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unlimitedtrees · 10 months

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making character sprites as a one-person indie game developer

(huh. turns out this post on cohost didnt have a “read me” section”. o well. i will put the read me section Here, before any of da actual text. click it if u dare !!)

so, i've been meaning on making a Big post talkin all about how i actually Make my games and my processes n such ,but also ive been procrastinating on making it for so long that i thought i might as well just make One part of that post now .. and its about making the Character Sprites for my games .

So. these images are the (mostly) full sprite sheets of the three characters from my game UNITRES Dreams, taken directly from the big giant 'charactersprites.png' image that i used for nearly every sprite for Most of the game's development. some quick things to make note of: First off, Trees (the first one) was one of the earliest things i made for the game, and had their sprite sheet redone Twice since then.. this first picture doesnt contain the latest sprite sheet as the new sprites were done on aesprite and im too lazy to make a sprite sheet out of them right now.

Secondly, the Second character (the pink one), had two different designs, being completely redesigned as i didnt like their first design all too much. their redesign's animations was done in aesprite, but i made a sprite sheet out of em before so i was able to just put them here. Lastly, the Third character (the blue one with the big silly hat) remained mostly unchanged as their original sprites and design were pretty good, but they needed to be cleaned up and given better colors so i ended up polishing all of their sprites.

Anyways. it's going to be hard for me to explain my actual process, as i am Bad With Words, but i will try my best.. So. for Most of my time as a game dev, I've used Paint.NET for Everything. This includes backgrounds, tilesets, and every animation ever in all of my games. For my character sprites specifically, i usually start with making the color palette (which is a whole different process where i mess around with the RGB values until i get a specific color that i think looks pretty ... its hard to describe). When making a new character, i usaully start with an Idle animation, just so i have a good base to make all the other sprites on. I just make a sketch of the character, then i do the flat colors (as my games dont have line art), and once i have the colors i start doing the rendering , where i try to pull off a sort of Sonic CD-esque , celshaded style while Also including a bit of anti-aliasing and other modern pixel art techniques to give the sprites more Depth and make them look Sharp. Idk. it's hard to describe my process in words ... i Did make a video Years ago showing off my process, but its old and my editing in that video isnt the Greatest.

So., that's my process Lol . the only thing thats really changed is that Now i use Aesprite for making the Actual Animations , as making animations with Paint.NET is Really Difficult and Annoying , as i have No Idea how the animation will Look until it actually appears ingame .. which results in the early versions of each character's animations looking a little weird (such as Trees' first two versions, the first version of the Pink character, and the Blue character's animations.. .though the blue character isnt as bad as the other two and i kept their animations mostly the same in the final game LOL).

Something that people have kind of criticized about UNITRES Dreams' animations is that some of em dont exactly ... Look Good. a lot of animations are pretty Inconsistent , with characters like Trees having inconsistent sizes in some animations and the movement in animations such as the Pink character's walking animation and various other animations (Especially the ones made in Paint.NET) looking Unnatural.

And Well .. here's the thing about making animations and sprites for something like this. When you're the Main person making an indie game, you have Tons of different parts of the game that need to be worked on while having Very little time to work on others. On Top of making every single animation for UNITRES , i had to make every single Tileset and background for every single level, On Top of making the Level Layouts , Programming , and even making sprites for things like the UI. And you have to constantly Test the game to make sure everything works and things Look good.

So. i had very little time to work on the sprites, and i Knew this. Something you have to consider is that, not only are you making the animations for the main character , you Also have to make Tons of animations and sprites for Literally Every Other Aspect of The Game . this includes Enemies , Level Gimmicks , NPCs, And the UI .. so you end up having to work on Thousands of sprites by yourself in such a short time.

I ain't the best animator , nor the best sprite artist . But , for this game I chose an art style which is Kinda simple and comfortable for me, which made making things like tilesets and backgrounds so much easier for me. The character sprites specificially only use a few amount of colors ,but also i tried my best to give them as much depth and make them as Colorful looking as i could. Also , something you might notice is that all of the playable characters dont actually have a whole lot of animations .. each of the characters only have the Exact amount of frames and animations necessary for them to Look Good moving around the levels. Aside from a few Gimmick Specific animations that arent in the sprite sheets i posted , there arent many Extra animations or animations with Tons of Frames that i wish i could have added .. and it Kind Of Sucks . Having to split my time across Three Different Characters , i had no time to make any animations Too Crazy or Too Smooth , and i couldnt include any extra animations that could add a bit of personality to the characters ... In Fact ,the Idle "animation" isnt an animation , its just a still frame. I didnt have time to even make a simple waiting animation !!

