some questions

[mathi36]

By cleaning a manga, there are always new questions popping up, especially for me (still a beginner). So I thought about making a personal "ask for help" thread, so that I don't need to make a new thread for every question I have...

Now, let's start the fun :D

If I have a RAW looking like this:
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6772/smash05308on0.th.jpg (http://img88.imageshack.us/my.php?image=smash05308on0.jpg)

Do I have to level it or not?

Edit:
sry: here's a larger version of the RAW:
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6633/smash05308no2.th.jpg (http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=smash05308no2.jpg)

[chiresakura]

The short answer: Yes, you have to level it.

The longer answer: Magazine raws are printed on crappy paper. All the areas in the borders, speech bubbles, etc that appear mottled-light gray should really be white, and that's what leveling is for.


PS - And my advice to you and all new cleaners - don't get discouraged!

[mathi36]

thank you for the fast reply and the encouragement ;)

Now I've cleaned the whole page a bit:
used levels, curves, stroke the framelines, made the bubbles and did some redrawing
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/8101/version2ky8.th.png (http://img227.imageshack.us/my.php?image=version2ky8.png)

Could you tell me which parts still need to be blackened or whitened?
And I also don't really know what to do with the shatered parts, like the handy in the 5th panel.

[chiresakura]

Well the important question is what level of cleaning are you going for here? MQ? HQ?

Regardless, the girl's hair in the last panel should be inked, and eyebrows and eyes could probably stand to be touched up, too.

As for shattered (broken) parts like the cell phone, HQ groups will want those lines fixed and redrawn.

Nice job on the redraw in panel 3 ^^

[mathi36]

I'm aiming for HQ :D
The girls hair, well... honestly, I had inked it, but it just looked so weird that I undid it again.
Thanks for the compliment, that's really encouraging.

OK; then I'm off to do some more inking,
have a nice evening
[hr]
I found a really great denoising tut on that site and just had to try it myself.
Here's my first denoised scan ever:
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/97/06denoisedql2.th.png (http://img231.imageshack.us/my.php?image=06denoisedql2.png)

Now, after denoising the image, do you still have to redraw the blacks?

Edit: Nearly forgot the original
[img=http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/1456/06hg2.th.jpg] (http://img91.imageshack.us/my.php?image=06hg2.jpg)

[ddadain]

The page is still dirty.

If you're aiming for HQ, you'll have to fix the patterns -_- Which, if done manually, is very very difficult -_- You'll have to remove all the blotchyness of the scanning and stuff... redoing the some lineart... burning, sharpening... err...

The hair of the guy looks dirty and the edges are too sharp.

A lot of works still needs to be done for the page to get even near HQ...

[chiresakura]

Sorry, I didn't notice that you had edited your post. Do you want to do HQ cleaning for a group? Or release HQ on your own? If you have a group in mind, they may already have tips and tricks for the series that they do (especially things like grays). And some HQ groups use tank raws, which again makes things easier.

Also, be careful with denoise programs.

[mathi36]

I'm not really interested in using a denoiser, just wanted to give it a shot.


I don't really intend to enter a scanlation group at the moment. I'm trying to start my own project. That's why I first have to get better at cleaning.

[chiresakura]

If you're planning on working alone, I highly highly suggest doing MQ cleans unless it's a oneshot. HQ takes on the order of 2-3 hours per page. More if it's a magazine scan with lots of grays. IMO, the only way to do regular HQ releases is to have a team. A big team. Otherwise you simply won't be able to keep up with the raw releases (and maintain sanity).

[Uchiha Dany]

Agreed, I mean, unless you happen to have no life and is a millionaire that doesn't has to work/do smth else to live...

[mathi36]

OK, I think I got it ;).
The expenditure of time really is big. I've already needed about 2 hours or so for the clean I made up there...(OK, it was my first or second time, but still...)

Then, what would be left to do, to make the Raw a MQ scan?

[Crayola]

If you're talking about the PoT clean, you might wanna finish some of it up by getting rid of some of the dirt marks or whatever, the borders have these like 1 px dots on it, these are also present on some of the whites. The bottom panel's sfx aren't completely black, it's somewhat grayish.

[mathi36]

thanks Crayola. I actually meant this clean:
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/8101/version2ky8.th.png (http://img227.imageshack.us/my.php?image=version2ky8.png)
posted before the POT clean.
But I'll try to improve the POT clean.
btw, do you think I used the denoiser correctly?