CapnMac82

Wait, shouldn't Chuck be smoking a cigar and listening to LPs spinning the quadraphonic stereo?

Indeed! 

Quadraphonic. Remember when that was the rage? Those were the days.  

Sneaking in on you Bakster. Off on different vectors in weird times. Nothing too crazy and the model stash is not moving a bit. Cool things happening dispite the apocolypse. Writing and photographing a book on wildflowers, philosophy, life itself and what's funny in life. Something I needed to do. Hope all is well with you and the Gang! Max

Hey Max, great to hear from you. And yes, weird times for sure.

Your book sounds interesting. I would love to see it. Please keep us apprised of your progress.

PS: I miss you not being as active on the forum. I understand though. Life doesn't stand still.

Wow, two blasts from the past in two consecutive posts; Quad and Max!

Max is more recent, though.

Bakster: Those figures look great!!! 

Sorry I haven't been around. Was locked out of my account and had to create a new one to get on... 

[quote user="Gamera977"]

Bakster: Those figures look great!!! 

Sorry I haven't been around. Was locked out of my account and had to create a new one to get on... 

[/quote

Fingers crossed, Gam.

I finally have a weekend to myself, sort of. I did a little work on the ships clocks.  There are duplicates in the image simply because if I mess up some during application, I have spares to go to. I am making spares of all the decals. 

These are tiny so resolution is not all that great. But hey--better than nothing.

I decided I am not too crazy about the colors. I added amber swatches to the right. I think I like them better. It is a little closer to the movie prop.

Looks good to me.  But I identify as a lazy impoverished millionaire, not as a simian.

CapnMac82

But I identify as a lazy impoverished millionaire, not as a simian.

Perhaps, what will help you is some therapy with "Dr" Zaius. 

I'll be following along with this one Steve! Sorry you got locked out of your account. Been there and done that! 

Looking forward to more.

mustang1989

I'll be following along with this one Steve! Sorry you got locked out of your account. Been there and done that! 

Looking forward to more.

 

Thanks for following, Joe. 

More time spent on decals today. I printed them on plain paper, cut, then test fit to make sure everything is aligning as expected. I have one more graphic to make and then I can move towards printing on decal paper. 

I discovered something today, purely by happenstance. You may recall I have been saying how badly my graphics degrade at this small scale. I was doing some finishing touches when on a whim I deselected something called, anti-aliasing. The default is with the feature checked on. I was amazed at what happened. 

Below: Left is before, right is after. This graphic is tiny--the smallest of all that I made. I estimate it's printed size at around 3/16 in length. The difference shown in this screen capture is remarkable. 

I went back and unticked all of the graphics that I made. In the end, it may not make a huge difference in terms of print quality. When I compare printed copies, I can see a slight difference, but it is not as dramatic as the image above. I am not a graphics guru so, I am fumbling around a bit. I suspect this feature mostly affects how it views on a monitor. Even so, seeing the graphic clearly helps with alignment, and I will take any  improvement in print quality that I can get.

I hope to print and seal the decals within the next two weeks. Time to work on this is still at a premium.

That is all I have to report at this time.

PS: Maybe someone more adept can chime in about this feature. Captain?

Hi all, 

I've been following along, managed to log on today. 

Bakster: Ohhhhhhhhh, cool!!! I want to put my fingers all over the Icarus' buttons! 

And probably bring Corona chan to future ape Earth... 

1961: Looks like the IT guys fixed something. I'm back on my original account now. Whatever they did THANK YOU guys!!! 

Glad to see you guys are able to get back into the forum. 

Bakster

PS: Maybe someone more adept can chime in about this feature. Captain?

Anti-Aliasing "smooths out" color changes at the edge of images by taking an average of the pixels around them.  If you're creating a new image, or "cutting" one out of an existing image then what happens can vary by the application.  Some of them will assume "transparency", and some of them will assume "white" and then adjust that way.

Here's a good explanation:  https://www.gamingscan.com/what-is-anti-aliasing/

In short:  Anti-aliasing modifies your original image based on the surrounding pixels.  If you want the image unchanged, turn it off.

Hey Mark--thanks for the info. In the little web searching that I did, I noticed that anti-aliasing seems to soften the image overall. In the example I had found on the web, it was for a larger image file, and even in that case the image was visibly softened. It still blows me away in how drastic my graphics were affected. In the image example I had posted there was no funny business on my part. All the images shown are the same. They were in fact duplicated from one to another, the only difference is some had the feature ticked on, and some off.

