Digitally Enhanced FF7 Backgrounds

[Cloud_S]

So I've been tinkering with this for the past month or so. By using two programs and a perfectionist's touch, I've come up with a way to enlarge the various tiny pixelated backgrounds of the PSX game to up to 8 times their original size without looking completely awful. The end result is something that resembles a painting of sorts.

Original:

Cropped portion of the image which was enlarged 8 times (and then further enlarged through the 2nd program for printing on posters, etc), but still reduced so it doesn't cause loading issues:

Spoiler

I'm slowly (the process takes about an hour or more for each image, only 4GB of RAM on this old computer) working my way though Midgar and soon the rest of the game.

If you'd like to hang this or other enhanced/enlarged backgrounds on your wall, check out my RedBubble store: http://www.redbubble.com/people/GlitchBob452

I've enabled a number of products:

Spoiler

If there's something you want that isn't there, I can enable it just for you. Also as it's nearing the holidays, if you (or a friend/family member/etc) like a certain area of the game and I haven't uploaded it yet, PM me and I should be able to get it up by the end of the day.

 

[Tennyo]

Oh, those are kind of neat.

 

[Pixel]

I've thought about doing something like this manually - taking the backgrounds, stripping away all of the alpha overlays that make glowy bits glow etc, then redrawing parts, retexturing, sharpening edges. Then overtaying the alphas again. But I have neither the time nor the experience to do so.

 

[Alex Strife]

Looking rather cool!

 

[Masamune85]

Awesome!

 

[Cloud_S]

Glad to see the positive reaction! While I haven't seen this asked yet, I should note that I would love to either a. get into the details of the multi-step process b. post the finalized image(s), but I'm concerned if I do, someone (not a fellow TLS'er, but a casual browser) will replicate and/or steal the images and attempt to profit from the work done on them.

I also have something really-really cool in mind (hint: LEDs), though it's something I need to test the proof of concept on....but I don't have the facilities at my disposal to do so just yet.

 

[Cloud_S]

Figured I should post an un-cropped example. I assume not many would want to sell/buy this so.... Here's the background (of a background) from the wall climb from Wall Market to Shin-Ra HQ (originally split into 3 sections).

Original:

Resized (but also reduced so it doesn't kill browsers):

The original is 320x480, while the resize is 2560x3840 (and the above is 1560x2340). So as you can see, it goes from

to something you'd be able to hang on your wall.

 

[Alex Strife]

That is very cool. I might be into some of the maps. And if you realise this idea with the LEDs... hm...!

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Feel free to post your images without resizing, by the way. Once you submit the post, if it's too big, it gets automatically resized to fit a certain limit.

 

[Cloud_S]

That is very cool. I might be into some of the maps. And if you realise this idea with the LEDs... hm...!

Good to hear! I wish I had a workshop full of various machines, tools, and materials. I have some pretty intriguing ideas (which when it comes to the LEDs, I haven't found anyone doing anything like it, but I really need a way to test it first and foremost).

Feel free to post your images without resizing, by the way. Once you submit the post, if it's too big, it gets automatically resized to fit a certain limit.

True enough. Even that resized image is scaled to 820x1230. My concern was those with limited bandwidth, or on mobile data.


Just as an aside, I can do far more than just the backgrounds btw:

Aerith Gainsborough [Disc Change]

Also worth noting is RedBubble's having various deals with 10-20+% off assorted items. In-fact right now they have this deal going: "25% off Hoodies and Sweatshirts. 20% off everything else. Use MANICMON".

 

[Cthulhu]

You may want to be careful, come to think of it; you're literally appropriating Square's content and selling it for monies.

IDK if they have a copyright on the characters and likenesses thereof (which would complicate selling fanart themed stuff), but taking images from the game itself might be problematic.

 

[Elessar]

You may want to be careful, come to think of it; you're literally appropriating Square's content and selling it for monies.

IDK if they have a copyright on the characters and likenesses thereof (which would complicate selling fanart themed stuff), but taking images from the game itself might be problematic.

This.

And I don't mean to be a dick but I can't phrase it any other way... Looks like you're just blowing the images up, and adding a art-sy filter you can find on various photo editing suits, on them. And yeah... selling it.

 

[Cloud_S]

You may want to be careful, come to think of it; you're literally appropriating Square's content and selling it for monies.

IDK if they have a copyright on the characters and likenesses thereof (which would complicate selling fanart themed stuff), but taking images from the game itself might be problematic.

Oh I understand the potential issues. However there are numerous products on RedBubble (and other similar sites) where people have done nothing more than upload a hi-res copy of official artwork.

Examples:
http://www.redbubble.com/people/gustavinlavin/works/15000215
http://www.redbubble.com/people/gallantmoncm/works/23358415
http://www.redbubble.com/people/adamtwd88/works/22339838

And I don't mean to be a dick but I can't phrase it any other way... Looks like you're just blowing the images up, and adding a art-sy filter you can find on various photo editing suits, on them. And yeah... selling it.

