture. Can you see the difference and do you have the same opinion as me?
Update: While looking at source #2 I found a scene that shows applying the Cartoon Restore filter first before the sharpen filter results in better quality:
Sharpen + Restore
Restore + Sharpen
Verdict: Applying MSU Cartoon Restore filter in this case has nothing to lose and everything to gain, sharper and cleaner pictures.
Part IIa
(So labelled as Part IIa for two reasons: It's a continuation of Part Ia, and it's after PartII)
I'm going to keep it brief since y'all should already know what I'm going to find out and what I'm going to do, so the pic:
Ahhhh, now that's the way to go. Pic 2a (original) for comparison is below in Part Ia in case you've forgotten.
Only one pic is needed, since it can already be guessed that sharpening + restoring (restoring + sharpening to be precise) yields overall better picture quality. This one just acts as a confirmation (and if acting as counter-evidence, just one is enough).
Verdict #2a: See above
BTW I also found out something else interesting (and explains a mystery I came across when encoding the video in Part I):
Do not apply the MSU Deblocking filter (or possibly any other deblocking filter) after the MSU Cartoon Restore filter since it introduces more noise; apply it before the Cartoon Restore filter instead
Also, applying resizing after everything else gives a slightly sharper and noisier picture. Which (putting it before or after) is better I'm not so sure yet and may even boil down to personal preference, but I recommend doing it after. Reasons being that 1) well, it's sharper, 2) it's better to reduce the noise before doing anything that will increase it as shown in previous cases, and 3) the effect of Cartoon Restore decreases as resolution increases, up till a point where it's next to useless when used on a picture that's been resized for printing from a small and bad-quality original.
And putting sharpen after resize is quite logical, since there's more pixels to work with and hence the aliasing effect is reduced, and the lines can become thinner and noise smaller and hence less obvious.
I recommend Insane Artifect Reduction and 48-60 for sharpen for very noisy/blur videos, and Strong Artifect Reduction and 24 for a balanced improvement. Try Medium and 12 if you just want that subtle improvement without any visible side effect.
FYI, the pictures you see in this guide have been treated with Insane Artifect Reduction and sharpen by 48. The side effect is not so visible in still pictures, but can be seen more clearly in the actual video. Since in "enhancement", we aim to improve/restore the quality of the video without visible side effects, that's why you should also try the Strong/24 setting.
(If this part really came before Part Ia, the intro would be "Part Ia presented us with an interesting conclusion: that the MSU Cartoon Restore filter is close-to-useless or useless or even counter-productive when used with a source that is too clean with too much details. The main problem here is the lack of noise to reduce and the drop in sharpness. Now lets see what happens when we apply the sharpness filter which also introduces more noise in the process for the restore filter to reduce. Two filters that act on each others' side effects, will the outcome be overall better or even worse?")
I was in the shower, thinking that this works with varying degree depending on how bad the source is - poorer sources will see more noticable improvement. And since this works by reducing ringing and other edge noises and such, after all of these is removed, or rather, it would be possible to reduce this artifect totally leaving a "pefect" quality product.
But the quality of the video can only be improved by reducing artifecting; the sharpness remains the same (reduced slightly actually), and it has always been the determining factor in many current-day high-quality encodes.
So I thought, archerly hor... ("actually" in Singlish (Singaporean English)), I can apply a sharpen filter, then apply this Cartoon Restore filter to remove the sharpening artifects at the edges. Smart, isn't it?
Well now, I need to get ready to book in back to camp. But now you have an idea what I'm going to do, so stay tuned! :D
(But a teaser: It's good. And it looks to be an alternative to warpsharp, maybe even the replacement :))
Ok, continue...
Source #1 this time is Lucky Star OP (a.f.k.). The reason this clip came to my head immediately was because I've compared an upscaled-sharpened Chinese version of it versus the a.f.k. release, and the Chinese version does appear better at first but after resizing-sharpening, a.f.k. still won.
Now, lets reduce the artifects that's been keeping us from applying sharpening.
