HELP!!! - Screen captures

[darthskellington]

I need help with some screen captures I'm trying to make into Ultarama backgrounds. I'm trying to turn one level of my Ultarama into an Outlander Club scene. What I'd really like are some nice bar shots (like those in the Set Piece section in Insider #65, only bigger).

As a second best, I'm trying to turn some screen captures from my dvd into worthy backgrounds. Unfortunately, the screen captures are saved automatically as BMP file that are around 250 inches wide and 2.5 pixels per inch. When I try to shrink it, it becomes a miniscule blur. I've tried saving it as a jpg, both before and after editing. All I have to work with is an old (1999) version of Adobe Photo-Deluxe.

Does anyone know how I can shrink these into 8X10 inch image sthat I could actually print? Help me Bothan Spies, your my only hope! :(

Alternately, does anyone know where I could find good online images of the Outlander, preferable set pics, not film shots? The Force.net doesn't seem to have anyhting useful, at least not in the Locations section.

[Darth Boru]

Try downloading an evaluation copy of Paint Shop Pro. Its pretty godd at that kind of thing.

[AmShak]

i don't have time right now to do anything, but if you don't find or get what you want, i might be able to help you... just remind me.

[Buzz Bumble]

2.5 pixels per inch??? That's a peculiar resolution. For a decent colour inkjet print you need around 150dpi - 200dpi. Change the resolution first and that will shrink the image (make sure not to "resample" the image though otherwise it stays the same size and just gets blurry).

A 250inch image being scaled to 8 or 10inches should be OK, although you'll lose LOTS of detail since you're scaling it down to about 4% of the original size. Changing the resolution first will also mean you have to scale it less drastically.

Adobe Photo Deluxe should handle the task, although I don't have a copy here to check the options it has.

NEVER save images as JPG until the very last minute. JPG uses a compression system that throws out data and at lower quality levels introduces garbage onto the image - resaving the image as JPG again causes more deterioration each time. It's best to work with TIFF (or BMP if you must) until you're finished "playing" and THEN save it as a JPG.

[darthskellington]

Thanks for your input everyone :)

Taking a hint from Buzz, edited my pictures and saved them as Tifs. This allowed me to open them for editing in Microsoft Imaging (which I'd forgotten I have because I found it to be useless). However, it did have the handy option of Print - Fit To Page.

So, I bypassed the resizing stage and went straight to print. Looks pretty decent too. Now I just need to find a good image of the bar tap. I don't think I'll be able to blow up a scan of the bar from Insider 65.

So, keep your eyes open. Starwars.com doesn't have a pic either.

[darthskellington]

And naturally, not even a week after printing out my crappy scan, I stumble across a much larger picture of the bar in the AOTC: Visual Dictionary. That book sits on a shelf less than three feet from my computer. :banghead:

Oh well, when I have the time I'll scan a better bar.

[darthskellington]

Well, since I've nothing better to do I'm going to post a picture of the finished Outlander Club Ultarama.

Unfortunately, I took the picture to use up one of those disposable cameras, so it's quality is fuzzy at best---sort of like Ewoks :p

Depending on how easy it is to post this, i might put up some other fuzzy pics of my collection. Perhaps to further exemplify why someone needs to buy me a digital camera :D


Anyhoo, the backgrounds are screen captures. The bar backdrop is a scan standing on its own. (I haven't gotten around to scanning the better pic in the visual dictionary yet :rolleyes: )

It really looks quite nice in person, and in focus.