Discussion New Cleaning Style Frenzy

[kyuubi654]

'Sup everybody! Everything okay? Hope so

Good thing MH is such a big and wide spread community, cause that way i can put some order in my train of thoughts.

I think we all noticed this new wave of cleans that are somehow blurred, well more the gray ares, not the entire image.

Some examples (but not the only ones):

http://mangahelpers.com/s/neoscantrad/readonline/38405/3?t=1246558261
http://mangahelpers.com/s/scantradmk/readonline/38202/2?t=1246558295
http://mangahelpers.com/s/kurozakuro/readonline/37782/1
http://mangahelpers.com/s/i-eat-manga/readonline/35700/1

I for one can't stand such...such... i don't even know what to call them. What do you guys think? Would be nice to hear the opinion of some more experienced cleaners, but of course each mind counts.

Thanks go out in advance.

 

[chiresakura]

This isn't really "new" anymore. People have been misusing denoise programs and plugins for a couple years now. It goes through phases, though. A lot of new groups and Manga Editors will appear out of nowhere (let's just say they're bored over summer break) and denoise the hell out of their speedscans. The people who stick around for several months actually start to get good at denoising, and speedscan quality increases. Then you hit winter-break-boredom and it all goes to hell again.

There are many groups and Manga Editors out there who disdain lousy quality Edited Mangas, but after hours spent ranting about quality in our M7 staff channel, we've finally run out of steam. There's nothing anyone can do. If you find a group who does work you like you should take the time to tell them how much you appreciate their quality

 

[illiteracy]

I for one can't stand such...such... i don't even know what to call them.

Don't read them then. With the exception of HSDK, all of your other links have many, many groups Editing them. If you can't stand the awful denoising, wait for a "quality" group to release.

 

[Kaiten]

There are series, or have been, with only one group doing lousy quality. Some people seem to have a fetish for using de - noising software to fill the blacks at the expense of the grays. Others seem to love gausian (sic) blur, turning it up as high as they can. I don't know why, there's nothing wrong with setting it to 2 or 3 to keep scans from looking to crispy. But never, ever set it high enough to ruin quality.

 

[chiresakura]

I'd recommend the Diffuse Filter (under the Stylize menu) set to anisotropic rather than Gaussian Blur.

If you insist on using blur to ink the blacks, at least use the Magic Wand to select the area and constrain the blur within the selection. Try not to blur line art and edges too much

 

[kyuubi654]

@illiteracy: well i don't read them never said i do. just bugs the hell out of me when i see that the first Edited Manga out is a crappy one which i don't want to read.

Um...i'm not really talking about the blur effect available in PS or gimp or whatever program you're using, those used in small amounts don't damage anything.

But instead they use denoisers like NeatImage or Topaz for that. So they over-level a bit and then they apply a ton of noise threshold with no sharpness (my guess, seeing as how i've stumbled upon such results). And the sucky part to this whole thing is that the background, be it a pattern or some very neatly drawn buildings, landscapes or whatever, have to suffer the consequences. And then there's some lines in the drawing that also fade, if the grays spread to much and let's not forget the scan lines, which nobody cleans anymore, that also spread all over the place, etc. etc.

 

[fxu]

Recently there has been a mention of the topaz filter and everybody is going crazy with it...

It's fine to experiment on some pages to see what works... but I've seen quite a few scans like if somebody poured water on that sh-t.

 

[Doragon]

Most of the groups you just mentioned are shitty speed Manga Editors, no wonder the Edited Mangas were bad.

 

[DrPepperPro]

It's really bad when they do it for no reason, like when the blacks could be fixed just by leveling and a couple seconds of brushing/burning. because the point of it is to make the blacks only need normal leveling, right?

 

[L0ki]

Um...i'm not really talking about the blur effect available in PS or gimp or whatever program you're using, those used in small amounts don't damage anything.

But instead they use denoisers like NeatImage or Topaz for that. So they over-level a bit and then they apply a ton of noise threshold with no sharpness (my guess, seeing as how i've stumbled upon such results). And the sucky part to this whole thing is that the background, be it a pattern or some very neatly drawn buildings, landscapes or whatever, have to suffer the consequences. And then there's some lines in the drawing that also fade, if the grays spread to much and let's not forget the scan lines, which nobody cleans anymore, that also spread all over the place, etc. etc.

Most of those things shouldn't be affected when denoising correctly. They'll probably even look better. The problem comes when you try to make the filters do all your work for you. Then you'll get those... things you posted avobe.

 

[handsome]

thanx, it's v.usefull

I'm new to this site

but I'm a good translator and Manga Editor >> from English 2 Arabic

bye >> C U later

 

[PitylessEnvy]

Is this really that much of a problem with the last example you gave? I mean, sure it's blurry, but it also looks really clean. I honestly don't see that much of a problem.

 

[[Cross]]

Recently there has been a mention of the topaz filter and everybody is going crazy with it...

Quoted for the truth. I enjoyed using the filter myself in moderation, but I'm starting to see that some groups are relying too heavily on Topaz, and not using it correctly.

 

[Idol]

Quoted for the truth. I enjoyed using the filter myself in moderation, but I'm starting to see that some groups are relying too heavily on Topaz, and not using it correctly.

quote

 

[[Ju-Ni]Vicissitude]

I just don't see the need for ANY filters whatsoever. People may complain about the "hard way", but you can't automate every aspect of cleaning. Denoising filters pale in quality comparison to just zooming in and getting your hands dirty with the brush tool.

 

[wade69]

Some magazines because of the crappy paper you really just have to use filters if you want to get it out at a decent speed. But there are better magazines were you don't even need filters to clean the raw because the dust is so easy to clean on it. I usually just base it on the type of raw it is and if I want to clean it with or without filters.

 

[[Ju-Ni]Vicissitude]

I think that's where our philosophies differ. I clean Bleach to HQ every week. I prefer quality over speed. But that's just my preference.

 

[Cipo]

indeed topaz saves a lot of time.. that's why fast-Manga Editors use it.. i've seen a lot of cr-p with it... people still have to improve their eyes and get the best result as they want to.
vic: we all know you do bleach in HQ :3