Resolution question

[carnalizer]

I'm workin on a large cover (45*30 ish). It's kinda hard on my RAM. Would anybody really notice if i did it in 150-200 dpi and rescale later?

Yours truly
/H

[young paddy1]

the re-scaling is what would make people notice, if you scale up it will become more fuzzy, you might be better off doing it in smaller portions and sewing it together at the end.

[carnalizer]

I was in a hurry when I wrote this. The size was in cms. What I meant wasn't really rescaling but rather changing resolution. But that might be the same thing or what?

[egerie]

I thought I would wait for someone to post further but I'm still :confused: :confused: :confused:
What are you trying to do ? Give us examples.

[carnalizer]

Sorry if I was unclear. I'm painting a cover for a box that is 45*30 cm. Since it 's supposed to be printed I have started working in 300 dpi. That makes the document a tad to big. It limits the tools and number of layers I can use in photoshop. Cant work with that hourglass you know. ;)

Now I havent done much for print before but 300 dpi is whats needed from what I've heard. My suspision is that since my painting is not a photo (or even close to as sharp as one) i ought to be able to paint with a document the same size but at 150 or so resolution and change the resolution back to 300 before finalizing with logos and what have you. Now I ask you of more experience; will anyone notice on the finished product?

I have never before heard young gamers in stores go "Oh this seems to have been done in less than 300 dpi.." But then again that may be because no one else has been stupid enough to try such a stunt. Am I making any sense?

/H

[Chris Beatrice]

If it's a game box cover that's only like 5.5" x 8" or something, which is 1650 x 2400 pixels at 300. If that's too big for your system, what the heck are you doing making game box covers!?

But seriously, if this is a problem for you, and you have to reduce the size of the image (i.e. 150 dpi, which reduces the size to 25%, or 825 x 1200), then you should use a rescaling program to scale it back up. There are some out there that do a better job than Photoshop, but they're generally used when you REALLY need them, like when you've got a book-sized image and you want to make a poster, or something. Game box covers are so small you shouldn't need to do this.

And yes, people will notice. It doesn't matter if your work is photo-realistic or loosy goosy, the problem will be at low resolutions you'll actually see the squareness of the pixels in print.

[carnalizer]

Chris, get with the metric system already! ;)

Board game box like RISK, A&A size. So it's more like 6000*5000px appr.

And I need to do the work to get the money to pay for a better system right?

But I think you answered my question anyhow. For that I am grateful. I'll just keep working and stay away from the nifty dual brushes and layers.

Thanks for the help guys!

[Chris Beatrice]

Heh, why should I!?:)
But seriously, I work in the gaming industry and it is insane how much more complicated things get when we publish in Europe.

That is a big size image. I'm new to digital, and I wonder how digital artists produce work that large.

[carnalizer]

Not to mention all the languages...

Perhaps someone else has ideas about working big digitally? Please enlighten us.

[jasond]

I work with high res stuff a lot, I just finished working on a poster that covers a door.

You *NEED* a LOT of memory if you want to do big stuff. You don't, however need a really fast system
I'm using a dual P3 800mhz with 1GB memory.

Tips in PS:
Less layers!!! Seriously, they multiply the size of the doc.
Work at 1/2 res if you need to and then blow up at the end.
(you can always go in at the end and touch up the detail)

*blowing up 2x makes one pixel into four, so it totally blurs your detail, HOWEVER look really close at a painting and you'll notice it's kinda blurry too. so you have a fudge factor. a "300 DPI" recommended can probably get away with 250 and be OK, especially figuring in conversion to halftone.
-ASK YOUR PRINTER- they can give you tips.
If you can get good results with 250 dpi instead of 300 then go for it!

Another work method i've seen (but I don't use) is to work small (640x480 or so) and blow it up once the rough stuff is in place, then keep doing that a few times so when you get full-size you're working on one or two layers only.

Save A LOT. and make sure you're not running anyother programs. Memory is the key. If you run out windows starts swapping the memory to HDD and your computer gets MUCH slower.

good luck! :chug:

[carnalizer]

This was very helpful! Ask your printer, who'wuda thunkit? Thanks jasond!

Now I only need to figure out how to deal with a client who doesn't know what he wants... I'm thinking do what I think he should do and hope he realizes my genius. fat chance.. :beer:

[egerie]

I'm jumping back in to ask ....

How about working on a 5315 x 7087 pixels image at 150 dpis and then changing the res to 300 dpi at the end WITHOUT resampling it ? :confused:

[Jared_Bishop]

If your printing out on an inkjet printer then 150 dpi is about as low as i would go if your printing at 100%, 300 dpi at 50%. Also if you work in RGB rather than CMYK you can cut you file size by 1/4. Less Layers helps and clear your history often.