Miscellaneous Would you like an SHQ tutorial?

[rolobio]

I've been fiddling with the idea of doing an SHQ (Super High Quality) cleaning tutorial. But if it's an SHQ tutorial, that means I'm going to have to put hours and hours of work into it, but before I do that I wanted to see if there was a high enough demand for it. So, how many of you would like to see how I do my SHQ? And how many of you would actually USE the information I give you? Rather then just bookmark it and only skim through it? Or do you think there are plenty of tutorials already? Or is SHQ not worth the effort put into it (in other words LQ/MQ is good enough for you)?

Here are a few examples of my SHQ:
Naruto ch400 p01
Naruto ch400 p04
Naruto ch400 p12
Naruto ch400 p17

Here is some regular manga (taken from onemanga.com):
Naruto ch400 p01
Naruto ch400 p04
Naruto ch400 p12
Naruto ch400 p17

Also:
What do you find most tutorials lacking in? I'd like to make sure I cover as much as possible. I know when I first started cleaning manga, many tutorials I would use lacked lots of information I wanted.

 

[Alan Smithee]

Okay based on the fact that you only clean weekly Naruto does that not mean the tutorial will only apply to making lq mag scans into hq scans?

 

[rolobio]

Okay based on the fact that you only clean weekly Naruto does that not mean the tutorial will only apply to making lq mag scans into hq scans?

I'm not 100% sure what you mean, but as far as I can gather you're asking if I turn LQ scans into HQ? And if my tutorial would be explaining that process?

I don't turn LQ into HQ at all. I use the highest quality RAWs (scans straight from the magazine) and turn them into HQ with Photoshop. I don't use anyone else's Edited Mangas in the process, only the RAWs and someone's translation (because I don't know japanese :P)

Is that what you were asking?

 

[Digitalr]

Comparing to pages from onemanga is kind of.. unfair, wouldn't you say?

And to be honest I find the "Seriesrelease HQ MQ LQ" nonsense quite ridiculous.

 

[rolobio]

Comparing to pages from onemanga is kind of.. unfair, wouldn't you say?

And to be honest I find the "Seriesrelease HQ MQ LQ" nonsense quite ridiculous.

So would your vote fall under: "Or is SHQ not worth the effort put into it (in other words LQ/MQ is good enough for you)?" then? And I just used onemanga as a reference because that is probably the most common quality of manga you can get.

 

[y A M A T O]

i'd like to see a tutorial about SHQ cleaning your pages are great

anyway, i think that most tutorials lack informations about greys. in your pages, greys are.. unhuman.

 

[rolobio]

i'd like to see a tutorial about SHQ cleaning your pages are great

Thanks! Anything in particular I should remember to put in? Anything that you have a hard time understanding? (I'm not a god at cleaning manga, and I'm trying hard not to sound like one!)

 

[Digitalr]

So would your vote fall under: "Or is SHQ not worth the effort put into it (in other words LQ/MQ is good enough for you)?" then? And I just used onemanga as a reference because that is probably the most common quality of manga you can get.

Let me rephrase. What's above SHQ?

It's not that I've an opinion about whether you should create a tutorial or not, I don't need it so I won't look at it either.

 

[rolobio]

Let me rephrase. What's above SHQ?

It's not that I've an opinion about whether you should create a tutorial or not, I don't need it so I won't look at it either.

Ok thanks for clarifying! SHQ is bascially my way of saying "High Quality Edited Mangas that I put way too much work into"

 

[Alan Smithee]

What I meant by my question is you only work on magazine scans, right? Most HQ groups work on series from tank scans which do not have such a poor quality of blacks, greys, whites nor do they have such a high amount of dust. Any raw from a magazine regardless of it's resoultion is a Low Quality raw, seeing as manga magazines are printed on what may as well be loo roll.

So summary would be will your SHQ tutorial only be for those working from magazine raws?

 

[rolobio]

What I meant by my question is you only work on magazine scans, right? Most HQ groups work on series from tank scans which do not have such a poor quality of blacks, greys, whites nor do they have such a high amount of dust. Any raw from a magazine regardless of it's resoultion is a Low Quality raw, seeing as manga magazines are printed on what may as well be loo roll.

So summary would be will your SHQ tutorial only be for those working from magazine raws?

I see. Then yes, it would be for people using the magazine scans.

 

[hatsuharupeace]

1. It is practically impossible to achieve SHQ with mag RAWs.
2. Your overall clean is probably at MQ/HQ, from what I saw.
3. You're better off doing a HQ tut, if anything.

 

[chiresakura]

I think it might help if you define what you consider SHQ and explain what people can expect to see in such a tutorial.

At the risk of turning this into a quality pissing contest, I also think you should revisit your grays and the quality of your line art before saying these pages are HQ let alone something beyond that.

It's worth mentioning that Japflap is currently looking for new cleaners, and you definitely have the potential. Why not nip over to their forum and ask about joining? You can kill yourself doing 1 chapter solo every other month, or you can help a group by doing a couple pages a week.

I hope this didn't sound too snarky - I applaud your enthusiasm for high quality manga and wish that more people cared as much as you do.