It Is What It Is. For what its worth , Ithink Im pretty proud of the animations i did for UNITRES Dreams. while i think ive become a much better artist and animator since then, i still think some animations and some of the frames look really good ..just looking at some of the still frames is really nice .. so i think i did a good job, especially for a game that was made in 2 years and is Free. And Hey, while the animations in UNITRES Dreams may not be the best or have the most smooth animations , i Did get to experiment with making more smooth animations for TREES' ADVENTURE. while ,now, i think some stuff could use some work, i am Really Proud of how some of the animations look .. ididnt get to make Too Many extra animations (there still isnt even an Idle animation), i Did get to make some cool extra animations , such as individual animations for your Jump that are based on how fast you're moving . (the original post on cohost had a buncha gifs of da animations but im Too Fuckin Tired 2 post em here LOL !!!)

So Yea . the moral of the story: making video games is kind of hard and time consuming , Especially when you're like , the Only one working on them. just make sure to plan ahead and try not to overwork urself .. make what you can and do it when you can. Thats what i think , anyways.

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teaandgames · 4 years

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The Tea Times - November 2019

Ah, November. For you folks in the United States, this signals a day full of turkey, relatives and drunken conversations. For us over in Blighty, it signals the last warning before that other day full of turkey, relatives and drunken conversations. The wallet’s looking bare, the temperatures dropping, it can mean only one thing - Christmas is coming. Before we begin the panic though, let's look back at the previous month.

At a glance:

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Death Stranding, Pokemon Sword and Shield, Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy and Planet Zoo released.

Everwild, Age of Empires IV, Half-Life: Alyx, Knights of Light, Arise: A Simple Story, Nine Witches: Family Disruption announced.

Google Stadia announces its launch line up.

Someone’s making Silent Hill in first person

New Saints Row to be announced next year

Project C becomes Life Beyond

The Releases

I’ve never followed Star Wars too closely, being more into classic fantasy than sci-fi, but the thrill of lightsaber battling is not lost on me. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order seems to have captured that pretty well, with lots of lightsaber waggling and force powers that come together to make a pretty exciting action game. It’s been awhile since a good single player Star Wars game has been on the market and this one seems to fit the bill. It came out on November 15th.

Death Stranding, the premier package delivery game (if the internet is to be believed) came out on November 8th. It being a Kojima game, it’s pretty confusing from an outsiders perspective (and not necessarily straightforward for an insider) but what is clear is that it’s a polarising game. It seems to be about ninety percent walking simulator, which is a divisive genre full stop. Add Kojima into the mix? Then God only knows.

Pokemon Sword and Shield is the release this month that I’m most excited for. Despite being twenty-six, I was transported back to my youth as I added it to the top of my Christmas list. It’s been getting mixed reviews from the community, largely centered around the lack of the National Pokedex. Makes sense. Less pokemon can hardly be a good thing. Either way, it seems to hold the same, good, clean fun that the series is known for. The pair came out on November 15th.

Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy wins the award for longest game title I’ve ever typed out. The next in the disarmingly charming puzzle series came to the Switch on November 8th. I mark it here solely because I didn’t realise it had come out on 3DS two years ago. Still, I hope the series finds a welcome home on the Switch.

Planet Zoo, labelled the ultimate zoo simulator, came out on the 5th November. Made by the people who made Planet Coaster and Zoo Tycoon, there’s a good chance that it’ll be a good follow up. After all, they seem to know what they’re doing. Going by the screenshots alone, it looks like it’s pretty in depth too. One for the hardcore simulators, perhaps.

The Announcements

Everwild is a new project from Rare, the Banjo-Kazooie lads, and it looks absolutely gorgeous. That’s about as much as we know, to be honest, other than it’s likely going to be Xbox exclusive. The trailer shows a group of humans timidly interacting with a number of animals. Some, like the deer, seem friendly. Others… less so. I don’t have any more details on it, at the moment, but it’s worth keeping your peepers on.

Age of Empires IV has been long anticipated since Age of Empires III failed the light the spark in the hearts of die hard fans. I rather liked it but the guns and cannonballs didn’t go down too well. You might be relieved to learn that they’ve been thrown out the window for IV. It’s back to swords, arrows and big chunks of masonry. Hopefully, Age of Empires has gone back to its roots now. No concrete release date yet.

In a fairly shocking move, Valve has revealed the next entry in the Half-Life series. There are two things to note with that. Firstly, it’s a prequel featuring Alyx. That’s not so bad as she was a rather good character. The bigger, second thing of note is that it’s a VR game. Therefore cutting off most of the market. Still, Valve is one of the biggest champions of VR, so it perhaps shouldn’t be so surprising. Half-life: Alyx is coming March 2020.

Knights of Light is a game inspired by Mount and Blade and its trailer and screenshots contain much the same sort of feeling. Horseback combat that looks as exciting as it is terrifying and lots of hitting people with swords. The plot centers around Iraq and the battle of Al-Qadisiyyah, which I absolutely didn’t copy and paste in. I know nothing about that battle but that almost makes it better. It’s a chance to learn while hitting people. Looks like it’ll be hitting early access first, but I’m not sure when yet.

