Need help creating simulated PC desktop

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David W. Richardson

Chapelgrove Films
I need to create a simulated PC desktop for my current feature 'Tangled Web'. I can't use an actual Windows desktop for obvious reasons having to do with licensing and copyrights.

I had hoped I could use a screenshot made with the PrintScreen key (using a custom 'skin' for the desktop), pasting it into PhotoShop. Sadly, when I pull that into Premiere 6.0 (no AfterEffects), the results onscreen are very low resolution -- icons are fuzzy and text is almost unreadable. Understandable, I suppose.

So now I'm trying to create something from scratch. I have a couple of things stacked against me. First, I only have PhotoShop 6.0 -- nothing else. Second, I am a total novice with PS and graphic design in general.

Again, I'm having problems with resolution. I've created the project at 300dpi, 720x480. But if I put any text on it at all -- text small enough to simulate icon text on a desktop -- it still comes out distinctly UN-sharp when pulled into Premiere and viewed on a TV screen. So do most of the other elements I try to create. I've tried using sharpen, but that doesn't seem to improve things without making it look completely unrealistic as a PC desktop.

This simulated desktop graphic has to be full-screen and is a critical element of the movie. I can't just work around it.

If I had the money, I'd hire a pro to do this for me -- but all I can offer is deferred pay, and nobody seems to want to undertake the project on that basis. (Again, understandable.)

Soooo......can anybody tell me how to accomplish what I need to do here?

Thanks in advance!
 
I did something similar for a recent film, with fairly good results. I think the 3rd attempt was the best.
I was trying to create a simulation of some search software, where someone was typing in a password followed by a person's name. Then the results came up on the screen. I also had to make it appear that someone was reading a text document on a computer. Part of this was shown directly, with some of it being keyed in to display on a computer screen in an office.
At the time, I was very dubious about how clear or otherwise it would look when played from a DVD onto a TV, but it actually works very well.

I used Coreldraw for the still images. The way I did it was to start at the end and work back. So I made a search page with all the text boxes filled in. Then copied the image before deleting one letter, then copying again, deleting the next letter, etc, until I had a blank search page again. I put all the images on a timeline in Premiere and exported it. Next I imported the video sequence and speeded it up so it looked realistic. As you'll see if you watch the video clip, some of the colours look better than others. The green and red aren't so good.

I tried putting it on youtube but it was taking ages, so it's on Divxvine.com

http://divxvine.com/do7so6fquvcs/animated_seq_wmv_NEW.avi.html
 
Thanks 12quid. It still looks a little fuzzy. And, of course, the text is MUCH larger than what would be on desktop icons.

Still, what settings did you use in CorelDraw to create this? DPI? RGB of CMYK? 720x480? Any tips? What seemed to work better? What didn't work so well?

I appreciate the help!

David
 
Hi,

What is the resolution of the project? If you are using a standard definition project at .9 PAR, then the 720x480 would need a 640x480 VGA image - and that image would have to have a reduced color set for NTSC colors space of 16-235 for IRE broadcast limits.

How to do that is to set your VGA monitor to (single screen) to 640x480 thousands of colors, with a custom image wallpaper and do a screen capture.

Reduce the color levels in Photoshop or similar. Any NLE should adjust the PAR to .9 for you automatically.

DPI, RGB, CMYK, etc., shouldn't be any concern, assuming you limit RGB to 16-235 in the levels, dimensions to 640x480.

Remember, VGA is progressive, video is interlaced. Thin lines will pulsate or twinkle, so try to avoid them in your design in so much as you can.
 
I think that basing it off what 12quidkidinnit did, plus doing some keyboard shots, and maybe motion tracking the image onto the screen.
 
adobe captivate will allow you to record your desktop movements into a video but you will have to make your desktop look different if you don't want it to look like windows.
 
I would say the easiest way to simulate a desktop is to actually have one that works. Check out bblean. It's a Windows Explorer shell replacement that looks a lot like a Linux / UNIX desktop. It's somewhat of a clone of Afterstep for Windows. And it works really well too...
 
I would also recommend Object Desktop and WindowBlinds by Stardock.

It can be easily used to download, apply, and customize various looks to make the OS look as basic or as futuristic as you need.

MS-DOS.jpg


clip_image0363.jpg


Or even make it look just like Mac OSX or anything else.






Hope that helps.
 
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Sorry to be so long responding to this. I thought the thread was dead.

Okay, Adobe Captivate is great and all for doing screen presentations you run on your PC. But I have yet to find any screen capture software that gives me a high quality resolution for pulling into my NLE and porting out to a DVD to be shown on a TV. Everything I've tried, the resolution is just fuzzy and crappy.

I do have WindowBlinds and can make great looking PC desktops with it, but again -- the problem is getting that image into my NLE (Adobe Premiere). If I just do a PrintScreen, paste it into PhotoShop and save, then open the resulting still in Premiere, the image is way too fuzzy -- most likely due to the fact that screen captures at 72dpi. So the problem isn't creating a decent looking desktop -- it's getting that image into my NLE so it displays on the TV as a crisp, sharp image. That's where I'm having trouble.

Any suggestions???
 
What you describe from the screen print make little sense. When I printscreen, I get perfectly clear images of my screen. The "72dpi" means nothing unless you are printing something. it has nothing to do with the resolution and clarity of the image onscreen. "72dpi" when embedded in an image is only a metadata reference to what size that image will natively print at. Also, the "72dpi" screen resolution is now a fallacy and dates back to the original Macs. I have a 22" CRT display set to 2560x1600 - that equates to approximately 134dpi.

So set that aside. Here is a screencap of my laptop as I see it right now. It is just as crystal clear as the screen itself. Your problem has nothing to do with "72dpi" and the is nothing inherently wrong with screencaps. There must be a problem with what you are doing with it. For mine, I simple hit screencap which copied the screen to the clipboard, opened Photoshop, hit CTRL-N to create a new doc, hit CTRL-V to paste the screencap, then saved as a Lev10 JPEG. You can, of course, save as a PSD and import that straight into Premiere.

My laptop screen resolution is relatively low - max. 1280x800 - but that is still more than enough for SD or 720 HD. I would screencap from my desktop if I needed higher res.

 
chapelgrovefilms said:
I do have WindowBlinds and can make great looking PC desktops with it, but again -- the problem is getting that image into my NLE (Adobe Premiere). If I just do a PrintScreen, paste it into PhotoShop and save, then open the resulting still in Premiere, the image is way too fuzzy -- most likely due to the fact that screen captures at 72dpi. So the problem isn't creating a decent looking desktop -- it's getting that image into my NLE so it displays on the TV as a crisp, sharp image. That's where I'm having trouble.

Any suggestions???
Click to expand...

Then you're doing something wrong. How many times are you resizing the image? Are you resizing it in Photoshop and then changing the perspective with a "corner pin" in Premiere?

Doing a "corner pin" on a small image will give you some fuzzy results.
 
I could probably do this in After Effects if I had a sample clip and pics of what you want it to look like. Just a thought....
 
lol.

Speaking of Linux, you could go to one of the theme sites like a KDE theme site - http://www.kde-look.org/ - and just use one of those if you're not too worried about what's actually on the screen. The upside is the grabs tend to look pretty hi-tech.
 
Use a lower resolution; that's the answer. Resize your desktop to 640x480 or 800x600 and change your theme so the fonts are slightly bigger, and it will look fine at DVD resolution. See what we mean?
 
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