Image capture, Optimisation and Storage.

In this post, I'll be covering a wide range of topic. I'll be talking about the best way in which to capture or create 2D material. Which tasks are better off being done on using which particular methods. Then optimisation of content, how can one use specific file types, capture types and artistic methods to fit the scenario. And finally I'll talk about storage and which methods are best used for storing different forms of art.

Capturing a digital image is when light is recorded and then stored as a long line of numbers on a computer.

A scanner is a device that optically scans cards and paper placed in the machine to recreate the appearance of what it looks like digitally on computer.

It uses a lamp inside the machine to bounce light from mirror to mirror, illuminating the page inside and bouncing back to the lens. This is when an image is taken, and is converted into digital code to be stored on a computer.

The key features to look at in a scanner include the following:

Interface type (Is it compatible with USB cables). Colour depth; how much colour information is stored about each pixel. DPI (Dots per Inch); how high the resolution of the captured image will be. You will want a high DPI to capture detailed images.

There are a few key differences in the type of scanner that you can get. Flatbed scanners are stationary scanners. Flatbed photo scanners will have a higher DPI and colour depth to recreate the image almost exactly when it is converted into digital information. Document flatbed scanners don’t require the high specifications of photo scanners, so they are often cheaper.

Sheet fed scanners are even more compact than flatbed scanners. Instead of placing card or paper inside and shutting the lid, the user will insert the card or paper in the one end of the scanner and it will scan the photo or document as it rolls through and out the other side. This type of scanner generally doesn’t have the capture quality of flatbed scanners. Resolution and colour depth is sacrificed for desk space. This makes the sheet fed scanner more suitable for document capture than photo capture.

The final type of scanner is the portable scanner. This type of scanner is the most compact of scanners. They are small enough to carry to multiple locations. They are very convenient for scanning documents they do not have the resolution or colour depth to competently capture photos.

Digital Cameras

A digital camera is a camera that captures light in the form of images and video and translates them into digital code for use with computers.

To capture images, digital cameras need a lens. The lens focuses light into a sensor when it is revealed when the shutter opens. Before the light hits the sensor, it passes through the Bayer Array which senses and records the colour in the light. After this it goes through Bayer Demosiacing which records how intense these colours are in each pixel. Finally the image is saved as digital code.

The key features to look at in a camera include:

Megapixels; how high the resolution of the captured image will be. The higher, the more detailed. Battery Life; this dictates how long the camera will last when not plugged in. Card slot; this will let you know if your micro SD card is compatible with the camera. Lens; this dictates how long the optical zoom will be.

There are a few major types of camera. The first is the compact camera. This is generally seen as the budget option. They don’t offer as many high end features as DSLR cameras. Because the audience for this type of camera are generally newcomers, the focus is on ease of use and budget. This means that white balance, focus and other properties are set automatically. They have limited optical zoom and pixel density.

Digital SLR cameras are on the opposite end of this spectrum. They have large sensors and lenses capturing higher resolution images than other cameras. They allow the user to capture images totally manually. This makes the DSLR an enthusiast camera. It is also a lot more expensive than other cameras.

The final type of camera is the camera phone. This has become the most common way of taking photographs today. The main point of the phone is to communicate over long distances, so the camera is generally a secondary goal. The camera itself has to fit in a tiny corner of the phone itself, and the phone generally has to fit in a pocket. They don’t capture images at as high a resolution as dedicated cameras and all of their image capture is done automatically after pushing the button. All of this makes it an even more compact budget camera than a point and shoot.

Graphics Tablets

A graphics Tablet is a touchpad that represents the screen area. A plastic or electronic pen is used in conjunction with this pad to navigate the screen and draw with. They are designed this way so as to mimic traditional pen and paper drawing methods.

Despite being a fairly simple idea, the graphics tablet can vary in a few very important ways.

At the base budget level, graphics tablets are flat touchpads that sit on the desk and are connected through USB. Their touch pad is only usable with the pen. This is the very basic level, made for beginners. They can cost around £80 in the UK.

At higher levels, you can get tablets with displays on. This is getting nearer a professional level. It allows the artist to use refined hand-eye co-ordination. This will make art much quicker to draw. These displays often also have multi-touch displays, allowing the artist to quickly reposition to drawing to where they want to. The graphics tablets at this level will often need pens with batteries in, whereas the budget versions won’t. This might allow added features like shortcuts on the pen’s buttons, but comes at the cost of having to replace the battery after a while. Tablets at this high level can also have a wireless option, another small convenience. This kind of tablet can be over £400 and the batteries as a bit extra. So the user of this type of tablet is presumably more of an enthusiast or professional user. They are more likely to pay extra for minor conveniences.

The very best graphics tablets use large strong screens with a high resolution and highly accurate touch reception. They come with their very own stands, not laid flat on the desk. They can be a screen/tablet hybrid in which the tablet can be used on a regular basis as a regular computer monitor.

Graphics Optimisation

There are numerous ways in which graphics can be optimized. The first is through compression.

Lossy compression is a form of compression visibly reduces image quality in subtle ways. This form of compression is very useful for use on websites. Lossless compression is another form that does not reduce the quality of the image. This will yield a bigger file size, but can still be efficiently transferred over the internet. Compression is mainly to resolve an issue of size and bandwidth.

Another way of optimisation would be bit-depth. Older consoles like the Super Nintendo Entertainment System can only display 16-bit colour. This would mean that using textures and backgrounds that are only 16-bit would be optimal. Not only that, but bit-depth can also effect file size too. For example, displaying both a HD framebuffer and textures that are over 32bit in colour information would be very difficult to do on scratchpad memory like on the Xbox One.

Another form of graphics optimisation would be to alter the resolution. A game running at a low resolution natively doesn’t need to have very high texture resolution because it won’t be noticeable to the player. This will clear up some space on ram and disk space.

A less gaming related form of graphics optimisation would be the use of vector and raster images. This can have implications in games, a 2D game might be better off using vectors than bitmaps. But it also has implications for corporations and advertisement. A company logo for example is presumably a simple and memorable visual for the viewer, and it will need to be resized to fit on all things great and small. These logos are sometimes displayed as covers on websites or on tiny phones or handheld machines. This is where a vector would really come in handy. A vector will look very much the same no matter how largely it has been resized, whereas a raster image is stuck with an amount of pixel information.

Raster images aren’t a lost cause though. They are necessary for more complex visuals on billboards or even leaflets. Vectors are better at displaying simple shapes while raster images are better at high colour ratio and complexity.

A final thing to consider in graphics optimisation is whether your image will be displayed electronically or in print. If an image is going to be printed and distributed physically, the company doing so would be given a chance to ramp up the bit-depth and resolution and eliminate compression. Because transfer rate and disk space does not need to be considered like it does on computer.

Asset Management Software

Asset management software is great for working in a small team. It allows files and information to be added to a core space in which multiple users can access and amend. Most management software allows the users to give a reason for editing or adding a file in the core space. They also record the history of all files in the space and allow the user to go back in time and get an old file back. This is great if a team heads in the wrong direction or if poor communication leads to a mix up.

The software also allows a team to contribute to the core space from across the world. This is especially useful for small indie teams formed over the internet. It can also be used as a back-up in-case of a fire or other loss of data.