Resize only
Resize + Sharpen (strength 48)
Resized + Sharpen + Restore
As can be seen, the sharpening produces quite a bit of unwanted noise. The restore manages to reduce a lot of these noise at the expensive of a bit of sharpness, but the quality is on the whole better than just resize.
Now lets look at a more complicated picture.
Here, sharpening is important and produces a big improvement over resizing only. However, the amount of noise produced is proportional to the improvement of sharpness.
Resize only
Resize + Sharpen
Resize + Sharpen + Restore
Lose a bit of sharpness but lose a lot of sharpening artifects. That's just great. It's amazing how this filter reduces so much edge noise while not reducing sharpness by too much.
I also looked into whether it's better to do the restore or sharpening first. Do I create the noise first then reduce it later, or reduce potential noise before the sharpening? Lets see which is better.
Resize + Restore first + Sharpen
Not much of a difference. But to me restoring first gives just that slightly sharper and cleaner picture. Can you see the difference and do you have the same opinion as me?
Update: While looking at source #2 I found a scene that shows applying the Cartoon Restore filter first before the sharpen filter results in better quality:
Sharpen + Restore
Restore + Sharpen
Verdict: Applying MSU Cartoon Restore filter in this case has nothing to lose and everything to gain, sharper and cleaner pictures.
Part IIa
(So labelled as Part IIa for two reasons: It's a continuation of Part Ia, and it's after PartII)
I'm going to keep it brief since y'all should already know what I'm going to find out and what I'm going to do, so the pic:
Ahhhh, now that's the way to go. Pic 2a (original) for comparison is below in Part Ia in case you've forgotten.
Only one pic is needed, since it can already be guessed that sharpening + restoring (restoring + sharpening to be precise) yields overall better picture quality. This one just acts as a confirmation (and if acting as counter-evidence, just one is enough).
Verdict #2a: See above
BTW I also found out something else interesting (and explains a mystery I came across when encoding the video in Part I):
Do not apply the MSU Deblocking filter (or possibly any other deblocking filter) after the MSU Cartoon Restore filter since it introduces more noise; apply it before the Cartoon Restore filter instead
Also, applying resizing after everything else gives a slightly sharper and noisier picture. Which (putting it before or after) is better I'm not so sure yet and may even boil down to personal preference, but I recommend doing it after. Reasons being that 1) well, it's sharper, 2) it's better to reduce the noise before doing anything that will increase it as shown in previous cases, and 3) the effect of Cartoon Restore decreases as resolution increases, up till a point where it's next to useless when used on a picture that's been resized for printing from a small and bad-quality original.
And putting sharpen after resize is quite logical, since there's more pixels to work with and hence the aliasing effect is reduced, and the lines can become thinner and noise smaller and hence less obvious.
Restoring The Quality Of Cartoon/Anime Videos: Part Ia
How this part came about:
Actually, I was trying to see what happens with a different type of video in Part II, but apparently I forgot to use the sharpen filter, hence that whole part which I already completed became totally useless. In order to not let it go to waste, I decided to make a Part Ia. Anyway the findings are interesting, because it contradicts with what you've seen in Part I. And seems to make all the parts flow together nicely (and would've if I'm not truthful about how part II came about).
Continuing from Part I...
So everything is all rosy huh? At least that's what I thought before deciding to use this restore on my favourite clips to see if I can get more quality and hence enjoyment out of them. Unfortunately...
Source #2
Pics before words:
The upper pic is the original, the lower pic is the restored:
Before you ask anything, yes I used lossless compression on the output file. The edges are more jagged, and yet it appears softer with less details (and noise). Does this count as better quality? Different people will have different preferences, but I'm having mixed feelings about this. Because, when played back, the restored one does look slightly cleaner, but there's also slightly less details, plus the jaggedness of the edges is visible.