I can assure you, wouldn't take an hour or more to do something as simple as that. No filter applied, but it is part of the second phase of the process where I manually correct any errors/missed pixels and essentially smooth any "rough edges".

Blowing the images up in Photoshop results in:

While the end product with my 2-step process yields:

When printed on a poster, that has a painting-esque look to it from viewing distance.

As for any sales, well none have happened, so for the time being (and potentially ever, if nobody buys anything) I'm just doing this because I enjoy seeing what details are overlooked in the tiny originals (the original reason I even began working on the whole thing). If SE steps in, ok. If nobody wants to actually purchase them, ok. If that's how it goes, I'll have problems posting them all up for download.


Hopefully my other idea (LEDs, etc) will turn out to be feasible despite the various complexities.

 

[Cloud_S]

As I make my way though Midgar, I've completed the Disc Change images set.





Click on whichever image you'd like to be brought to it's respective page.

 

[Mayo Master]

Hey Cloud_S,

I don't mean to rain on your parade (actually I'd rather spare you some unnecessary work), but people have already done that kind of job @qhimm forums (and I'm not talking about my own works with Team Avalanche). There are already the 2D HD overhauled field screens for the entire game, ready for you to mod. I strongly recommend you check them out.

 

[Cloud_S]

Hey Cloud_S,

I don't mean to rain on your parade (actually I'd rather spare you some unnecessary work), but people have already done that kind of job @qhimm forums (and I'm not talking about my own works with Team Avalanche). There are already the 2D HD overhauled field screens for the entire game, ready for you to mod. I strongly recommend you check them out.

Oh I've seen the resized backgrounds for the PC version (I've actually been a longtime member of the Qhimm forums since 2004, just under a different username than this one).

That said, the additional steps in the overall process differentiates this from that.

 

[Mayo Master]

Oh I've seen the resized backgrounds for the PC version (I've actually been a longtime member of the Qhimm forums since 2004, just under a different username than this one).

That said, the additional steps in the overall process differentiates this from that.

Oh, didn't know you were at qhimm forums! Then, I'm just curious about the difference between you method and the ones already out there (like Omzy's). Is it a different filtering?

 

[Cloud_S]

Oh, didn't know you were at qhimm forums! Then, I'm just curious about the difference between you method and the ones already out there (like Omzy's). Is it a different filtering?

Yep, "Roxas" is my SN there. As for the difference, I'll PM you. However I can say that unlike Omzy, I'm resizing to x8 instead of x4.


On another note, I've also done this wallpaper of Midgar.

I wish I could find an clean version of this larger image:

Since the one from the official FF7 PC JP site is 800x600:

I'm sure they have larger copies (1024x768 at the very least) stored away somewhere....

 

[Lex]

This is going to make me sound like an asshole but that's just going to have to be the case.

I want to echo sentiments that what you're doing is definitely illegal. "Look, other people are doing it" isn't any kind of justification for using another artist's work to make money. I'm also really unclear on what differentiates this from the work other people have done on backgrounds on Qhimm (for free, for all gamers to enjoy, without pretending some random Hqslx8 blur/sharpen filter is some sort of unique industry secret that you alone have developed).

As far as I can see you've made them larger than the mod versions and spent some time making it look less like an abstract painting, which is always an issue with blur filters.

I don't actually have an issue with you doing what you're doing. I have a tiny issue with you pretending you're doing something unique (because you're definitely not, and what's more, blown-up versions of the backgrounds exist that look as good as yours, for free) and increasingly sounding like a salesman/ using this thread to sell ~illegal~ products to our people (that they could get for free, elsewhere). You've already linked quite a few times to your RedBubble. I'd leave it at that.

EDIT: I know I kinda just shat all over your work - I don't mean to belittle the effort you've put in, I just think the way you're acting about this is a bit dishonest.

 

[Cloud_S]

So I just want to say the following on this subject:

Not wanting to go into detail as to the methods I was using wasn't done to be deceptive, I just found a rather good process and had not wanted it copied (even if I doubted anyone would waste hours waiting for processing to finish on both steps).

As for the legal status of selling said works, I never attempted to defend it by "others are doing it". I merely pointed out works that were nothing more than someone downloading hi-res official artwork and uploading it to a shirt with no work done on it whatsoever.

My goal wasn't to earn thousands of dollars with ill-gotten funds, or to reap tons of profit from something that could have been made available for free download. My end goal was to make enough so I could fund the other "cooler" project (the one with LEDs and such) I had made mention of. It isn't something I could do without some extra funding and the end result, if received well, would have been something I would have offered to members of this board first. As it stands, I've only made $8. Apparently I misjudged how much fans would want this artwork (personally I want to eventually have a wall full of backgrounds). But regardless of that, the far better project will remain in "idea form" without proof of concept for the time being.

In closing, I hope my reputation on TLS hasn't been tarnished by this topic. I may not be as active as I was when I first immigrated from ACF to TLS, but it's the one place on the net that I've enjoyed remaining a longtime member of.