Clean side-by-side parts comparisons (in a consistent manner)

[PTNLemay]

Does anyone have (or know how to make) a neat side by side comparison of select KSP parts? Like say for example how tall a mobile lab is next to a kerbal.

Yes it is possible to do it yourself by just plopping the part in question next to an EVA kerbal in game, then screengrabbing, but that has problems with consistency. The angle you place the camera and the zoom at which you take the snapshot is always slightly different, to say nothing of changing illumination from different times of day. I'm looking for a more streamlined 2-dimensional type of thing with a nice clean background. A bit like this, but with lots of different KSP parts.

Preferably in a way I can mix and match. Anyone have ideas on how I could do something like this in a consistent manner?

Edited May 31, 2014 by PTNLemay

[cantab]

Place them one at a time as the root part - the first part placed - in the VAB, and take screenshots. That will I believe get you consistent lighting and camera position. (For parts that can't be the root, obviously do something else first, but keep the subject part central).

[PTNLemay]

I'll give it a try... it sounds very manual but I really want to get this to work if I can. To take care of the background, I know there's a special kind of "lasso" tool in photoshop that does good guess-work at cutting out a shape. I'm pretty sure Microsoft Paint doesn't have anything like that. Anyone know if GIMP has it?

EDIT:

Here's what I mean with background troubles.

You get fuzzy corners because of the way the colors let the background bleed through. It's the way it does anti-aliasing. Is there a way to open the KSP parts files in Blender or something? Something where I can load them up in a consistent manner with no background (or at least with a perfectly uniform one).

Edited June 1, 2014 by PTNLemay

[Tw1]

I'll give it a try... it sounds very manual but I really want to get this to work if I can. To take care of the background, I know there's a special kind of "lasso" tool in photoshop that does good guess-work at cutting out a shape. I'm pretty sure Microsoft Paint doesn't have anything like that. Anyone know if GIMP has it?

The only really trustworthy way to cut something out in an image editor is with a free-form select tool. GIMP has one of these. Put the lines through the edge pixels, or the ones just outside them. Most of KSP's parts are simple, and shouldn't take many lines to do if you try and do it this way.

[longbyte1]

To reliably get a side view of an object, you need to use an orthographic projection instead of a perspective, FOV based view. The best way to do this is to import the object into Blender and use the numpad buttons to get the right view.

The only downside to this approach is that you can't import Kerbals. Sorry

[PTNLemay]

Is it difficult to open the .craft files in Blender? I don't need to convert them beforehand into some special compatible format?

What I can do for the Kerbal is take one of the ships in the finished compilation, count the pixel-height, go into the game, put the capsule on the launch pad, EVA a kerbal, then try and zoom in just close enough that the capsule is at the right height (trial and error until it's as perfect as I can make it). Thus the kerbal in the screenshot should be at roughly the correct scale. It'll be a bit messy and manual, but if it's just for the Kerbal I'm willing to do it. For everything else though I really want to try the Blender approach.

[longbyte1]

Is it difficult to open the .craft files in Blender? I don't need to convert them beforehand into some special compatible format?

What I can do for the Kerbal is take one of the ships in the finished compilation, count the pixel-height, go into the game, put the capsule on the launch pad, EVA a kerbal, then try and zoom in just close enough that the capsule is at the right height (trial and error until it's as perfect as I can make it). Thus the kerbal in the screenshot should be at roughly the correct scale. It'll be a bit messy and manual, but if it's just for the Kerbal I'm willing to do it. For everything else though I really want to try the Blender approach.

I'm not sure how difficult opening a .craft file is because nobody's ever made a script for that before. You can, however, import .mu part files with this plugin and they'll work out of the box with Blender Render. If you want to use Cycles, though, you have to do a bit more work.

As for the kerbal, I guess you can land a capsule and EVA a kerbal right next to it so that you can measure the height in relation to the capsule. That should give you all the scaling information you need. Then just add the Kerbal image onto the Blender project (or draw the mesh manually, if you really want to) with the approximate scaling. There's a meters option in Blender as well if that helps you in any way.

[LaydeeDem]

The only really trustworthy way to cut something out in an image editor is with a free-form select tool. GIMP has one of these. Put the lines through the edge pixels, or the ones just outside them. Most of KSP's parts are simple, and shouldn't take many lines to do if you try and do it this way.

I suppose you have not been privileged to witness the sorcery that is Photoshop's "refine edge"?

[sumghai]

This is going to take a bit of work, but if you want perfect results:

- Get Blender

- Get taniwha's Blender .mu import/export add-on

- For each part desired, import its corresponding .mu model file into Blender and manually re-apply textures to all objects in model

- Change the background color of Blender's 3D viewport (via User Preferences) to one that you can easily Photoshop out later

- Change Blender's 3D viewport to the orientation desired

- Take screenshot

- Edit resulting screenshot in Photoshop as desired.

[phoenix_ca]

sumghai's suggestion of using blender to give yourself the best background is probably close to the ideal solution. However, should that still not be enough (which could well be the case depending on the textures), the best masking tool I've ever tried and used is Topaz ReMask. With that you could lift any part you want from a simple VAB screenshot in under a minute, and it'll do a better job than manual attempts most of the time anyway (with far greater speed once you get the hang of it). It can also mask translucent or transparent objects (serious mathematical wizardry going on there)...not that I know of any transparent parts in KSP yet, mods or otherwise, though I suppose if you wanted to use it to grab particle effects like engines that'd work. In other words if you're trying to extract pixels from other pixels, just buy ReMask and be done with it. It's saved me days of work, easily.

Edited June 2, 2014 by phoenix_ca

[benjee10]

You can set Blender to render with a transparent background, you don't need to render it with a background at all. Under 'Shading' change Alpha from 'Sky' to 'Transparent' and make sure you change the output from RGB to RGBA and .png file format. Then you can open it up in Photoshop or Gimp and it'll have a transparent background.

[PTNLemay]

> achievement get! Find exactly what you were looking for.

Even if it was a few months after the fact. Thanks Scott! Also thanks to Kronal, for actually making the mod.

http://www.curse.com/ksp-mods/kerbal/224287-kronal-vessel-viewer-kvv-exploded-ship-view