Best way to capture an image
By
Arctic Sun,
Posted on: 2006-06-25 18:03 in Multi-Media Fan Creations
Just turn all your settings all the way up. And set resolution to the native resolution of the display if its an LCD. If its a CRT, just go as high as possible.
You'll probably want Anti-aliasing and Anastropic filtering on (I don't remember off hand what they may be called in COH). The special effects like Depth of Field you can skip (since you may or may not need background material and you can add in DOF later anyway). Bear in mind that high quality screen shots do not equal playable framerates 
The notes I've compiled:
If possible, when ever you shoot screen shots have some one else pose or play the game while you buzz around and bang off shots. A dedicated cameraman flying around in the middle of the action ALWAYS seems to get better shots. They can get better angles, frame the action better, and can position the camera more freely (if villains move, npcs get in the way- they dont have to worry about fighting),
Cameraman Setup:
1. Make sure Anti-aliasing is enabled on your video card
2. Set your screen resolution as high as possible (see below)
3. Make sure you zoom in/out appropriately to avoid big open areas, tiny characters.
Graphics and Audio Settings
It is suggested you use these settings:
3d Resolution scaling MAX
Gamma 100% (if possible, a bit off is ok if it makes the image look better)
Advanced Graphics Settings ENABLED
World Texture Quality VERY HIGH
Character Texture Quality VERY HIGH
World Detail MAX (200%)
Character Detail MAX (200%)
Max Particle Count MAX (50000)
FSAA 4x
Shadows ENABLED
Anisotropic Filtering 16x
Texture Crispness Smooth
Shader Quality - High
Water Effects High Quality
Depth of Field Effects Enabled
Bloom Effects Regular
Bloom Amount 100%
Always try to set up your scene so that your character is well lit by the sun or moon (to avoid the flat lit look) EVEN if your character is facing away from the camera. We want to try to give the game that 3-D look that seems to be all the rage with kids these days.
The game never looks as good in screenshots as when its actually being played live. You will need to bang out several print screens in order to capture the best frame where everything lines up and everythings just right. Ive found that assigning printscreen to my mouse in the City of Heroes keyboard configuration helps so I can bang off a succession of shots without needing to relocate my hands on the keyboard.
General Things to Pay Attention to:
There are 4 things that make up a good combat screenshot:
1. Character is in a dynamic or extreme pose making contact w/ the villain
2. sfx are in the timed correct and in the correct place accenting the hero or villains action
3. the villain or hero is in the correct hit reaction showing that some sort of exchange has taken place
4. Characters fill ¾ of the screen and theres an interesting and detailed background.
Make sure that the backdrop is detailed and interesting to look at (avoid planes of concrete).
Make the sure foot shadows showing up in the shot (no floating people)
Capture animation at its most dynamic extent while still allowing the characters to be legible and not look awkward or terribly contorted
Avoid Players jutting through other players or villains intersecting other villains
Avoid scenes where there are too many tangled overlapping characters (crisp and well separated from the background)
Make sure that SFX dont clip terrain (big cut line)
Make sure that SFX arent separated and spotting (Fire often does this as a result of low frame rate)
Make sure that SFX dont completely obscure the character thats casting the fx- need to tell a story and the viewer needs to understand whats going on
Avoid Characters being backlit unless for dramatic purpose (sun of sfx behind them).
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Hope some of that helps!
cheers,
Arctic Sun
Nice guide, Arctic
WOW. This is my 1st RedName response. I feel privilaged now. Thanks for all the info, I think I will be able to bang out some nice shots for myself now.
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Ive found that assigning printscreen to my mouse in the City of Heroes keyboard configuration helps so I can bang off a succession of shots without needing to relocate my hands on the keyboard.
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I would urge caution with this. I recall someone in PlanetSide who was complaining of lag. Come to find out, he had accidentally assigned his left-mouse-button (which is used to fire your weapon) as the Print Screen button, as well. So every time he was firing a shot, he was taking a screenshot as well. Needless to say, he wound up with thousands of screenshots, which was making his machine a little slow... 
That said, as someone who takes quite a few screenshots, I'd agree that hitting your print-screen key repeatedly is a key. You never know when someone will be mid-pose, or something will be clipping, or whatever. 
Make that its own thread and stickie it.
Being an avid in-game 'Screen-Shooter' (there's an understatement) I have an additional thing to add to that great check-off list you posted, and an observation to make:
* Always re-map the Screenshot Key to use the .TGA format for taking in-game screen photos, instead of .JPG (which is selected by default on new characters).
Despite the obvious quality difference using .TGA format over .JPG in the resulting Print, it also offers a quicker succession of rapid-fire screenshots because there is no additional time taken up to 'compress' each photo when the code saves them to the HD.
Now here is the observation on one of the setup statements I read:
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Gamma 100% (if possible, a bit off is ok if it makes the image look better)
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Heh. Perhaps it makes the scene better for the local viewer, but I find setting the gamma in-game control has absolutely Zero (0) effect on the actual gamma-level seen on the resulting screenshot outside of the game. It is as if setting the Gamma control affects the monitor (through the screen-driver) directly, but the routine which captures the actual in-game image totally ignores that setting and only outputs at the default raster Gamma value of the game's lighting elements.
If there is a way to bypass this fixed-value and have the in-game Gamma level /truly/ affect the resulting .TGA images (which many times appears too dark for my nighttime or indoor-mission screenshots) I would be glad to hear of it. 
