Top Gear Show/Site Suggestions

[Ethan]

Originally Posted by ESPNSTI

Err... I'm sure UKD meant a chat session on the official Top Gear website.

Or doing it in a private chat

[Renesis]

Wow welcome dude!

I just saw you in the online list and freaked out, checked your IP and then clicked on find all posts by this member and here I am in this topic

I must say that about the wallpapers, the Episodes show great footage and artistic work, but I've been a bit dissapointed by the wallpapers honestly..

[Webmonkey]

Originally Posted by Renesis

I must say that about the wallpapers, the Episodes show great footage and artistic work, but I've been a bit dissapointed by the wallpapers honestly..

Yeah, I totally get your point on this. The problem is that we have access to a more limited range of photos than the TV team have to make the show.

The use a hell of a lot of filters and stuff to make it look beautiful.

If you can tell me some of the ones you do like, I'll try and make them more like that in the future

[mike_tseng]

how did i miss this?! my god the BBC is watching us!

[Overheat]

and watching us at ridiculous hours in the morning

[Renesis]

Originally Posted by bbc.co.uk/topgear/

Yeah, I totally get your point on this. The problem is that we have access to a more limited range of photos than the TV team have to make the show.

The use a hell of a lot of filters and stuff to make it look beautiful.

If you can tell me some of the ones you do like, I'll try and make them more like that in the future

I'm not very familiar with TV stuff but isn't it recoreded digitally in a very high res so that you could just take a screen capture? I guess, not, that would be too easy.

Anyway, I know I'll sound like I whine for no reason but I do appreciate your work and love the idea, but I only used two of them so far..

May: They had a superb car, yet the best they could do was that.. and jeremy's shirt is overexposed.

July #1: Uhh no comments!

July #2: This one's good, could still be improved with filter or some PS job but the photo is good, I did use it.

August: Atleast it's cars, but it would have been more interesting to see I don't know, a drifting shot, or an aerial view, or something with water in it... it's very brown and gray, cars aren't colorful either so it makes a bland pic for a wallpaper.

September: I like this one, great angle! some stuff could still be tweaked but the idea is there.

October: The best in terms of photography, although I'm not sure on the effect it makes as a wallpaper, it's cool but one month looking at that?

November: Very good, hard shooting conditions but the pic did come out very nicely, my 2nd favorite so far

December: Now this is major league! very good pic, my favorite. And it also represents well a big event that happened (the Discovery3 test) while some others were good but left you with a feeling that something even better had been tested and should have been used.


Well that's my 2cents, ok 20 cents! Again I hope that wasn't too bitchy, it's just my feedback, hopefully it was constructive.

Keep up the good work!

[Webmonkey]

I'd rather have honest opinion than arse kissing. Its good to hear what people ACTUALLY think. Imagine, when you tell someone you work on the Top Gear site, they don't exactly tell you what they are thinking

As far as grabbing of the video, yes, its possible to do it, and the image would be processed ready, but its not always that simple. Firstly, what looks good as a moving shot often does not work as a still. But its true, there are lots of great shots that would work.

The show is produced on DigiBeta, which means that the colour is very good when we grab, but the resolution is still quite low (720px by 576px) so not always suitable.

From what you've said, the car is the most important thing, so a nice clear shot is better than an arty close up or something. The presenters on the whole don't make for great wallpaper material. Although there are some funny photos of Jeremy on a surfboard I'd like to use at some point!

P.S, October (the spyker) is the only one of those pictures I took So thanks for the compliment

What do you think about the current shot?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/downloads/

[ESPNSTI]

Originally Posted by bbc.co.uk/topgear/

Although there are some funny photos of Jeremy on a surfboard I'd like to use at some point!

I'd love to see that.

[Renesis]

Originally Posted by bbc.co.uk/topgear/

P.S, October (the spyker) is the only one of those pictures I took So thanks for the compliment

So you do wrok on wallpapers? you're a photographer? I thought you were on the web team honestly. Well that's very interesting Can you tell us what kind of cameras you use?

