Author talks about the way that black bars appear on the sides (and sometimes top and bottom) of frame grabs. Linux geek that he is, he shows us the command line pipe he uses to strip them away.

Me, I do it using scripts for Paint Shop Pro. Creating a script for PSP8 is really simple; you tell it "record", then do it once yourself, then store the script. Then you can batch process as many images using that script as you want.

Usually I use three steps. The first step is "JPEG artifact removal". MPEG artifacts are similar to JPEG artifacts, so it works well for this. There are four strengths to choose among, so I take one typical image and just look at it magnified to see how it looks at each of the step levels. Ideally you want to use as little as you can, because at high strengths it does uncrispen lines and things like that.

Second step is a resize. I always take raw captures (720*480), and depending on the source material aspect ratio it gets resized to either 720*405 (16:9) or 640*480 (4:3).

And the third step is removal of the black bars. For that I use the "canvas size" function. For most shows I take four pixels off the left and right sides, but sometimes it's more complicated than that.

And the resulting script look like this:

from JascApp import *

def ScriptProperties():
    return {
        'Author': u'',
        'Copyright': u'',
        'Description': u'',
        'Host': u'Paint Shop Pro',
        'Host Version': u'8.10'
        }

def Do(Environment):
    # EnableOptimizedScriptUndo
    App.Do( Environment, 'EnableOptimizedScriptUndo', {
           
            })

    # JPEG Artifact Removal
    App.Do( Environment, 'JPEGArtifactRemoval', {
            'RestoreCrispness': 0,
            'Strength': App.Constants.JPEGStrength.Low,
            'GeneralSettings': {
                'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Default,
                'RandomSeed': 71909484,
                'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.Match
                }
            })

    # Resize
    App.Do( Environment, 'Resize', {
            'AspectRatio': 1.5,
            'CurrentDimensionUnits': App.Constants.UnitsOfMeasure.Pixels,
            'CurrentResolutionUnits': App.Constants.ResolutionUnits.PixelsPerIn,
            'Height': 405,
            'MaintainAspectRatio': App.Constants.Boolean.false,
            'Resample': App.Constants.Boolean.true,
            'ResampleType': App.Constants.ResampleType.SmartSize,
            'ResizeAllLayers': App.Constants.Boolean.true,
            'Resolution': 2.5,
            'Width': 720,
            'GeneralSettings': {
                'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Default,
                'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.Match
                }
            })

    # ResizeCanvas
    App.Do( Environment, 'ResizeCanvas', {
            'AspectRatio': 1.32636,
            'FillColor': (255,255,255),
            'HoriPlace': App.Constants.HorizontalType.Center,
            'MaintainAspect': App.Constants.Boolean.false,
            'NewDimUnits': App.Constants.UnitsOfMeasure.Pixels,
            'NewHeight': 405,
            'NewWidth': 712,
            'PlaceBottom': 0,
            'PlaceLeft': -4,
            'PlaceRight': -4,
            'PlaceTop': 0,
            'VertPlace': App.Constants.VerticalType.Center,
            'GeneralSettings': {
                'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Default,
                'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.Match
                }
            })

 

Fortunately, I neither need to type that nor to read it ordinarily. That's how PSP8 talks to itself.

---The Atomic Fungus has watched a couple of episodes of Ikki Tousen: Dragon Destiny and is bewildered.

Ikkotousen Dragon Destiny--what is this? To say that I don't understand what the hell is going on in this series would not be overstating the issue. After two episodes I like to at least have an idea what is happening, and although I understand that the high schools in this series all have armies of "fighters" that fight to the death, I don't understand why this is so or what the point of it is. The story starts approximately in the middle of the beginning, with almost no exposition; that technique enables a "fast start" for the action, but you don't get much of an explanation of why, or even what. And it's uneven.

What is IT:DD? It's an excuse for fan service about bodacious babes who fight like crazed wolverines and who get their costumes shredded in said fights without suffering the slightest abrasion to their skin. If you're looking for anything deeper than that, you're watching the wrong series.

There is a story. It's a stupid one, but it's there. The reason it seems like you've been dropped into the middle of the story is that you have been. IT:DD is a sequel to the original IkkiTousen, which was produced by a different studio.

But it isn't really worth going into what the story is about, because the series is about watching Kan'u Unchou losing her clothes at every opportunity.

...moving right along...

---The owner of the FunBlog (doesn't anyone besides me have a real name anymore?) takes his best shot at trying to explain the fuzetsu from Shakugan no Shana. But his explanation, although clever, still doesn't deal with edge effects.

The fundamental question is where time freezes. As presented in the series, time inside the fuzetsu freezes but not outside, which is why those with power who are outside can detect that it's happening and enter the fuzetsu. But what if someone who doesn't have the power -- and doesn't know the fuzetsu is there -- tries to enter it? Presumably they freeze just inside the perimeter. Except that doesn't work.

If a fuzetsu covers part of a freeway, what happens to a car which enters the zone of the fuzetsu? And to the car just behind it, and the 500 behind that one? Big traffic pileup?

One fuzetsu in the series lasts for something like 14 hours. A freeway can pump a lot of traffic into the perimeter in 14 hours.

---Don has a real name! And he's found the perfect plushie to go next to the Cthulhu plushie that all the cool kids have on their shelves.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in People at 11:48 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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