Astro Boy Promo Colorization test I was lead designer on this project. The music was composed and recorded just for this spot. Circa 1994 at CST Entertainment, Culver City, CA
Thank you for your kind remarks. This work was done at CST Entertainment which used to be in business in Los Angeles. It was a very labor intensive process that involved as many as 50 people. In proprietary software, an artist outlines every single area of unique color and then designs the color information to be added. After client approval, those areas of color are animated by another rotoscope artist, and the software renders the result.
This is just amazing. I'm so happy that so many talented people worked on this. Thank you and thanks to everyone who worked so hard on this, and also thanks for putting this here so that many Astro Boy fans can see it!
I was lead designer. I organized a small team of four designers and we made color models for every shot. Then I sat with the client and got the color models approved. Then the project was animated by the technicians we named as "colorists."
+atwaterpub wow, that's very interesting, does that mean you also got to interact with Tezuka himself during the project? and how long did the process take?
No I did not meet Tezuka. If I remember correctly, the clients were Canadian, and were planning on re-doing the soundtrack. The process was very fast. We spent only a week or two designing all the art stills and getting them approved. Then it probably took a week to animate the entire project on the "production floor" we had 20 work stations or so that were used for animating color mattes.
Thank you for uploading these 🙏 you guys did a wonderful job! I hope that someday a color version of the old Astro Boy comes about, but even if that is not to be, thank you so much for sharing this with the world 🌎
I don't understand the question. Colorization is just adding color information to a black and white video program that already exists. Unfortunately, this colorization process was unique and cannot really be duplicated today.
atwaterpub Redrawn colorization is when they have to retraced the original image and add color to the redrawn frame and not the original frame Let's just the results are mixed.
The thing that made the CST system particularly unique was the fact that the Hue and Saturation values were tied to the gray level. You would have a five point equation where you could set the association values of Hue and Saturation at a specific Gray level. The software would linearly interpolate between these values. This was a MUCH more sophisticated form of colorization than today's digital systems that just basically put a flat wash of color over the area. You have to study the physics of light and the psychology of color perception to fully appreciate this system. It is a tragedy that it no longer exists in any form that I am aware of. The reason this Astro Boy looks good is because the original B+W cartoon filled in the spaces with a ink wash of various gray levels. We used the software at CST to attach specific "colors" (i.e. Hue and Saturation values) to specific gray levels in specific areas of that ink wash.
Very impressed that you make this full color and that was very awesome and this honestly reminds me of this full color Captain Underpants that you made it from black and white to full color like those books did.
He went out to fight crime and defeat Dr. Diaper and they got back to school and poured water on Captain Underpants into Mr. Krupp and when he heard the fingers snap he turns into Captain Underpants.
This is great! Thanks for posting! Now, with TODAY'S technology, I would like to see a company colorize wonderful black & white anime that should have been made in color, like Mushi's "Wonder Three"!! Maybe it would be easier to sell, too! (Of course, it would help to sell world-wide with subtitles in several languages, which I realize would add considerable cost.....)
OH MYYYYY GAWWWWWD!!! See how cute he looks with blue eyes?? I grew up watching this in black and white (always thought his eyes were blue!! FABULOUS!!! I MUST SEE the other that they've blocked!! WHY for heaven's sake, you can't BUY it any place - right?? You've made a BIG hit over on astroboy online -- I dare say you are the hit of the day!! How sad it can't all be colorized!! THANK YOU!! Great editing too, and the music works extremely well with it.
Very observant. This was a typical challenge. The Coloring System created a hue and saturation specification to add to the gray levels already present in the image. Since the color Red photographs as the color Black in black and white photography, designers frequently used a Gray color to represent Red in the Black and White image design. Unfortunately, we did not have control to change the gray levels, so the only colors we could make out of a Gray area, in the picture, were Orange or Pink. We chose the color Orange. We had the same problem in the Shirley Temple movie "Susannah of the Mounties" Randolph Scott was a Canadian Mountie and the director gave him a gray coat to wear for the black and white filming, because a Red color coat would photograph as Black. Unfortunately we were faced with the same problem and were forced to choose between the colors Orange and Pink for his coat color. We choose the color Orange because Randolph Scott just looked silly in a Pink Color Canadian Mountie's coat with a little black hat.
Thank you. it was a long time ago. The system, the software, the people, the company are all long gone. I am lucky to have saved a copy of this work. Thanks.
atwaterpub That is a shame, but you are right that you have an amazing piece of work right here! Who knows, maybe it could inspire others in some way? I didn’t think I’d get a response, wow! So cool!