It is a lot of fuss over nothing, really. But hey--it's fun to strive, and I learned some new things along the way. That is another reason why I do it--to learn.

Anti-aliasing is soemthing used when one does things backwards--e.g. a small original glown up, rather then a large original reduced.

And, 80% of the time, no one much notices.

It's only when you get down to the limits of things that it pops up as a negative.

You can get a similar effect by reducing the color pallet used, which removes the aliasing.

Changing the graphics to/from png can also help, too, especially with a transparent background.

Until it was brought up, I hadn't actually thought about it--whether I want it on or off is second nature.  Doh!

CapnMac82

You can get a similar effect by reducing the color pallet used, which removes the aliasing.

That I have to look into sometime. Seems odd that would help but I believe you that it will.

CapnMac82

Changing the graphics to/from png can also help, too, especially with a transparent background

I must note this as well.

CapnMac82

Until it was brought up, I hadn't actually thought about it--whether I want it on or off is second nature.  Doh!

Now that I know about it-- I'll be more aware as well. 

Well... I guess I am done with the graphics. Below is what I came up with. Again, there are duplicates.

It was a fun process to learn.  I'll do some last minute checks and then it will be time to print. 

And here I thought the aliasing button meant do you want a picture of Jennifer Garner to pop up or not? I thought mine was broke cuz she never did.

I still can't get my head around what happened to your switches, but it has something to do with everything is neat squares, rectangles and 90 degrees I think. Whatever the case, it's sure interesting to see.

Bakster

That I have to look into sometime. Seems odd that would help but I believe you that it will.

For JPEG files, there's a mathematical "map" for every pixel in the image at the required display resolution.  Unlike a bitmap which maps every single pixel, JPEG only records the beginning and end of a given area of color.

Where that describes a diagonal line, which in vector graphics would be recorded as start, stop, color, the JPEG will "shade" the diagonal which better "hints" at where the line might be when it's a fraction of a pixel.

But, that fractional pixel is goverened by the pallet color count in the header to the file.  So, if you are only allowing, say, 16 colors, the shaded colors have fewer shades for incommplete pixels.  Which means the rendition will be crisper, as fewer of the potential pixels will be "on."

Some graphics software have a Tool labeled "Posterize" this reduces the color pallet to only the colors used.  Which de-aliases all of the graphics.  But can make some lines jagged if enlarged enough.  And lines not at the ordinal 0,45,& 90 angles can get "blobby" as the angle may need 2 or 3 or mmore pixels to be in a row to render the actual angle.

Consider a putative array which is 12 x 8 pixels.  A 45º diagonal line from the bottom left will track through 1,1; 2,2; 3,3; 4,4; 5,5; 6,6; 7,7; and 8,8.
A 30º line is going to go through 1,1; 2,2; 3,2; 4,3; 5,4; 5,5; 5,6; 6,6; 7,6; 8,7; 9,7; 10,8; 11,8; 12,9.
At 8 colors, many more of the pixel will be "lit" in shades of the line color.  At 16 colors 4 times the pixels will be lit.  This progresses up to high color volumes.

Zooming into an image down to the pixel level can be illumminating.

Bakster

Well... I guess I am done with the graphics. Below is what I came up with. Again, there are duplicates.

It was a fun process to learn.  I'll do some last minute checks and then it will be time to print. 

 

I don't know Jack about graphic files. I'm following you guys discussion with a confused look on my face. Still what you've got there looks really good to me so I can't argue with the results! 

Gamera

I don't know Jack about graphic files. I'm following you guys discussion with a confused look on my face. Still what you've got there looks really good to me so I can't argue with the results! 

Thanks Cliff!  We'll see how it goes from here.

[quote user="CapnMac82"]

Bakster

That I have to look into sometime. Seems odd that would help but I believe you that it will.

For JPEG files, there's a mathematical "map" for every pixel in the image at the required display resolution.  Unlike a bitmap which maps every single pixel, JPEG only records the beginning and end of a given area of color.

Where that describes a diagonal line, which in vector graphics would be recorded as start, stop, color, the JPEG will "shade" the diagonal which better "hints" at where the line might be when it's a fraction of a pixel.

But, that fractional pixel is goverened by the pallet color count in the header to the file.  So, if you are only allowing, say, 16 colors, the shaded colors have fewer shades for incommplete pixels.  Which means the rendition will be crisper, as fewer of the potential pixels will be "on."

