Giving Zuko Some Love in Remastering Avatar: The Last Airbender

I've been remastering Avatar: The Last Airbender for a very short while now and I figured it was finally time to work on scenes featuring season 1's main antagonist: the banished Prince Zuko.
Watch along as I take scenes from the first two episodes and "modernize" this masterpiece of a show.
The tools I used:
- iPad Air M1
- Apple Pencil 2nd Generation
- Procreate
- Procreate Dreams

[@Azerathofzarthon]

I would love for this to become a group project with other animators so you can get through the entire show. I would pay good money to see the entire show remastered in wide-screen

[@Kevin-bi8ly]

Let him cook 💰

[@dixar8589]

I would also pay money for this. Please keep at it.

[@aloalix]

I’d work with him on this for free

[@closeben]

@@dixar8589 it would not be legal to sell this kind of fan work. Maybe if Avatar Studios sees these videos they will hire ChunnyKay to work for them and produce an official 16:9 remaster (but I think that’s unlikely, as they would see it as not fair to the original artistic intention). But if Chunny even uploads the remasters for free, Viacom will probably come down with force and yeet the entire KZbin channel.

[@ScyrousFX]

@@closeben Nick/Viacom couldn't even be bothered to give the show a proper blu-ray release (it's a 240p upscale). At best we might see a full-on remake at some point, but even that is unlikely.

[@ARandomEliatrope]

Those two blue lines weren't an animation error, it was a type of smear in the frame!

[@theninjamaster67]

Yah that's called "in betweening".

[@shamarsh3882]

This guy is dumb 🤷‍♀️

[@foolofatook84]

@@theninjamaster67 "In betweening" is actually something else, it's filling in the animation between two already drawn key poses.

[@theninjamaster67]

@@foolofatook84 Oh I thought smear frames counted as in betweening since it's basically filling in the motion between the main frames?

[@LemonMoon]

At 7:11 that is known as a smear frame. It’s like motion blur for 2D and sometimes stylized 3D animation. It’s there to emphasize quick movement.

[@Cri_Jackal]

There's a fuckton of these in the Spiderverse movies, it's the key to making those films look as good as they do.

[@turtle1658]

Yeah its there also so that the animation looks smoother than it is when there is too much space between frames, its actually a pretty old technique

[@alexzoin]

Yeah they aren't animation errors at all. I was looking at the screen so confused when he said that.

[@dorozdacl5209]

I am really glad you are not doing the easy option and using AI to finish the shots! Using AI would take away the entire charm of this videos

[@user-po9pv7rw1g]

yes, this! plus from a workflow standpoint, i feel like it would be incredibly difficult to achieve consistency. may as well go with what actually works... plus with two terrible live action adaptations, the original ATLA is well-deserving of the love and care of human-made, hand-drawn illustration. anyone could hit generate, but it takes real skill, dedication, passion, and perseverance to do what chunny's doing.

[@evanmarcus5975]

This is just so relaxing to watch, please don't use AI. I know it's probably incredibly boring, but the time lapse footage of the background slowly filling in is my favorite part.

[@cloverpoptart4797]

I appreciate your commitment for not using AI. It keeps a lot of the charm of the videos. You’ll be out of the ice and metal soon enough and will be able to draw more fun backgrounds!

[@moritakaishida7963]

It would also look terrible if he did

[@StarWarsStory]

We don't deserve you dude! I hope Avatar studios buys these alterations from you and legally distributes them out, crediting you as a valuable member of the team!

[@ChunnyKay]

Appreciate the comment! I'm just using this as a fun project to learn animation as I have no doubt that professionals can do a significantly better job than me

[@StarWarsStory]

@@ChunnyKay Well if you're ever up for paid work, I have discord under the same name

[@strapkins4999]

⁠@@ChunnyKayI respect your humble mindset, but with more practice you could definitely consider a career in animation and potentially be better than the “professionals”

[@carlotta4th]

While he is improving tremendously I doubt these alterations are 4k quality (they are working on a copy of the film at minimum. Not the originals). It couldn't be bought and distributed due to that alone. Secondly--he's improving. I'm very impressed and don't at all want to downplay his work. But it isn't to the standard it would need to be for distribution--even on my phone I can see many of these seams. In short I love this work and heavily support him, but it can't/shouldn't be sold. Yet.

[@chant3511]

7:11 that’s actually not an animation error, this warped second boomerang is used to convey its movement speed and direction :) Edit: I knew there is a term for this, so I looked it up. I’m pretty sure this is a smear frame

[@LemonMoon]

Yup it’s a smear frame

[@ChunnyKay]

I had no clue, thanks for letting me know

[@Cri_Jackal]

@@ChunnyKay Take a look through any of the Spiderverse movies frame by frame, you'll see these everywhere.

