Adventures in Restoring Faded Lines
- Yuuki
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Adventures in Restoring Faded Lines
The last few Friday nights I'd been taking my cel collection into school to use the big scanners to scan things... I wasn't able to do that tonight, so I had a go at fixing up one of my cels that had suffered line fading instead.
I thought maybe someone might be interested in the adventure, so I set up a blog entry for it (full of pictures!)
http://teaelleharris.blogspot.ca/2013/0 ... eally.html
.
I thought maybe someone might be interested in the adventure, so I set up a blog entry for it (full of pictures!)
http://teaelleharris.blogspot.ca/2013/0 ... eally.html
.
http://toppegged.rubberslug.com/gallery/home.asp - Tracy's Cel Collection
http://teaelleharris.tumblr.com/ ~ TeaElle Art and Animation
http://teaelleharris.tumblr.com/ ~ TeaElle Art and Animation
- sensei
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Re: Adventures in Restoring Faded Lines
Interesting, and congratulations on your success in making a new set of trace lines! I can think of a couple of reasons why the lines on the douga don't quite fit the cel. Possibly the sketch had once stuck to the cel, and the process used to unstick the two warped the paper.
Or, since the douga looks in good shape, it more likely has to do with the way the photocopy machine imaged and transferred the lines to the backside of the cel. It's notorious that most photocopies are not quite identical to the originals, being a twitch bigger or (usually) smaller. I'll bet that if you take a sketch you've made and copied it on an average xerox machine, then held them up to a light, you'd see the same subtle distortion: seemingly accurate at one place, then increasingly "off" the farther you get from this point.
Thanks for sharing! You've made Kero-chan happy in his little anime heaven.
Or, since the douga looks in good shape, it more likely has to do with the way the photocopy machine imaged and transferred the lines to the backside of the cel. It's notorious that most photocopies are not quite identical to the originals, being a twitch bigger or (usually) smaller. I'll bet that if you take a sketch you've made and copied it on an average xerox machine, then held them up to a light, you'd see the same subtle distortion: seemingly accurate at one place, then increasingly "off" the farther you get from this point.
Thanks for sharing! You've made Kero-chan happy in his little anime heaven.
- Yuuki
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Re: Adventures in Restoring Faded Lines
Thank you! It was a very interesting exercise. Actually the cel/sketch have been through both scenarios. I had planned to do a line trace of a photocopy of the sketch, but when I photocopied it and compared the two, the lines on the photocopy were off slightly, very similarly to the distortion on my line layer, so I decided to use the original instead (thinking it was exact). Lesson learned - any more line fixins need the cel as a source lol. And the sketch was, at one time, stuck to the cel... though I don't think it was 'professionally' removed - I think it got yoinked off somewhere in it's early life there's a bit of paper stuck to the back of the Clow staff, matching a surface tear on the sketch. Bleh.sensei wrote:Interesting, and congratulations on your success in making a new set of trace lines! I can think of a couple of reasons why the lines on the douga don't quite fit the cel. Possibly the sketch had once stuck to the cel, and the process used to unstick the two warped the paper.
Or, since the douga looks in good shape, it more likely has to do with the way the photocopy machine imaged and transferred the lines to the backside of the cel. It's notorious that most photocopies are not quite identical to the originals, being a twitch bigger or (usually) smaller. I'll bet that if you take a sketch you've made and copied it on an average xerox machine, then held them up to a light, you'd see the same subtle distortion: seemingly accurate at one place, then increasingly "off" the farther you get from this point.
Thanks for sharing! You've made Kero-chan happy in his little anime heaven.
Yay! Happy Kero-chan XD
Last edited by Yuuki on Sat Feb 02, 2013 2:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
http://toppegged.rubberslug.com/gallery/home.asp - Tracy's Cel Collection
http://teaelleharris.tumblr.com/ ~ TeaElle Art and Animation
http://teaelleharris.tumblr.com/ ~ TeaElle Art and Animation
- ReiTheJelly
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Re: Adventures in Restoring Faded Lines
She looks beautiful with her new lines! I wish I could do this to a few of my cels, as certain ones are badly faded (I have one with no trace lines at all anymore!)
Re: Adventures in Restoring Faded Lines
Thanks for sharing the process, and agreed, the "new" cel looks fantastic. The restoration really does make the colors pop, especially the browns of the hair and staff.
Forgive my ignorance, and I did look at the full blogspot post, but when you're referring to "cel overlay" with linework (as in what you're displaying with the restored version) it's a second cel with just linework layered on top of the original?
Forgive my ignorance, and I did look at the full blogspot post, but when you're referring to "cel overlay" with linework (as in what you're displaying with the restored version) it's a second cel with just linework layered on top of the original?
- Yuuki
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Re: Adventures in Restoring Faded Lines
I was so delighted to see how things popped out with a strong, fresh lineJet wrote:Thanks for sharing the process, and agreed, the "new" cel looks fantastic. The restoration really does make the colors pop, especially the browns of the hair and staff.
Forgive my ignorance, and I did look at the full blogspot post, but when you're referring to "cel overlay" with linework (as in what you're displaying with the restored version) it's a second cel with just linework layered on top of the original?
No worries :3 but yes, that's what I meant by the 'cel overlay' - the additional cel sheet with the line art. Anything that's atop the animation cel layer (an adjustment layer or static foreground element) is an overlay ^^
http://toppegged.rubberslug.com/gallery/home.asp - Tracy's Cel Collection
http://teaelleharris.tumblr.com/ ~ TeaElle Art and Animation
http://teaelleharris.tumblr.com/ ~ TeaElle Art and Animation
- BuraddoRun
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Re: Adventures in Restoring Faded Lines
Good job on your line restoration, and thanks for sharing the process on your blog!
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Re: Adventures in Restoring Faded Lines
Brilliant! I like how it doesn't effect the underlying cel as it is just one top layer placed over with the lines. Really good way to restore that fresh look and not adversely effect the cel itself.
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- Drac of the Sharp Smiles
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Re: Adventures in Restoring Faded Lines
Really nice job there!! Some years ago I did this with one cel, but never pursued it after that since I just didn't have a steady enough hand to pull it off so well.
Re: Adventures in Restoring Faded Lines
I wonder how this'd look on my young terry cel.
My Fatal Fury Gallery: www.lwk.rubberslug.com
My email for selling me Fatal Fury cels: lwkusa@hotmail.com
My email for selling me Fatal Fury cels: lwkusa@hotmail.com
Re: Adventures in Restoring Faded Lines
Very nice! I did a very rudimentary version of this with a Dragonball Z cel I have, but I have a really difficult time keeping the layers lined up in my cel book. Do you have the two layers attached in any way? (Staples, tape, etc?) I am guessing that bagging the layers separately and then taping them together might work, but every time I look through my cel book my lined-layer has shifted off the cel base. Not a big deal, but it does make me sad. Your method is way more professional than mine, though, so I'm wondering if you have a better solution. I don't really want to put a staple into my original and I worry about the damage tape could do long-term.
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