Some graphics software have a Tool labeled "Posterize" this reduces the color pallet to only the colors used.  Which de-aliases all of the graphics.  But can make some lines jagged if enlarged enough.  And lines not at the ordinal 0,45,& 90 angles can get "blobby" as the angle may need 2 or 3 or mmore pixels to be in a row to render the actual angle.

Consider a putative array which is 12 x 8 pixels.  A 45º diagonal line from the bottom left will track through 1,1; 2,2; 3,3; 4,4; 5,5; 6,6; 7,7; and 8,8.
A 30º line is going to go through 1,1; 2,2; 3,2; 4,3; 5,4; 5,5; 5,6; 6,6; 7,6; 8,7; 9,7; 10,8; 11,8; 12,9.
At 8 colors, many more of the pixel will be "lit" in shades of the line color.  At 16 colors 4 times the pixels will be lit.  This progresses up to high color volumes.

I understand it for the most part. You lost me on the putatuve array. LOL. That is very interesting and thanks for explaining!

CapnMac82

Zooming into an image down to the pixel level can be illumminating.

Indeed! Kind of like the movie, Tron! Zooming down to the micro level. Speaking of Tron. I don't know what you guys thought about the Tron remake, Legacy, but I liked it. I bought the 3D version and it looked pretty cool. 

I realize that for many of you how I am making decals is old hat.  For me, it is new, and it's part of my LONG () journey with this project. Thus, it is why I am documenting it, so bear with me. 

I printed the decal sheets on both white and clear carrier. I am not sure what will translate better when applied, and in a few cases I know I will need one or the other. Based on forum recommendations, I purchased Micro Mark brand decal paper. 

I set my Epson printer to best quality and to premium gloss photo paper. Surprisingly, the printer did a decent job translating the graphics, and for my purposes, more than good enough. To tell you the truth. I was most concerned about smudging, but there are no issues along those lines,  

I used Micro Marks spray sealant as well. It says it's an acrylic but holy man--this stuff is seriously stinky. If it does the job, then good deal.

Btw. There was an added benefit to making duplicate decals. I noticed dust was captured during spray, and in some areas, there is a slight splatter. For the most part these artifacts missed the graphics, but on the color striping it did fall onto them in a few spots. The extra decals will solve the problem.

I will give the sealant a few days to cure and I will try to start applying them.

I am always expecting some ugly problem to rear up, especially when trying something new, but so far, so good.

End of update

Bakster

I don't know what you guys thought about the Tron remake, Legacy, but I liked it.

More of a semi-retcon as sequel; but I liked it, even if Jeff kind of comes off like Leboski.

While not entirely canon, was canon enough to make a cool movie.

I was impresssed with how they did not let new CGI overwhelm the thing.

Not a lot of cool models possible from that one--other than CAD

CapnMac82

 

 

Bakster

I don't know what you guys thought about the Tron remake, Legacy, but I liked it.

 

 

More of a semi-retcon as sequel; but I liked it, even if Jeff kind of comes off like Leboski.

While not entirely canon, was canon enough to make a cool movie.

I was impresssed with how they did not let new CGI overwhelm the thing.

Not a lot of cool models possible from that one--other than CAD

 

Say Capn, I couldn't agree more. Talking about it makes me want to watch it again. 

Shortly after the movie release my brother got me a cool Christmas gift. We both like the movie, so when Hallmark released a Tron Light Cycle ornament, he had to buy two of them. The thing is pretty cool, and it still lights up off the original batteries. It is near 10 years old now.

Last night at around 9:30PM I decided to apply just one decal and see how it goes. One decal lead to another and another and another, 2 1/2 hours later they are all installed. 

The decals have their issues but once you learn how to work them--it is doable. I had two or three crumble at an edge, and in came the backup decal. In terms of stickability-- they are lacking. I had to press them down using a damp cotton swab. Once I pressed them down though, they stick.

So--with the exception of the life monitors that go above the beds and maybe a few ceiling lights, the interior decals are done.

The decals are sealed, and I even installed the red escape hatch. 

As a photo preshow-- chairs are positioned but not installed. I will attach them just before close up.

Speaking of closing, I can't do that until I receive and paint the figures. They should be coming soon. There are other things I can work on until then, I am not without work. 

Regarding the interior, the end is in sight. Thank goodness.

End of update.