This was a test done in 1993, or 1994, to colorize the B+W Astro Boy cartoons. Unfortunately, no agreement was reached for reasons that I do not know. Be sure and check out "Colorization Test - Astro Boy Cartoon"
8th Man & Gigantor in color please. Cartoon of such definitively need color. The Fleischer Popeye & Betty Boop cartoons of the 1930s maybe not so much, but it's interesting.
I worked on this so many years ago that I barely remember. I am astounded at the huge positive response and only wish we could have actually colorized the entire series. I'd STILL love to work on it, but I doubt that is remotely possible. Thank you for you kind words.
you were the lead desinger to this!? I am so amazed and impressed! how was it like? did you meet anyone from the tezuka productions? what for was this promo useD?
Thank you. This was along time ago and it was fun to work on this project. Personally, I had seen Astro Boy cartoons as a young boy myself. I did not meet anyone that I can remember their name. The producers handled most of the business arrangements and I concentrated on design. There was a large team of animators that did the actual rotoscoping and colorization work. This was going to be used to get funding to colorize the series and that never happened.
If you had ended up doing the entire series, would your team had redubbed the show so it falls more in line with the Japanese original, or would it have been like the original dub with cut episodes and the like?
New Age Retro. I do not remember what the intent was. Surprisingly, people are still doing colorization on a small scale, so maybe this might happen some day.
@@Nitroxity NO, NO, No! Leave the English translations just as they were made back in the 1960s under Fred Ladd's supervision. They have a certain charm that the original Japanese does not possess. With them, Fred Ladd brought the series to a higher standard.
Oh god, now I want to see more... how was this even accomplished? Seems like it would be a huge pain in the ass to pull off- kudos, by the way- but oh my gosh, the visuals, and the music, it just gets me all excited for it! Hm, I wonder if all the episodes could be done this way- it would definitely generate interest in the series again. Maybe a new soundtrack could be recorded, as well...? Nah, bad idea. You know, a few episodes don't even have surviving footage- a crying shame, if you ask me.
I re-uploaded it and it is still blocked in some countries. Sorry. I suppose I could try reversing the entire video and then uploading it backwards, to see if it passes the censors? Oh well...
This master B + W source was a digitized copy of a high quality video dub of the original master. I do not know how this was obtained but was provided by the client as I remember. I was not privy to the business arrangements or details so most of what I know is "hearsay" facts that I remember.
NO. I do not. I just have this dub because I worked on the project. I present it as an historical artifact. It would be fun to actually colorize copies of all the original episodes.
It looks pretty great, actually. My beef with it is Atom's eye's are supposed to be dark brown, not blue. Though, he /does/ look sort of good with blue eyes...
Thank you. It was a group effort. I miss working on colorization projects at CST, but CST went bankrupt over 20 years ago. Sometimes things don't get better.
this was an interesting experiment because the company which had your company do the colorization tests did not have the rights to Astro Boy and therefore where not legitimate legal tests.
Yes and no. This was colorized on video using a digitally controlled analog color adder that created an analog color video signal added to an analog black and white video signal. Aside: You may remember that an old fashioned NTSC TV signal was actually a color video signal and a black and white video signal that were added together for transmission broadcast.
This phenomenon represent one of the challenges of the old style of colorization. There are three components to a color 1. Hue, 2. Saturation, 3. Gray level. The CST colorization system added Hue and Saturation to the existing Gray Level in the black and white video. In this case of the Blue Eyes, the gray level corresponding to the Iris is very light gray. The only color we could make it were either pinkish-red or tan yellow. There was NO WAY to make it BROWN without changing the inherent gray level of the shot (which we did nt do). Therefore we were left with an artistic problem: "What color to make the eyes when it is not technically possible to create the correct color?" In the rest of the Black and White movie -- the shots of Astro Boy are drawn with no Iris and this is not an issue.
Tiffany Parker Those allegations are patently false and incorrect. It was a long time ago. I was the lead designer and a team of almost twenty colorization artists completed the work. I was proud to work on this project and it is posted here as tribute to the artists involved. I also post it as another example of a complex colorization technique that no longer exists because times change and software becomes obsolete.
I'd LOVE to - CZcams has blocked it! Can you believe it? EEERRRGGGGG! Go to astroboy online and look for me - AprilSeven - we've got to see this (we're a bunch of Astro Geeks what can I tell you?!) The music sounds like John Williams! XD
Thank you for your kind remarks. This work was done at CST Entertainment which used to be in business in Los Angeles. It was a very labor intensive process that involved as many as 50 people.
