In this video, we journey to the Island of Kiyoshi as Aang and the GAang stop by to ride the Koi fish before getting met with the giant Unagi. I had a lot of fun remastering these scenes and I hope you have just as much fun watching!
Hey!! I directed this episode and personally storyboarded these shots! It’s so cool to see you revisit these scenes! I really like the wide screen and now kinda wish the whole series got this treatment!! Thank you for this!! So well done!!
@GiancarloVolpe My brother and I still look for you and your wife every time in line at the Monster's Inc ride at Disneyland hoping to run into you again. It's something we mention to friends as we introduce them to the series.
ik this is a joke, but just in case the kids on youtube cant tell this is a joke... Dan Schneider and his entourage are in NO WAY associated with nick animations, so people believing the show is showing aang/toph/iroh/zuko's feet as fetish content, are incorrect. thx for coming to my ted talk
I find this idea fascinating, and the video is definitely entertaining. However, I wouldn't consider adapting Avatar: The Last Airbender to a widescreen aspect ratio an improvement. The series was meticulously crafted in 4:3, and the creators intentionally designed the composition, framing, and blocking for that format. Changing it to widescreen could disrupt the visual storytelling and the intended impact of each scene. The original aspect ratio is part of what makes the show visually unique and compelling. While it's interesting to see how it might look in widescreen, the essence and artistic vision of the show are best preserved in its original 4:3 format -- in my opinion at least
@@MrHandyBlock I agree, black bars shouldn't distract you, you should be looking at the action. The animators framed the shots how they wanted to show everything. All this project really does is add in extra background space that doesn't really contribute to the shot. it makes scenes look unnaturally open and empty, when they might not have been intended to be this way.
@@MrHandyBlock So much word soup to say "it's not simple" and end up (unintentionally?) discrediting the artist in this video when they did really well just from what you mentioned alone.
I really hope there is a 30th anniversary remastered release of the entire Avatar series. With this kind of dedication to frame it in widescreen. I would 100% buy it!
On the katara and sokka spacing thing - I think you made the right call spacing them out. They do look a little far apart though, for next time a cheat you could try is resizing them to be slightly bigger as well, so their heads take up more space, and it looks like the camera is just closer to them, and then the wider gap feels more natural in relation
GODDAMN ! I've been working in the animation industry for 15 years, and seeing you adding all these complementary animations basically by brute forcing them in is fascinating ! Really well done, man. Especially if you're telling me you're not actually a pro, that's forcing the respect ! And yes, as a pro, I can tell, you made a lot of great calls. Splitting Sokka and Katara further apart to fit better the 16/9 composition was absolutely the right decision (if it was me, I would have kept them just a tiiiiny smidge closer, to get a perfectly balanced triangle with Aang within the frame, but yours was already 90% there), and the way you pushed Aang to the left when he's on the Koi's back waving at Katara was also absolutely the good decision. The only one I would have a gripe with is at the overview reveal of Unagi, that you also pushed to the left. This one I would have kept it centered, since Unagi was kind of the main focus point of the shot. But other than that, all your other choices all made sense, and it was a pure joy to watch. Well done ! And looking forward to see what else you're gonna come up with in the future !
I thought the same about the unagi scene, it would have required a bit more effort on the mointains to the left but it zooming out from the center definitely works for the reveal better
Amazing. This needs to attract attention so that a team can be put together to make it for the whole show. If you're not looking for it, it's seamless. As mentioned by someone else, you missed some frames at 14:50 but thats means nothing compared to the amount of work you're putting on this. Congrats again.
@@sky0kast0 No, you have to draw the missing parts from top and bottom) And you can keep upscaling 16x9 -> 4x3 -> 16x9 -> 4x3 -> ... until we get 360 degree view)
100% better decision to have moved the Aang on the koi facing the camera scene a little bit rather than leaving it tucked on the left side! Also, I think your spacing of Sokka and Katara is ok, maybe they could be just a little bit closer. Oh, and I am thinking a good effect you could add to the scene of Aang beaming a smile to Katara is to have it pan slightly to the left, so his smile becomes the main focus as you see that scene; try it out with the new camera pan feature you found and see how it looks! Otherwise, I think your waterbending-painting skills are greatly improving!! Keep up the great work!