 

[kanapox]

I usually work with scans from tanks, but I'm starting to work with 3 titles from magazines, so I would really use you tutorial, please just start with it. Even if just a few people use it in this moment, more new people will come in the future and put it into use.

 

[Obxist]

please compare it with JapFlap's release..
as its unfair if you compare it with the one at onemanga.com

oh and chiresakura idea is great

 

[rolobio]

Oh wow! Thanks for the comments. I had stopped checking this page hahaha. At least someone seems interested in it, I'll keep working on it then . I've looked around at joining japflap, but I didn't notice they had a forum. Thanks!

---

At the risk of turning this into a quality pissing contest, I also think you should revisit your grays and the quality of your line art before saying these pages are HQ let alone something beyond that.

I have no problem with criticism, well, constructive that is . Do you have anything I could compare my "grays and line art" to? I'd like to see what you think I should make mine look like. Thanks for that comment, I haven't gotten any good comments in a long time.

 

[chiresakura]

Hmmm... I didn't want to use a direct comparison because there's only one group worth comparing you to, and I didn't want to foster any resentment...

First I'll try being more constructive, and if you still want a direct comparison, I can upload it

The line art in your gray panels is faded and broken and blurry. The cave hatching is rough, the trees on page 4 are really blurry, the black lines on the diamond-shaped door panels on page 4 panel 1 are very jagged, etc... all of those gray panels need to be redrawn completely.

I can also see dirt in that panel without even zooming in :/ Same in page 1.... Actually, all of them >_>

Also, your gray pattern *does* look a bit like real Jump quality toner, but I think everyone here agrees that Jump is one of the cheapest-quality magazines out there. I'd suggest going for a more uniform, "clean" gray background.

As for your line art, the lines on Sas face in Page 17 panel 3 are overleveled and jagged. On page 12, the short hatches on his body are broken.

Last, here's Japflap's cleaning test. Since you're already experienced, I'm sure you'll blow through it
http://forum.japflap.com/index.php?board=30.0

 

[rolobio]

Hmmm... I didn't want to use a direct comparison because there's only one group worth comparing you to, and I didn't want to foster any resentment...

First I'll try being more constructive, and if you still want a direct comparison, I can upload it

The line art in your gray panels is faded and broken and blurry. The cave hatching is rough, the trees on page 4 are really blurry, the black lines on the diamond-shaped door panels on page 4 panel 1 are very jagged, etc... all of those gray panels need to be redrawn completely.

I can also see dirt in that panel without even zooming in :/ Same in page 1.... Actually, all of them >_>

Also, your gray pattern *does* look a bit like real Jump quality toner, but I think everyone here agrees that Jump is one of the cheapest-quality magazines out there. I'd suggest going for a more uniform, "clean" gray background.

As for your line art, the lines on Sas face in Page 17 panel 3 are overleveled and jagged. On page 12, the short hatches on his body are broken.

Last, here's Japflap's cleaning test. Since you're already experienced, I'm sure you'll blow through it
http://forum.japflap.com/index.php?board=30.0

Thanks for you comments, I really will use those points on my next scan. But I do want to point out that I tried not to redraw as much as I could

"all of those gray panels need to be redrawn completely. "

true, but I don't like the idea of becoming the artist (this is my own opinion) and now I see that I have a different (style?) then would be considered HQ. I try to have the page as original as possible, while keeping it as clean as possible. I really should have specified exactly what I meant by "SHQ", and now I regret not calling it "HQ" hahaha.

"I can also see dirt in that panel without even zooming in :/ Same in page 1.... Actually, all of them >_>"

/sigh agreed... I was trying to get this all done by myself within a week and there are the results

"As for your line art, the lines on Sas face in Page 17 panel 3 are overleveled and jagged. On page 12, the short hatches on his body are broken."

i left those lines broken on purpose, i try not to redraw them because the artist left them that way. I'm saying that; assuming we're talking about the same lines, I'll explain exactly which lines I'm talking about: Lets take the shadow line directly on the left side (our left, not his ) of sasuke's nose that curves down and back up, for example. Is that a good example of the lines you're talking about?

 

[chiresakura]

"I can also see dirt in that panel without even zooming in :/ Same in page 1.... Actually, all of them >_>"

/sigh agreed... I was trying to get this all done by myself within a week and there are the results

That's exactly why I think HQ projects need a team. One single person can't maintain quality and speed over the course of a long series

"As for your line art, the lines on Sas face in Page 17 panel 3 are overleveled and jagged. On page 12, the short hatches on his body are broken."

i left those lines broken on purpose, i try not to redraw them because the artist left them that way. I'm saying that; assuming we're talking about the same lines, I'll explain exactly which lines I'm talking about: Lets take the shadow line directly on the left side (our left, not his ) of sasuke's nose that curves down and back up, for example. Is that a good example of the lines you're talking about?

The "natural" vs. "redrawn" argument is beyond a dead horse by now, but I'll just point out that the scanning process is not kind to what is already crappy quality Jump paper and ink. Broken lines aside, you still need to watch out for overleveling, which is entirely due to cleaning.