[@kova1282]

Please continue animating by hand! Don't give in to the AI craze!

[@BoatBroJoe]

Keep them coming as long as you’re enjoying it. Last thing I’d/we’d want is you to get tired of animating avatar 🙌🏽

[@KaSyl_]

I'm pretty sure the "Animation error" on the boomerang is speed lines to make it snap a bit faster as it crosses so fast

[@ChunnyKay]

Learning new things everyday!

[@jonathanbitterling9100]

Someone tag toph to review these

[@ZamiGami_]

Please keep these coming! Seeing my favourite show adapted for modern screens gives me great joy. I'd love to see an official 16:9 full HD remaster of the show, but until then this is the best iteration of remastering avatar out there!

[@lau9222]

I love this series! I love that you put in the effort yourself instead of using AI, so I really hope you won't use it for the background 😅 It looks awesome and I'd love to see more of your work!

[@9tailshadowwolf]

Ive seen all three videos so far and im super impressed. Your work looks 99% flawless, and your decisions where to position each shot either in the center or to the side is the kind of thinking that highlights the artistry of the scene. I hope avatar studios does this for a widescreen remaster and hires you to manage the production.

[@jonathanbitterling9100]

Nickelodeon should hire this man to do an official one

[@allurandy]

i appreciate you willingness to do everything by hand and not use AI, it really shows your love for this project and the source material.

[@blusterbeediggingploof2510]

Nickelodeon should hire this guy & actually remaster the show with guidance of the creators

[@cyfer115]

You may think that narrating yourself drawing the background of each shot is repetitive, but that is what makes these videos so fun to me! In order to see a true transformation from 4:3 to 16:9 the background has to be worked on as well. Love watching these videos!

[@tiffanysullivan3655]

"Zuko gracefully falls to the sky as he lands on his head" 9:44

[@porkydorky]

I was really impressed by the sokka part, i was nervous for how that was gonna look, but that looked rlly good

[@wariolandgoldpiramid]

AI is a really fun and useful tool, for sure. But the big appeal of these videos is seeing the timelapse of you drawing, so if you continue, please try to continue drawing everything by hand.

[@JustAnotherPerson811]

At 7.00 you talk about using AI at a later time to fill in the background. Honestly, I think that you doing it is what adds the charm for me, it’s better hand drawn

[@Johann55555]

Wow, what a timing, I just finished watching your previous remaster!

[@wile123456]

Ideally the sokka tumble should be extended or cut so that he rolls inside the frame again. It's a cinematography trick where he rolls out left, and rolls in left so the eyes of the viewer is focused on the action, but since the next show now start with him in frame, it looses some of that kinetic energy. I do agree that the shot be extended that way, as it adds more oomph to the boomerang being thrown

[@KatieZeldaKat]

Not sure if you could with what seems like very limiting software, but I feel like the penguin cycles between a few frames of animation, which you could copy over to the right if isolated.

[@mundoavatarcombr]

Amazing!! You should try the opening of the show! :D

[@ChunnyKay]

I think I'll need a bit more practice before I can attempt that legendary intro haha

[@Ching_Cheng_Hanji]

You're amazing, still shocked by how few views these videos get. I rarely say that (and to be honest I even hate when people say that and I disagree with them), but your content itself and its quality deserves hundreds of thousands if not millions views.

[@tratixmusic8884]

In the last two videos, I could tell where your art began in a lot of the scenes. I mean it was subtle still and so it was still really impressive. But I didn't notice at all this time, it all looked like it was actually the original show and it was super seemless. So definitely a lot of improvement on this one!

[@KidFlash22898]

This is amazing! You should get a team together and remaster a couple more episodes

[@TheeKaroolyne]

I LOVE this series that you're doing. so. freaking. MUCH. Just the biggest thank you on Earth for letting my eyes see what they have been beggning for, for yeaaaars now!

[@mobilemollusc615]

I would like to see shots from different episodes and different seasons. Personaly I've seen enough Snow I dont expect you to do the whole show

[@ashie06]

I am a simple man I see Zuko I click ❤ great work on this series, dude! Keep it up if it's fulfilling for you!

[@ericsilva6787]

I am loving this, you're getting better in each one. I do have one thing to say about the remastered format tho, since the storyboarders and animators originally made the show in a 4:3, there was an artistic intention to the composition in that format. You touched on that a bit on the last one (for example with the scene of them jumping on ice blocks towards Aang). I think the work you're doing is awesome, but I can't help but wonder what whould they have done differently if it was 16:9 originally.