So what went wrong here? One thing for sure is that the effect of this filter is negligible if using a good source. (But "good" is debatable, and this isn't exactly the cleanest nor sharpest video of this era) And we all know using enhancements generally reduces the quality (even though it may look subjectively more pleasing), hence using a filter to correct a problem that isn't too bad will bring more quality drop than quality improvement. But still, there's the strange issue of more jagged edge together with softer lines that awaits to be explained, since jagged edge is usually the product of sharpening, while softer lines are the result of noise removal and resizing.
And secondly, one definitely cannot treat Anime like cartoons (at least, in general, and for both); the lines are too thin to be processed properly resulting in the jaggedness and softening, and there are too many (small) objects/effects that are of not too contrasting colors and without edges, which tend to get covered up by the restore filter. Basically, throw in anything with too much details and everything screws up. (back to above point regarding Anime vs cartoon "in general") That's why this thing is called Cartoon Restore filter.
This should explain why the lines became jagged and yet the picture feels soft. The edges of the lines were supposed to be the result of anti-aliasing and contains useful detail, yet the restore filter regarded them as noise and removed them, causing the jaggedness. The thinner lines are even regarded as noise, or because there is too much noise surrounding the thinner lines, hence they are removed or greatly reduced.
Further AAR (After-Action-Review), perhaps using Insane Artifect Reduction is too much, but on second thought the overall effect is still negligible. So another conclusion:
Verdict #2: The MSU Cartoon Restore filter is close-to-useless or useless or even counter-productive when used with a source that is too clean with too much details
So what if I apply to it the sharpen filter which will bring out all the edge noise?
Continued in the second part of Part II. :P
Actually, I was trying to see what happens with a different type of video in Part II, but apparently I forgot to use the sharpen filter, hence that whole part which I already completed became totally useless. In order to not let it go to waste, I decided to make a Part Ia. Anyway the findings are interesting, because it contradicts with what you've seen in Part I. And seems to make all the parts flow together nicely (and would've if I'm not truthful about how part II came about).
Continuing from Part I...
So everything is all rosy huh? At least that's what I thought before deciding to use this restore on my favourite clips to see if I can get more quality and hence enjoyment out of them. Unfortunately...
Source #2
Pics before words:
The upper pic is the original, the lower pic is the restored:
Before you ask anything, yes I used lossless compression on the output file. The edges are more jagged, and yet it appears softer with less details (and noise). Does this count as better quality? Different people will have different preferences, but I'm having mixed feelings about this. Because, when played back, the restored one does look slightly cleaner, but there's also slightly less details, plus the jaggedness of the edges is visible.
So what went wrong here? One thing for sure is that the effect of this filter is negligible if using a good source. (But "good" is debatable, and this isn't exactly the cleanest nor sharpest video of this era) And we all know using enhancements generally reduces the quality (even though it may look subjectively more pleasing), hence using a filter to correct a problem that isn't too bad will bring more quality drop than quality improvement. But still, there's the strange issue of more jagged edge together with softer lines that awaits to be explained, since jagged edge is usually the product of sharpening, while softer lines are the result of noise removal and resizing.
And secondly, one definitely cannot treat Anime like cartoons (at least, in general, and for both); the lines are too thin to be processed properly resulting in the jaggedness and softening, and there are too many (small) objects/effects that are of not too contrasting colors and without edges, which tend to get covered up by the restore filter. Basically, throw in anything with too much details and everything screws up. (back to above point regarding Anime vs cartoon "in general") That's why this thing is called Cartoon Restore filter.
This should explain why the lines became jagged and yet the picture feels soft. The edges of the lines were supposed to be the result of anti-aliasing and contains useful detail, yet the restore filter regarded them as noise and removed them, causing the jaggedness. The thinner lines are even regarded as noise, or because there is too much noise surrounding the thinner lines, hence they are removed or greatly reduced.
Further AAR (After-Action-Review), perhaps using Insane Artifect Reduction is too much, but on second thought the overall effect is still negligible. So another conclusion:
Verdict #2: The MSU Cartoon Restore filter is close-to-useless or useless or even counter-productive when used with a source that is too clean with too much details
So what if I apply to it the sharpen filter which will bring out all the edge noise?
Continued in the second part of Part II. :P
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