HQ PICS DOWNLOADS and Status List (MTG)

[meep.o.matic]

The pics look absolutely stunning! Thanks guys

[Xitax]

how does the torrent experiment work, I'm curious. Is distribution happening ok ?

Very good. I got it in a couple of minutes last night.

[oumve]

First thing first,a great thanks for all this hard work,we will never say enough
On the GTC XL scans, there is several pictures with white dots clearly visible.
Example on Act of Treason (I just circled on few of them)

[skibulk]

First thing first,a great thanks for all this hard work,we will never say enough
On the GTC XL scans, there is several pictures with white dots clearly visible.
Example on Act of Treason (I just circled on few of them)

I volunteered to help Extreme a while back, and after processing half a Chinese set, I realized that having his job would drive me insane. You see, removing dust and scratches from card scans takes time, A LOT OF TEDIOUS TIME. A set this size takes 7-11 hours. For the kind of accuracy you're demanding, it could take 15+. It is not fair to ask for more than we are given, for free.

Processing shouldn't be a one-man job. Volunteers are invited to assist Extreme (PhotoShop skills required). The quality of set releases could be increased accordingly with a four-man operation.

[extreme]

))
You should have seen the dust on the original scans. I am not crazy enough - or unemployed enough - to fully remove everying. Skibulk is right, that's the usual time I spent on these. But I think he's overoptimistic in the 15h for perfection. By far, the largest part of what I do is cloning out dust and scratches (to be fair, there are very few scratches in ark's scans, but a LOT of dust). There are possibly hundreds of specks/card to clone out.
So I remove the most visible ones. In hq size, this is enough. Yes, for 300dpi you will spot some spots. Sorry, it's all I'm willing to do if I work alone. I have received 2 offers of help lately, but I currently have no time at all to explain the process. We have tried this in the past, but it's a very tedious work, and skibulk has experienced it firsthand. Not many people can stand this for long periods of time. I admit I'm a bit OCD to do this.
I also think we're talking diminishing returns.

[Goblin Hero]

I have received 2 offers of help lately, but I currently have no time at all to explain the process.

Try to write an instruction in the wiki when you have time. We have several chinese sets to process... so volunteers are highly appreciated.

[Ark]

Just an FYI, I clean my scanner with LCD TV cleaner between every scan, and brush off every card with a duster brush thing (part of the LCD TV cleaning "kit"), to remove as much dust as possible. I scan at 1200dpi with a pretty good quality scanner and there is still white pixels that show up. Keep in mind that human hair will be around 4-5 pixels wide at this resolution, so any spec that still shows up in the scan is not even remotely visible to the naked eye. It's just impossible to remove these specs, and I'm not even sure if they're actually free floating dust, or just parts of the cards that you can't see until you zoom in that much.

[extreme]

I know it's not your fault, and you've done terrific work. Unfortunately, dust is visibile, unless we work in a lab environment. I have no idea how presetm worked, but he had way less. And he did exactly what you did, ark, nothing more. Mystery...
oh, he also regularly cleaned the underside of the scanning glass. Maybe that's the secret.

[extreme]

GH, I will do that in the future.

[Ark]

Maybe... but that's glued down, and I'm not going to tear open my scanner to get to it

[extreme]

I kinda doubt it, though. The scanners DOF is usually very shallow - especially LEDS, where it's paper thin - and dust on the underside shouldn't appear very sharp, as it does. Well...

[skibulk]

It seems to me that using a cleaning kit eventually diminishes in effectiveness, use after use. Do you clean the dusting component in between?

I read that lint-free cleaning accessories are best for dust. I also heard that coffee filters are lint-free, which makes sense because you don't want paper in your cup. They're very cheap and disposable, so I'd guess they'd be great for cleaning glass on a scanner.

[raphael75]

I have an error with the torrent:

Problem connecting to tracker.

[PoVisko]

Magic Workstation link doesn't work. Is it supposed to be this way?

[davizca]

Well this doesnt go for oumve and his post, but I think its fair that I explain what is to work at that level of perfection.

But I think he's overoptimistic in the 15h for perfection

¿¿¿Overoptimistic???? Thats not the word xD.

As far as i know digitalizing all of these sets could be divided in 2 levels of work:

1 - The "common" one which is the same idea extreme has and for the "human" eye its the best IMO. Well, getting a decent scan, do some process and use clonestamp technique in the right spots and if you want, do some curves. Less consuming time than the "Uncommon" method.
Furthermore... ¿Did that problem exist the problem with the NOT-XLHQ scans? With "HQ" or normal scans there werent any problems or at least we knew that if we did a 1000 zoom, the image was going to pixelate and show awful spots. Which is normal. With the XLHQ i thing people are still confused. You can zoom it more, and the image will be fine for your eyes, but when you zoom out of the original scanning limits, you are going to see more and more dust (which now im really doubting if its really dust...). ¿What more can you do?

2 - The "Un-Common" way. Because of each image has a different setup, differente colors, different curves and indeed different all. Threat them like a original digital illustration, which is what it is, really xD.

REQ: <- Of course know at least some minimum levels of processing images. Not start by zero because all the curves, gradient, color balance and levels wont do nothing, instead will f*ck the previous work.

- Step 1: Get the Eyedrop tool, zoom the picture to the MAX possible, and go 1px by 1px redoing all the "weak" spots of the card, Eyedrop-brush-eyedrop-brush, etc. And after (if you're lucky) 4-5 hours per card and wanting to smash your PC like a badass, you will have 1 perfect scanned card with no "fails". "YES! Only 90-100-200 left, woho!". Now imagine this technique with all the NEXT/PREVIOUS sets. Insane. For people who have to work, going out with friends and do some rather social life... Impossible.

- Alternative Step 1: ¿Do you think you have really finish? More to come xD. If you want to cheat the process with Foils or other cards you think they may maybe get another total look if you start applying at very very little levels gradient, Color Balance, and maybe brushes to "enhance" you previous awesome work. Of course this step is totally optional and only recommended to freaking-maniacs of the perfection.

- Alternative Step 2: Instead of doing the first method try to find the right configuration with Levels of Black/White to take out more spots and get the image in better conditions. of course, apply more clone techniques, etc.

Yes, sounds good but the big problem is, ¿when will you know the changes you're doing will satisfy all the people and you too? Well, thats why this method only will work for YOU. Its like a Digital Illustrator when he or she finish his/her work and POSTPROCESS in PS. You know what i mean for sure.

And now the final question and regarding what Skibulk said, TRUE. With more people the time will be less and MAYBE the scans will have more quality BUT if we're not talking about the tedious method i explained before... With 4-5-6 or 10 members doing this. ¿Is this really worth? You're going to hide some spots that practically nobody gonna care about and you will feel like a fool because you wasted more than 100 hours (15 is IMPOSSIBLE) with a fucking set the whole month (Assuming you dont have social life xD)

In conclusion, for something which is free, the method is used by extreme in average is the best of the choices to do a good work and process an amount of images which will take you like 10-11 less time consuming (if you know what you're doing, otherwise its nonsense) than the other ways.

Just my two cents.