[@ericgu9]

Chunny back at it again. Honestly I feel like you took it to another level with this remastering.

[@allurandy]

the firebending on 3:58 looks amazing!

[@ThompsonBrosStudios]

Dude, it looks so good in wide screen! we need this for real!

[@TheBananaDude]

Man you’re so underrated

[@TommyWalker1]

Keep this up! So fun watching this journey.

[@hjohnson966]

I'm loving these remastering videos. Definitely keep making them if you still enjoy it

[@SteveSorex]

These vids are very satisfying to watch, keep it up!

[@olivertyler7311]

this is amazing man. keep up the good work! 👍

[@TheJoluk]

This looks great! Even tho I could not spot it here, moving scenes to the sides to color in only the left or the right side can cause some problems. The animators have to make sure the animations are easy to follow meaning the viewers eyes don’t have to jump around too much when cutting to a new perspective. You can notice this, when watching any type of film, when your eyes follow something and then comes a cut, the point you focus now is very close to where your eyes focused on the screen before. When moving the screen left an right, to make it more interesting, the video could be „harder“ to watch. You may not notice this here since you spend a lot of time in each scene and know where to focus next, but someone who doesn’t might notice it subconsciously.

[@damiencruz8552]

I love these, please keep making them

[@jakeob3125]

Love these videos!! Would 1000% watch a whole series of you remastering the whole show. To 2080 we go!

[@cyaaharper5925]

THIS IS SO GOOD!!!! thank you for making these videos, they are soo intresting

[@eisteezitrone8741]

I really like watching your videos. It's a great mix of both technical details, good humor, honesty and the joy of actually re-watching the scene in full format. Keep it up! (:

[@eisteezitrone8741]

Also, being able to see you progress in editing is great. I'm exited for the next many months :D

[@tobbyman3d]

Keep 'em coming. We love these videos.

[@natestapleton5494]

Love these!!! Keep it up!!

[@buoy-]

This project is amazing! Absolutely love this idea and the results!

[@roadman_hanzi]

These videos are always exciting , they didn't get stale

[@tomhey4217]

love this!! love when you do a couple of diff pictures and then show them all smooth together rather than one by one :))

[@mrtiredeyes]

It's so cool seeing you do this, inspiring, and impressive!

[@heathercreates]

Yes, you have returned! These videos make me beyond happy.

[@smoky7451]

This is such a great project, everytime you play the shot after finishing it, it brings a smile to my face

[@hOFalt]

This might be my favorite thing on youtube so far this year

[@denaris2227]

this is my favorite thing ever thank you

[@TamiaTheNerd]

It’s really cool to see how much you’re progressing, and so quickly too!

[@NickDe3]

Keep it up! I love watching the process. :)

[@LifeisReal1990]

The gradation you added with the fire bending colors was soo beautiful. The blends of the orange and red really adds to and flows so wonderfully. I am so glad to see more of these videos from you. Amazing work!

[@FinnA07]

I want a small YT animation team doing a full remake xD that'd be dopeeee, but i know why it's not realistic. But this is like a preview for it and i loveee it

[@hawkfeather6802]

The scenes are looking even nicer!

[@SophiarsMonteiro]

That's amazing! I started watching you when you posted it your first video remstering ATLA, you are doing very well! I would be very happy to see this remix on the real show :) Thank you this video make me happy

[@DemsW]

You are definetly getting better at this. I would love to see the full first episode remastered especially as you develop your skills and learn the artstyle more and more.

[@thewritersquill]

I really love these reanimating avatar videos! Looking forward to other videos as well.

[@ielleFUNz]

I love this series so much!

[@JordyBoothy]

Your videos are a nice companion while I do animation work of my own, thank you!

[@alexsoundstuff]

this is such a cool project dude

[@igweofart]

Hopefully Nickelodeon would hire you to remaster the whole season and compensate you handsomely

[@diegoarostica6699]

every time you do it even better :)

[@Roberticovanlamoen]

It’s so funny i never noticed so much color change within the scenes you’ve done earlier on the icebergs and characters. From so much blue usage to more warm colors changing the whole scene. Pretty neat how the original creators did this so well. You also did great work 😁

[@BarrieBM]

Im 3:51 in and so far thats defnitely the best quallity youve done besides the firebending you can pretty much not tell you expanded it, crazy job. Damn i hope some day a group project could widescreen it all

[@BarrieBM]

I would GENUINELY pay money for it

[@BarrieBM]

DAMN THE SOKKA SCENE AFTER IT IS GOOD

[@jeanlenga9618]

This is beautiful

[@33rie_18]

Now we gotta see toph !!!

