Sarai (Volume 11)

[rufusluciusivan]

A scene that used to be on the Old Board, but hadn't been re-posted here yet.



https://zupimages.net/up/20/38/ok5t.jpg



https://zupimages.net/up/20/38/izbg.jpg



https://zupimages.net/up/20/38/thut.jpg

[darth chlorophorm 2]

Wonderful!
I don't remember this at all.
Thanks for posting this, R.

[rufusluciusivan]

Hello. There is a bit of a preliminary explanation first, so if you don’t care about the ‘why’ or the ‘how’, I suggest you simply skip the paragraphs and go straight to the pictures at the end.

Trying to make a long story short, I recently decided to return a bit to a joke project of mine – the fake Magic TCG USB-themed cards, just to see if I could improve it a bit and/or find other ideas for cards, perhaps better organize the posts, those kind of things. (Maybe wulflist will come across this pot. ) And that’s when I got the idea to colorize existing manga scenes and add them. So I searched online for a way to colorize black-and-white pages. I first came across an AI called toona, played a bit with the free version, but as you can expect the free version has many limitations. Still if you want to try, it can be fun – and it’s not time-consuming, you upload the pic, and a few seconds later you have a result – a wonky result, but sometimes actually not that bad. Then I came across a software called style2paints. It’s a bit old, so not as ergonomic, but has more options and is free. Basically, the software does the colorization, but you can use prompts to make sure it selects the colors you want.

I tried first with a couple of pictures from the Sarai manga. There’s absolutely no certitude I’ll ever finish the project, but I thought I’d share the results of my first “preliminary experiments” with you.

Each picture takes roughly 1 to 2 hours – counting first using style2paints for the general colorization, then MS Paint to correct imperfections.

It’s more through luck than skill, but sometimes I’m very pleased with the result. Like this one:



https://zupimages.net/up/24/39/jywb.jpg

Though as you can see, the result can also be very clunky. Apparently, the software has a lot of trouble when there are motion lines. I tried to give it a bit of a stylistic effect, but clearly this isn’t a result I’m very pleased with...



https://zupimages.net/up/24/39/wylr.png

And because you’re all probably hoping for a scene of interest. Not my favorite end result (that would be the first one), but still a way to finally witness this scene in colors…



https://zupimages.net/up/24/39/lqyk.jpg

Maybe I’ll try other snippets at some point. While the process is time-consuming, I won’t deny it’s also very addicting once you begin one...

I hope you liked the pictures. It was fun to try something different, but still USB-related.

[tirepanted3]

Very cool results. True, they don't all lend themselves to full color (particularly when motion lines are involved), but they provide an extra layer of vibrancy to the manga.

It's unfortunate that so much manga is produced in black-and-white - a lot of it would look great in color. I think scenes with more solidly drawn lines like the Get Backers scene or the Dirty Pair scene (with the bunny girls) would translate to color pretty well.

[rufusluciusivan]

The Get Backers panel with the bound and gagged musician is high on my prospective "to do" list, that's for sure... You're most likely right. I colorized one panel of the Arachnid manga, which has more solidly drawn lines and less visual obstacles on the character's skins and hair, and the software was much quicker to produce a decent result - especially for the hair and skins. Less so for the undergarments (ironically ), I had to try and fix with Paint, but that was most likely because those were too detailed... Same with the Sarai panels actually. I don't think it's a coincidence the best result I got was with the one in which there were no visual obstacles on the nurses' bodies and hair.

[tirepanted3]

I think the third Sarai panel turned out fine, as it didn't have any of the "speed lines" that conflicted with the knockout panel.

I remember I once tried using Microsoft Paint to color some of the black-and-white Femforce USB scenes, but it didn't quite work out - the colors either ran through open gaps or weren't properly applied. Then again, I've never been that great with these programs...

[rufusluciusivan]

The speed lines, and those annoying little dots and crosses on the characters' models. They serve a purpose when the picture is black-and-white, but they clearly mess things up when the software tries to colorize the pictures, and they also make things harder when I try to rectify things with MS Paint...

Now, for fake Magic TCG cards, the issue is a bit less prevailing, since the pictures are supposed to be small-sized, so it's easier to hide the imperfections...