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Capturing a GIF of your avatar?

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited March 2010 in The Academy
Probably a dumb question (very much like my last one), but I will try here anyway... :(

I was in the forums, and noticed all the wonderful and creative avatar pics people use for their forum posts and replies...

I would -really- like to capture a GIF of my in-game avatar to use in my forum postings, especially the very clear face shot that is used in the circle medallion while on the ground, located at the upper-right corner of the STO interface...

Is there any way to capture -that- -specific- pic, so I can upload it as a custom avatar for my forum postings?
Should I make a standard screen capture while on the ground in STO, and then trim the 'medallion' graphic from the capture?

P.S. -> It is rather interesting that Cryptic didn't think about making that in-game graphic available as a default avatar here in the STO forums...

- Lieutenant, Grade 4, Felspar Que'toc Gemmina
U.S.S. Aspacia
Post edited by Unknown User on

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  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Felspar wrote:
    Is there any way to capture -that- -specific- pic, so I can upload it as a custom avatar for my forum postings?
    Should I make a standard screen capture while on the ground in STO, and then trim the 'medallion' graphic from the capture?

    You answered your own question. Screen capture, open, crop and cut.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    RCSlyman wrote: »
    You answered your own question. Screen capture, open, crop and cut.

    Thank you kindly, RCSlyman! :D

    FYI for others, since I couldn't find screen capture HOWTO in the STO manual or any of the STO wikis, and I had to ask out in Zone Chat:

    - Print Screen button to capture a screenshot.
    - Alt-F12 to hide the UI for a clear picture
    - The chat command is /screenshot_ui_jpg
    - All screenshots are saved on your PC here:
    C:/Program Files/Cryptic Studios/Star Trek Online/Live/screenshots

    - Lieutenant, Grade 4, Felspar Que'toc Gemmina
    U.S.S. Aspacia
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    That seems overly complicated... you can just press the PrtScn button your keyboard to copy the screen shot to the clipboard. Holding the ALT key while pressing the PrtScn key will capture only the active window (no taskbar or other windows if you are in windowed mode).

    Then you just open Paint, or another graphic editing program, paste the screen shot and crop out what you want.

    Also, rather than taking a shot of the bubble in the upper left, I positioned my toon in front of a window on Earth Spacedock so that I'd have Earth in the background. You could do something similar on a ground mission, on your bridge, etc. For my BOffs, I did screen captures when they would communicate during missions.

    You can see these pics here: http://stowiki.org/wiki/User:Moridin
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Why would you save it as a gif? Gif's have a terrible color range and are only good for solid colored graphics like logos. For thing's that include gradients and subtle color changes like photographs, jpegs and pngs are preferred.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Havraha wrote: »
    Why would you save it as a gif? Gif's have a terrible color range and are only good for solid colored graphics like logos. For thing's that include gradients and subtle color changes like photographs, jpegs and pngs are preferred.

    Yeah... I used PNG for the images I referenced in my last post. Not sure about XP, but Paint in Windows 7 will save as a PNG.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Felspar wrote:
    Is there any way to capture -that- -specific- pic, so I can upload it as a custom avatar for my forum postings?
    Should I make a standard screen capture while on the ground in STO, and then trim the 'medallion' graphic from the capture?

    Actually, if you're using Windows 7 it has a cool feature called the Snipping Tool - excellent program to use - but it's hard to use if you're at full screen - the game must be windowed to work properly.

    Much easier to use than the Prt Scn button/Paint option - VERY easy to use :D
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Felspar wrote:
    - Alt-F12 to hide the UI for a clear picture

    Don't need to do that, even. The UI is "hidden" from the screenshots automatically. Trust me, was taking them judiciously during Open Beta.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Havraha wrote: »
    Why would you save it as a gif? Gif's have a terrible color range and are only good for solid colored graphics like logos. For thing's that include gradients and subtle color changes like photographs, jpegs and pngs are preferred.

    *sigh* :(

    Unfortunately, I am antediluvian, and so like the words "Kleenex", "Band-Aid", "Q-Tip", and other product names that have now entered the language as the -actual- thing, rather than the brand name, the word/acronym "GIF" has entered my vocabulary to refer to all digital pictures, regardless of format...

    I agree that JPEG is the better format for digital pictures over the more clunky GIF format.

    I will attempt to alter my internal dictionary to refer to digital pictures as "JPEGs", rather than "GIFs", in the future, and suffer the wrath of the next individual that believes that another picture format is better than "JPEGs"...
    I did not mean to offer offense to the graphically minded or inclined.

    - Lieutenant Felspar Que'toc Gemmina
    U.S.S. Aspacia
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    RCSlyman wrote: »
    Don't need to do that, even. The UI is "hidden" from the screenshots automatically. Trust me, was taking them judiciously during Open Beta.

    Actually, I wanted the UI in the picture, so I could crop out the 'medallion/headshot' for my avatar.

    As you stated, standard 'Print Screen' generates a JPEG -without- the UI included.
    The commandline "/screenshot_ui_jpg" will capture the UI as well.

    - Lieutenant Felspar Que'toc Gemmina
    U.S.S. Aspacia
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    I found that when I save a costume in-game at the tailor it generates a jpg headshot which appears in the screenshot folder as "Costume_[yourname]_NoName_Headshotstyle_Default_01_xxxxxxxx.jpg". (300x400px - 24bit)
    I don't know if it matters whether you are in the "head adjustment screen" or not, but I have several headshot versions of my characters in the screenshot folder.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Valdure wrote:
    I found that when I save a costume in-game at the tailor it generates a jpg headshot which appears in the screenshot folder as "Costume_[yourname]_NoName_Headshotstyle_Default_01_xxxxxxxx.jpg". (300x400px - 24bit)
    I don't know if it matters whether you are in the "head adjustment screen" or not, but I have several headshot versions of my characters in the screenshot folder.

    Yes, I saw those too.

    Unfortunately, the images were a little dark, and I am too cheap to buy a good 'photoshop' app to brighten it up, so I stuck with a crop of my UI 'medallion/headshot'. :D

    - Lieutenant, Grade 4, Felspar Que'toc Gemmina
    U.S.S. Aspacia
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