New Comic Book Theme!

TMNTturtlguy

@modmaster thanks! I am taking request and yours are on the list! I am currently working on optimizing the current files and then will be working on the system logos followed by system backgrounds! Follow the thread for updates! Thanks

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy Ok, so a few things.

First of all: damn, this is hard and takes a LOT of time, especially to adjust. There's no easy way out of it.

Second: you did a tremendous job so far. I am not in a position to comment on or recommend any changes, as this ends up being both up to individual tastes, as well as to one's ability to execute on that vision (which, clearly, is limited on my end).

That being said, I did a rough try to create a second attempt at a similar print effect, which I think I am happier with, and I'm sharing it here for you to compare and see what I think I had in mind. That being said, I haven't tried it out on a proper big screen where I'm running the Pi, so YMMV.

I think the main difference seems to be that my dots are... smaller? My main problem with the current theme as it was is that it has these extremely attractive, sharp logos and letters, but then the game images end up showing up as too blurry and washed out, when compared to the logo, letters and the rest. I would like to believe that it's possible to achieve a pure print effect the way you envision, while keeping a sharp, high-res-ish aspect to the overall theme. :) I'm not sure I'm getting my idea across correctly, but maybe it's useful.

I used Gimp, so it has a different filter (Newsprint). I then added it as a separate layer, same as you, and made it transparent on top of the original image.

Here you go.

https://mega.nz/#!lAEHCSxZ!P7JU_gZ5krNU9klqgZ73ZobgnUJDZV5FhFf74d_IGbA

Still, way out of my league, so I'll leave it to you and @Nismo :) Happy to help if I can.

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft thanks for the quick work! I am on my phone all day, but will look at this tonight! Excited to see what you came up with.

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft I like your option 2, a simple modification to the pixel filter on my end to 30 degrees and a soft glow blending instead of an opacity and i was able to recreate something really close to what you have shown. Our pixel sizes are about the same, however you only have a single dot patter where i had 4 dots each at a different color channel. By placing all the channels on top of each other it is definitely a cleaner more sharp image any may play well to the screen. It does take away from the way a newpaper prints a colored dot matrix, but in terms of a crisp image on screen, you are probably correct that this will read cleaner. I will apply this filter to the images and see if i can get it uploaded for everyone to see as a complete theme. Thanks again for this, a simple modification to the dot angles is all it took!

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft I ran into an issue when going through some of the other files with different colors. When I apply the single got pixel filter I now get a diamond pattern that shows up on several of the more vibrant color fields. This is not a good look at all. I have placed a nintendo.png and an atari 7800.png in the dropbox link for review. The nintendo looks very similar to yours, the atari does not look good at all. link removed

Update: I have come up with an alternate solution, see the images in this folder as well for the same systems. Be sure to look at both links/files to compare and contrast. I think i am leaning towards Nintendo 2? Thoughts? link removed

@Nismo, any thoughts or ideas?

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy I'll look into them when I'm on my computer, and reply in more detail - thanks for looking into this!

Want to share the original Atari image as well so I can tweak on my end if still needed?

Thanks! :)

modmaster

Well If my opinion counts for anything I like Nintendo 2 also. What about trying to knock out the system logos with generic comic backgrounds? Would that be "low hanging fruit" to push the project along? If you would like to divide it up I'm happy to help if I have the software you used. My skill set should be adequate to work the system logos. Either way I'm excited to see this theme in action!

TMNTturtlguy

@modmaster thanks! I am on my phone now, but once we all pick out the pixel affect we like i can send you the base photoshop file and I would love your help creating the backgrounds for the other systems. I am working on the logos right now and have a template of illustrator and photoshop for them, so I will knock those out as you help with the backgrounds!

I agree on Nintendo 2.....I just created a dot pattern and did an overlay, you lose the color saturated dots that the pixel filter provides, but it is a cleaner image. I am also open to other thoughts.

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft i have placed both a clean version of the atari 7800 image as well as the photoshop file on the dropbox page for your use. link removed

@modmaster here is a link to a base file, the pattern overlay as well as the updated nintendo file for reference. link removed

How it works, what I do is place the image i want for each area as a layer under the outline layer. Select the outline area and then select the inverse, this cleanly crops the image for each space to the outline. Once i get all of those set, i merge them, add a new layer for the dots. I simply paint bucket the pattern which i have included on its own layer, i set the paint bucket opacity to 50% and then the layer opacity to 50% (you should be able to see these settings in the nintendo file. I then select the gray area in the outline layer, delete the dots from that selection.