[@SimulationWithDaniel]

These scenes look amazing!

[@ChunnyKay]

Thank you! I was quite pleased with how some of them turned out

[@TricksOfLoki]

This is so cool! As a tip to hopefully make keyframes less frustrating, they're supposed to be used on, well, KEY moments. So for something as simple as a smooth motion from one place to another, you should only have to place two keyframes - one on the very first frame and one on the last - and the program should take care of the in-between movement for you. I've never used Procreate Dreams so I'd definitely recommend looking it up, but the basic idea is pretty common in animation programs so I'd assume it would carry over

[@jaewooklim1]

It's like you're upscaling a 480p show to 2160p without ai 👏👏👏

[@closeben]

where did they say they’re upscaling? Guessing they have got the 1080p “remasters” that Nick put out a few years ago now. Although for the later seasons there are some fan HD remasters which are even better.

[@tymiller4689]

There is nothing to remaster. This show is perfect

[@brun743]

love it please make more!

[@fluffyvark6562]

11:42. The kid and parent in the background were unnessary, because 2 shots ago you didnt see them as well, but besides that, very good job! It looks really good

[@unposs]

LOVE THIS SERIES

[@FMJ1400]

More great work

[@cecillewolters1995]

Love your enthusiasm, I hope you gonna have fun with Aang surfing on big fish ^^

[@UltiCubed]

Yes! More of this!!

[@ChiefMakes]

The remastered buts are so good, too bad with only one person it’d take like 20 years to get it all done.

[@Foomandoonian]

This is great work and something I would love to see them do officially. One thing I kept noticing in this and the previous videos is you say 'scene' when I really think you mean 'shot'. I might be wrong, but I think of a scene as being comprised of many different shots in the same location. For example, in this video you have one scene set on the ship and another scene in the village.

[@beastm9386]

honetly i want to watch you slowly keep working on ep 1 until one day you finish the full episo

[@max_cass6944]

ChunnyKay the master of iceberg

[@plzletmebefrank]

The rocks/boulders are actually... Still iceburgs. It has weird golden hour lighting and made everything yellow.

[@alexsoundstuff]

also, dont cave to the ai pressure, those tools are built on unprecedented amounts of theft. this project means more if its hand drawn, and i believe thats a big part of why we're all here following this video series anyways

[@carlotta4th]

I see no reason why he couldn't use it to lay down a general base, and refine it himself from there. Besides--I think the likelihood of the AI getting it perfect (at all, not even just first iteration) is zero.

[@alexsoundstuff]

@@carlotta4th He shouldn't use it to lay down a general base because those tools are built on unprecedented amounts of theft.

[@briandonovan5240]

I’m interested in doing this myself in another animated video and have been struggling a bit. I’d love to see a video that is just you screencasting your work on a scene start to finish. It’d be very helpful to have you at least briefly comment on what you’re doing and why as you go. The technique you’re using looks good, but I’m not sure these videos give enough information to replicate it. Thanks!

[@mickeyspanish9709]

You are truly doing God's work

[@Thesmus]

hope you pay attention to animation smears and blurs :) you're doing amazing, but since you say this is your first attempt at animation, it would be helpful for you to know such things. there are some parts where you might see stuffs blurry (like the one at 3:38). the one you called animation error at 7:15 is called smears and is very common element in animation. they are used to showcase speed. you know how in camera when something moves too fast they become blurry? something like that but for animation. you might also encounter distortions or stretches which are also used to showcase a quick action. edit: oh looks like the flames are actually blurred, for some reason the flames looked sharp lol anyways really enjoying your vids and hope to see more from you :D

[@Fire91ful]

Crazy your first avatar video has over 100k. I'm no a artist but I am a avatar fan and I'm really enoying this series.

[@MyMindBSharp]

7:10 That's not an error, that's a smear frame. It's used to convey really fast motion.

[@Sunlight.C]

This is cool.

[@robrendell4168]

I don't know about the tools you're using, but for textured backgrounds, Photoshop and The Gimp have a "clone tool" that gives you a paintbrush that copies from one region of the image to another. It's quite handy for extending textured areas (I use it to edit role-playing maps to cover secret areas)

[@DemsW]

He's working on his iPad on procreate iirc

[@R4Z3RHD]

Ignore people saying to use AI. They have no idea what they're talking about. You're doing a great job!

[@dannattack4211]

You should remaster the entire first episode

[@Kairong05]

This is absolutely amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed your video, but I’d like to point out a small inconsistency. At 11:51 you added in a soldier but this soldier teleports in the next scene (11:53)