Fun With Transparent Screen Backgrounds

herberts writes "Looks like the amusement factor of 'transparent' screen background is getting bigger and bigger. The french Mac fan site Mac Bidouille opened up a dedicated part of their web site where fans can post shots of their transparent backgrounds." Other great transparent background shots can be found at Flickr.

Comments

Re:how ?

[mboverload]

.... They take a picture, put it as their backround, and then put the computer where the picture was taken. You seriously didn't figure that out?

Re:how ?

[frovingslosh]

I think that's how most were done, but it looks like a few may ghave been "done" by taking a picture, putting the monitor in place and putting a solid color on the background (with icons and such on top of that) and then taking a picture of that. The second picture was then merged with the first in Photoshop or a similar application by effects that mimic cromakey. The picture is only a picture, the actual view never existed.

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[account_deleted]

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A couple technique pointers.

[Shag]

I gave it a try with my PowerBook and it came out not too awfully, although the shelf behind it isn't aligned quite right in this shot - I blame refraction. Or, um... sunspots!

A few pointers I figured out along the way:

1. It's very important to keep the camera angle the same. If you've got a tripod, this is a good time to use it.
2. Shooting perpendicular to the display (i.e. not at any sort of angle) is the simplest way of making things line up properly, since you don't have to stretch the backgrounds for perspective or whatever. (Some of the shots in the gallery are at angles and are very impressive in terms of difficulty.)
3. Backgrounds with lots of stuff in them look cooler than "gosh, the wall shows behind the computer" in most cases. Elements that extend from behind the screen, or wrap around to the side or front can also be fun.

Next time I'm really bored, I'll try to work up something that has a mirror in it...

Re:Live, with a webcam?

[Midnight Thunder]

Since you can use a screen saver as a desktop background, all you would need to do is write a screen saver that displays whatever the video camera sees. Probably need to use the Quicktime Framework to connect to a DV device?

Better Flickr link

[darkpurpleblob]

The Flickr link in the story only links to one person's photoset (no disrespect to that person, w00kie). The Transparent Screens group pool is much more interesting as it aggregates everyones transparent screen photos.

First try and how-tos

[tootired]

My first try is available at Macbidouille and I wanted to say how these things are TRULY done, not some wild guessing/oversimplification/cheesy head-on way out.

1. Get a tripod and mount your camera to it.
2. Set up the scene. It works best if you have things exiting from behind the display.
3. Shoot 2 shots, one with the display down (or removed depending on your notebook ownership), and one with it up.
4. Take both shots into Phothsop/Gimp/Whatever.
5. Copy the screen up (present) shot and paste it into the image with the screen down (missing).
6. Perspective crop the image to the edges of the visible screen.
7. Delete the layer with the display.
8. Resize resulting image to display resolution on laptop (display).
9. Set resulting image as background. without moving your display.
10. Shoot scene again and enjoy the magic.

Depending on your patience level, this technique works for as many levels of transparency as you'd like to fake.

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Great Designers, Great Design.