Really good work, I can’t tell anymore what’s the new stuff at just a glance. In the future, I would recommend getting a rule of thirds grid on a separate layer. When you are choosing where to slide the original scene, put the focus of the shot in one of the thirds of the image. It’s not a set in stone rule, but it generally makes a lot of compositions look really good. There are definitely going to be shots where the focus of the shot should be in the center of the frame. I agree with the changes you made to the scenes where you separated sokka and katana a bit and the fish riding scene where you slid it a bit to the right.
On 14:13, I feel like it doesn't need to move the camera anymore. That movement feels a little bit like an artifact from the former resolution. But otherwise and overall, as always, absolutely incredible!!
Seeing this thumbnail I was so scared it was gonna be an AI “I made it widescreen” thing but THANK GOD you’re actually giving the show the effort it deserves!!!
To be fair, I saw one video where someone used an AI first, but then manually touched it up (goal was to remove an object from a video though for a meme). His conclusion was that if he discounts the 'learning how to do it in the first place'-time it probably saved him a bit, but not that much time. The thing he liked though is that the time saved was completely in the most 'boring' part of the job.
Human made stuff wont stop being fun, but AI is only going to get better and there’s nothing you can do about it, I suggest making your peace with that.
@@terdragontra8900 I do not care about the quality, and the ethical questions about “is it really art” is pointless, reductive, and tries to define art which is a tactic that is not typically used by good people (see: Who’s Afraid of Modern Art by Jacob Geller) What I do care about is the cost. Not the monetary cost, but the other things - the ones we all have to pay. The water it consumes to keep the systems cool. The materials it uses to exponentially scale the way it has to to get marginally better. The electricity it burns through to give the output it gives, which only goes up, and is typically NOT renewable energy - making an even bigger hit on the climate. These are the important things, the actual danger. Nothing this generative AI could EVER do is truly worth the cost. But rich people have invested too much into it at this point - they can’t just let it die. It’s the sunk cost fallacy. That’s the real danger with AI, and why everyday users need to stand up against it and BE VOCAL about it.
@@terdragontra8900 I posted a pretty well thought out reply to you but I think it got automodded? Which is annoying because it took me a while. Anyways in summary, it’s not about the quality: it’s about the environmental cost required to get something of that mediocre quality, and how that grows exponentially with every marginal improvement. It’s simply not worth it, and it never will be.
@@darksentinel082 That strikes me as a strange reason to hate AI, the fact it’s going to upheave human society and inevitably overpower us seems like a bigger deal to me??
I love watching this series and seeing what you are doing - thank you so much for keeping it going! PS, I think you missed a couple of frames at 14:50 when Aang gets flung from the Koi Fish. Just thought you'd like to know. Everything looks amazing you do so well at matching the style of the original, making everything so seamless!
Just wanted to say absolutely have been loving this series and I’m always excited to see when another one comes out, keep it up! I’m just hoping once we got to like episode 500 of doing this whoops you did the whole show
These scenes look fantastic, amazing work! The decision to move Katara, Sokka and the cliffs was perfect considering the new aspect ratio. I love to see how you solve the problems that arise in each of these videos.
You're getting so much better. This is amazing! There were visible borders of the original shot in the first scenes you did in this series, but now it's perfect. I'm glad you're still going. I love this project, thank you.
this is for sure the best one so far, i purposfully skipped to the end to see what it looked like without knowing what you actually drew and you can pretty much not see it in a lot of parts
I love these videos more and more not only because of how much of a handle you are getting on the animation but also with how much intention you put into the new framing and composition. I was initally skeptical with an idea like this when i saw your first video because I was worried about everything looking off with just extra nothing on the edges but you've proved me so wrong and have added to these scenes in a way where they just make sense in 16:9. Its fantastic.
this is so great, it looks exactly as i would imagine the series to look like if it got an actual remaster and dude you've improved so much, previously there was a slight difference between what you drew and the animation and if one knew where to look it looked a bit weird but this one's perfect especially you changing all those things to better suit the 16:9 aspect ratio
2 things you could try in the future 1. You don't have to start with the original frame always in the middle or all the way to the right or all the way to the left. You can just place it a little bit to the left or a little bit to the right. 2. You don't have to commit on just expanding the same side for the entire scene. If there is a panning shot you can just have the camera be a little faster or slower during the panning than the original shot. That way, it's possible to have a character go all the way from left to right or vice versa. (In case that was too hard to understand, imagine you place the original frame on the left side of the scene, which means you would need to expand the right, but by the end of the scene the original frame is all the way to the right side of the screen. To do that, first the scene would need to have a side by side panning camera. If the camera is going from left to right, you can speed up the camera movement, but if it's going from right to left you just need to slow down the camera.) Trust me, both of these will break up the 4:3 feeling wayyy more than you think.
