Help:Style guide

Required Programs

• Screen capture program like Fraps (free version of Fraps is sufficient)
• VirtualDub
• ImageMagick ("Portable Win32 static" will be required for this guide)
• APNG Anime Maker
• Thepc's batch script for easy conversion (you don't need Dropbox to download this file)

Make sure to scan all files for malicious software.

Setup

1. Download and install Fraps (or any other screen capture program that produces high quality files that you are comfortable using).
2. Export all content from "Spiral Knights APNG-Batch.zip" to a directory of your choice. (this path will be referenced as chosen_path in this guide)
3. Download the portable version of ImageMagick and copy it's content into the "ImageMagick" directory.
   
   
   
4. Download and move the "APNG Anime Maker" into the same directory as the "ConvertImage.bat". (should be chosen_path)
   
   
   
5. Done.

you should now have this files in place:

• chosen_path\ConvertImage.bat
• chosen_path\APNG Anime Maker.exe
• chosen_path\ImageMagick\convert.exe

Converting Video to APNG

1. Start Spiral Knights and record some tooltip rotation footage. Open this File in VirtualDub and export it as "Image Sequence".
   
   
   
   Select PNG-Format and export to chosen_path\WorkingDir.
   
   
   
   
2. Open the chosen_path\WorkingDir and open one image in paint (or any other similar software) and select the bottom right corner of the tooltip animation.
   
   
   
   You will need the pixel position for the batch script.
   
   
   
   
3. Wait for VirtualDub to complete the conversion, then start the "ConvertImage.bat" from the chosen_path.
   
   
   
   You will first have to enter the item name to create a new project directory.
   Then enter the pixel coordinates from step 2.
   Finally input how many frames should be skipped. When recording with 60 fps use a value between 4 and 8 depending SK-Item's size.
   
   
   
   
4. After the script has completed conversion, the _output directory as well as "APNG Anime Maker" will be opened for you.
   Delete unwanted frames from the _output directory. If you skipped every 4th frame, use 80 frames total. If you skipped every 6th frame use 53 frames in total. For every 8th frame use 40 frames for a complete rotation.
   
   
5. Create the APNG animation from single frames. Switch to the open "APNG Anime Maker" and input all the remaining frames from the _output directory. Select 62ms delay for 80 frames, 93ms delay for 53 frames or 124ms delay for 40 frames. Play around with lossy compression, but don't set it above 15. Use the maximum of 9 for lossless compression. Save your APNG image and enjoy it rotation (using your browser)
   
   
   
   
6. After closing "APNG Anime Maker" the batch-script will offer you to restart with a new image, restart with skipping an other amount of frames or close the script.
   If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this guide, feel free to ask Thepc ingame or on the wiki. -Thepc 16:12, 21 March 2015 (UTC)

Use Fraps or a screen capture program that produces high quality files that you are comfortable using.

Establish a "cameraman." This cameraman can be you, or another knight that you control. Whatever the case, you must not film yourself with yourself, because the screen moves with you. We don't want that! Only film other people, or film yourself with an alt, etc.

Have the cameraman uncheck "show rank" and select "on hover" for show names in the chat tab of the Options interface.

Find someone (might be you) that has the item you wish to film. It is very much preferred to find outfits that are not heavily accessorized so that the focus can be on the item you are filming.

Ask the target politely to pose in a way that shows the item in a consistent manner with other similar animations on this wiki. Do not offer to pay them, or demand payment, etc. Wiki work is volunteer.

Ask them if they wish to be credited on the wiki - only give credit in the upload comment (file page) because the wiki is about game content, not users, but files should have source information in general. It also makes people more willing to help, haha - but many people like to remain anonymous, especially for rare items so people don't bother them about selling their precious shinies and for various other personal reasons.

Make sure the person you're filming has time - including yourself!

Find a clean area that has very visually obvious tiles that is not likely to have people join in. Empty guild hall rooms or the Private Training Hall are excellent choices, since these are not affected by weather changes during events.

Spend as much time as it takes to get a good visual that's relatively easy to loop. Users will have to do different things for different items. In general:

Aesthetics:

(accessory, costume, helmet, armor, shield): compare to animations already uploaded on wiki. Have them wiggle, turn, and walk around a 3x3 area twice before returning to the same spot.

Gear:

Link to external videos (like youtube) in the "external links" section to really help users get an idea of the weapon in action, whenever possible. See #Videos below for details about posting videos on this wiki.

• Bombs: charge up, plop down, detonate. Loop that. The first frame should show the effective radius of the bomb, with a focus on visuals - some explosions are very interesting/pretty/don't reflect the white ring. You should always state the detonation time (not ctr) and (true) radius in the charge attack section of the bomb page. Detonation time and charge time are very different things after all. If you can, have them stand in the center of the area with the knight symbol in the Private Training Hall. That being said...the current filesize limit of the wiki (2 MB) prevents most bombs from being uploaded, so just upload an image that clearly shows the radius on an obviously tiled area.

• Handguns:

regular: shoot the full clip. Loop that. Make sure the first frame shows the tile range of the bullet.

charge: charge up, and set charge off. Make sure the first frame of the charge shows the range and any awesome effects (like the birds of light in the antigua line).

• Swords:

regular: swing once. Then immediately swing once AND until the knight no longer swings - this is a "combo" of sorts. Some swords swing twice, three times, or many times.

charge: charge up, set off charge. Make sure the first frame of the charge shows the range and any awesome effects, like the Obsidian Edge. If the charge is radial, have them stand in the center of the area in the private training hall - example on Fang of Vog page. Note: many swords have charge attacks that produce animations larger than 2MB, so just upload an image of the range of the charge attack on an obviously tiled area.