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Video-related feedback (intro, Sonic Team logo, FMV cutscenes)

Created by: DisapprovingOwl

@PiKeyAr - So, as promised, here's my first crack at recreating the DC intro from the highest-quality elements we have available. First up, here's a ZIP containing the combined movie (Sonic Team logo + intro) with fades between the two sections as a PNG sequence:

Combined version with fades - https://we.tl/Zz0Ct3uqko

Secondly, these ZIPs contain the Sonic Team logo/intro as separate PNG sequences with no baked-in fades - thought I'd better supply these in case you'd prefer to combine them and add fades yourself, or in case you're able to make the game use separate movies with no fades for these in future.

Sonic Team logo (no fades) - https://we.tl/WZBwHHcFRK Intro (no fades) - https://we.tl/ddiKJd3d8s

(Note: Unfortunately the links above are temporary WeTransfer links as I have nowhere to upload these properly, so please grab them in the next 7 days before the links expire...!)

Thought a log of what's been done/changed might also be useful, so here goes!

Please note, all shots not on the following list are sourced from the GC intro, which seems to win over PC cutscenes quality wise aside from the cropping - many of these have had to be slightly retimed to match the DC intro exactly, but the changes were so minor it wasn't worth adding them to the list. Timecodes in the list below reference the combined version with baked-in fades.

The few DC-sourced bits have been upscaled horizontally in Photoshop using the Preserve Detail 2.0 algorithm, which should hopefully help match them in better with any GC/PC sourced shots.

  • 00:06:22 - Station Square skyline - mix of DC (first segment with just clouds - useful if we need a version with no fades in future) GC (starting with pan down to buildings) and PC Super Sonic cutscene (to restore the crossfade into the next shot)
  • 00:16:16 - Station Square shot 1 - PC Super Sonic cutscene
  • 00:18:22 - Station Square shot 2 - PC Super Sonic cutscene
  • 00:21:08 - Station Square shot 3 - PC Super Sonic cutscene during crossfade from previous shot, mixing to GC intro afterwards for best possible quality.
  • 00:24:00 - Station Square shot 4 - GC intro, though I've added an extra white flash effect at 00:26:16 to match the DC version.
  • 00:32:27 - "Sonic Adventure" logo - DC intro (obviously! = P)
  • 00:47:09 - Building/tidal wave shot 2 - Starts off as GC intro and crossfades throughout shot to PC cutscene. This now exactly matches the DC shot.
  • 01:07:02 - Angel Island shot 2 - DC intro, with highlight detail overlaid from PC cutscene (retimed to match DC intro) on the short section where no extra blurring/effects are visible, in order to restore additional horizontal resolution where possible. The rest has enough blurring/extra effects applied that the quality difference isn't noticeable.
  • 01:10:03 - Egg Carrier/Station Square shot - DC intro for the transition effect, PC cutscene thereafter (retimed to match DC intro), intercut with GC intro for the quick cuts back to the forest scene. The transition section is slightly lower quality than GC as a result, but it's thankfully very short so not noticeable in motion - once that's over, the rest of the clip is now HQ and exactly matches the section used in the DC intro.
  • 01:12:26 - Two-frame cut to black added here to match the DC intro. Unsure if this was an error in the original DC version - I can replace them with white frames if preferred.
  • 01:16:25 - Tails shot - A complex one, this: Tails is from the DC intro at all times, matted onto the higher-quality background from the GC intro (modified slightly to mimic a missing fog effect at start of the shot). Once the water bursts out from the windows, this gradually transitions to the full DC shot just before the flash/zoom effect, as after this point the camera angle and effects differ significantly from the GC version. Hopefully the fast movement of Tails and the rushing water should help hide any quality difference, especially when combined with the HQ GC background at the start of the shot.
  • 01:29:00 - Gamma shot - Another complex one, and probably the shot I'm most pleased with overall. The GC version has problems and lacks vertical resolution, almost like it's been accidentally run through a deinterlacing process. This meant that as well as retiming the shot to match the faster DC version, I also had to interlace fields from both the upscaled DC and GC versions, to preserve the better vertical resolution of the DC shot while gaining added horizontal resolution from GC. Thankfully this seems to have worked and, after some trial and error, I was able to create a proper HQ version of this shot from both sources. Short of having the original source, this is probably the best looking version of this shot we can get!
  • 01:36:20 - Water droplet quick-cut 1 - Replaced the first frame of this shot with a repeat of the second to match the DC intro. I'm unsure if this was an error or a creative change by the original devs due to the combination of fast motion and quick cuts in this sequence - I can revert it to match the GC intro if preferred.
  • 01:37:12 - Water droplet quick-cut 2 - Replaced the first frame of this shot with a repeat of the second to match the DC intro. As above, I'm unsure if this was an error or a creative change by the original devs due to the combination of fast motion and quick cuts in this sequence - I can revert it to match the GC intro if preferred.
  • 01:46:09 - Gamma quick-cut - GC intro, but with the better-looking "102" from the DC version overlaid onto it.
  • 01:52:27 - Final shot of Perfect Chaos - Everything after the negative transition effect has been recreated using PC Super Sonic cutscene, in order to mimic the timing/freeze frame seen in the DC intro. It's not a 100% match, as during the GC intro's transition to the negative effect Chaos' movements and the transition itself are both timed slightly differently to DC - the only way to solve this would be to remake the transition too, and I wasn't confident I'd be able to 100% match the DC version if I attempted this. For now, I've got as close to DC as is possible using the DX GC/PC assets, and have made sure the freeze-frame is reached with timing matching the DC version. The hue of the negative effect has also been tweaked to better match DC, which is more orange/purple compared to DX's blue/pink.
  • 01:55:09 - Ends on single black frame same as original DC intro - I can change this to an additional frame of the freeze-frame of Perfect Chaos' eye if preferred.

For the full version with fades, I matched the timing for the start of each section to your previous version so that the audio track from your previous version should match up timing-wise. This means there's an additional frame of black at the start, which was hidden by the fade-in on your version, and a few frames gap between the Sonic Team logo and the start of the intro itself. Note that the combined movie is marginally longer than your original version - this is due to matching the intro to the DC version, which has additional frames at the end compared to the GC/PC intro.

I did briefly experiment with seeing if a proper 640x480 version with no black bars was possible, but while it's doable for most shots there's still a few DC-only shots (like the logo, the Tails shot and a couple of other segments) that we have no uncropped source for. Annoyingly enough, some of the Japanese SA TV ads seem to have used uncropped versions of a segment of the Sonic Team logo and the full Tails shot, and possibly some others - if we had access to an HQ source for those adverts then a true 640x480 version of the intro may be more likely to be possible.

Anyway, hope it's all OK - I'm sure some things could be improved even further, so let me know if any tweaks or revisions are needed! = )