If you want to get the files this far and send them my way, i will save them and compress them on my end and place into the theme!

maxbeanz

@TMNTturtlguy This theme looks awesome ! Very polished, well done.

modmaster

@TMNTturtlguy

Sounds good! I'll start on virtual boy and if you like it move on from there.

TMNTturtlguy

@modmaster Perfect!

TMNTturtlguy

@modmaster here is a look at the Virtual Boy system logo 0_1493177211250_VIRTUAL BOY.png

modmaster

@TMNTturtlguy Looks awesome. I'm about done with comic background. Should have it up in a bit.

modmaster

@TMNTturtlguy Looking Good!

TMNTturtlguy

@modmaster that is awesome! Nice work, i really like it. If you can get them this far, i can add the dot pattern to them myself. This way if we decide to change the newsprint filter I can easily modify all the work you have done as well. I just finished up creating a ton of logos, every request i have received is completed. Here is a list of systems that have logos that need backgrounds in no particular order. I believe you requested game gear as well? so maybe start there. I hope to get the optimized 1920x1080 backgrounds updated tomorrow or thursday and an update posted to github with our progress at that point. I will include anything you have time to get to me. No rush on any of them. Thanks again for your help!

3DO
atari st
atari lynx
atari 5200
c64
daphne
FB Alpha
game gear
game and watch
kodi
mame
master system
mega drive
neo geo
neo geo pocket
neo geo pocket color
pc (ms DOS)
pc-engine
ports
scummVM
sega 32x
sega CD
sg-1000
Steam
turbo graphics 16
zx specturm

modmaster

@TMNTturtlguy said in New Comic Book Theme!:

3DO
atari st
atari lynx
atari 5200
c64
daphne
FB Alpha
game gear
game and watch
kodi
mame
master system
mega drive
neo geo
neo geo pocket
neo geo pocket color
pc (ms DOS)
pc-engine
ports
scummVM
sega 32x
sega CD
sg-1000
Steam
turbo graphics 16
zx specturm

That is great! I'll start tomorrow and focus on:

atari lynx
atari 5200
daphne
FB Alpha
game gear
mame
master system
mega drive
neo geo
neo geo pocket
neo geo pocket color
pc-engine
sega 32x
sega CD
sg-1000
turbo graphics 16

(totally selfish but those are the systems on my current build sooooo yeah) I should be able to knock them out by this weekend. I'll use the same drop box file and won't put them there till they are done. After this first run I'll work any others that are not finished. Thanks for all the work! This is going to be an epic theme!

modmaster

I am also interested in themes for systems with rom hacks. I am thinking hat the only thing that would need to change is the logo. I "hacked" this together but if you could edit it in the comic book font that would be awesome.

Systems that would need a "Hacks" theme are

GB (gbh)
GBA (gbah)
NES (nesh)
SNES (snesh)
GameGear (ggh)
Genesis (genh)

What do you think?

Kischa

@TMNTturtlguy Hello again!!

When Modmaster have contributed his stylish logos would you mind sharing your raw psd files for both your skins 4:3 and 16:9?

Also will 4:3 edition work on a 5:4 monitor?

Thanks for your awsome work!! 😊

Also thank you @modmaster for hotting up the skin even more 😉

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy Thanks for sharing, and I hope this all works out for the best of your theme :)

I took a stab at applying the same filter with GIMP. What I did was:

Merge all clean image layers in one, without the background;
Duplicate that layer;
Apply the filter to the duplicate, with the same angle to all colors, and antialiasing oversampling set to maximum (15) here. Dot width ~5, I believe.
Make filtered layer semi-transparent.

https://mega.nz/#!kF9AHQSL!gnlaxng_fwLLVQgCHqfq1YmCsaRl2a7PEsW8qMskRU8

I added both my images for Nintendo and Atari, as well as the other ones you had.

I am curious as to why your yellow bricks in Rainbow Island (Atari) have "grey-ish" dots - I don't know where it would be getting that color from, there, given that - if I understand the filter right - what it's supposed to do is to split each color in its components and systematically overlap it with surrounding ones at a specific position, as the old comic prints would do given that they'd print the 4 colors (CMY and Black) in different turns. I'd expect a sort of orangey tinge, from the red brick lines, but not that. It also in turn seems to make the images look significantly darker, when compared to the original?

It's worth checking, just to see if there's anything missing in the filter configuration on your end, as you know a lot more about Photoshop than I ever will. :)

If it'd help, I'm more than happy to apply this filter to all the PSD files, if you want, and I'm happy for you to then decide. If not, it's also perfectly fine :)

Thanks!