Arise: A Simple Story is a game with an awful title that caught my eye simply because of how pretty it is. The trailer opens with an elderly chap’s funeral pyre, only for him to wake in a snow covered world. As he explores, he seems to enter a forest-like area. I probably won’t be able to tell you much more, as it looks to be a PlayStation 4 title, but it’s coming out on December 3rd.

Nine Witches: Family Disruption is a quirky looking adventure game about an alternate history involving Nazis and supernatural forces. It’s done in a retro pixel art style and seems to be trying to emulate the older school of adventure games. The humour in the trailer seems very hit or miss (mostly miss), but if it’s your cup of tea, check it out in Quarter 2 2020.

Google Lines ‘Em Up

Google has revealed its line up for its launch, which will take place on the 19th November. The list is this:

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Destiny 2: The Collection

Gult

Just Dance 2020

Kine

Mortal Kombat 11

Red Dead Redemption 2

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Samurai Shodown

Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

Thumper

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

A rather odd choice to include three Tomb Raider games on launch, but it’s a fairly impressive line up. I rather like Thumper being in there. They’ve also promised to add the following before the end of the year:

Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle

Borderlands 3

Darksiders: Genesis

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2

Farming Simulator 19

Final Fantasy XV

Football Manager 2020

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

Grid

Metro: Exodus

NBA 2K20

Rage 2

Trials Rising

Wolfenstein: Youngblood

A mixed bag of games there but, for all of its faults, Stadia is at least coming out swinging in its first year. Whether it’ll be enough, however, remains to be seen.

The Hills Have (New) Eyes

A quick part here to point towards an interesting development. Someone is remaking the original Silent Hill in first person. It’s only a concept at the moment, but check it out. It looks great. I can, however, hear the terrible siren noise that can only mean the arrival of a cease & desist. Still, Konami may have chucked Silent Hill aside in favour of a pachinko machine but it’s nice to see that people are still carrying the torch.

Even outside of that context, this video looks pretty damn creepy. If nothing else, this might prove that there’s more to the original Silent Hill than awkward controls. It proves that it’s scary full stop.

The Prez is Back!

Didn’t want to stick this one in the announcements because it feels more like a pinky promise than an actual announcement. Still, the current big bosses that own the Saint’s Row franchise, Koch Media, have said that they’ve got a new game in the making. They don’t want to release too many details now and start colouring people’s expectations but more details are going to coming next year.

Saint’s Row IV came out about six years ago and was nothing but crazy, ridiculous fun. It’ll be interesting to see where the series can go from here, to be honest. Once you’ve reached the point of being an actual overpowered superhero, is there anywhere up? I guess we’ll find out next year.

C To (L)B

Project C, a pretty looking social MMO, has gone through a name change, to reflect its core idea. It’s been changed to Life Beyond. To be frank, I had never heard of it, mostly because MMO’s aren’t really my bag. Still, I do like the idea of social MMOs. The idea of trying to bring people together to build communities and make friends is great. It doesn’t always work, mind you, due to the caustic nature of internet communities.

When it does though, it’s great. I’m reminded of that sprawling Minecraft villages where everyone builds their fantasy architecture together. Not sure if I’ll get it myself, but it’s bright colourful graphics make it one to watch. That’s all for November, see you in December!

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uygmoeb · 2 years

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Ahh I know but still, it is ok to not reply right away and don't mind the extra wait (or unless my ask suddenly gets send to pluto and never returns xD) but I am happy to hear today is a better day for you! As it should be my bean, showers and specifically warm ones are the best for sure! Its why I take a little bit too long with them dhshdh oopsie.

Oohh well I'm no expert with jobs as I have yet to get one myself but I do always like to say, you happiness is important so if you do want to go back to the old one that is fine (of course easier said than done)

Jdjsjdjs oof yeah it can be like that, especially if you are new to the fandom as well and you're like a goldfish the entire time haha. I'm sure the gifts you made are amazing, I can very much understand the like, feeling of not feeling the most proud when it comes to creating something (especially of you say make gifs on photopea and not ps like myself) but it is the thought that counts! You put the time and effort and that is important! If someone has a problem with that, well slap them with a fish. They are not worth your time tbh. I do think pre-planning helps if you are in more than one! You can start with a basic idea of like to do or you like doing and then slowly build the idea as you get to know the person!