In fact in animation that's not the same persons that starts and finishes the drawings, some are dedicated to background, others to motion, colors, with a control quality between each steps, all relies on the main storyboard so they can extend a scene with tricks. It's very visible in the tournament of power of DBS, they designed the scene in 3D first then produced tons of background with it, so all the animations when the stadium is build was in fact a trick to gain time using what they did in 3D, then in the combat they had sets of rocks in each direction to simplify the process, the fact the stadium is a circle in the void is also a trick to forget where people are inside of it. In Avatar they probably designed a map of every locations before anything else, as it's very important to know how far the characters are from each other in the plot. In big studios they even have one specialist for each 2D character. They draw the main keyframes then others complete the motion, in avatar there is probably specialist of fire, water, smoke, as they only do that they work faster and better. I've seen how they copy famous painting in China, each person as only 1 color and 1 brush, the first put a little of color, then give the painting to the next one, at the end you get an original paiting that looks like the original, its like a factory but at the end all painting looks amazing with not special talent in each step, they simply put the color at the same place everytime, all day, anyone could do it. So I suppose working in animation is sometimes a bit like that too. But you need talented people to produce "new things", but then you realize all artists use part the work of others in their creation, in Avatar they used the Asian style for the building and clothes, they didn't inventend everything, that's what art is, everytime you do some art you add a piece to everything, it means you are limited by what already existed before and you create new things with old things, that's why it's amazing and timeless.
More often than not you have companies release auto-cropped 16:9 "remasters" of old content with a shitty upscale and no regard for composition, grain, color balance or any sort of creative process that goes into crafting these experiences. Worst of all, you have fans calling for that sort of treatment being done to other old shows. I went into this video thinking it'd just be another uninformed fan cropping and upscaling video, but man was I pleasantly surprised! Amazing work, it's so refreshing to see someone understand the needs of a composition and how to approach converting a shot from 4:3 to 16:9. Of course I understand why these sorts of remasters don't exist; Money, it's expensive as hell to do this for a full series and would likely never be profitable, but nevertheless, it was amazing to see this. Really great work. -A fellow Animator
dude you are such an artist!! The level of commitment to reproduce someone elses work to this level is geniunely a beautiful testament to your enjoyment of the show
Bro I remember your first remastered video. I thought it's just a one time thing, never thought you still do it till now lol, I respect your dedication man, it must have been really tough
If you move Sokka and Katara further back like they're closer to camera, they can remain the same distance apart while appearing closer. It might also have the effect of making the audience feel like we're witnessing Aang's antics alongside them, as opposed to from a distance.
2:15 I like the wiiide feeling this scene gives me, but as you say it also feels like those two being a bit too far apart. Maybe shift both of them together slightly to the left, so that Katara is just looking from behind Aang's left arm? So They stand together, Katara glancing at Aang from directly behind, and Momo jumping into the scene from right. Also, this would create some focus around Aang and Katara :3
P.S.: restroviewing your work and critisizing it during the vid is a really nice treat, that not as much artists have, as we would like to :) You're doing really professional work there!
The first episode showed up in my algorithm I watched then I subbed. What you are doing is so awesome and dare I say unique. It’s really cool that you’re doing this to teach yourself. I can’t wait to see where this project, and channel go. :D
In your first episodes of this series I thought the idea was a bit rough in execution but it was really cute and I enjoyed it. Now in this episode I officially can say I can't really tell the difference between your additions and the original. You're not only getting way more comfortable with matching the show's art style, but your decision to change the composition of the shots is really paying off in making this feel like a proper 16:9 conversion compared to your simple fill-ins earlier on Also that camera tool is gonna be killer for you in being able to make the composition fit a 16:9 aspect ratio, you're no longer constrained to the camera movements of the original show!
"And I know I need to practice more to improve" And that's why this video looks so good. This is a fantastic job for just ONE animator. First time seeing one of your videos. Now I can dream of someday putting ATLA to my kids in 4k. ATLA means so much to me, growing up without a father ATLA gave me so many good father figures (speciall mention to Iroh since he's MORE than a biological dad was to Zuko) that I could really say I'm the person I am today in part thanks to this series. Thank you so much for the video.