Originally Posted by bbc.co.uk/topgear/

What do you think about the current shot?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/downloads/

It's cool, it had to be the F1 as it's the most important event, however the pic even though it's really good and does show the speed of the F1, it is very noisy, I don't know if it's an added effect or not but if not, may I suggest NeatImage as as great free program to use to remove digital noise from pictures.

original:


after neat image:


after some more quick edit and a Cokin warm filter (lazy job, should have done it only on the pic itself...)

[Overheat]

I personally think that the layout of the background looks incredibly tacky and distasteful. For me a good desktop calendar has to be something you'll not tire of looking at, as it has to last a full month. www.semafore.com produce some very good desktop calendars that are both arty and stylish, whilst still being easy on the eye. Unfortunately the mise-en-scene of these images doesn't leave a great deal to be desired, as far as I'm concerned anyway, but for layout, they're top notch.

What I'd like to see in a desktop calendar from Top Gear would be an artistic image, for example, for this month's calendar, you could use a low shot of the Renault F1 car bearing down on the camera and really domineering its presence. On top of this apply simple but stylish graphics, and you have a winner. It's the main image that is most important, naturally, and it would be best if this image was originally captured in a very high resolution therefore offering a variety of resolutions to download. www.insidemacgames.com/custer makes good backgrounds too, though these are weekly, but it does for Video Games what I'd like to see the Top Gear website do for cars.

Hope this is helpful.

***EDIT - Here's a sample of what I'd like to see that I've just thrown together in a couple of mins. I've had to use a still from an actual F1 race as I don't have access to the TG photos of course, also I have limited amount of fonts, so you can see how thi could be improved upon, I'm sure you have specialists who can do much better graphic design work than this, but it shows what I'm talking about (kinda )

[Renesis]

nah, I don't like that, it's too uncalenderish

What they could do however, I make the pic fullscreen, but put the numbers of the calender as a semi-transparent layer over it, asuming it's not hiding an important part of the pic.

[Daniel]

I fully agree with you Overheat. The Top Gear Calendars work better at a wall than on a desktop. Besides, 1024x768 is too small for my desk. Need 1280

[Ethan]

Originally Posted by Daniel

I fully agree with you Overheat. The Top Gear Calendars work better at a wall than on a desktop. Besides, 1024x768 is too small for my desk. Need 1280

Agree with daniel. It has to do a double work: Some people wants it for a desktop, but other for being a good calendar

Daniel: Resize to 1024

[Daniel]

1024 pisses me off. Its what Im on now, at school. Fells like driving with a broken window and heaps of traffic. There is so much to see and you have this little part that you ca watch. I hate the side-scroll!

[Overheat]

I think the standard resolution is settling more at 1280x1024 thanks to the LCD monitor rush.

[Daniel]

Well it is among us more geekier. Remember that there are still people being introduced to the internet as we speak. Anything less than 1280x1024 makes me sick. But I remember when 1024x768 hurt my eyes. That was back in the 800x600 days. Actually the 800x600 is still the most poplar! Thats what a web guy told me.

[SiR_dude]

Originally Posted by Daniel

Well it is among us more geekier. Remember that there are still people being introduced to the internet as we speak. Anything less than 1280x1024 makes me sick. But I remember when 1024x768 hurt my eyes. That was back in the 800x600 days. Actually the 800x600 is still the most poplar! Thats what a web guy told me.

Don't ask me what I'm running then.....

[Renesis]

I'm running 1024 cause my eyes can't read small stuff and my monitor can't do 85Hz in more than 1024..

[Daniel]

Get a new monitor to go with your smooth desktop Ren!

[SiR_dude]

Speaking of great calendar shots, does anyone else besides me buy a "Fast, Expensive Cars" calendar every year? They're made by Wendt Worldwide, and have some awesome compositions....exactly what a calendar should be. As far as a TG calendar goes, I think the car is the most important subject in the picture, but it's good to have shots involving the presenters too, especially at memorable events of the eps (like the DB9 and 612 races)

Just my opinion.