Recommended software[]
- Kega Fusion, a free but closed source Sega Master System and Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) emulator
- GIMP, a free and open source graphics editor
Phantasy Star II and Phantasy Star IV[]
Capturing[]
Phantasy Star II and IV are 320x240 native, so raw captures are easier to work with, and already have the correct proportions for Web display. Kega Fusion can output screenshots in raw, native resolution by selecting the following option:
Options > Set Config... > Extras > Screenshots > Output Stage > Raw
Isolating[]
To isolate a sprite on a transparent background in GIMP:
-
Load the screenshot in GIMP.
Press Ctrl+O within GIMP, or right-click the file and select Edit with GIMP within the operating system file folder. -
Zoom in to a convenient view.
Press 2 for 2x zoom, 3 for 4x zoom, 4 for 8x zoom, or 5 for 16x zoom. -
Select the boundary for the final image.
Press R to activate rectangle selection tool, then click and drag to make a selection. You can further adjust the selection by clicking and dragging the selection's borders and corners. -
Crop to selection.
From the Image menu, select Crop to Selection. -
Add an alpha channel.
Adding an alpha channel means deleted pixels will turn transparent instead of white. From the Layer menu, select Transparency, then Add Alpha Channel. -
Select the background.
For backgrounds with few colors and no colors shared with the sprite, the color selection tool is easiest. Press Shift+O to activate color selection tool. In the tool options, reduce Threshold to 0.0. Left-click any pixel in the background. All pixels in the image with that color are selected. If there are additional background colors, Shift-left-click those to add them to the selection.
If the background shares colors with the sprite, the fuzzy selection tool is easiest. Press U to activate fuzzy selection tool. In the tool options, reduce Threshold to 0.0. Left-click any pixel in the background. All contiguous pixels with that color are selected. If there are additional background areas, Shift-left-click those to add them to the selection.
If the background has many colors, the rectangle selection tool is easiest. Press R to activate rectangle selection tool. Shift-click-drag adds areas to the selection, and Ctrl-click-drag removes areas from the selection.
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Delete the selection.
Press Del, or, from the Edit menu, select Clear. If some background remains, go back to the previous step and repeat the process.
Scaling (optional)[]
If the image needs to be larger, scaling the image by a whole integer multiplier (2x, 3x, 4x, etc.) without interpolation won't significantly increase the final file size or distort the image's dimensions. If the image is scaled up, remember to export as .png rather than .gif (see below). To scale an image in GIMP:
Image > Scale Image... > Quality > Interpolation > None
Indexing[]
2,569 bytes
5,416 bytes
Sprites in Phantasy Star II and IV use a small palette, so indexed (paletted) images store pixel information more efficiently than RGB. To make the file size as small as possible, change the image mode to indexed. GIMP will automatically generate an optimized palette with the following command:
Image > Mode > Indexed... > Convert
Exporting[]
To further reduce the file size, export the image as Portable Network Graphics (PNG). Press Shift-Ctrl-E, or, from the File menu, select Export.... and specify a file name with a .png extension. Uncheck all the boxes, leave compression level at 9, then Export.
167 bytes
211 bytes
For small images that have not been scaled up, exporting as Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) rather than PNG can result in a smaller file size.
3,094 bytes
2,569 bytes
The larger the image, however, the better PNG compression performs.
519 bytes
230 bytes
For images that have been scaled up, resulting in two-dimensional blocks of uniform color, PNG's two-dimensional predictive compression can give a significantly smaller file size than GIF's row-by-row linear compression.
Compression in both PNG and GIF is lossless, so subsequent editing of the PNG/GIF rather than the original screenshot results in no loss of quality.