Did I go too hard on the sharpening?

[AlonP]

Hi guys, I like the result, but some others think it's too much... Then again, I don't mind haloing too much, I loveeee sharp image, I'll ignore much as long as detail is preserved and image is sharpened. Let me know if it's way too much(like some told me)

Before filtering:

After Filtering:


Also some color changes, I'd isolate it but - meh, I think this gets the point across well enough...

[jfs]

Yes.

One man's "detail" is another man's noise, and some things are just not meant to be sharp.
For instance take the fire sparks at the bottom center of your sample picture, in your filtered version they end up having sharp (and haloed) edges, but that just isn't how you see sparks, they do glow and are supposed to have undefined edges.
The overall detail in the drawing isn't too great either, by sharpening you're essentially pointing out all the places where the artists were lazy, e.g. the stuff the small vendor in the back has on display.

And of course, the halo effect is dead obvious.

[AlonP]

Originally Posted by jfs

Yes.

One man's "detail" is another man's noise, and some things are just not meant to be sharp.
For instance take the fire sparks at the bottom center of your sample picture, in your filtered version they end up having sharp (and haloed) edges, but that just isn't how you see sparks, they do glow and are supposed to have undefined edges.
The overall detail in the drawing isn't too great either, by sharpening you're essentially pointing out all the places where the artists were lazy, e.g. the stuff the small vendor in the back has on display.

And of course, the halo effect is dead obvious.

HEYYY!!! JFS! You the dude who helped me with karaoke questions like a month ago or so! Thanks for that btw .

As to the sharpening... Ye, I see your point about the sparks... Though the point about pointing out places with few details where teh artists were "lazy"? That I didn't quite get... Still... I suppose if I asked, I prolly have doubts about this somewhere inside as well... *sighs* Ah well. The halo thingy never did bother me too much though I did dehalo somewhat... Ye, it was worse lol.

Anyway, thanks . I'll go sit on V2(or more like v5 lol).

[Desbreko]

Don't sharpen encodes. If you want to sharpen, do it on playback through ffdshow raw video filter or something, so that you don't degrade the video for others just because of personal preference.

[AlonP]

Originally Posted by Desbreko

Don't sharpen encodes. If you want to sharpen, do it on playback through ffdshow raw video filter or something, so that you don't degrade the video for others just because of personal preference.

Hmmm, nah, my preference rules *grins*. That's why I need the advice, because for me? The way it is now? is kinda almost perfect... But I know others aren't that much into sharpness... So, I ask around, see what the population gives out... then modify it a bit, to make it a bit less sharp . 's all good. Wait till you see how I mess the original colors up! oh dear Tweak()/Levels, here I come!!! lololol

[Quarkboy]

I hear that Qtec is hiring...

[Desbreko]

If you insist on using destructive filtering, at least don't release the resulting encode publicly. The world will be a better place without it.

[AlonP]

But you know... some people... Just want... TO WATCH THE WORLD BURN!!! Buahhahahahahaha *grins*.

Meh, look, you really wanna do this? Debate tastes? because to me this is really all this is about, taste. Now, the only thing working for you is "but what about the original intent of the creator?" and to that I say... meh . I could argue that the original "intent" of the creator wasn't for it to be translated at alll... then you'd say in yoru defense that "no! the author wants the anime to be seen by as many as possible!" which would mean you fell into my trap, because then I'd say "well, this is how I like to encode, and I encode to a group of people who don't really have more than like 5 active fansubbing groups, so if I dont' encode it, they will not see it, hence, this will be counter to what the intent of the author is..."

Or some such sillyness...

Meh, don't be such a stickler for rules... IT's all about having fun yo... This is fun for me... It might not be fun for you, but I think the people benefit no matter hte motivation, and even if it's in shitty taste(your opinion).

*yawns*.

Annnnyway... no worries, I will take to heart though the "chill on the sharpy yo" advice . It'll be like 30% less sharp in teh end version .

[Flower]

Well, since we are speaking about tastes and all I would also have to agree that it is a little too sharpened for my tastes. I guess one of the things I look for what viewing something is a sort of middle ground. Of course the visuals are a very important part of the story, but what I want more than anything else is to be absorbed in the narrative. If the visuals or the audio or whatever else pulls me out of the story to where I think "wow, that is too sharp" or "man, what crummy video" or "this voice acting is horrible" or whatever else then for me the end product has not properly done its job. You want something to look beautiful, yes, but you also do not want it to get in the way. There is a very fine line between seeing the visuals and going Wow! while remaining immersed in the story and seeing the visuals and finding yourself yanked out.

[DmonHiro]

Liking over sharpening isn't a "taste" per se, it's more of a trick your brain plays on you, making you think the sharper the picture is, the better. In truth, most "novices" like a sharper picture in detriment of the details because their brain has to literally make less effort to process the picture. If the picture is blurrier, the brain works harder to compensate. That's actually a good thing.

tl:dr: Sharpening is rarely good. Sharpening like you did is always bad.

[xxanimefan4_ever]

yes it is too much it's probably not what the animators intended the anime to look like. I get irritated when people over-do filters because I can't undo them. if something's blurry i can sharpen it myself on kmplayer with the sharpen filter (it's probably not as sophisticated as whatever filter you used with encoding but at least i get to choose filter vs no filter.). i remember i got some video that had too much contrast and awarpsharp (that filter that makes the lines thinner and sharper) so details were killed so i had to get another version.

[neshru]

As much as I love incredibly sharp image quality, I think the use of sharpening filters is only necessary when the source looks so blurry that it needs sharpening to look acceptable.
In my opinion this looks acceptable and doesn't need sharpening.

Originally Posted by xxanimefan4_ever

it's probably not what the animators intended the anime to look like.

I don't think you can use that as an argument against sharpening. For example, the difference in image quality/sharpness between the DVD and BD version of the same film can be huge. You can't know if the creators of that film intended for it to be as blurry as the DVD version, or as sharp as the BD version.

[Desbreko]

Originally Posted by AlonP

Meh, look, you really wanna do this? Debate tastes? because to me this is really all this is about, taste.

I'm not debating your taste. Liking sharpening vs not liking sharpening is a matter of taste, but sharpening causing damage to the video by introducing artifacts is a fact. The sharpened version is objectively worse than the original.

That's why I tell people who like sharpening to do it on playback with post-processing. That way, they still get to view the video how they like it but without causing irreversible damage.

[AlonP]

Guys... Do you even SHARPEN?!?!?! *Grins* haha, sorry, Zyzz 4eva .

Anyway, I take it you guys aren't really into sharpening... That's ok... When I do the release version, I'll post it here again, it'll be less sharpened(and oviousssly less artifacted) and we'll see if your eyes can handle it *grins*.

Thanks for all the input yo! Seriously though, thanks .