Hi all,
I don't really know if this is the correct place for this, since I have nothing to critique, except for maybe my planned course of action.
I plan on creating a game where I use scanned images I produce for the backgrounds. I plan on drawing the image at twice the size to start, and then shrinking it down in the computer.
So, as things stand, the only good solution I find is to draw the image at 8x6 inches, shrink it down to 4x3 inches in the computer after I color it. Since 4x3 is equivalent to 800x600 at 200 dpi it works out okay.
I would prefer to do a smaller size, but can't come up with a solution that will allow me to draw the image at a workable size. The ratio changes on me when I adjust the dpi, but I am unsure if I should do so.
Any tips guys?
I don't really understand. Is there a reason you can't scan a 4" x 3" image at 600 dpi and get a 2400x1800 image (or 1200 x 900 with 300dpi) that you can downsize to whatever resolution you like?
Of course drawing in bigger size will allow you to produce more detail on the background...
You could always draw the edges of your scene larger then crop them to your ratio after after you've scanned them in. What's wrong with scaling?
Changing the Dpi makes it more pixelated doesn't it? Thats where I am unsure.
And I fear scaling the image more that 50%, but I may try it.
Thanks for the comments, I have a feeling there is no magic answer besides the ones you guys gave :)
Ahoy, Squinky, this be a good topic but the CL is only for getting c&c on displayed material :)
Oh, and regarding your query;
I don't really understand your problem. Is it:
1. You want another resolution on your end product, e.g. 640x400 or 320x200?
2. You want 800x600 but you're unhappy with how your handpainted piece converts after having scanned it?
To start with, don't think so much in inches; just in ratios. If you want 640x400 or 320x200 backgrounds, paint pictures that are in a 6.4x4 ratio.
Also, even thinking in DPI is a bit superfluous; just pick a DPI high enough to catch a satisfactory amount of details when you scan it.
Afterwards, changing to your desired amount of pixels can't be a problem unless you're doing something wrong. Changing resolution shouldn't change the ratio.
I think his ultimate question is: Just how small can I scale a scanned image and have it look decent, because right now it seems the best I can do is 800x600?
The answer probably depends on how much touch-up work you are willing to do afterwards, and this site has a lot of tips on scanning drawn images:
http://www.scantips.com/
Quote from: ProgZmax on Thu 02/10/2008 09:08:09
I think his ultimate question is: Just how small can I scale a scanned image and have it look decent, because right now it seems the best I can do is 800x600?
The answer probably depends on how much touch-up work you are willing to do afterwards
I agree with ProgZ here.
The cleaner your image, the better it will work at lower resolutions. When doing the BBlitz-workshop I looked at whether my background would still work at a resolution of 320x240 (with scrolling). And even though it becomes very pixelated, it's still very mcuh usable. And while this version was inked and coloured digitally (at 300 or 400 percent for a 640x480 background), on-paper inking would have worked equally well.
It would be easier though to give some advice if you could give an example of a blackground.