Right!? I know it is silly to think big cc on here you cannot talk to them but seeing as some of them are like, flippen taemin level but for tumblr it is a bit scary to talk with them at first xD but once you kinda get in the flow it isn't scary (I say this as I talk on anon for like all of the popular blogs lol) nice anons are more needed indeed. Its just wholesome to make someone just smile with a nice message and no I completely understand! Welcome to the club of overthinking auggie xD this is the cool kids club djjahdjs jokes aside I get that, especially if you can't help but think how it sounds like does it sound too sarcastic or may it sound a bit off? I don't mind long asks (as you can tell lol) because idk, I like to ramble and bounce off people when on the roll lol

Ok that shall be all, I hope you have a good day today! Stay warm and we are legit like 5 days away from the holidays ahhh ~moa Santa

i take like.. hour long showers some days it just happens i swear hskfdjfk but how've u been my love?? i know u finished all ur gifts so what else have u been up to? anything fun?

ah well i would go back if it didn't require taking a pay cut, losing manager status, and uh. moving 14 hours away from where i am now lmao i would move back if i thought i could do it by myself probably.. but that's not in the cards for me anymore and its ok, ive got a job here now and i think things are getting better

so my problem with making my gifts is my art program sucks so bad.. it leaves everything pixelated and messed up if im not super duper careful with it.. but it was free and ive had it since i was 12 probably?? and uhm change is difficult for me but honestly just u saying that made me feel better and i think im gonna go work on the first one to make it better if i can so wish me luck <3 i bet it also helps if u dont procrastinate too lol bc i procrastinated so hard and now here i am jdhfkdhs

yeah ! at some point i had to start being like 'they're just people too' like.. theyre not just a cc theyre a whole person whos probably really nice thats always been my problem anyway is thinking theyre like... above the average person, or even that they arent people kind of yknow??? does that make sense to u? sorta like the same thing some people do to idols i guess but also not quite?? idk its hard to explain how i think but i tried hskfhsl

i would like my one way ticket out of the overthinking club pls ive been overthinking for years my brain hurts :/ nah bc sometimes when i text ppl or anything like that im like. what tone am i giving rn are they gonna think im being an ass when im just joking or?? and thats why i love tone indicators so much now bc it makes it so so much easier for me and so many others too and ngl i actually prefer long asks like all the time. so much easier to ramble and pick up things to talk about which is something i've adored about yours from day one, i feel like its always been super easy to talk to u and i love that so so much u also always have made me feel comfy with u, like almost instantly too and i usually have to warm up at first

not u opening my eyes to the fact we're five days away from the holidays technically only four as im answering this but eh are u excited tho?? bc i can say that i am, i have so many gifts to give i'm so tired of waiting ! albeit i do need these days to finish a few lol besides the point ig

also adding this on about an hour and a half after i initially answered bc guess what!! i finished my gift for the event finally!! im actually rlly happy with how they turned out now after fixing some stuff :)

#answered #<3 —moa santa

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blogquad674 · 3 years

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Capture One 30

By: William Carter

I. Introduction

Just a quick Update: Capture One 21 is available for pre-order now. And there is even a 20% discount. The only catch is that we still don't kno. Tethered capture is supported for the X-T3. Tethered capture is not supported for the X-T30. Tethered capture was one of the selling features, and the X-T30 is a recent model of a popular line. I can't believe I learn when I'm settling in to tackle this learning curve that only now I find my camera isn't supported.

I recently decided to purchase a medium format digital system. The decision to “step up” was driven partially by client needs and partially by my own desire to return to shooting medium format, to get a higher megapixel count than my current systems, and to shoot with what represents the pinnacle of digital equipment.

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II. Background: why medium format digital?

A bit of background is in order, so that you have a sense of my experience and shooting needs, which may differ from yours. I have been shooting for almost 20 years and have used a variety of 35mm and medium format camera during that time. I’ve been shooting exclusively digital for the last 5 years or so. My first digital camera was a Nikon D100. From there, I progressed through the Canon 1Ds, the Canon 20D, the Canon 1D Mark II, the Canon 1Ds Mark II, and the Leica Digital Module R (“DMR”). I currently own the Canon 5D, the Nikon D200, and will soon add the Leica M8 digital rangefinder when it becomes available. I am primarily a fine art photographer, but have done a variety of commercial jobs, including portraits, fashion, weddings, product, documentary, advertising, and editorial work. Most of my current commercial work is portrait, fashion and editorial/advertising in a studio setting. I shoot with a Profoto D4 powerpack with a variety of heads and modifiers. In short, my current commercial work tends to occur in highly controlled studio environments, while my personal fine art work involves travel, documentary and landscape work where one is at the mercy of the elements and working with existing light. Accordingly, my equipment choices need to reflect the wide variety of shooting conditions in which I work.

