Guild Photo

The news that we'd parsed out 1800 characters earlier today got me thinking (always dangerous) and I was struck by the thought of just how incredible it would be to have a Guild Photo (screenshot). Before I lay out the idea, bear in mind I have little to nothing in the way of coding or photoshopping skill to bring this about, I'm just the idea man (oh, why are the most willing so often the least capable?!?!). Anyway, imagine if you will...

The entire 1800 characters in a panoramic screenshot...say against a long hillside such as one finds along the zone boundaries. I'm picturing something on the order of a 13th Century army arrayed for battle, perhaps with guild officers mounted to the front, melee classes grouped in "companies" with ranged behind.

I figure scheduled "picture days" allowing everyone who wishes to get all their alts into one or another screenshot over a series of days, which are then photoshopped together into a panorama of the entire guild (or as close to it as we can get) through the magic of modern science (meaining I have no clue how you smart people do that stuff).

Would make a nice memento of the 10th Anniversary of Gaiscioch, I was thinking.

Anyway, thought I'd throw that out, see if it was 1) feasible 2) desirable.

Sincerely - Aodhwyn/Eirith/Pyotr

I think that sounds awesome.

/thinks this would be amazing... /thinks she would like to help... /thinks of the organisation and work.... /head explodes!

» Edited on: 2011-06-21 16:27:23

Unfortunately only 60 characters render at any time. Even with all of us on only 60 of us would show up.

This sounds like an awesome idea, but with the problem Fog mentioned that will be a lot of small photo sessions and a lot of photoshop.

Hmmm - at 60 per session, 300 photo sessions and photoshopping 300 screenies...ok, filed under "Wouldn't that be cool" and moving on. Thanks for considering the idea :)

Too bad there's no greenscreen wall in telara... hmm maybe I can request one :D

If everyone sends me a screenshot of themselves I will paste them together in photoshop, but...it will be more of a COLLAGE than a PANORAMA. It will also take some time.

Also remember that people have alts, I personally have 3 alts in the guild.

If anything along this line is done, I think we should stick to mains in order to simplify things a little.

Talking about green screens what about the hill side in moonshade

I personally love this idea! I don't have the oomph or skill to make it happen but it sure would be cool!

If we just stuck to mains how many would that be?

Probably under a thousand, a lot of people can have a lot of alts.

Fog, It might be possible to take a base set of screenshots by standing in one spot and shooting several photos with nobody around. Using a photo stictching program (may of these exist - Windows Live Photo something or other includes a pretty decent one) those could be made into a base composite. After that the same player (without moving!) could take groups of pictures and stitch those into a separate panorama. By comparing the two with a photo application it should be possible to subtract the areas that are the same, removing the background. Sound complicated enough for you? :)

believe it or not mythgarr i tried that and the terrain changes brightness and color very frequently it's just so gradual we barely notice. I was having problems trying to pull that same thing off on our first guild picture attempt because the terrain kept changing because of clouds, weather, or the time of day.

A guild mosaic might be the solution. Just head and shoulders of each main character in a giant grid of squares. Like 30 squares across, 100 down (or whatever it turns out to be), or could make an actual square 100x100.

I use photoshop a lot in my 'work' in secondlife, and the ease of using layers in PS would make it easy to put something like this together. It would not be difficult to take a photo in game of the background scenery, then overlay and resize each person's picture that they have sent in. They would then be arranged on the background so it would appear to have been all taken as one photo. However, the difficult part is that each person would need to follow a similar set of parameters/guidelines for taking their picture. For example, need to face the sun (the sun on your back will not produce a good picture) each picture would need to be of similar quality in terms of resolution, otherwise when they were all put together some might be sharp good quality, and others fuzzy and pixelated, although PS can fix a multitude of sins. If we wanted the finished product to look like we were all present for one photo taken, then all pictures would have to include the whole person - including feet. Sitting, standing, kneeling, mounted all would work and would add good variety to the arrangement - but all would have to be complete, no feet cut off, or horse legs missing etc. The time consuming part of this would be the 'rendering' of each person's picture, ie. cutting it out to remove their background so they can be overlayed on the new background. It would only take a few mins per picture, but with a possibly hundreds that would, of course, be time consuming! I would be happy to have a go at this, and would be even happier if anyone else who works with Photoshop (or gimp or similar) would like to join forces and chip away at it together, divide and conquer! Edited to add: I have done a test run this afternoon on a panorama for the basic background, several images then processed in PS to make a panoramic shot, and it worked perfectly. So I am going to mess around with adding some characters to see how it looks later.

» Edited on: 2011-06-27 16:02:46

I have extensive Photoshop experience. If I can do something to help do let me know.

I think the collage idea might be a lot easier for all concerned. They do that in yearbooks all the time. that way it doesn't have to be so exact for those taking the pictures. Everyone send in a 100x100 and just make a huge collage out of the piccies. just my 2 cents

You could also do something like make the Gaiscioch knot out of the "headshot" pictures? That actually might make a really nice 10th Anniversary image as well -- use shots of characters from all games actively being played by members (which I think would be RIFT and Warhammer). Wouldn't translate so well to a t-shirt, but might make a neat poster/banner (printed) or computer wallpaper.