In proprietary software, an artist outlines every single area of unique color and then designs the color information to be added. After client approval, those areas of color are animated by another rotoscope artist, and the software renders the result.
Speaking of CST Entertainment, the company also did the colorizations of the black & white Looney Tunes shorts in the 1990s.
One of the greatest anime of all time!
Thank you
atwaterpub you're welcome! 👍
YES I AGREE
one of the first-ever anime
Undoubtedly
This is just amazing. I'm so happy that so many talented people worked on this. Thank you and thanks to everyone who worked so hard on this, and also thanks for putting this here so that many Astro Boy fans can see it!
They should do a colorized re-release! this is beautiful
+jose garcia Thank you for your comment. That was very nice of you.
+atwaterpub Wait, we're you actually part of the project?
I was lead designer. I organized a small team of four designers and we made color models for every shot. Then I sat with the client and got the color models approved. Then the project was animated by the technicians we named as "colorists."
+atwaterpub wow, that's very interesting, does that mean you also got to interact with Tezuka himself during the project? and how long did the process take?
No I did not meet Tezuka. If I remember correctly, the clients were Canadian, and were planning on re-doing the soundtrack. The process was very fast. We spent only a week or two designing all the art stills and getting them approved. Then it probably took a week to animate the entire project on the "production floor" we had 20 work stations or so that were used for animating color mattes.
2:04 the searchlight eyes look so cool! Hi, I'm a humongous Tetsuwan Atom fan... '_'
Now this is the adorable face I always love :)
Thank you
When thinking about it, this could be a great color reference since software can work more quicker these days.
Thank you
Thank you for uploading these 🙏 you guys did a wonderful job! I hope that someday a color version of the old Astro Boy comes about, but even if that is not to be, thank you so much for sharing this with the world 🌎
Thank you for your kind words.
the 1963 astro boy!!😊
This is amazing. Iwish this was picked up and complete more episodes.
Thank you for uploading this
Thank you.
i agree. Too bad...
atwaterpub I know this is of topic question about this amazing colorized version, but what would it look like if it was redrawn colorized?
I don't understand the question. Colorization is just adding color information to a black and white video program that already exists. Unfortunately, this colorization process was unique and cannot really be duplicated today.
atwaterpub
Redrawn colorization is when they have to retraced the original image and add color to the redrawn frame and not the original frame
Let's just the results are mixed.
The thing that made the CST system particularly unique was the fact that the Hue and Saturation values were tied to the gray level. You would have a five point equation where you could set the association values of Hue and Saturation at a specific Gray level. The software would linearly interpolate between these values. This was a MUCH more sophisticated form of colorization than today's digital systems that just basically put a flat wash of color over the area. You have to study the physics of light and the psychology of color perception to fully appreciate this system. It is a tragedy that it no longer exists in any form that I am aware of. The reason this Astro Boy looks good is because the original B+W cartoon filled in the spaces with a ink wash of various gray levels. We used the software at CST to attach specific "colors" (i.e. Hue and Saturation values) to specific gray levels in specific areas of that ink wash.
Damnskippy, My favorite never forgotten hero,from the 1960's,"it's a countdown and a blast off".
Incredible!
Very impressed that you make this full color and that was very awesome and this honestly reminds me of this full color Captain Underpants that you made it from black and white to full color like those books did.
Thanks. It was a whole team of people that did the coloring work.
I liked how you replied to me and by the way do you know what Captain Underpants is?
@@evilduolingobird7780 I confess that I am unfamiliar with the Captain Underpants although I have heard his name before... Sorry.
Well it is about two kids named George and Harold who hypnotized their mean principal Mr. Krupp into Captain Underpants.
He went out to fight crime and defeat Dr. Diaper and they got back to school and poured water on Captain Underpants into Mr. Krupp and when he heard the fingers snap he turns into Captain Underpants.
THIS IS INSANE MY JAWS ON THE FLOOR GOOD JOB
This is great! Thanks for posting! Now, with TODAY'S technology, I would like to see a company colorize wonderful black & white anime that should have been made in color, like Mushi's "Wonder Three"!! Maybe it would be easier to sell, too! (Of course, it would help to sell world-wide with subtitles in several languages, which I realize would add considerable cost.....)
Our first robot hero, Astro Boy!
I like the choice in music
The music was composed specifically for this demo and I met the composer while working on it
OH MYYYYY GAWWWWWD!!! See how cute he looks with blue eyes?? I grew up watching this in black and white (always thought his eyes were blue!! FABULOUS!!! I MUST SEE the other that they've blocked!! WHY for heaven's sake, you can't BUY it any place - right?? You've made a BIG hit over on astroboy online -- I dare say you are the hit of the day!! How sad it can't all be colorized!! THANK YOU!! Great editing too, and the music works extremely well with it.
