Friends who are looking for animated picture quality will pay attention to the resolution of the animation source. For example, an animated video site such as B station will generally provide various resolutions such as 480p, 720p, 1080p to meet the needs of different audiences.Many of my friends don’t know that when Japanese animation was produced, it was not made with these resolutions. What are the stages in the development of Japanese animation production and what changes have they experienced?

What is the production resolution of the animation?

Just mentioned, animations published on the Internet generally have multiple resolutions for viewers to choose from, while Japanese TV stations broadcast with 1080i signals, but cartoons are not made with 1080i specifications. Most cartoons have their own native resolution. This native resolution is not absolutely stipulated, it may be 720p, it may be 800p, it may be 955p, and the size is different. The finished film is sent to the TV station for broadcast, or broadcast to the Internet operator. It will be processed, enlarged or reduced to the required size. Once the image is enlarged or reduced, there will be losses, so we will see The animations that arrive are not original animations, and the quality of the images is somewhat polluted

Not uniform production resolution, losing the “original taste”.

Some animated films produced by individuals, such as the “Your name” supervised by Xin Haicheng in 2016. “, or some of the films produced by Miyazaki Hayao, the most famous animator in Japan, will use 1080p resolution in order to pursue the best viewing effect, so that the best results can be obtained by broadcasting in 1080p HD theater..

Unfortunately, Japanese TV animation, considering the cost of production, time, there will be very few works with native 1080p resolution. There are only a handful of TV animations made in native 1080p

Just now, the author also mentioned that the resolutions of different companies and different works are not uniform, but Blu-ray and TV stations have their own specifications, which leads to the animation, whether it is pressed into Blu-ray or broadcast on TV. It is inevitable that the loss of information will be lost, that is, the lack of image quality, so as long as it is not 1080p production, even if you buy Blu-ray, you can’t see the closest picture quality

DVD era, the golden age of dominating Japanese animation.

So there are friends to ask, now using Blu-ray, but there is no Blu-ray in the past, TV stations do not have HD programs, then what resolution is used as a standard for Japanese animation? Good question, we went back to the DVD era of Japanese cartoons. When the signal standard of the past TV station was only 480i, there was a standard for Japanese animation production, that is, 480i. The DVD storage standard is also 480i, so the 480i DVD package animation, but achieved the “optimal picture quality.” The DVD era can be said to have dominated the most golden period of Japanese animation development. From the 1990s to 2007, there were animations with high-definition standards. In the past 10 years, DVDs have been the main medium

“The era of simulation”, an era of “save back”.

Going forward again, in the early 90s, in the 80s, and even earlier in the 1970s, there was no computer to make animations at that time. What is the resolution of the animation? It was an era in which animation was also made with celluloid. The animation was painted on a transparent celluloid film and then photographed in a physical way. There are roughly two kinds of film used in that era. 35CM film is generally used in animated movies. If it is measured by the current standard, its corresponding resolution is 1080p. There is also a 16CM film, which is now standard. To measure, its corresponding resolution is 480p. In theory, the film can be continuously enlarged, but the information that the actual film can store is limited

But because of the analog method, it was only in the digital age that it was “save back.”

As long as the animation company can also find the film that recorded the animation at that time, and then use the modern scanning method to restore the image recorded by the film digitally, in theory, it can reach the high-definition level of the current production. With this technology, early celluloid animations in the 80s and even the 70s can be restored in high-definition. It is precisely because of the relationship between film and film, these animations have the opportunity to see the sky in high-definition.

The digital age is opening, an era of “unrecoverable”.

The real tragedy is not the decades of celluloid animation, but the beginning of the 21st century, when Japanese animation began to use digital standards to create animations. At that time, digital animation was much more efficient than analog production, so Japan began to make digital animations. The initial standard was 480p resolution, and the master tape produced at that time was also included in the standard of 480p. Unlike the film, the film recorded not the resolution of the animation, but after recording the information of the image with resolution, it became Unrecoverable and inelastic

Because the recording of digital signals can’t be pulled up and down without loss, the record is 480p, then how can it be 480p, even if it is pulled up to 1080p, the original details of the animation can’t be improved. The original sharpness is also limited, so the fuzzy, or fuzzy, even with the algorithm to adjust, can be improved is only a perception, the quality of the image itself can not improve. This is a revolution in the digital age for the resolution of animation, which is both innovation, but also a “disaster.”

Therefore, the animations of the early 21st century that you can find now, as long as they are not made by analog, but blurred from the digital source, can’t make it HD now, unless it’s time-consuming and labor-intensive. Frame repair, but that’s not as thorough as redrawing

And Japanese animation began to adopt the 720p HD standard, starting from 2007. The animations during the period from 1995 to 2007, as long as the non-simulated works, all suffered, the quality of the picture was locked at 480p

The future of the 4K era? Maybe I can’t come late.

Then a friend asked, 1080p is now obsolete, 4K resolution is coming, and I saw “your name.” “The 4K version is sold. Is the 4K era of cartoons coming?” Unfortunately, the answer is no

There is currently no Japanese hand-drawn animation with a resolution of 4K. There are many reasons. One is the hand-painted drawing precision, which is the physical fineness of the pencil tip. Scanning to the computer is not a vector, so the resolution has its limit. Even if it is painted on a computer, there is a limitation of resolution. Your Painting can not be infinitely magnified, because the production mode of Japanese animation is produced without vector drawing;

Then there is the limit of funding and time. When your production resolution is increased by a multiple, the time required for computer rendering needs to be several times, and the requirements for the configuration of the computer will increase instantaneously. Therefore, it is very regrettable that the original 4K era of hand-drawn animations cannot be expected at least in recent years

Instead, use the analog production method to abandon the computer to complete the “photography” step. When the photography is completed and then use the computer to make it, there is a theoretical way to make a 4K resolution native animation, but unfortunately, celluloid The embarrassing era is gone