I immediately thought that Sokka and Katara could have stood a bit closer together.. Do like real life and stay away from extremes. You have gotten better. At this rate, when I see the finished scenes, I completely forget that you altered them, they seem natural and your additions blend very well. As always, the best work is the work you don't notice. One more tip for your posture. If you notice yourself leaning over your desk closer to your screen, you need glasses or better glasses. BUT just pull the screen closer to your face. I always had back pain at a desktop pc until I bought my first own one last year and it was like, duh
Looks great, I like how you moped katara and sokka out of the center. You forget to draw aang when he is falling from the koi. As always you did an Amazing Work. I have no idea from where you take the time and energy to do this.
Might get hate for this but you missed a section for a few frames of Aang initialy getting flung off the koi fish, just before the cut to the next scene where he lands in the water. Other than that though I can not tell the difference in quality between your work and the show.
Yeah i almost didn't click bc i thought it was going to be a sloppy ai widescreen. I definitely didn't expect someone to actually animate over the original series. Impressive work
I think changing the composition of certain scenes was a great move! it uses the frame to aid the sense of scale and feels more like it could have been made in 16:9 originally
I think your choice to move the frame a bit to the center was good! A lot of the original shots were more centered than the remastered ones, and while yours look great as well, the fact that you noticed when one of them didn't look quite right and worked to fix it definitely helped
For the past few months I've loved watching you remaster the original Avater, as well as seeing you learn from every new animation challenge you've faced like the fire and water elements. I subscribed after getting your first Avatar remastered video in my feed, and I hope that making this video series helps you grow in ways you couldn't have imagined before! I sincerly look forward to watching your future content, I hope that once you've completed what you're satifisfied with (even the whole show lol), that you'll come back to these and show us everything you've learned and how far you've come :)
Tbh I thought remastering it meant increasing the resolution (like the fidelity and blurriness) not just adding on to the edges, but this was still really impressive and watching you animate was cool. There were a few scenes where the motion lines stopped abruptly where you added but it came out really well!
I love this series and watch every episode as soon as it comes out! Incredible work as always! For the sokka and Katara standing too close and then too far apart issue - that stood out to me too, and I think in a widescreen format, the "camera" placement for the composition would be a little lower down and closer to them so they fill out the screen, and frame Aang through them. So practically, rather than just moving them apart, I'd scale them up too, and raise them up so it looks like you're seeing Aang through them rather than above them. By scaling them up, it fills out the spaces to the side, adds space in the center, while also keeps Katara's and Sokka's spacing more natural. EDIT: On second thought, I'm not sure if this would be doable without redrawing Sokka and Katara completely, as it's not just the additional portion of them you'd have to draw at the bottom but the perspective might not look right if you just shifted the image up as is. But hope this at the least helps with some new ideas of how to play around with the composition to cater to the aspect ratio!
moving katara and sokka a bit apart was definiteIy the right move, l think they take up a nice amount of screen now this series continues being my dream come true, to see such a niche project being done so weII! aIso, usuaIIy l think the shots where you move the image to the Ieft or the right can Ieave a bit too much negative space, but in this video _none of them_ had that probIem they aII just added to the widescreen. l think that's down to your own darn good stiII-upgrading skiII! whether you continue doing more in the future or stop here, you've made me beyond happy 😌👍
I think what you had done was perfectly fine but, since you asked, what you could have done was enlarge Sokka and Katara, separate them just a bit and maybe even crop the bodies at the bottom slightly in order to fill the space more. Really enjoying these videos and your execution is perfect.
I think the choices you made to the layout of these scenes really works! My main concern with Sokka and Katara was how Aang looks between them, but it's still reasonable that he can glance at their new positions. As for Aang on the koi, the second one looks better because Aang's center of gravity is in line with the Golden Rule (aka 2/3 rule). The original framing was fine, because Aang's face was on that 2/3 line, which did make him the focus of the shot. But the new one draws more attention to the action of the scene by emphasizing his pose and action line rather than simply his expression. (Also the extra blue framing the fuller koi fin gives more room to breathe and has a greater color contrast.)
very cool! it was very painful to see you manually add screenshake, when you could do camera tracking in after effects and get it perfectly, but awesome job. would be so cool to see this as a full official project
