I am told by a reliable source that the Decepticons couldn’t get past this part of the registration process.
Thread of Thoughts, Questions (and Maybe Even Answers) That Don't Deserve Their Own Thread
- Thread starter LBD "Nytetrayn"
- Start date
Since 'tis the season to clean up a little bit, I'm going through old stuff and files and whatnot. And I guess if there was ever a question that doesn't deserve its own thread...
One of the long-unresolved things in the Maybe I'll Get Around To It Someday pile is these old packaging scans I made before and just after we moved. This big life event forced me to reckon with the packaging behemoth that was piling up at home, and start digitizing them and trimming down what I could (a big part of this was opening years of backlogged stuff so I could pack the toys more compactly, scan the boxes, and toss most of the boxes, saving just the back panel in most cases).
(Yes, this is giving me mortality flash forwards I am NOT ready to talk about right now, so can we not)
This was all about a decade ago, on a once-pretty-decent printer/scanner that was on its last legs. And boy, does it show, because there's like two THOUSAND plus images that have these ugly scan lines.
A shocking amount of scans have this problem, as I was basically under the gun before the move (scan then toss, which happened to a lot of packaging) and super busy after. From the sheer number alone, not to even mention the uncertainty of a fix, you can imagine why this would up being buried under other Maybe I'll Get Around To It Someday things.
Is there any digital way to at least get rid of the scan lines? Preferably in a big batch?
I'm not relishing the idea of just rescanning everything with the current (working, so far) scanner, and that might not even be an option for the ones that have gotten cut down and tossed.
One of the long-unresolved things in the Maybe I'll Get Around To It Someday pile is these old packaging scans I made before and just after we moved. This big life event forced me to reckon with the packaging behemoth that was piling up at home, and start digitizing them and trimming down what I could (a big part of this was opening years of backlogged stuff so I could pack the toys more compactly, scan the boxes, and toss most of the boxes, saving just the back panel in most cases).
(Yes, this is giving me mortality flash forwards I am NOT ready to talk about right now, so can we not)
This was all about a decade ago, on a once-pretty-decent printer/scanner that was on its last legs. And boy, does it show, because there's like two THOUSAND plus images that have these ugly scan lines.
A shocking amount of scans have this problem, as I was basically under the gun before the move (scan then toss, which happened to a lot of packaging) and super busy after. From the sheer number alone, not to even mention the uncertainty of a fix, you can imagine why this would up being buried under other Maybe I'll Get Around To It Someday things.
Is there any digital way to at least get rid of the scan lines? Preferably in a big batch?
I'm not relishing the idea of just rescanning everything with the current (working, so far) scanner, and that might not even be an option for the ones that have gotten cut down and tossed.
A quick google search backs up my guess that there should be a way to reduce or remove such artifacts using Photoshop or GIMP. E.g., in GIMP, there's apparently a Destripe filter, or other filters you could manually configure and play around with. My skills and experience are limited with GIMP and nonexistent for Photoshop, so afraid I can't provide anything more specific than that. GIMP does support command line arguments for batch actions, but it's not anything I've ever used.
You've got me curious now. I'm going to play around a bit with the image you posted. I'll let you know if I find anything good.
You've got me curious now. I'm going to play around a bit with the image you posted. I'll let you know if I find anything good.
I think I'm striking out. There is indeed a Destripe filter in GIMP. However, while it seems like it does a decent job of reducing the stripes on the blacks, it adds stripes on the lighter colors in doing so. See the example below. The strength of the effect can be adjusted. The higher you turn it up, the more it reduces the stripes on the blacks, but the worse it gets everywhere else. You could probably clean up the white area after, but I don't know if there's a good way to do that as a batch, and it doesn't address the new banding you see on Megatron himself in this image.
The other suggestions I saw were to use various blur effects. I'm not even bothering to show those. They weren't good.
The other suggestions I saw were to use various blur effects. I'm not even bothering to show those. They weren't good.
My scanner does that to my drawings. A descan filter that works on whites would be great.
Thanks, all. I'm tempted to play around with GIMP now, as I don't know if there are any similar resources for my trusty verrrrry old copy of Photoshop (yarrr).
The white area is just the inside cover of the scanner so not a problem, but seeing the banding turn out as it does on lighter colored areas of the scanned image is a worry. It does still look a bit better I think, but idk if that'll be true for all of them.
The white area is just the inside cover of the scanner so not a problem, but seeing the banding turn out as it does on lighter colored areas of the scanned image is a worry. It does still look a bit better I think, but idk if that'll be true for all of them.
Strangely this is one of the few cases where AI imaging might actually help. I've seen a few through Paint and such that the MS AI was pretty good with for photo editing retouching and restoration demos. I haven't tried it myself though.
I used GIMP for all my own stuff, the learning curve is a mess but there are video tutorials for everything.
gimp.org
I used GIMP for all my own stuff, the learning curve is a mess but there are video tutorials for everything.
gimp.org
I was just thinking about it a bit. I'd imagine you could do something like cut out all the black, move it to a new layer, and then run the destriping on just the black portions. Would probably take a bit of practice to get the process down, but should be feasible. Seems like something that would be difficult, if not impossible, to be batched, though.
