Need opinions: skin preview pic size/quality debate

[Krusty]

Working on the ground work for a new skins catalog resource for skinners and just for general AH users, I am trying to decide on a good compromise between preview image SIZE and preview image RESOLUTION (i.e. storage vs conveying the details in the skin).

Here are 4 preview examples (900x550 each):

http://www.nakatomitower.com/ahskins/109e4_3.jpg
http://www.nakatomitower.com/ahskins/109e4_5.jpg
http://www.nakatomitower.com/ahskins/109f4_3.jpg
http://www.nakatomitower.com/ahskins/109f4_6.jpg

I have them in the angle and lighting I want and am going through the bf109 screenshots I took so far (93 bf109 skins alone!) and I am worried the quality I'm saving them is offsetting the higher file size. At around 70kb each, it adds up.

On the other hand I can reduce the resolution and up the quality a bit to make the details better.

Thoughts/opinions?

[Greebo]

If the idea is to just show players what the colour scheme basically looks like then you could safely make the images a fair bit smaller than that to save space. However if you are also trying to convey the quality of the skin, (weathering, rivet detail etc.) then the more detail the better.

Thanks for attempting this Krusty, I'm sure it will be appreciated by a lot of AH players. If the overall size is going to be an issue perhaps HTC could host it, maybe on AH Wiki?

[Dichotomy]

what kind of fie size limits are you dealing with?

[Krusty]

I don't think it will be too much of an issue, but in general I try to be mindful of larger images.

I did want to try to convey some of the detail on the skin. I think that helps one appreciate it and/or if somebody is undecided it may help them come to a decision on what to fly in-game.

I will try down-sizing to only 800 pixels wide when I get home. I want to nail down the format before I go through hundreds of skins and make hundreds of screenshots, only to need to do it over again  

Dicho: No limit per se, just general preference and practice makes me keep the size down. Say each image so far is 70kb, and say we have 300 skins... That's 21MB of just screenshots (not counting if I want thumbnails!).

[Krusty]

lol, I just noticed here:

http://www.nakatomitower.com/ahskins/109e4_5.jpg

totally wrong caption! I'm still making templates, copy/pasting layers, etc. I never edited that text before re-saving the file.

[ink]

Krusty what if you did 2 images for each skin...A large over all view that is smaller in size, and then a close up with the detail of some part of the plane, this oic the same size as the large image but much more detail.

just an idea....but ya its cool what you are doing

[TwinBoom]

nakatomi tower wasnt that the tower bruce willis blew up in die hared?

[Krusty]

hehehe, technically it was "Nakatomi Plaza" (which wasn't the building so much as the address) but "tower" describes it better and rolls off the tongue so much better.

Plus less chance of it being taken at the time I chose it.

Yippee-kaiyay, and all that.


Ink, I am leaning more towards thumbnails you can click on the more I think about it. I haven't got the interface designed yet, but I think it'll be a little like my skins page (only without flash) in that you click an image and it pops up. For now I have a lot of leg-work to do getting the screenshots and saving them. I would like to show an insert or detail of art if there is special art on the hidden side of the screenshot.

For now I've played around with the quality settings... Going any lower than "5" in photoshop's JPG settings really makes it go blurry and blocky, so I resized it down to 800x490 each and have been saving them with "5" quality and optimized. They're coming out to about mid-50kb range each now. I think I will live with that for now.

Examples:

http://www.nakatomitower.com/ahskins/109g2_2.jpg
http://www.nakatomitower.com/ahskins/109g2_12.jpg

I think that leaves most of the detail intact. It lets you see kill markings, nose art, script/text, as well as the paint on the skin.

I got some more done tonight. 62 down, plenty more to go!

I'm wondering if I should upload them as I go just so there's a browsable directory while I'm working on it, or if I ought to just wait until the full webpage is completed.

[ink]

those look good.

[EskimoJoe]

those look good.

I agree.

[Megalodon]

I like the idea of thumbnails/shortdiscription/<click>pop-up and I think its just great what you are doing.  It is badly needed ..imho

HTC shoud have this on their downloads/skin area.

Thank you for all of us,
 

[Dichotomy]

I think the ones you posted last are best Krusty..

Good project man.  Thanks in advance.

[Krusty]

Well I tried to get some layout/format mocked up based on some code I developed for my personal skins page. Only problem is some of the code I wanted to incorporate is buried in the flash file. My version of Flash MX2004 somehow became deactivated. I have the code but it doesn't like Windows7 x64 or something. I spent a good many hours trying to research the problem and had to call up adobe tech support. I've been told as of around midnight last night (when I called it a night) I was expecting an e-mail from their activation department.

The page won't have flash, but it will have a couple scripts and being able to see my previous code would help tons.

[Krusty]

Not counting last week (I was working long hours) it took me this long to get through the 109 series. 93 screenshots edited so far.

Anybody know of a program that will go through a list of files (or an entire directory?) and create thumbnails for me?

I tried it with SUPER(C) but it's geared towards video, and it kind of had a fit. I'm just looking to save some time by not going in and manually resizing every file to thumbnail for preview purposes.

[Megalodon]

Not counting last week (I was working long hours) it took me this long to get through the 109 series. 93 screenshots edited so far.

Anybody know of a program that will go through a list of files (or an entire directory?) and create thumbnails for me?

I tried it with SUPER(C) but it's geared towards video, and it kind of had a fit. I'm just looking to save some time by not going in and manually resizing every file to thumbnail for preview purposes.

Just for looking at?  Explore? aka windows explorer ...view.. thumbnails? Would that work?