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Colorizing B&W footage


Vital Butinar

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Hi guys.

I've got a question for the more experienced people among you.

I have some footage that was shot on 8mm stock in black and white and I'm trying to find a way to colorize it.

First thing is that it's getting scanned into something digital.

But I've got no idea where to start about colorizing it except for masking everything and trying to color it by hand.
I'm sure there must be a better way to do it.

Anyway so if anyone has had any experience with this your help is much appreciate on what software to use and how.

Thank you and best regards

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There is specialized software that firms specializing in this process use to colorize b&w films.  I don't think this software is available for purchase.   And it does involve rotoscoping all the areas to be colorized, a labor intensive process that is often sent to India where people will do this tedious work for small wages.

I think if you want to do this work yourself,  you're kind of on your own.

You might want to connect with Jane Hicks who is an expert at this process.  Good luck!

linkedin.com/in/jane-hicks-86734a17

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9 minutes ago, Bruce Greene said:

There is specialized software that firms specializing in this process use to colorize b&w films.  I don't think this software is available for purchase.   And it does involve rotoscoping all the areas to be colorized, a labor intensive process that is often sent to India where people will do this tedious work for small wages.

I think if you want to do this work yourself,  you're kind of on your own.

You might want to connect with Jane Hicks who is an expert at this process.  Good luck!

linkedin.com/in/jane-hicks-86734a17

Thank you Bruce.
I thought that it was something that I might have to do by myself since when I was researching it I came up with nothing substantial.
But in either case I'll have to play around with it myself since it's a personal project. 

The roto is actually the part that I was afraid of and I did kind of try it that way.

Thanks again.

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I recommend trying DeOldify. It's a free open sourced AI based coloring program:

https://github.com/jantic/DeOldify

Some one released their colored and dubbed version of Metropolis a few months back which I believe used this program. FW Munrau's estate has since taken it down from the internet, but I thought it looked incredible.

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2 hours ago, AJ Young said:

I recommend trying DeOldify. It's a free open sourced AI based coloring program:

https://github.com/jantic/DeOldify

Some one released their colored and dubbed version of Metropolis a few months back which I believe used this program. FW Munrau's estate has since taken it down from the internet, but I thought it looked incredible.

That tool looks awesome, totally want to try it on the Light House  

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7 hours ago, AJ Young said:

I recommend trying DeOldify. It's a free open sourced AI based coloring program:

https://github.com/jantic/DeOldify

Some one released their colored and dubbed version of Metropolis a few months back which I believe used this program. FW Munrau's estate has since taken it down from the internet, but I thought it looked incredible.

Waw thank you. This looks amazing. I did a try right now but I wasn't able to figure it out quickly so I guess I need to take my time.

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