I'm truly evil. I'm the only one in my family with no animal phobias. My wife is terrified of snakes and hates red ants. My older kid is terrified of bees, and the younger one of spiders. My wife did step on a red ant hill as a kid, but the rest are general phobias, not due to any trauma.
Quickstrike just came the other day. I'm now finding it extremely difficult to not set up a very prominent display of all my BW Predacons. Possibly minus Megatron, Terrorsaur, and Scorponok.
Quickstrike just came the other day. I'm now finding it extremely difficult to not set up a very prominent display of all my BW Predacons. Possibly minus Megatron, Terrorsaur, and Scorponok.
Well, it's not your fault Kenner made most of the Predacons all creepy crawlies back in the day.
I really don't like how symmetrical the two factions get. Even going all the way back to 1984, the Microchange gun robot probably at least partly got chosen as the bad guy leader because he has a base to go against the truck robot who was the good guy leader with a base. We got Soundwave as his own self-contained thing but then pretty soon, the Autobots also got a tape guy. I prefer things like the pre-Volcanicus Dinobots being the response to Devastator or there being more Autobot Headmasters in the first batch than both sides getting the same number of guys with the same gimmicks at the same time.
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Even in Beast Wars, it didn't take more than the first episode before both sides had a 'Cool Dinosaur' guy.
Though it has been pointed out that the 'Predacons' in Beast Wars could easily have been called the Insecticons by and large.
Though it has been pointed out that the 'Predacons' in Beast Wars could easily have been called the Insecticons by and large.
In a similar track, I found it interesting that the Seacons (at least in US fiction) didn't really have a counter -- though it was a moot point in Marvel as they ended up amongst the many offlined by Underscream in that oft-referenced issue 50.
In Masterforce, I guess Kingu Posaiden would be countered by Super Ginrai -- but then, who wasn't?
It helps that that variant is basically "Snaptrap with add-ons"....
In Masterforce, I guess Kingu Posaiden would be countered by Super Ginrai -- but then, who wasn't?
It helps that that variant is basically "Snaptrap with add-ons"....You're right...no real opposite for the Seacons or Monstructor either, at least toy-wise. The commercial animations might be different, I'd have to look them up, but some of them were weird anyway, like Defensor vs. Trypticon or Fortress Maximus vs. Abominus.
In a similar track, I found it interesting that the Seacons (at least in US fiction) didn't really have a counter -- though it was a moot point in Marvel as they ended up amongst the many offlined by Underscream in that oft-referenced issue 50.
In Masterforce, I guess Kingu Posaiden would be countered by Super Ginrai -- but then, who wasn't?
This is actually why I love the 3rd Party Glacialord toy. It is exactly the counterpart we would have gotten to the Seacons in 1988.
The Seacons were an environment-themed team of Decepticon animal scramble city combiners with the Targetmaster gimmick.
The Glaciallord team was an environment-themed team of Autobot animal scramble city combiners with the Headmaster gimmick.
He's just a perfect conceptual counterpart and since they did a really good job capturing the level of engineering an 80s toy would feature it really feels like an 88 toy that was hiding just out of sight all this time.
-ZacWilliam, if he hadn't bombed I would have happily bought a ton more toys in the retro style
I guess it's more a marketing thing since this franchise does need to sell toys but I dunno, I guess it's more the fictional handling of it rather than the symmetry? Archenemies and rival characters do help establish the desire for the other but maybe stagger the debuts of the same gimmick characters or something.
It makes me question if Autobot and Decepticon HR are in constant communication, or maybe it's some kind of union thing?
It makes me question if Autobot and Decepticon HR are in constant communication, or maybe it's some kind of union thing?
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I mean, it's natural in war that military secrets are fleeting. As soon as either side deploys a new weapon (or has a secret project revealed) it's only a matter of time before the other side creates a countermeasure.
The G1 toyline never had an Autobot counterpart subgroup for the Horrorcons, either.
I recall back before the forums were hacked and destroyed, some of us on here speculated what a hypothetical Autobot version of the Horrorcons could be like, and what we can up with were triple-changing Headmasters with ground-based vehicle modes and flying beast modes (in contrast to the Horrorcons' flying vehicle modes and ground-based beast modes), and the name we settled on for this group was "Valorbots", rooted in the notion of courage being the opposite of fear.
I recall back before the forums were hacked and destroyed, some of us on here speculated what a hypothetical Autobot version of the Horrorcons could be like, and what we can up with were triple-changing Headmasters with ground-based vehicle modes and flying beast modes (in contrast to the Horrorcons' flying vehicle modes and ground-based beast modes), and the name we settled on for this group was "Valorbots", rooted in the notion of courage being the opposite of fear.
Here’s a thought: Why has there never been a Transformer who turns into a Dekotora?
Robotmasters Wrecker Hook, maybe? No pretty lights, but it's certainly decorated.