To quote Peter Griffin; "WHY ARE WE NOT FUNDING THIS?!!"
I do not know. If anyone does produce a colorized series of these original black and white episodes, I would love to work on it.
That would be nice
Sure, "Ted Turner."
Welcome back TO ASTRO BOY SIX YEARS LATERR
Am I the only one noticing that the boots are orange, not red?
Very observant. This was a typical challenge. The Coloring System created a hue and saturation specification to add to the gray levels already present in the image. Since the color Red photographs as the color Black in black and white photography, designers frequently used a Gray color to represent Red in the Black and White image design. Unfortunately, we did not have control to change the gray levels, so the only colors we could make out of a Gray area, in the picture, were Orange or Pink. We chose the color Orange.
We had the same problem in the Shirley Temple movie "Susannah of the Mounties" Randolph Scott was a Canadian Mountie and the director gave him a gray coat to wear for the black and white filming, because a Red color coat would photograph as Black. Unfortunately we were faced with the same problem and were forced to choose between the colors Orange and Pink for his coat color. We choose the color Orange because Randolph Scott just looked silly in a Pink Color Canadian Mountie's coat with a little black hat.
zoppie your not the only one
atwaterpub I think with today's technology, that problem could be fixed.
I think
this looks awesome
This reminds me of how during the actual Japanese run of the series an episode was made in color but it was just one
As I recall that was the Moon Monsters episode
Eso va a ficar encantado
This looks amazing!!!
Thank you. it was a long time ago. The system, the software, the people, the company are all long gone. I am lucky to have saved a copy of this work. Thanks.
atwaterpub That is a shame, but you are right that you have an amazing piece of work right here! Who knows, maybe it could inspire others in some way?
I didn’t think I’d get a response, wow! So cool!
Tezuka would’ve love this if he were still around
Thanks you. We are lucky to have found a rare copy.
This was a test done in 1993, or 1994, to colorize the B+W Astro Boy cartoons. Unfortunately, no agreement was reached for reasons that I do not know. Be sure and check out "Colorization Test - Astro Boy Cartoon"
The trasformer more that meets the eye
8th Man & Gigantor in color please. Cartoon of such definitively need color. The Fleischer Popeye & Betty Boop cartoons of the 1930s maybe not so much, but it's interesting.
Thx for making the anime look better!
I worked on this so many years ago that I barely remember. I am astounded at the huge positive response and only wish we could have actually colorized the entire series. I'd STILL love to work on it, but I doubt that is remotely possible. Thank you for you kind words.
Whoa,is a astroboy of 1960
yes
Good Show.
Thank you
@@atwaterpub Touche' (smile)
Awesome!
Thank you
Bravo! 👏
This look nice
Good job😊🥺 Nice technics🥰🥺
If Astro Boy aired in Living Color on NBC.
Did the colorized Astro Boy cartoon air on tv?
No, it never aired. This was a test to secure funding to colorize the whole series, and the project was never started or completed. Too bad.
This is really nice!
woah
yeah
you were the lead desinger to this!? I am so amazed and impressed! how was it like? did you meet anyone from the tezuka productions? what for was this promo useD?
Thank you. This was along time ago and it was fun to work on this project. Personally, I had seen Astro Boy cartoons as a young boy myself. I did not meet anyone that I can remember their name. The producers handled most of the business arrangements and I concentrated on design. There was a large team of animators that did the actual rotoscoping and colorization work. This was going to be used to get funding to colorize the series and that never happened.
I met the composer and his assistant. They were somehow associated with the producer of this demo. I forget the composers name - sorry.
If you had ended up doing the entire series, would your team had redubbed the show so it falls more in line with the Japanese original, or would it have been like the original dub with cut episodes and the like?
New Age Retro. I do not remember what the intent was. Surprisingly, people are still doing colorization on a small scale, so maybe this might happen some day.
@@Nitroxity NO, NO, No! Leave the English translations just as they were made back in the 1960s under Fred Ladd's supervision. They have a certain charm that the original Japanese does not possess. With them, Fred Ladd brought the series to a higher standard.
Oh god, now I want to see more... how was this even accomplished? Seems like it would be a huge pain in the ass to pull off- kudos, by the way- but oh my gosh, the visuals, and the music, it just gets me all excited for it! Hm, I wonder if all the episodes could be done this way- it would definitely generate interest in the series again. Maybe a new soundtrack could be recorded, as well...? Nah, bad idea.
