Neuko ShareSpace - Extractions [PG-13]

[.:neuko:.]

Alert! This thread is currently under review due to a lack of feedback since 28 July 2011. As a result there may be some disruption regarding access to Extractions, and for a time, links (including thumbnails) may be broken until a decision has been reached regarding the future of the thread.

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Hey there! And welcome to the Neuko ShareSpace - Extractions thread. ^ ^

If you're already familiar with the world of Extractions, or just want to cut straight to the offerings in this thread, then by all means, use the links provided at the foot of this post to quickly navigate to them - then simply swipe an Extraction of your interest! How many you wish to use and what you wish to use them for I don't mind, just so long as you give the appropriate credit where due! ^ ^

By the way, I also take requests, but please read the Request Conditions in Notices in this post before you make one. Choose to ignore them and don't be too surprised if your submitted request is rejected as fast as a visit from someone trying to sell me double glazing!

.:Latest Additions:.

> An Extraction of Yuri and Kanade (Angel Beats!) has been added to the Character Medley Extraction Post as of 4th September!
> 2 Extractions of Catherine (Catherine) and Shinichi Kudo (Detective Conan) have been added to the Character Medley Extraction Post as of 29th August!
> 12 Extractions of characters from Mario Hoops 3on3 are now available from the the all-new Mario Extraction Post as of 28th August!

.:Extraction FAQ:.

And... for those of you who have never heard of Extractions, or have little idea as to what they are, well, fear not... The information here should soon have you clued up!

What is an Extraction?

An Extraction is a digital image of something with the background (or unwanted elements) cut away. Depending on the file format, an Extraction can vary in usefulness and quality, as shown in the illustration below.



^ Partitioned illustration simulating the blending behaviour of a given subject when extracted and then saved in the file formats, JPG (left partition), GIF (centre partition), and PNG (right partition) respectively. Please note that since the forum uses a dark background colour by default, differences in quality may be difficult to notice between the subject in the centre and right partitions. If you have difficulty in noticing, consider changing the forum's skin to a lighter colour.

As you can see from the above illustration, Extractions behave differently to normal digital images. In addition, they can show differences of quality in themselves depending on which file format is used to save them. Extractions saved as JPG images tend to be the least versatile, as JPG images cannot store transparency data; however, Extractions of this nature are particularly useful for previewing purposes (as long as they're not too highly compressed). Extractions saved as GIF images have very limited transparency and display only up to 256 colours, but are better suited for sprite-based games and devices that have limited hardware performance. Extractions saved as PNG images tend to be the most versatile and do not suffer from the transparency and colour limitations of Extractions saved as GIFs; nor do they suffer from the compression side effects of Extractions saved as JPGs. As a result, they can be easily blended with images from a large variety of works.

How are Extractions different to other images?

Unlike normal digital images, Extractions (when saved in the appropriate file formats) can express transparency in addition to colours and tones, and can therefore reveal additional properties of given subjects where other images cannot. For example, suppose you want to create a convincing picture of a ghost lurking in a haunted house. You already have a digital image for the haunted house, but you also need a digital image of a ghost to complete the picture. An Extraction of a ghost would be ideal for this work, because unlike other digital images it would reveal only the ghost and not the ghost with a background. Furthermore, the Extraction would allow the ghost to realistically blend with any other image it's combined with, even if it has uniform or varied levels of transparency.

How useful are Extractions?

There are many various existing works over the Internet in which Extractions are used, including video, photo, webpage, animated, and illustrative works - so there's certainly no shortage of their usefulness! However, since Extractions are designed to be parts of wholes and not so much separate entities, they can be difficult to spot in the most professional of works - that is, they can be hard to recognise as Extractions. Chances are, you've probably already seen many works where both normal digital images and Extractions have been used, but may not have been able to tell the latter from the former with those works.

Which file format should I consider when looking for Extractions on the Internet?

The most typically used file format for Extractions on the internet is PNG, as these files support many transparency and colour values, but also use compression/decompression technology to keep file sizes small with virtually no sacrifice of image quality. By comparision, other file formats must lose a certain extent of image quality (i.e discard certain image data) to meet the purposes they were designed for.

Why can't I find enough high-quality Extractions on the Internet?

