Screen Capture Image Enlargement

[Hoggs17]

Hey Guys -

First of all, thanks for reading this post and thanks again if you're able to help.  I'm trying to make custom covers that involve sprites from the games (main characters, enemies, etc....).  There are only so many good high res. sprites that i can find on the internet so i decided to use an emulator (Jnes) and take a screen shot.  The problem is, when I transfer it to photoshop (CS2), it's so small and that after i clean it up and enlarge it - it's fuzzy and not really usable anymore.  Do you guys know how either enlarge without messing up the picture or save it from the emulator as a larger picture to begin with?  I'm not great with photoshop - i only know enough to get by so i'm looking for some help.  Thanks everyone!

[AxelSteelBMX]

Easy sauce. Save it as a PNG or BMP. Take it into MS Paint. Resize the screenshot to double its original size. Do this as many times as you need (keeping in mind to adjust the boundaries of the image itself to fit the increasing size of the screenshot) and save it when it seems big enough. Save it as a new file (just in case) and take THAT into CS2. If you made it big enough, you should be able to adjust its proportions as needed without losing too much clarity.

...At least, that's how I do it.

[amarthar]

Why bother with Paint? In Photoshop, when you enlarge the sprite make sure that the resize method is set to 'nearest neighbor'.

[wiggy]

^^^ yes, this.

And when you select an item, make sure whatever selection tool you're using has the "anti-aliasing" box UNchecked.

[Hoggs17]

thanks guys - i tried unchecking the anti-aliasing box and resizing with nearest neighbor but it doesn't seem to make a difference.  I must be doing something wrong

[Hoggs17]

i clean up the image in imageready, uncheck the anti aliasing box, save it as a .psd and then copy it into my photoshop template of the cover.  From there i hit ctrl-T and resize but it still looks the same.

[amarthar]

Just resize the whole sprite psd file using Image->Image Size (Alt+Ctrl+I) option from the menu. You can't change the resizing method while resizing with Ctrl+T.

[Hoggs17]

ok cool, i'll resize the image BEFORE i bring it into my template - thanks dude!

[Hoggs17]

ok, your tips seemed to be exactly what I was looking for - thanks again guys!  time to redo some of my crappy sprites on my covers (good thing I haven't printed out a 2nd round yet).