Art Sonic CD Opening: Cleaned & Upscaled (...and a neat discovery!)

I checked out this old thread to look for the Google Drive files, but I am seeing a page not found error when I attempt to download them. Would someone by chance happen to have a copy of the files or could the OP reupload them for posterity's sake? Thank you.

 

It's awesome to see Brady, Tanks, Quazza and Kitsunelaine worked together to create the ultimate version of this that's featured on Sonic Origins!

https://twitter.com/BradyHartel/status/1516951540224991232

 

^ Really awesome! I was hoping Origins would include this restoration work.

 

Will both the cleaned intro and outro be uploaded to a website liek YouTube?

 

Someone will do it whether it's through official means or not.

 

I got to upload it back in february, but never made it public. Since it seems to be lost, I've made it public now. Never got to upload the Sonic Boom version, only You can do anything.

 

Big congrats on getting the opportunity to work on restoring this for Origins!! I sure hope those vocals made it in so we can watch the full unaltered product in all it’s upscaled beauty

 

Thats good to hear!! I will privatize the video back again, since I only made it public thinking it was lost. Congratulations for working with SEGA in Origins! Can't wait to see that version!!

 

While they can't confirm it for now, as Kitsunelaine was specifically tasked with rotoscoping (frame-by-frame, manual alteration) I'm 99% sure the frame blending issues in the ending were fixed. We can also compare the versions since we have the frames available!

Brady Hartel's Original Upscale (2020)



Tanks/Quazza's ESRGAN Upscale (2021)



Brady H./Tanks/Quazza/Kitsunelaine upscale for Sonic Origins (2022)

 

Lord, the Origins version looks so dang clean. My only issue with it personally is it looks a tad dark. In terms of brightness, I think the ESRGAN upscale gets closest, but ups the saturation too much at the same time in my opinion. This is all nitpicking on my part, though. The most important thing is we're about to get the most high quality version of this animation ever. Hats off to the team!

 

Yeah I'm pretty happy with the new one. AI upscalers always leave that nasty artifacting that basically ruins the art, but the new one is nice and crisp, almost like it was a rescan.

 

I like the more saturated colors on the Quazza/Tanks version more, but the rotoscope results looks amazing. Good Job!

 

The 3rd upscale is the best in terms of sheer sharpness and the quality of the scaling itself, though I do have a small worry that a bit too much DNR is being applied but regardless, it looks very good and is ultimately the best of the 3.

The coloring is a nice blend between shots 1 and 2, probably getting a more accurate take on the original intended color pallete on the actual cels, if I had to guess.

 

I have to give a nod to colossal improvement, sharpness, detail, and tidiness of the Brady H./Tanks/Quazza/Kitsunelaine upscale for Sonic Origins. However, I prefer the color balancing and find it more visually appealing on the Tanks/Quazza's ESRGAN Upscale. Origins looks subdued in color brightness, vibrancy, and accuracy, especially on Sonic's spines which seem off-tone. On the other hand, the Tanks/Quazza's ESRGAN Upscale may err on being too bright and vivid.

Kudos on the shoes: I would say that looks more accurate than the previous Tanks/Quazza's ESRGAN Upscale. It appears it is supposed to be brown and not red as intuition might lead some to conclude. This is if we assume the camera taking the photo below of one of the source cels was properly color balanced. The Tanks/Quazza's ESRGAN Upscale goes for a brighter red instead that looks more vibrant and fun but it deviates from the cel reference's browner hue. The shoes appear brownish in the cel photo online.

Sonic's shoe tone (in order) from reference photo of original cel, and from screen captures of Tanks/Quazza's ESRGAN Upscale and Brady H./Tanks/Quazza/Kitsunelaines' upscale for Sonic Origins:


On the other hand, I find the hue of Sonic's blue quills to be more misaligned in the Origins remaster and has too much red and green skirting the tone. The Tanks/Quazza's ESRGAN Upscale isn't perfect either (it is brighter and leans green). But it seems less purple looking than the Origins remaster. Again, this is operating under the assumption that the cel photos online (cels shared by VGDensetsu, originally from SEGA and/or Naoto Ohshima: VGDensetsu on Twitter: "Original production ces from the opening of Sonic CD, partially animated by Hisashi Eguchi / 江口寿志 https://t.co/uJDWDpmSlY https://t.co/WJIgeAmXrw" / Twitter / Video Games Densetsu: Original production cels from the opening of Sonic... (tumblr.com)) are color balanced and the source camera's color correction isn't shifting things far from reality, which can often be the case. Or as noted in the reply below, the cel could vary in color as a result of aging from light, heat, and/or moisture damage.

Sonic's quill tone (in order) from reference photo of original cel, and from screen captures of Tanks/Quazza's ESRGAN Upscale and Brady H./Tanks/Quazza/Kitsunelaine's upscale for Sonic Origins:



Having wrote all of this, I am not a colorist and lack the skills to accomplish this extraordinary task. So to all concerned, please do not take this as disrespect or disdain for the potentially hundreds of manhours or more that it took to complete this remarkable project. Congratulations on the incredible work performed for Sonic Origins!


Reference photos:

Tanks/Quazza's ESRGAN Upscale:




Brady H./Tanks/Quazza/Kitsunelaine upscale for Sonic Origins:


Photo of original production cel:

 

It's possible that the cels we've seen from SEGA and Naoto Ohshima's Twitters have been damaged over time due to light exposure or warm temperature. We have another cel where the colors more closely resemble the screenshot we've seen for Origins.

 

My problem with the Origins upscale is that it hasn't been regrained.
So it looks like the FMVs were DNR'd and scrubbed of grain.

 

We got our first glimpse of the CD intro today in Sonic Origins via a Famitsu livestream of the game, and not only are the vocals for You Can Do Anything back in action, but the video itself looks especially wonderful and I can definitely see the difference when comparing it to the original.

Absolutely fantastic job to everyone involved and thank you so much for your hard work!! Looking forward to seeing the outro on June 23rd as well.

 

Sadly it seems like the Sonic Jam vocals are back in action rather than the original vocal take. I hope that will be easy to change.

 

Oh there's a difference? I never noticed.