Sharpness levels question

[killerteengohan]

I have this source where all of the black lines or everything black looks really super sharp, while the colors are perfect or kind of soft looking.

I have been using blur(0.2) to soften the black lines, but it also blurs the colors or overall picture even more. A chroma sharpener helps some, but you can certainly tell the difference that adding in that blur filter is giving even with the chroma sharpener.

Is there a way to soften only the black lines up or black colors and leave everything else alone?

Is there an avisynth tool that helps you to see if you have an oversharpened source to begin with??

[poisondeathray]

I have this source where all of the black lines or everything black looks really super sharp, while the colors are perfect or kind of soft looking.

I have been using blur(0.2) to soften the black lines, but it also blurs the colors or overall picture even more. A chroma sharpener helps some, but you can certainly tell the difference that adding in that blur filter is giving even with the chroma sharpener.

Is there a way to soften only the black lines up or black colors and leave everything else alone?

Is there an avisynth tool that helps you to see if you have an oversharpened source to begin with??

One way might be to use a line mask, expand+feather the mask and apply the blur/soften filter through that mask so only the areas around the lines are affected

[killerteengohan]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not too experienced with using masks though. I've only ever used a mask once that I can recall and someone on here set it up for me. Would you mind helping me set up the mask? I would appreciate it.



In the softer one, the black looks easier on my eyes, but it makes everything else look worse to me.

[killerteengohan]

If it helps any, I have another set of screenshots

[Brad]

I have this source where all of the black lines or everything black looks really super sharp, while the colors are perfect or kind of soft looking.

Both source screenshots look soft to me.

[killerteengohan]

I have this source where all of the black lines or everything black looks really super sharp, while the colors are perfect or kind of soft looking.

Both source screenshots look soft to me.

Overall perhaps, but its the black lines that I find to look too sharp or maybe even too strong in darkness. I like the way they look better, when the entire picture is blurred a little. They just don't look so strong or sharp afterwards. Maybe the blur lightens the black color a bit? I don't know why, but I like the blurred version of the black lines better, just not the overall picture after its done. Thats why I was asking about a way to soften only the black lines or the color black in general.

[jagabo]

Something like:

ImageSource("Source Sharpness.png", start=0, end=23, fps=23.976) 
ConvertToYV12()
src=last

bmask = Sharpen(1.0).mt_binarize(25).mt_inpand().Blur(1.0).Blur(1.0).Blur(1.0).GreyScale()
Overlay(Blur(1.0), last, mask=bmask)
Interleave(src,last,bmask)

Some of the lines aren't very dark. So, in building the brightness mask, I used Sharpen(1.0) to darken the lines a bit first. Then mt_binarize is used to create the basic mask, inpand() to thicken the black lines, and blur() to antialias. The final GreyScale() isn't really needed (only the luma channel is used by Overlay()) but it make the mask more obvious for later viewing. I used a higher blur() value to make the result more obvious. Use whatever value you want. Play around with the mt_binarize() value to get the coverage you want. The higher you set the value the more stuff becomes black. Of course, all dark areas will become blurred.

Another way to approach this is to use mt_edge() to create the mask instead of mt_binarize(). That way only edges will be blurred.

[poisondeathray]

I don't know if that approach suggested earlier will do what you really want; I agree with vaporeon it's already blurry . "sharpness" is really local contrast around lines. So blurring globally vs. blurring only area around the lines won't make that much of a difference. So it's not really clear to me that approach would help going by your description and those screenshots. Another way to think of it is : what areas are "damaged" by your global blur that aren't located around lines ? Can you point that out ? Because in this type of cartoon art style, every boundary is demarcated by a line .

But can use one of the line darkeners as a mask function. For example hysteria(showmask=true) . You would use mask tools functions to expand, or blur to feather. Once you have the mask you can use overlay or mt_merge with the mask and your filtered version

If you want to filter by dark or bright levels (e.g. some range of dark areas might get filtered preferentially) , you could use the lumamask function , or masktools mt_binarize if you want a hard cutoff to generate the mask. Again that doesn't really jive with your description and those screenshots.

[poisondeathray]

e.g. using hysteria as a base function with some expanding and blurring to soften . The areas in 100% white will be the areas where you apply the filters to . All 100% black areas will be unfiltered. You would adjust it as you see fit, it's just a quick example

hysteria(showmask=true)
mt_expand(4, u=-128,v=-128)
mt_binarize(150)
binomialblur(3)

Here is an amplified difference between your two screenshots of original and global blur. Notice the similarities ? Your "global" blur basically blurred the same areas anyways. My point is for this type of cartoon style, that approach won't make a huge difference. But you can play with masks, it's a good learning exercise, and learning about manipulating masks could be useful in the future for other projects

[killerteengohan]

I'm afraid I don't 100% understand how that mask is used.

I do not want my video coming out all black and white. I realize that's just showing the mask, but when I remove them to get the colors and normal view back, the mask is no longer in the script?? It's not being used if it's removed.

Was that not a mask and just a way to see what a mask would filter? Or was mt_expand(4) the mask?

[killerteengohan]

Another way to think of it is : what areas are "damaged" by your global blur that aren't located around lines ? Can you point that out ? Because in this type of cartoon art style, every boundary is demarcated by a line .

Are you saying that using Blur(0.2) is damaging a lot of things and not just softening the video some?

[TimA-C]

I'm sorry, but I'd say stop making unnecessary work for yourself and just enjoy the vids. To my eyes there's so little difference in the examples you've posted that I wouldn't bother. In the same vein, if you need an avisynth tool to tell you if your source is oversharpened . . . then . . . (really?) . . . I'm guessing it's probably OK?

[pandy]

Apply filter only to luma plane, this should also improve speed marginally.

Instead blur you may try to use some antialiasing filter.

[poisondeathray]

I'm afraid I don't 100% understand how that mask is used.

I do not want my video coming out all black and white. I realize that's just showing the mask, but when I remove them to get the colors and normal view back, the mask is no longer in the script?? It's not being used if it's removed.

Was that not a mask and just a way to see what a mask would filter? Or was mt_expand(4) the mask?

You asked help with generating the mask.

You need to be able to "see" the mask in order to know how to adjust it. You might have to adjust the parameters for other sources or scenes. You might want to feather the mask more etc... or maybe you want bright lines only etc.... For masks, areas in 100% white will be 100% applied. 50% white will only be 50% applied . 0% white (100% black) will only show the original (ie. unfiltered)

Apply the filter through the mask with overlay or mt_merge



e.g

original = whateversource()

original
#YOUR FILTERS HERE
filtered=last

original
hysteria(showmask=true)
mt_expand(4, u=-128,v=-128)
mt_binarize(150)
binomialblur(3)
mymask=last

overlay(original, filtered, mask=mymask)

Another way to think of it is : what areas are "damaged" by your global blur that aren't located around lines ? Can you point that out ? Because in this type of cartoon art style, every boundary is demarcated by a line .

Are you saying that using Blur(0.2) is damaging a lot of things and not just softening the video some?

I'm saying it's already mostly targeting areas around dark lines. The black areas in amplified difference indicates no (or very little) difference in your screenshots . The areas that are affected are.... the dark lines. So you're not going to get much difference applying blur through a dark line mask vs. globally.