Cleaning Test

[_XRA9]

Well, this one might be unusual...

I'm actually not applying here, yet I did the test. That's because I'd like my skills evaluated. Up until now I've been cleaning licensed scans, for which the raws are high-quality, and haven't encountered lower-quality raws yet. So I thought: hey, scanlation groups require a test, let's do one. Anyway:

Name: XRA9 (no underscore)
Availability: -
What Manga You're Interested In: -
Software: PS CC 2014, Topaz de-noise
Experience: As said before, I only cleaned licensed scans.
Other Groups: -

And here's the test:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5KIfd ... sp=sharing

[Wraith]

… I'm sorry, but are you joking?

You don't really think we or any other group is going to waste the precious free time we devote to our hobby to give you a full assessment just because you feel you need one, even though you have no plans of joining us, do you?

And why did you even choose Death Toll? We're a small, obscure group with few members, no one can really spare their time to humour you.

That being said, I'm not a cleaner (none of ours wanted to even look at your "test"), but out of curiosity I opened it. This is what I could see in a cursory glance of five minutes:

i. In some pages, you make a classical noob mistake which is to merge the cleaned layers. That makes it a pain in the arse to compare it to the original, and would make the typesetter's life a nightmare.

ii. Page 01 is a bit too sharp.

iii. Page 02 looks okay.

iv. Page 03 is blurry and overfiltered, the grey patterns are messed.

v. Page 04 was also badly filtered, the greys are even worse.

vi. Page 05 is badly filtered. Actually that page is from tankies, there wasn't even a need to use filters on it.

vii. Ditto for page 06. There was no need to use filters, yet you did, and the result is loss of detail and messed patterns. It is also overlevelled, the black areas merge together in delicate places like the gun.

As I said, I'm no cleaner, but this would be a total fail in my opinion. An experienced cleaner would probably find even more mistakes and describe them in detail, but I'm afraid you won't get anything else from us.

[_XRA9]

Unfortunately, I wasn't joking; I really thought I'd get a response. I do apologize for having angered you.

As for why I chose Death Toll - in one of your credit pages (I think it was for Sprite) you claimed you'd put your applicants through a really tough test, so I thought I'd take that.

Well, thank you for at least taking a quick glance; that was already very helpful and you even gave me plenty of pointers.

I'll stop annoying you now, have fun scanlating!

[Wraith]

Our cleaning test is a little above average, not the hardest one out there as we don't test filtering aggressively (that's more common in groups that work with weekly series and use magazine raws). That announcement was specific for Sprite because we were testing applicants' mastery of Photoshop actions.

Our really difficult test - one of the hardest I know or have notice of - is the one for redrawers, full version.

One more thing on your test: you used filters way too much. As far as I remember, they were only really indispensable on pages that were from magazine raws, like page 04. Normally, there's no need to apply filters on tankies.