Screencapping and image tips

[cmbj67]

I was wondering if anybody can help me about image tips:

how can I input an avatar image? I've been trying for days but all my saved pictures are not accepted.

[Jediferret]

I had the same issue and it's because the save file has to be 90x90 pixels and under 9.77kb. If you're having issues with this, you can message me the photo and I can do size the photo for you.

[bftlovesRDA]

From MacBeth: "BFT: to post an image here, it has to be hosted somewhere online. Most of us use Photobucket, because it's free. You'll want to start by setting up a Photobucket account and reading their tutorials. I have a Photobucket account, but most of my images are hosted at my own Livejournal account.

My own #1 tips for Photobucket: ORGANIZE BEFORE YOU START POSTING. Set up folders and upload your images INTO the folders. You can't change folders after you post something, because it breaks the links. The old forums here are littered with dead links from when hosted images were moved or deleted, which is sad.

Tag images when you post them (that is, add the tag "Posted"). That way you know if you've already posted a given pic."

Thank you - very much appreciate the advice!

[MacBeth]

how can I input an avatar image? I've been trying for days but all my saved pictures are not accepted.

As Jediferret said, there's a limit on both image size and file size. It's actually a real pain getting a standard icon down to under 10 Kb -- not only that, most icons are 100 by 100 pixels.

Quickest technique I know of in Windows (the image will be crappy, but it's better than nothing):

Open the source picture in Paint. If you don't know how to do this: right-click the image, select "Open With", select Paint.

In Paint, the image will probably be so big you can't see it all. Go to View and select "Zoom out". Zoom out until you can see the entire image.


Most images are not square, so you need to choose a square section of your image to turn into an avatar. To do this, go to View and select "Select". You can now draw a square on the picture, which will select that part. Don't worry, for now, about the image size; just find a good part of your picture.

If you choose a square section and you decide you don't really like it, hit Esc (Escape) and try again.

Once you've selected a square section, hit Crop. This will crop away the rest of the picture.

Now, resize the image: hit Resize. This will open a little box. Choose Pixels (rather than Percentage), and type "90" into whichever box has the larger number.

Go to the File menu and choose Save As. Save it as a .jpg.

The image will almost certainly be small enough, as a file, to upload for avatar use. If it's still too large, post in this thread again, and we'll tackle the challenge of compression.


The lovely thing about this process: it's fast, it's easy, and it uses standard Windows tools. If you don't like your first results, just try again. As long as you used Save As and not Save, your original picture is still intact.

[cmbj67]

Thank you Beth

Your explanation was good, it worked!

[MacBeth]

Hurrah, Claudia has an avatar now! Looking good.

[Anne]

Here's a cry for help to... Beth, I think, since she's the how-to gal when it comes to capping But really, anyone doing screencaps, maybe you can help me...

So, for some art thingy I'm working on atm, I've been trying to screencap some SG-1 episodes. And while I know how to do screencaps in VLC player and Sony Vegas... my problem is, that they are just awfully BAD. The quality is so horrible, and they are not really big either. They are coming out small and totally blurry and full of visible pixels etc. And no matter how many filters and brushes I put them through, it's not getting any better. I do pause the movie to take caps, but I suspect my DVDs are really not that much of a great quality either.

I've seen some pretty cool screen shots in the Thunk Thread which are BIG as well. What kind of sotfware do you use for capping? Or are those Blue Ray caps?

I'm driving myself crazy with this, so any kind of support would be very very welcome, thank you!

[marthig]

Here's a cry for help to... Beth, I think, since she's the how-to gal when it comes to capping But really, anyone doing screencaps, maybe you can help me...

So, for some art thingy I'm working on atm, I've been trying to screencap some SG-1 episodes. And while I know how to do screencaps in VLC player and Sony Vegas... my problem is, that they are just awfully BAD. The quality is so horrible, and they are not really big either. They are coming out small and totally blurry and full of visible pixels etc. And no matter how many filters and brushes I put them through, it's not getting any better. I do pause the movie to take caps, but I suspect my DVDs are really not that much of a great quality either.

I've seen some pretty cool screen shots in the Thunk Thread which are BIG as well. What kind of sotfware do you use for capping? Or are those Blue Ray caps?

I'm driving myself crazy with this, so any kind of support would be very very welcome, thank you!

Maybe, as you suspect, it's that the quality of the originals is not too good. I have that problem with most of MacGyver movies. I know they are copies -bad ones at that- and have to work on them a lot in Photoshop but can't really improve them.

The size I sometimes increase it by changing the resolution, from 72 to 144 and sometimes to 288. What I get usually is bigger pixellation

- do you have the latest VLC version ? if not you can find it in http://www.videolan.org/
- I checked in my VLC player "preferences" and in the Video tab (Tools--> Preferences---> Video) I have "output -->Automatic"
- in Video ("preferences-->Video") "Deinterlacing -->Automatic" and "mode -->blend"
- Output Automatic -- format png in same tab.

I always watch my movies with the VLC player, maybe that helps ?
If you wish e-mail me some of the troublesome screen-caps to " marthig at gmail dot com " will try to see what might be wrong.

Good luck !

[MacBeth]

Are you required to make your own caps? There are complete screencap libraries of all the Stargate SG-1 episodes at this site:

http://www.stargatecaps.com/

The owner of the site is also known as Beth, but she is a different Beth from me: she's been in Stargate fandom much longer. She makes the screencap libraries freely available online.

The caps aren't the best in the world, since she has to host a lot of them, but they're usable, and they're not nearly as compressed as most of the other archives. I use Internet Explorer to retrieve caps: it's the only thing I use IE for. They do tend to be dark, and I spend a lot of time working on the light balances.

The capping software I use is a rather old program (from 2008), called WinDVD. I don't know if it's still available.

If your project requires you to make your own, there are a few tips I use:

- always go through all the preferences and tools in your capping software and find out what's there. You can't use a tool if you don't know you have it.
- the critical point is when you initially save the image: get the highest-resolution you can. Once the image exists, you cannot put more information into it than already exists. Filters and effects only move the data around.
- always work in bitmap (.bmp); I only use the .jpg format as the final step, when a finished piece is ready to upload for posting.
- more dpi (dots per inch, aka pixels per inch) is better, within reason. As Martha said, sometimes it just means more pixellation.

Good luck!

[Anne]

Are you required to make your own caps? There are complete screencap libraries of all the Stargate SG-1 episodes at this site:

http://www.stargatecaps.com/

No, I'm not specifically required to make my own, but I thought I could maybe make better ones than those. But - I cannot, lol. Usually I am using those too and touch them up, but they are not good enough for what I had to do. Oh, well, I'll get by without caps, I guess.

My VLC only lets me do png pics, no bmp. I just looked at the settings. I'd have to go and see what options Sony gives me.

The capping software I use is a rather old program (from 2008), called WinDVD. I don't know if it's still available.

If your project requires you to make your own, there are a few tips I use:

- always go through all the preferences and tools in your capping software and find out what's there. You can't use a tool if you don't know you have it.
- the critical point is when you initially save the image: get the highest-resolution you can.

Ohhh, now, see, I don't think I can do that with VLC. At least I can't find anything in the preferences that allows me to make higher res pictures. I will go to the help section and see if I can dig it up somewhere else, though, that's a good idea. Am also going to look up WinDVD as well.

Thank you!