The problem is not so much a lack of high-quality Extractions than a lack of disaplined extractors. Many extractors give up at the first hurdle, but the few that do persist get better and better - which is why people who find them often stick with them and highly regard their works. Passionate extractors tend to produce many high-quality and varied Extractions, so if you come across such people, it's better to follow their works than say, soley rely on Google for the goods.

Isn't an Extraction really a Render?

The short answer is yes - but in reality it depends on the context. Across the Internet, "Render" usually refers to digital images of the kind in this thread; however, across media-centric industries, "Render"' usually refers to 3-dimensional, computer generated graphics (as in CG films and video games). Because of these differing contexts, there are often arguments between extractors as to which word is the "correct" terminology for images which I refer to as Extractions. Nonetheless, I have no issue with members who would rather refer to images in this thread as renders. It's all good in my opinion! ^ ^

.:Notices:.

Extractions

> Please credit appropriately and effectively if you are using any of the Extractions attached to this thread.
> It is recommended that you check this thread for new Extractions at least once a month, as new Extractions do not always mean new posts (i.e. a bumped thread).
> I do upload my Extractions to other websites, but I do not mention them here; for this would be effectively advertising, and therefore (potentially) a breach of the forum's rules. If you wish to know which websites I use to host my Extractions, please ask outside AF; otherwise, do bear in mind that off-site "copies" of these Extractions can be easily modified by their administrators and/or members, thus be made non-genuine. In other words, if in doubt, only download my Extractions via this thread.

Requests

Submitted/Accepted Requests:

> The taking of requests is currently suspended until further notice. If you'd like a full explanation for this, please ask by PM.
> The last request was submitted on 21st August 2011.

Request Conditions:

The following request conditions are designed to ensure both consistent and high quality results with all Extractions attached to this thread, and to also consider the needs of Extraction users. If you feel unsure about any of the request conditions, and/or have any questions/queries about them, please do not hesitate to PM me.

I've tried my best to ensure that the request conditions are as brief (yet as foolproof) as possible. I believe that it's better to get these things out the way sooner rather than have to answer potentially awkward questions in PMs after completed requests. That way you can be sure that there are no "hidden charges" or nasty surprises, and more importantly, of what standard to expect from that all-important Extraction at the end of your request! ^ ^

In order to keep the reading of request conditions down to a minimum, only the Mandatory conditions (i.e. conditions that you must follow in order for your request to be accepted) have been posted here. However, on PM request I can provide the full version of the request conditions should you have particular content or more specific needs in your request.

The Mandatory conditions are as follows:

> All requests (including request-related messages) must be submitted by PM on AF. Requests submitted by other means will not be accepted, including any requests made in this thread.
> You may submit only 1 request at a time.
> You must provide 1 source image with at least 1 extractable subject for extraction in your request. In addition, the extractable subject must:

> Be an image of either a person (or character), animal (or creature) or tangible object. Images such as effects, sprite sheets and fonts are not accepted with this condition.
> Be at least 16 by 320 pixels (Orientation does not matter).
> Be of reasonably high quality and clearly distinct from the background.
> Not display any discernible post-production adjustments or "enhancements", such as (but not limited to) sharpening, saturation, resampling etc..
> Not be obscured by other content to an extent where it cannot be faithfully interpreted, thus accurately extracted.
> Include a statement of its name (or description, if an object), and if applicable, the title of the series to which it belongs.

> You may specify only 1 extractable subject per source image per request. However, if the source image contains overlapping subjects, you may specify which, and as many of those subjects you wish to have extracted, as overlapping subjects are treated as 1 subject and therefore as a single request.
> You must not modify the source image in any way; this goes especially for resampling.
> The source image must be no greater than 12,000 by 12,000 pixels.
> The source image must not be under a file format other than jpg, png, bmp, tif, or gif.

Comments

Please bear in mind that content in this thread is moved from post to post, and from time to time for convenience purposes. Therefore it is recommended that you avoid using characters such as "^" if referring to my posts and use the quote feature instead.

Replies

Replies to all Extraction-related comments are given in the thread's Extraction Posts rather than new posts. To read a reply related to your comment, simply navigate (or link) to the Extraction Post most fitting to your comment, then simply locate the quote of your comment to find the corrisponding reply. In the instance your comment refers to Extractions from multiple posts, the quote of your comment and the reply will be duplicated and edited accordingly for those posts.

.:Extraction Posts:.
Mario | Pokémon | Character Medley