Thanks for the guide Arctic!!
Someone loves us art posters!
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* Always re-map the Screenshot Key to use the .TGA format for taking in-game screen photos, instead of .JPG (which is selected by default on new characters).
Despite the obvious quality difference using .TGA format over .JPG in the resulting Print, it also offers a quicker succession of rapid-fire screenshots because there is no additional time taken up to 'compress' each photo when the code saves them to the HD.
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...How? 
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* Always re-map the Screenshot Key to use the .TGA format for taking in-game screen photos, instead of .JPG (which is selected by default on new characters).
Despite the obvious quality difference using .TGA format over .JPG in the resulting Print, it also offers a quicker succession of rapid-fire screenshots because there is no additional time taken up to 'compress' each photo when the code saves them to the HD.
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...How?
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menu-options-keybinding.
In the same area that lists Screenshots (JPEG) is identicle option, but it has (TGA) instead. The latter doesn't have any keys bound to it.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
Thank you! And, my husband thanks you, too. No, not because he was wanting to take a better screencap (though, he probably will appreciate the pointers) but because he was having to endure my questioning him about it at length just last night in a half hour long discussion that left both our heads throbbing.
CuppaJo or Cricket , could one of you please stick this in the Guides ?
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...How?
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menu-options-keybinding.
In the same area that lists Screenshots (JPEG) is identicle option, but it has (TGA) instead. The latter doesn't have any keys bound to it.
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Please do realize though, if you choose to save your screenshots in this better-quality format, you sacrifice more room for each one of them on your HD. IE: If you normally use the .JPG function with a screensize of 1024 x 768, the code would compress it down to around 160K for each shot. Leaving them at the high-quality .TGA format would result in around 2.3 Megs per full-screen shot!
Not a big deal anymore since we all have Terabytes of HD space on our systems But realize that when you want the best, you have to give it the due space it needs.
Compressed .JPGs are then usually then made from the .TGAs when preparing them for upload to www.photobucket.com etc., but at least you will be able to keep the .TGA originals (just in-case you want to work with the photo some more later, or if you ever have to use it to prove just who the *original* photographer is on a particular SS is (yes, this has happened once to me already in this game, so I am used to it). 
Thanks for the response Leech.
And wow Shego... I think I might hold off on switching to TGA. I'm an absolute screenshot wh*** and I've only got about 30 gigs left on the ol' HD.
That sounds like me. Not accidentally of course; I just like screenshots. Opening my screenshot folder causes me system lag
I've had to transfer one folder to CDROM already and I've got another folder that I moved out of my City of Heroes folder already that I need to transfer to CDROM.
And, btw, to 'TheDeadlyShoe', regarding your sig, reinforce the shielding on that damned starboard fusion engine already! Sheesh. That's quite a design flaw.
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Ive found that assigning printscreen to my mouse in the City of Heroes keyboard configuration helps so I can bang off a succession of shots without needing to relocate my hands on the keyboard.
[/ QUOTE ]
I would urge caution with this. I recall someone in PlanetSide who was complaining of lag. Come to find out, he had accidentally assigned his left-mouse-button (which is used to fire your weapon) as the Print Screen button, as well. So every time he was firing a shot, he was taking a screenshot as well. Needless to say, he wound up with thousands of screenshots, which was making his machine a little slow...
That said, as someone who takes quite a few screenshots, I'd agree that hitting your print-screen key repeatedly is a key. You never know when someone will be mid-pose, or something will be clipping, or whatever.
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I have an idea. It starts with 's' and ends with 'litting their throats.'"
-Belkar Bitterleaf, Order of the Stick
Order of the Stick
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wow Shego... I think I might hold off on switching to TGA. I'm an absolute screenshot wh*** and I've only got about 30 gigs left on the ol' HD.
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Well, that is one drawback if you want better quality screen-images to work with... or make the .JPGs later. Heh. I simply let one Screenshot folder fill up to about three to four Gigs of raw .TGAs... then burn them onto two identical DVDs and clear out the folder for the next batch. That way there is always room on the Play HD and I don't have to sacrifice any quality.
First of all, Static...
You need to know what you're trying to catch and it's habits. Does the screenshot shy away from local environments? Is it cautious around other heroes, and what are it's feeding habits? Do you have the proper tools to capture one? These creatures can be very devious, and possess an almost, dare I say it, superhuman ability to go awry at the last moment. You need to be very sly and devious to get one from the wild...
What was that? You wanted to get a picture screenshot? Oops... wrong thread. I thought this had something to do with wildlife capture! My bad. LOL
Honestly, silliness aside, I think that Arctic_Sun has the meat and potatoes of what you need for capturing a great image from the game. Just know what you want to capture and set about getting the best image for yourself! I would suggest having a pal along to get the angles right and help each other out for a plethora of great shots for both of you.
Happy hunting!!!
Jim
The Neverending Battle Continues; Be Heroes!!
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Guys this is great. I am playing around now. I just can't seem to find the time to play the game and also play around. Trying to figure that out now.
What settings should Co* be set at to get the best detail for some screens? I have seen some groups of images on 1 page and want to do this for StaticThunder. I want to modify my settings for the most detailed shot I can get. Thanks. If it is easier email StaticThunder@nc.rr.com