Rubberslug pan thumbnails?

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:52 pm

What do you do when you only have one pan thumbnail and it doesn't match the size of the other thumbnails? How do you arrange the thumbnail on your thumbnail page?

Or do you make your pan item thumbnail the same size as the other thumbnails by cropping off the extra length?

If you have an even number pan thumbnails you can always stick them in the same row, but having an odd number of pan thumbnails will leave an odd man out (unless if it's stuck at the end).

Golden Boy · Post by **Golden Boy** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:19 pm

hey terence,
i want uniformity in my thumbnail page so i keep all thumbnails the same size. obviously, this won't work if you use the automatic thumbnail maker. for pan or oversize cels, i crop them in such a way that either you can tell there is more to the cel (hoping you'll click on the cel) or i crop to just the "meat" of the scene.

one example is "Ep. 3 - 9:54-9:58" on my RS gallery:
http://wanderingstudent.rubberslug.com/ ... 099&Page=2

hope that helps.

gb

aernath · Post by **aernath** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 6:31 pm

I put them in the same row when possible. Odd numbers, I try to stash at the bottom.

But there might be an exception floating around in there.

JuniorMintKiss · Post by **JuniorMintKiss** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 6:38 pm

I'm with GB, I like all my thumbnails to be the same size: My Gokudo pan cel thumbnail of Indra and Niari, found on this link:

http://juniorscels.rubberslug.com/galle ... esID=23971

I had to do some overhauling on. I piddled around in Photoshop and moved Niari closer to Indra so that I could have both of them in the thumbnail. But the actual scan shows that he's quite a ways away from Indra. (BTW I need to rescan that).

But that's the only pan cel that I have, so my experience with this sort of thing is limited.

duotrouble · Post by **duotrouble** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:26 pm

Guess I'm in the minority.

I put my cels in episode order regardless of their size. So pan thumbnails are mixed in with everything else. I plan on making my own thumbnails in the future instead of using the automatic feature but they'll still be oversized thumbnails mixed with regular ones. It just doesn't bother me.

HotIce · Post by **HotIce** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:27 pm

I'm with GB and Junior, all of my thumb nails are uniform size.

However, the way mine are (designed to look like puddles) you have to click on the thumbnail in order to see the entire image, pan or not. It wasn't really something I did on purpose (in fact its something I just realized now), I was just "plays with puddles" so I wanted themed thumbnails.

wELCOME cONSUMER · Post by **wELCOME cONSUMER** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:54 pm

I'm like GB, JuniorMint and Hotice. I prefer uniform sized thumbnails and adjust accordingly, which requires cropping. I hope visitors take the time to click my thumbnails, no matter what they show or don't show. As far as order, I don't have any particular method. I seem to just throw them together however I please.

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:54 pm

In what way?

miz ducky · Post by **miz ducky** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 9:11 pm

I'm with Duotrouble (it's kinda funny, it sounds like we're all choosing sides or something, even though it's nothing of the sort).

I don't mind my pan thumbnails being different. Otherwise a person just scanning a section wouldn't know that it's a pan.

So I guess it just doesn't really bother me. The galleries with special thumbnails really do look cool though.

Goldknight · Post by **Goldknight** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 10:29 pm

My thumbnails are different in that I allow the pan however I make sure it's the same width as the regular thumbnails. Then it blends in nicely. I also try to place it in the middle rather than the side. The it's framed with the other thumbs. Does that make sense?

If the pan is a horizontal pan then I make sure it's the same height as the regular thumbnails. I'm sure you can figure it out by visiting my gallery.

duotrouble · Post by **duotrouble** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 10:33 pm

miz ducky wrote:I'm with Duotrouble (it's kinda funny, it sounds like we're all choosing sides or something, even though it's nothing of the sort).

No, no side taking here. It's just personal preferences.

iwakuralain16 · Post by **iwakuralain16** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 11:35 pm

i make all of mine the same so they do not stetch out the page... so you will end up seeing pan cels that are not as big as other thumbnails size wise but you can tell if you click on them that they are pan. I like to keep my cels in order by episode no matter what so i had to adjust my thumbnails because they were stretching out the pages too much... lol

klet · Post by **klet** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 12:32 am

I think my pages look really messy with the different sized thumbnails . . . then again, I'm too lazy to do much about it.

I use RS's automatic thumbnail thingie. I really would like to resize all of my thumbnails to the same size, but considering how varied my scans are of my cels with backgrounds, I don't know if that will happen.

Is there a program you can use that will automatically crop to a specific size?

kymaera · Post by **kymaera** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 1:08 am

klet wrote: Is there a program you can use that will automatically crop to a specific size?

Image Resizer allows you to resize a batch of images at once. The quality isn't the best in the world, though.

I use php to automatically scale the images for my webpage, but you can't use that for Rubberslug or any hosting that doesn't allow php.

Post by **sensei** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 6:54 am

klet wrote: I really would like to resize all of my thumbnails to the same size, but considering how varied my scans are of my cels with backgrounds, I don't know if that will happen.

Is there a program you can use that will automatically crop to a specific size?

I have MS Office Picture Manager loaded onto my computer, which (IMHO) is less versatile than MS Photo Editor, but still lets you crop and resize images. I don't generally resize pan images, though when I can I do (like Goldnight) I try to put them in the middle of my gallery preview to make a neater page. But when I did my "Quick Gallery Tour" I wanted each image to look the same and settled on a "tile" size of 150 x 75 pixels.

I chose images that I wanted to highlight for each gallery and cropped them to an approximate 2-to-1 width to height ratio. Then I resized to 150 pixels maximum dimension, and uploaded them from my computer rather than using the "Make thumbnail" feature at RS. I ended up with a page of same sized (well, similar, a few came out 150 x 80) images that loaded quickly and looked neat. You can take a peek to see what I got.

http://sensei.rubberslug.com/gallery/ma ... esID=18344

The nice thing is that doing this let me play around with the selected images, particularly the sketches that tend not to show up well in thumbnails. I could zoom in on details and crank up the contrast so the image "pops" even in chibi form without making the full image so contrasty that it ceases to look like a pencil sketch.

I'd say play around with custom options; cropping the pan images in addition "teases" the visitor into clicking the link to see the full glory of your collection. (I know other collectors Photoshop their thumbnails for the same reason, fuzzing or posterizing the images so that you have to click to see the cel clearly.)

And playing with options like this is often a great substitute for work!