Archive: 3 posts

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A lot has been said about the image quality of level badges, and the general feeling seems to be that badge quality depends entirely on the quality of the photo being used. I find myself arguing against that explanation, because there seems to be an obvious divide between beautifully crisp and glossy badges, and blurry, saturated badges. I have tried every photo technique known to sack-kind, but still my level badges carry that bitty, dirty, woven effect. I've tried depth flattening, intense colouring and brightness, use of fog, various photo sizing, etc. I can never get close to the quality of some of the level badges on 'Mm picks' and 'Cool levels'. It's as if my photos are being reduced down in file size, and then stretched back to fit the level badge size. There has to be a defining secret that I'm not aware of, because I am all out of ideas. If anybody can enlighten, please do.

2011-03-01 14:47:00 Author: Wayward Posts: 120

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In lbp1 I would usually place the logo in a dark level in create and place led lights around it to illuminate the logo and brighten the colors. In lbp2, it is easy to make bright, crisp logos with the hologram material.

2011-03-01 15:20:00 Author: Bender Posts: 75

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It's all about lighting, material choices, and taking like 50 pictures of the same thing from every zoom distance, hoping that one will fit the level badge border just right while still being crisp & clear. CENTURION24 made his own photo studio for this stuff that I started using on LBP1. Doesn't work as well in 2, since the badge field and properties are totally different, but the theory is still the same. Find 'the perfect' display shape that fits into the badge nice & snug to it's borders at maximum zoom (so you find a default state and never have to guess how far away you should snap the picture for badge size) Then build a studio lighting array around it where you can physically control the total lighting in 8 to 12 points... the more points of light sourcing, the more 'reflective' penalties it has on the surface of what it's lighting, so 8 is ideal if you keep their source area out of 'badge zone' but at a distance where the light radius is cast onto the picture with no gaps and no double-intensity overlaps of light. CEN's studio had LED's mounted on pistons that you could move closer or further away via 3 way switch, and make brighter/dimmer via another 3 way switch. LBP2's engine automatically casts shadows now, from light sources with no way to disable it, so physical objects for controlling a studio won't work for badges. You'll have to make one using the invisible LED Lightbulb's that are new to LBP2, and a combination of movers (two for diagonal moving lights, one N S E W for top bottom left & right) set to strength. You should have a microchip and the lights on equal size pieces of holo in all 8 corners (use an octagon or the grid snap feature to line everything up just right), equidistant from each other, set movers to strength, and a speed & strength setting that's as sensitive & responsive as you want it to be. So you'll need bi directional mover set ups using a control seat or a 3 way switch & direction splitters to control the closer-further light positions. One mover for closer, and one for further... on the diagonal ones, each direction will need 2 movers (4 total, because it will technically be moving two directions at the same time for diagonal movement). Also on the chips, set up a NOT and a gravity tweaker with 100% dampening, so that when the signal telling them to move stops, and you're NOT moving them, they freeze in place. Also, make sure you're taking the pic in all black lighting on the default level backgrounds with the least interference. If you really get into it, you can set up gradient control for the color filters & global lighting, but that'll probably be more for creating custom stickers meant to blend into the level they're intended for. ie: brick sticker matches brick material in BG+Lighting Combo X perfectly. I need to make one of these too, so it's not so much trial and error on badges & level stickers, and I don't have to light it from scratch every time. Also, aside from all of this... neon is lovely for badges.

2011-03-01 15:25:00 Author: Unknown User

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