In light of the equipment I already had available (the Canon 5D and the Nikon D200), it’s reasonable to ask why I added a medium format system to my bag at all. The 5D and D200 are both excellent cameras and the 5D, at 13 megapixels, certainly has enough resolution for a good deal of my personal and commercial work. So why medium format? Well, the highest resolution medium format backs offer three times (39 megapixels) the file size of my Canon 5D. Not that I’m shooting for billboards, but, in general, I believe it’s better to have more “native” pixels for a given print size than to create those pixels via interpolation in Photoshop. Since I routinely print 16×20, and it’s not unusual for me to print much larger than that on my Epson 9800, I do stand to see some benefit with the increase in resolution over my existing systems. Secondly, I have a variety of photographers as clients of my printing studio who have expressed interest in being able to rent a medium format system for their needs. Also, all other things being equal (e.g., lens quality), medium format backs tend to offer not only greater resolution, but also greater dynamic range and “color depth” for lack of a better word. (Some have attributed this to the greater “bit depth” of files produced by a medium format back versus those produced by DSLRs. Not being a technician, I can’t speak to the exact cause for the differences, other than to say that they’re there and they’re visible). Finally, I realized that I had almost $14,000 invested in my Leica Digital Module R system, counting the cost of the back, the R9 body and half a dozen lenses. Since I had been using the DMR as my “almost medium format” camera, it occurred to me that by selling my DMR system and making a relatively modest additional investment, I could be shooting with anactualmedium format digital system.

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III. Camera system choice: the Contax 645

Choosing a medium format system was relatively easy for me, since, from my perspective, it was essentially a process of elimination as there is not currently a medium format system that I would consider ideal (although the recently announced Sinar/Rollei Hy6 comes close, at least on paper). Over the years, I’ve owned or shot with almost every medium format SLR system, including manual and autofocus Mamiyas, the Contax 645, the Rollei 6008 and 6008AF, a variety of V series Hasselblads and I’ve also used the Hasselblad H1 on one occasion. The Hasselblad H series camera simply doesn’t work for me. It’s quite advanced electronically, has a big, bright viewfinder, and there’s nothing objectively wrong with it; it just never “clicked” for me (no pun intended). I dislike the Mamiya 645 AFD for much the same reasons; it simply feels more like a computer or video camera than a “real camera” to me. I owned a Rollei 6008AF system for quite a while and really loved it, but the digital back options for the Rollei are currently limited to the Sinar eMotion and the Phase One P20, ruling out Leaf altogether and all Phase backs other than the P20. That left the Contax 645, which has the very big disadvantage of no longer being in production. That said, there’s a lot of Contax equipment in the used and rental markets and it can be had a quite a reasonable price these days. I was able to put together a fairly complete Contax 645 kit (body, prism finder, and 80mm, 35mm, 140mm, and 210mm lenses) for less than $4000. (By way of contrast, a new Hasselblad H2 kit including 80mm lens and film back retails new for almost $8000). The Contax 645 has autofocus Zeiss lenses, a full range of metering options (including spot metering), handles very well, has a real aperture and shutter speed dial and a mirror lockup button (rather than relegating everything to flywheel controls and menu options) and is rock-solid in terms of reliability. It does eat through batteries quite quickly, but other than that and a few minor quibbles, it was the best system for my needs. Plus, I owned one in the past and was impressed with it from my previous experience.

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IV. Digital back choice: the P30

Having decided that I was likely to choose the Contax 645 as my camera system, I then had to decide which medium format back best fit my needs. After much consideration, I narrowed the choices to the Leaf Aptus and the Phase P series. I quickly decided that the top of the line versions of these backs (namely, the Aptus 75 and the Phase One P45, which both retail for over $30,000) were financially out of reach. Thus, I narrowed my search to the Phase One P30 (31 megapixels) and the competing Leaf Aptus 65 (28 megapixels). Both are “sub-full frame” chips, meaning that there’s a “crop factor,” i.e., neither chip covers the full 6×4.5 frame. Both have a crop factor of roughly 1.3x, meaning that your long lenses act as if they’re 1.3 times longer than they actually are (i.e., your 140mm lens has an angle of view of roughly 180mm) and your wide angles also have a slightly less wide angle of view (i.e., your 35mm lens has an angle of view of roughly 45mm). Both backs shoot at roughly the same rated speed (1.55 seconds per frame for the Leaf Aptus 65 versus 1.33 seconds per frame for the Phase One P30). Both cost roughly the same (around $20,000 retail, although available for less from most dealers) and both are capable of producing incredible images. From my perspective, the Leaf has two primary technical advantages: the huge 3.5 inch LCD screen on the back and the fact that its RAW files are directly readable by Photoshop’s Camera Raw and Adobe Lightroom. The screen on all the current Phase P series backs is not only smaller, but of far worse quality than the Leaf (more on that later). Moreover, the Phase backs currently use a proprietary RAW format that is only directly readable by Phase One’s own Capture One software (more on that later too). Finally, Leaf has the iPaq DP-67 device that allows for wireless viewing of files. When working with a client or art director, this could be quite useful. Phase thus far has nothing comparable.

