09/01/06 Shock n' Awe

[Rowne]

Oh lordy, that thing.

Believe this tale or not, as you will.  When I was a spritely youth, I had a Religious Education teacher that was absolutely crazy about Star Trek.  The class would frequently get to watch Science Fiction marathons (mostly Trek) at breaks and stuff, if they wanted to.  Of course, I did because I was a total geek back then (and I still am).

One day, this teacher decided to bring into school a bunch of Trek paraphernalia.  One of these items was the audio book version of the Klingon dictionary.  I still have fond memories of everyone in the class suffering fits of giggles as Worf described how Klingon mating ritual growls worked.  Actually, I'm not sure whether that memory would be considered fond or just scarring but still, it was funny stuff.

And I never want to hear Dan doing a Klingon mating ritual growl.  Ever.

[ShiningShadow]

Oh lordy, that thing.

Believe this tale or not, as you will.  When I was a spritely youth, I had a Religious Education teacher that was absolutely crazy about Star Trek.  The class would frequently get to watch Science Fiction marathons (mostly Trek) at breaks and stuff, if they wanted to.  Of course, I did because I was a total geek back then (and I still am).

One day, this teacher decided to bring into school a bunch of Trek paraphernalia.  One of these items was the audio book version of the Klingon dictionary.  I still have fond memories of everyone in the class suffering fits of giggles as Worf described how Klingon mating ritual growls worked.  Actually, I'm not sure whether that memory would be considered fond or just scarring but still, it was funny stuff.

And I never want to hear Dan doing a Klingon mating ritual growl.  Ever.

AWWWWWWW why not it will be funny as heck. Imagine Dan get the vowel of the growl wrong BAM his house in a blood fued  . I'm cracking up for that alone........

[Tapewolf]

Returning to the subject of Alexsi, while researching Creature longevity I found this frame and just had to blow it up.



Technical data follows

This picture also serves as an experiment in image restoration/remastering.  The image was doubled with cubic interpolation, and then filtered with GreyCstoration to reduce most of the JPEG damage.  That left fringes, mostly in the sky, which I painted out manually.  If you look closely at Mab's antennae I overshot slightly.
I was tempted to leave it there but then had a brainwave.  Since most of the colouring is solid, it could be redone colour by colour using select-by-colour and flood fill.  This image is the result - I'll look into writing a GIMP script to automate most of the process.

As you can see, the line of text at the bottom is mangled, so if this was done on a larger scale the strips would have to be re-captioned.  Although since there are a couple with typos in them anyway, that's not necessarily a disaster.

For comparison, the original scaled JPEG is here: http://www.jpmorris.force9.co.uk/stuff/conversions/alexsi0.png
..and the strip is #308.

[xHaZxMaTx]

It looks like a regular pic, just blurred. Nicely done, though is thre really any point in doing so?

[Tapewolf]

It looks like a regular pic, just blurred. Nicely done, though is thre really any point in doing so?

Just checking, did you compare the before and after images?

Anyway, these are my reasons:

1. I cannot stand JPEG noise
2. I'm curious about the feasibility of producing printable images, and the original resolution is too small.  This one is double-size.
3. The high-res masters are all lost
4. Alexsi's "I'm gonna kill you, Mab" expression is priceless

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I think number 4 is the critical point, there :-)

Damn. That's some good work, there, TW.

[Zedd]

Oh noes! I rather not be stranggled by any big sister or anything man! Specialy midgits

[Rowne]

I'd have to agree, I'm a neophyte with the Gimp and whilst I have some skills, they're not much good.  I tried tackling bad Jpeg compression before and failed, badly.  So I know how awesome a feat that is, from firsthand experience.

If only everyone used the PNG format.

[xHaZxMaTx]

PNG is teh sexy, it shall rule the world!

[Zedd]

PNG wants Hazzys soul!

[Aridas]

And yet there are still people who say JPG and Gif are superior to PNG. For whatever reason, we'll never know.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

PNG already has it. Hazzy has just borrowed it back for the duration... :-)

[Zedd]

Mmm sweet...Would he need it play rugby?

[ITOS]

Only problem with PNG is that it displays incorrectly in some web browsers (i.e. IE).

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Of course not. Rugby players have no souls. Everyone knows that. :-)


*hides from the All Blacks*

[Zedd]

Thats the second that raises alot questions about your char....How can a box hide? 

[Aridas]

Only problem with PNG is that it displays incorrectly in some web browsers (i.e. IE).

If you're talking about transparency, yeah. Otherwise... JPG doesn't have transparancy, period. so PNG wins. I think PNG shows correctly in IE7, but I don't have any nearby PNGs to test.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Thats the second that raises alot questions about your char....How can a box hide? 

In plain sight, of course. The Purloined Letter wins, hands down.


Or you can go hide in a stack of other boxes, but then you've got to talk to that smelly cousin who every wishes would go hide under a truck or play with Sheridan or something...

[xHaZxMaTx]

Teehee, ITOS made a funny.   (i.e. IE)

[Zedd]

Yeah hide till I trip and cringle one your sides again

[Tapewolf]

I'd have to agree, I'm a neophyte with the Gimp and whilst I have some skills, they're not much good.  I tried tackling bad Jpeg compression before and failed, badly.  So I know how awesome a feat that is, from firsthand experience.

If only everyone used the PNG format.

Indeed.  I offered Amber a not inconsiderable sum for the high-res masters, mainly so that I could get my mitts on the strips prior to the JPEG process - only to learn that most of them were already gone (before the disk crash even).  Hence my interest in image reconstruction. 

This is the JPEG reduction algorithm I've been using on most of my edits:
http://www.greyc.ensicaen.fr/~dtschump/greycstoration/
There is a plugin for Gimp, although it may only work on Linux.  I can't remember now.  It does blur the image rather, although it you do it on a double-sized image and then scale it back down the blurring is somewhat reduced.

By the way, I have now perfected a script-fu script to purify the currently selected colour - this speeds up the process immensely.  If anyone is interested I can share it with them.

[GabrielsThoughts]

nice, I like how the image turned out.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

By the way, I have now perfected a script-fu script to purify the currently selected colour - this speeds up the process immensely.  If anyone is interested I can share it with them.

I'm interested, but I have no use for it at present, so I'll get back to you later, ok? :-)

[ShiningShadow]

TW that's cool. You are a natural with the hi-tech wizardy I commend you. It's soo cool I never realize it exsistence till you pointed it out to us.