Nike The Bike's Transparent Image Viewer Guide

[Nike The Bike]

I created a CAW face using this method and got questions about the method I used, so I decided to write up a quick guide for other interested CAW makers.

I connected the cap card of my computer to my PS3 and downloaded a program called Transparent Image Viewer. With this tool I can easily edit my caw, take a snap shot of it and have a reference image blended into the snapshot without me having to start photoshop or any tool like that. This way it was really easy to make sure that facially everything was in the right place (morph positions, designs and so on) corresponding to a reference image. Here below follows my step-by-step guide.

Nike The Bike's Transparent Image Viewer Guide:

Get Transparent Image Viewer here:
http://www.sharecg.com/v/16816/Software-and-Tools/Transparent-Image-Viewer

This is how I use it (you need a PC with a cap card you can connect your console to):
1. Connect console to cap card of PC. This way I get the screen of my console on my PC screen.
2. Start Transparent Image Viewer with reference image.
3. Edit face in CAW mode of console game.
4. Take screen shot of face from CAW mode with cap card (use default zoom size and position in game).
5. Open screen shot image.
6. Place Transparent Image Viewer on top of screen shot.
7. Set transparency of Transparent Image Viewer by right clicking and setting to about 50% (I switch between 30-70% to compare).
8. Stretch Transparent Image Viewer window to match the scale of the screen shot (make head sizes and other reference spots like ears and stuff match).
9. In the merged image, check what looks out of place on your CAW and update it in CAW mode.
10. Take a new screen shot (again with default face zoom size and position) and open it in place of the old one.
11. Repeat 9-10 until you're satisfied.
12. Your CAW face is complete.

Blending example:
[img]http://www.megaburken.net/~niklas/SvR2010/Hogan/reference_morph_comparison.jpg[/img]

I hope that this guide helps atleast someone new out there.

Happy CAWing guys!

[Haas3-16]

Looks good. I'll need to get a Cap Card. Which one do you use?

[Nike The Bike]

[quote name='cashmaster' date='05 December 2009 - 09:18 PM' timestamp='1260044300' post='6900649']
Looks good. I'll need to get a Cap Card. Which one do you use?
[/quote]

An old one. WinTV-PVR-250. There should be better options out on the market however these days.

One important thing to think about when getting a cap card is if the card has a direct show mode (not sure if this is the actual name for it) so that you won't get a delay from the card buffering things before displaying them. This does not matter when watching TV but when playing console games, if you press a button and it takes 2 seconds before anything happens on the screen, it's pretty useless.

[Haas3-16]

Cool, thanks .

[Spamming Nooblet]

like I mentioned before, it worked out very well for ur Hogan.

I think I'll try that myself.

I'll see about getting a cap card thing.

[Perfect Weapon.]

Nice, never thought of this method. I'll have to try it sometime.

[Nike The Bike]

It could work without a cap card (taking pictures would work) but it would be a whole lot more work to do it without one.

[NGw00d]

You could also use it for paint tool to trace images. Good idea, too bad i dont have a cap card.

[Nike The Bike]

Yep. That's another way to use it. The paint tool is better used with the other paint tool guide here though in my opinion. The grid-thing.

[Chris Phoenix]

Pity it doesnt work in reverse and you can super impose a transparant imagew on to your screen and then just match up the morphings to the image, but I reckon it wont be long untill someone does that.

[Nike The Bike]

If you have a cap card that works in another way than mine does it's not impossible that you can actually do that already. It is the functionality of my cap card that makes it so that I can't show transparent images on top of what is being captured.

[Nike The Bike]

Maybe I could even use it that way if I changed some settings on my card?

[NecroButcherFTW]

[quote name='Nike The Bike' date='07 December 2009 - 01:55 AM' timestamp='1260150928' post='6903959']
Maybe I could even use it that way if I changed some settings on my card?
[/quote]

http://www.absoluteway.com/tweakwindow/transparent_window.htm - Make your window transparent to whatever % you want.
http://www.absoluteway.com/tweakwindow/stay_window_always_on_top.htm - Keep your window ontop, dunno if you will need this but I use the two together ( For other things )

enjoy

[Nike The Bike]

Bug...

[Nike The Bike]

This forum is fantastic... *sarcasm*

[Nike The Bike]

...

[Nike The Bike]

[quote name='NecroButcherFTW' date='21 December 2009 - 07:35 PM' timestamp='1261420506' post='6940008']
http://www.absoluteway.com/tweakwindow/transparent_window.htm - Make your window transparent to whatever % you want.
http://www.absoluteway.com/tweakwindow/stay_window_always_on_top.htm - Keep your window ontop, dunno if you will need this but I use the two together ( For other things )

enjoy
[/quote]

I'm afraid I don't think that'll work for me for the same reason this trick doesn't work directly for me. I believe my TV card while in "direct show mode" renders directly to a part of the monitor screen to speed things up. This way, setting transparency of a window via software won't work since the image doesn't pass through software. This is just what I think happens though. Your suggestion might work though so I might test it.

[Nike The Bike]

I think this topic needs a bump. Try this method, it will make your morphing much better! Combined with the new texturing method it will be sweet.

[thesis]

Sounds complicated, plus I have no cap card. :-(

[#SEV7N]

Might try this some time. Would work great for Paint tool.

[Nike The Bike]

It's really not that complicated. Take a picture of your CAW, morph in and out to see what is off... Pretty easy since you can stretch your reference image in the tool to fit your screen shot.

However, I agree that it is harder without a cap card...

[ԃɾҽ-ԃɾαყ™]

Ok I don't really know a lot about cap cards could you explain the whole concept to me please.
This look very interesting, so what your actually doing is tracing over a ref pic right, so how do do you get it back into caw mode?

[Nike The Bike]

A capture card or "cap card" is a card that you connect to your computer with TV-input so that you can hook up a VCR, the TV antenna cable or a console and make the image appear on your computer screen. You can then easily record that input as an mpeg movie for example or take pictures of the screen. I hope that explained it.

[ԃɾҽ-ԃɾαყ™]

[quote name='Nike The Bike' date='28 January 2010 - 09:52 PM' timestamp='1264715525' post='7042965']
A capture card or "cap card" is a card that you connect to your computer with TV-input so that you can hook up a VCR, the TV antenna cable or a console and make the image appear on your computer screen. You can then easily record that input as an mpeg movie for example or take pictures of the screen. I hope that explained it.
[/quote]
Crystal clear so what your doin is tracing over a ref pic?

[Nike The Bike]

I make a screen shot of my morph and compare it to a reference with this method. Then I morph again and take a new screen shot until the picture of the morph matches the reference.