You know, a few episodes don't even have surviving footage- a crying shame, if you ask me.
GOOD WORK YOU DID
I re-uploaded it and it is still blocked in some countries. Sorry. I suppose I could try reversing the entire video and then uploading it backwards, to see if it passes the censors? Oh well...
POV:when astro is mad
Did this colonization ever get anywhere?
Did you copy the animation or you got the animation cels from Tezuka and recolored it.
This master B + W source was a digitized copy of a high quality video dub of the original master. I do not know how this was obtained but was provided by the client as I remember. I was not privy to the business arrangements or details so most of what I know is "hearsay" facts that I remember.
Do you own the coloring animation cels?
NO. I do not. I just have this dub because I worked on the project. I present it as an historical artifact. It would be fun to actually colorize copies of all the original episodes.
no. This was all done with computers on videotape. This is all I have a copy of.
It looks pretty great, actually. My beef with it is Atom's eye's are supposed to be dark brown, not blue. Though, he /does/ look sort of good with blue eyes...
Sorry, guess we missed that. We tended to use blue eyes if we had no other reference, just because it was a little extra color in the scene.
well done!
Thank you. It was a group effort. I miss working on colorization projects at CST, but CST went bankrupt over 20 years ago. Sometimes things don't get better.
DAMNSKIPPY!
LOVE IT!!!
What's the process for colorizing animation? How different is it from Live Action?
Colorizing a Black and White cartoon is essentially the same process as colorizing Live Action, except you are adding a color signal to a cartoon.
That's cool :-)
Why wouldn’t they realesed this is a piece of beautiful and incredible colorization work it would be amazing to have this realesed officially
Are you still in the animation industry?
this was an interesting experiment because the company which had your company do the colorization tests did not have the rights to Astro Boy and therefore where not legitimate legal tests.
Was this ever released ?
No, it was not. Sorry.
Astro Boy is cute
i want to see episode 1 un color just imagine how would it be
Sorry, I do not have a copy
just turn the color off on your monitor and watch
I investigate and i found out that jetter Mars was gonna a colorization of the 1963 series but problems Whit the license made it cancel it
TEZUKA PRO SHOULD SEE THIS -- hint, hint!!
a lot better than CN's attempts with the Popeye shorts
Thank you.
Because they used computers for colorization like every B&W Looney Tunes shorts.
Was this computer colrized?
Yes and no. This was colorized on video using a digitally controlled analog color adder that created an analog color video signal added to an analog black and white video signal. Aside:
You may remember that an old fashioned NTSC TV signal was actually a color video signal and a black and white video signal that were added together for transmission broadcast.
how did you color this
ASTRO’s EYES ARE BLUE !!!!!!!!!!!
I think that was either an artifact of the gray scale, a lack of precision, or just a plain old mistake.
This phenomenon represent one of the challenges of the old style of colorization. There are three components to a color 1. Hue, 2. Saturation, 3. Gray level. The CST colorization system added Hue and Saturation to the existing Gray Level in the black and white video. In this case of the Blue Eyes, the gray level corresponding to the Iris is very light gray. The only color we could make it were either pinkish-red or tan yellow. There was NO WAY to make it BROWN without changing the inherent gray level of the shot (which we did nt do). Therefore we were left with an artistic problem: "What color to make the eyes when it is not technically possible to create the correct color?" In the rest of the Black and White movie -- the shots of Astro Boy are drawn with no Iris and this is not an issue.
Any updates on this project??
no. this is ancient history from 30 years ago.
Its real?
yes it is...
@@atwaterpub good grief...how get this video?
@@comic_zeab This youtube channel is the only place on Earth where you can see this video... You cannot get it anywhere else...
No, osamu colored this, NOT THE OWNER OF THE VID
Tiffany Parker Those allegations are patently false and incorrect. It was a long time ago. I was the lead designer and a team of almost twenty colorization artists completed the work. I was proud to work on this project and it is posted here as tribute to the artists involved. I also post it as another example of a complex colorization technique that no longer exists because times change and software becomes obsolete.
2:00 wtf
colorized versión of 1963 anime
Yes. It was a test. Unfortunately the project was never green lit and now nothing remains except this video.
how found this?
Joaquin Diaz I worked on it. I was the Art Director of Colorization.
I'd LOVE to - CZcams has blocked it! Can you believe it? EEERRRGGGGG! Go to astroboy online and look for me - AprilSeven - we've got to see this (we're a bunch of Astro Geeks what can I tell you?!) The music sounds like John Williams! XD
This looks soo ugly i cant
Too bad....