Capture One 20 Beta

So why did I choose the Phase P30? Actually, I purchased the P30+. The new “Plus” series backs will offer higher ISO, faster shooting rate, and a better screen. Although the P30+ isn’t available yet, I received a “regular” P30 to work with in the meantime until the Plus version is available. Part of the reason for choosing the P30 over the Aptus 65 is that, as far as I’m aware, Leaf does not have a similar “loaner” structure for prospective purchasers of the newly-announced Aptus-S series. One can of course upgrade from the Aptus to the Aptus S series when it’s available, but there is a not-insubstantial cost involved (around $2000-$3000 to upgrade form the Aptus 65 to the Aptus 65-S). Given that I need a back to work with now, the Phase structure seemed a better deal. Also, I was told by several dealers that the Aptus 65 in Contax 645 mount runs about 4-6 weeks for delivery, and that the Aptus 65S in Contax mount won’t be available until some time in the second quarter of 2007. By contrast, Phase had several P30s in Contax mount in stock for immediate delivery at the time I was looking to purchase and stated that the Contax mount P30+ should ship at roughly the same time as the other Plus series backs (Q1 2007). The new Plus series backs are promised to have a much better screen than existing P series backs and, according to reports, Phase will begin making the details of its proprietary RAW code available to Adobe, thus alleviating my concern about needing to convert in Phase’s own software before the files would be readable by Camera Raw/Lightroom. Also, Phase will allegedly be providing a wireless file transfer device, but there’s no firm official estimate as to when (or if) that will happen.

Image quality, of course, is the most important consideration. One well-known photographer who frequents the medium format digital discussion group on The Luminous Landscape produces absolutely incredible images with the Leaf Aptus, which initially had me leaning in that direction. After a while, I came to realize that his images are influenced not just by the camera back, but by lighting, shooting technique, years of experience, his artistic vision, etc. In short, I ultimately realized that much of what I’d seen in his work and attributed to the “inherent” characteristics of the Aptus back was, in large part, a function of the fact that he’s a very good photographer. Other comparisons that I’ve seen between the Aptus and the Phase didn’t provide me with much guidance in either direction in terms of image quality; the fact is, both are capable of producing truly outstanding images on a technical level. So, in the end, it was a bit of a shot in the dark in terms of image quality, with the deciding factors being availability, useability, and upgradeability.

(I hear you gasping: “What? You didn’t do a hands-on, side-by-side comparison of backs X, Y, and Z, yourself before buying?” No, I didn’t, primarily because I don’t have the time to spend countless hours testing backs. Also, I didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars renting the various backs to test them. Finally, I figured that if I got the P30 and it sucked, I could always return it.)

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V. Packaging, contents, manual, and dealer support

So, having been through my admittedly unscientific decisional process, I called Dave Gallagher at Capture Integration to order the P30. Dave spent over an hour on the phone with me, walking me through the details of the purchase, technical issues to orient me to the back before it arrived, discussing various accessories, etc. I placed the order on a Thursday and left town. The back was waiting for me when I returned on Monday. Because I like to live dangerously, I planned to use it for a paid shoot on that Tuesday. (Don’ttry this at home! Using a paying client as a test shoot for new equipment is a dicey proposition at best, but I was counting on several things to get me through: (1) telephone support during the shoot from the folks at Capture Integration; (2) my already adequate knowledge of the Capture One software; and (3) my Canon 5D, which my assistant was shooting as backup).

The P30 (along with a secondhand Contax 645 kit consisting of the body, film back, and 80mm, 35mm, 140mm, and 210mm lenses), was waiting when I returned. A minor, but unexpected, bonus was that it ships in a very nice aluminum case. The case is user-configurable to hold the back plus cameras, lenses, etc. As shipped, the case contains the P30 back, a Firewire cable, two batteries, a charger (which will hold two batteries and will use a variety of included international adapters), a viewfinder mask for your back (so that what you see through the camera reflects the back’s “crop factor”, a 1Gb Sandisk CF card, a CF card reader, a sensor cleaning kit, and various doodads that I didn’t examine. It also includes a printed manual for the back, but not, unfortunately, a printed manual for the Capture One software, which is far from intuitive if you’ve never used it before. Again, a relatively minor point, but for this amount of money, I’d like a printed guide to everything and not have to rely on searching through the on-screen Help in Capture One). I also ordered an extra-long (30 foot) Firewire cable, a third battery, and an 8Gb CF card separately.

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VI. Installation and setup

After charging and installing the battery in the back, I booted it up for the first time and began to set it up. (As a side note, it seems to require a “press and hold” operation rather than simply pushing the power button to turn the back on). The P30, like all P series backs, has 4 soft keys used to set the back’s functions, unlike the Aptus S series, which uses a touch screen menu system. While I was able to figure out basic settings pretty easily (changing ISO and reviewing images, for example), I found the Phase menu system unintuitive, mostly because the soft keys change function depending on what “level” of the menu system you’re at. Given enough time and the user’s manual, one becomes accustomed to this system where the button changes functionality depending on what submenu you’re in, but, quite frankly, I find it easier to have labeled buttons with a dedicated functions, such as is found on most DSLRs.

