Theory: Axis-Aligned Polygon Aspect Ratio™ by spoRv

Practice: AutoOverlay Avisynth plugin by random.next

Long story short: AAP-AR combines two (or more) sources, usually letterbox and open matte or fullscreen, to get more image, using an unconventional aspect ratio, like the following (red letterbox source, green open matte source):



So far, random.next released some titles which overlay letterbox sources to an open matte sources, to get improved details; still, the AR is always 1.78:1.

He also made an experimental version of Terminator 2, which uses an AAP-AR, but fills the corner with something he defines "ambilight" (a technique that takes part of the surrounding image to fill the corners somehow, but it's not impainting); so, this version technically does not use AAP-AR at the end.

Now, using his wonderful plugin, it would be possible to release a complete film using AAP-AR with (almost no) manual intervention, a thing that prevented this in the past - it would be unthinkable for a fan to spend months of hard work to find out crop and resize settings for thousand shots and 150000+ frames!

Testing this plugin right now, and results are really promising; thinking to release an AAP-AR project really soon, as I thought about this since a very long time - as you can read in my restoration tip, which was originally posted almost four years ago.

So, I have three questions:

1. is there any interest in an AAP-AR project?
   
2. what is the best name for this kind of AR? (AAP-AR is not the easiest one, frankly)
   
3. would this worth a new moniker for a separate collection, or would fit in the existing one?
   

My answer to my own questions are

1. yes! Watching an AAP-AR movie is a great experience; it gives you much more image, having the "best of both worlds"; and the strange AR would pass soon unnoticed (or, at least, not that noticed) - much better than, say, wear 3D glasses for two hours!
   
2. AAP-AR, even if technically correct, is not "cool"; I thought about unconventional, unorthodox, unusual aspect ratio, that would all lead to UAR.
   
3. dunno! Would be the occasion also to release projects with a color grading "inspired by film, but not so close"...
   

Waiting for your opinions!

Edit: a picture worth more than thousand words... so, here you are an actual example of AAP-AR using three sources (still work in progress)

for example, this image has around 43% more image than BD... not that bad, huh?

What would be the UAR in number terms if not 1.33, 1.66, 1.78, 1.85, 2.00, 2.20, 2.35, 2.40, 2.76 etc. ?

Well, it would change from a shot to another, so it's difficult to state; also, maybe it's 1.90:1 in the center, while 2.35:1 on the sides!

The only sure thing is that it's possible to set up the DAR - which is usually 1.78:1.

Wait, what? You mean like having some kind of a "stairs", or "squares", or "tetris" effect in the black bars? And on top of that, it would vary cuts after cuts? No way, man! I'd rather watch the same day abominations such as Valerian and Wonder Woman in a row.

I think this would be fun! I'd certainly watch it

But my reason for watching it would be technical curiosity perhaps more than enjoying the film because there would always be this nagging feeling in my head that basically I'm watching the entire available image - out of which the studios had cropped out the corners effectively - which would piss me off haha

Do we know more about this ambilight technique? Can it be made optional so that one can choose either AAP-AR or that?

(2018-01-06, 10:45 PM)TomArrow Wrote: Do we know more about this ambilight technique? Can it be made optional so that one can choose either AAP-AR or that?

You should read the readme page...

1. depending on film, yes i could be interested

2. if you go acronym route you will have to leave an explanation everytime you post, to cover the people that havent read your original posts, that could be a pita, random aspect ratio RAR probably wouldnt be the best, so maybe something like Funky Aspect Ratio, FAR, funky being strange and fun

3. if you mean releasing under a different collection name, might be a good idea, say someone got one of these, didnt like it if everything is under 1 name they may not grab anymore of your work

Well, 2 pros (3 counting me, too) and 1 cons... let's wait for further feedbacks!

RAR could be confused with the zipping files, and, even if it seems the AR is set at random, is not!
Funky is nicer!

New collection: you'll love it, or hate it!

First AAP-AR project (albeit still experimental) released: https://fanrestore.com/thread-1980.html

(2018-01-06, 09:41 PM)spoRv Wrote: [*]is there any interest in an AAP-AR project?

For films that have been released with a variety of aspect ratios (e.g. T2, ST6), it might be interesting to see how different parts of the negative have been extracted. And an AAP-AR project might give certain insights into the production of a film. But I'd find it hard to become immersed in something with abnormalities in the borders, ambilight or no ambilight.