Since I was shooting tethered for this first shoot, I needed to figure out tethered operation within the Capture One software. I assumed that plugging the Firewire cord into the back and then the computer would do it, but when I did so, I got a flashing “Empty” error message from the camera and it wouldn’t let me shoot. The P30 back also showed “0” frames available, meaning it wasn’t ready to shoot. (It did shoot fine untethered). By this point, it was 6:30pm and I was supposed to start shooting at 7pm. Since I felt I wouldn’t be able to figure it out in the time I had, I called my dealer, who kindly walked me through the problem step by step. Apparently, the issue was that, at least in initial setup, you have to “tell” Capture One that you’re shooting tethered by selecting the “Captures” folder and clicking an almost invisible tiny little camera icon at the bottom of the Capture One screen. Having done so that first time, I now can shoot tethered simply by launching Capture One and plugging in the Firewire cable, even if I’m shooting a new “session” with new “captures” and “processed” folders. (By the way, I find Capture One’s image organization system to be confusing and unintuitive; I’ll return to that later).

Another quirk (or “design feature”) is that, when shooting tethered, you set all the back’s functions (such as ISO) from the computer, rather than the camera back. This seems silly; I can’t figure out why, from a technological perspective, tethered shooting has to work this way, rather than allowing you to set the back’s functions from the back itself and having those settings transferred to Capture One. Perhaps this is common for tethered shooting with any back; I don’t know, but I found it annoying. Granted, when shooting tethered in a studio setting, you’re unlikely to change ISO or white balance often, but on those occasions when you do, it’d be easier to be able to change them from the backorthe computer.

Having figured out tethered operation, I proceeded to shoot a couple of shots of my assistant with a WhiteBal gray card, both to check lighting ratios and establish a white balance for processing the images. Capture One allows you to set up a custom white balance for the shoot and have that white balance applied to incoming images, but I couldn’t figure that out in time, so I just used the WhiteBal reference to batch white balance the whole shoot after the fact.

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VII. Performance on-set/shooting tethered

At about 7:15, the stylists finished with the models and I was ready to start shooting. I’m happy to report that actual shooting was flawless. There were no “hiccups” or problems with tethered shooting, even when I (twice!) accidentally stepped on the Firewire cable and yanked it out of the back. I simply plugged the cable back in, waited for the “ready” beep from the computer, and began shooting again. The back itself can also be set to beep when it’s ready to shoot the next frame, but I found I seldom needed the beep, because (a) the back won’t let you take the next shot ‘til it’s ready anyway and (b) I found that the back’s shooting speed was more than adequate to keep up with the pace of a portrait/model shoot, where you’re seldom shooting more than one frame every couple of seconds. So, at least for this type of shoot, shooting speed simply wasn’t an issue for me.

Capture One 30 Off

The reason I was shooting tethered for this job was so that the art director could see the incoming images and provide feedback. Capture One was quicker than I though it’d be in displaying previews; it probably only took 1-2 seconds for each preview to appear on my 17 inch MacBook Pro (2.16 Intel Core Duo processors and 2Gb of RAM). It then took another 2-3 seconds for each preview to fully render, but I’d explained that in advance to the art director. A bit more speed in rendering previews would be nice, but it wasn’t really a problem for this shoot. I’d also read that there are some problems with the 17” MacBook Pro not providing sufficient voltage to the Firewire port for tethered shooting. My dealer explained that if this occurred, I should simply switch the P30’s power source for shooting tethered from Firewire to the internal battery, but I didn’t have this problem.

I will mention that the screen on the P30 is, in my opinion, horribly inadequate for anything other than seeing if you got the shot (and, perhaps, seeing the histogram). Really, the screen is a joke. Literally, the screen on my $50 cell phone is better than the P30’s screen (let alone the screen on my Canon 5D, which makes the P30’s screen laughable in comparison). Not to be too harsh, but there’s no other way to say it: Phase should have been embarrassed to put a screen this poor on a back this expensive. There’d better be some serious improvements to the screen in the forthcoming Plus backs.

The Contax 645 itself performed flawlessly. I shot about 200 frames with one 2CR5 battery, using autofocus regularly, but would have switched batteries had I been shooting for much longer, given that this camera is quite a battery hog. (Although I did notice that the battery seemed to last longer than I recalled from my pervious experiences with the Contax, perhaps because the camera is no longer winding film). The crop factor was unnoticeable to me in looking through the viewfinder. I did notice, however, that the single central focusing spot is a bit too large to be ensured of accurate focus on the eyes, rather than, say, the cheek in a full length shot. It would be nice to have had multiple smaller focus points surrounding the central focus point, but it was manageable, especially since I just switched to manual focus when in doubt. (One of the nice features of the Contax is that you can relegate AF to a button on the back of the camera grip rather than the shutter release and thereby choose between manual and autofocus on the fly). Autofocus was quite accurate with very little hunting, even in a studio lit only by the strobes’ modeling lights (250 watts). And the autofocus speed, while not on par with my Canon 5D, wasn’t as slow as I remembered from my film days.

I did notice a large dust speck on the images about halfway through the shoot. One of the nice things about medium format backs as opposed to DSLRs is that the sensor is readily accessible for cleaning purposes, so I just popped the back off (after sitting down and praying not to drop it!), wiped the dust speck off, and continued shooting.

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VIII. File quality

Image quality was outstanding. Quite apart from the P30 back, the rendering one gets from medium format lenses is quite different from 35mm lenses. As just one example, I got a quite nice depth of field dropoff on headshots even shooting at f8 and f11. I found the P30 files, in purely subjective terms, to be “richer” and somehow “rounder” than my 5D shots, in addition to being more detailed. Objectively, I noticed three substantial differences between my P30 images and my 5D images. The first is that the P30 files require a lot less sharpening, probably due to the lack of an anti-aliasing filter in front of the sensor on the P30. In my experience, there’s a difference between asharpfile and asharpenedfile, with the former being preferable. Secondly, one of my complaints with all the DSLRs I’ve used is in how they render areas of shadow transition, i.e., areas of sharp contrast differences between light and shadow. On both my 5D and my D200 (and my 1Ds Mk II before that), these transitional areas seem muddy and somewhat posterized. By contrast, these areas in my P30 shots look a lot more like film would look in these areas. Thirdly, in terms of deep shadows themselves, the shadows with my DSLRs seem muddy, noisy, and flat. In contrast, deep shadows in my P30 shots show little to no noise and hold detail quite well. It has been suggested that one way to deal with shadows and transitions from shadows when shooting with DSLRs is to light the and expose the scene so that the shadows are more open, then to adjust in Photoshop to bring the shadows down to where you want them (a variant of the “expose to the right” school of thought regarding digital exposures). That may work for some people, but I prefer to light scenes the way I always have, which is to reflect my vision and intentions for the shot at the time I shoot it, and not have to rely on too much post production in Photoshop to get the effect I want.

A mini-portfolio from my first shoot with the P30 is shown on this page. All images were shot at ISO 100, at around f8 or f11. They may be of limited value if you’re looking to know what the files are like “straight out of the camera” because they reflect my usual minimal post-processing in Photoshop. Keep in mind, however, that even if I posted unprocessed JPEGs, they still wouldn’t give you a true “out of the camera” file, because JPEGs are obviously different from the actual RAW file, and because the JPEGs produced in Capture One are already processed to include the profile and “look” you select in Capture One. Besides, I’m not a camera tester (paid or otherwise), so I’m interested in how the P30 works with my normal workflow, not in shooting test charts or brick walls.”

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IX. Conclusion

In sum, I’ll just note the obvious: the Phase One P30 is one of the best photographic tools with which I have ever worked. It has obviously flaws, many of which will be addressed in the Plus series backs. Until then, I’ll keep shooting with the P30 (and trying to figure out a way to pay off my credit card bill!)

January, 2007

For Black Friday Capture One is offering 30% off with coupon code BLACKFRIDAY30 (including the Capture One for Nikon version). Here are the details – from November 27th till November 30th all Capture One products are 30% off, including Capture One 21 pre-order. In addition to the discount, first-time buyers will get a free upgrade to Capture One 21, if they purchase one of these products:

Capture One Pro 20 perpetual license (or a bundle*)

Capture One Pro Fujifilm 20 perpetual license (or a bundle*)

Capture One Pro 20 (for Sony) perpetual license (or a bundle*)

Capture One Pro 20 (for Nikon) perpetual license (or a bundle*)

* The bundle includes Capture One perpetual license + Capture One Styles.

More photo editing Black Friday deals can be found here. The Nikon Black Friday deals are here. More Black Friday deals are listed here.

Here is a breakdown of the different Capture One versions:

Capture One Express for Nikon: is completely FREE (not a trial) and it’s limited in capabilities when compared to a full version.

Capture One Pro for Nikon (full-featured): has the same capabilities and features as a full Pro version but supports only Nikon cameras (this version supports only RAW images from Nikon).

Capture One Pro for all cameras: has the same features as the branded versions but it also supports different cameras (can edit RAW files from different manufacturers).

Capture One trial version: has a full range of capabilities and features and is available for a free 30 days only (no credit card needed).

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