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Card Scans Added to the Site [permalink]
Posted by Frost on 6 Dec 2012 at 8:29am PST Updated on 6 Dec 2012 at 5:59pm PST
Hey all. Over the past couple of months, Jiggz has referred to a "project" I've been working on. If you've been following us on Facebook, you'd also probably know what it is: I've been working on scanning my entire collection so that Psypoke can have card scans for the TCG section and, FINALLY, everything that I own has been scanned, cropped, processed, uploaded and is displaying properly!! Truth be told, I expected this to be done a LOT sooner. However since I never did something like this before, it involved a lot of trial and error. I actually had to scan my entire collection twice because after the first run of scanning, I realized just how clearly my scanner could pick up fine hairs and dust and little things stuck on my scanner's glass. The two runs of scanning went from late July through August. Next, we had to figure out a way to mass process images of over 6000 cards. A program was made to let me place points along the borders of the cards, which would then crop and process the scans, but the inconsistent layouts of the cards over the years meant that this couldn't be automated. After placing nine border points for nearly 7000 cards, the processing algorithm provided many cards with incredibly uneven borders and botched cropping. So then the algorithm had to be revised and the points had to be replaced for any cards that didn't turn out correctly. This went on from September to November. After the scans were processed and cropped, the image files also needed to be sorted out, renamed and uploaded to the site, and a mapping of each image to the card's data in the Deck Dex had to be created, including noting the correct image URLs for any reprint cards, i.e. Base Set 2, most of the BW Promos, etc. This also involved transcribing hundreds of promos, Dragons Exalted, Dragon Vault, Boundaries Crossed and basically anything else that hadn't been added to the Deck Dex since 2010. (Probably 600-700 new cards were added to the site altogether!) Three days ago we finally got to the point where the scans were running live on the site, but then I had to go through and make sure the links of each card were producing the correct images. There were a lot of links producing nonsensical images due to renaming errors when the images were mass-renamed, and for some reason any reprint cards in our database were displaying the image files for the original version of the card. Now, thankfully, everything has been sorted and AT LAST, the card scans are running smoothly. Nobody needed to know all of this tl;dr wall of text, but I felt it was necessary to explain why it's taken so long and why, on Facebook, I'd say "The card scans are almost done!!" only for them to... not be done. So yeah, enjoy! :3 Also I recorded booster box openings of Dragons Exalted and Boundaries Crossed in the interim.
Tags: Gen I, Gen II, Gen III, Gen IV, Gen V, TCG	Share this story: Share

Talkbacks

DNA (6 Dec 2012 at 7:58pm PST) Reply
Only real 'snag' I see so far is that whenever I open a scan of a card, it seems to be a little smaller than I'd expect, and it becomes evident because the card text appears to be blurred slightly. Other than that, I have no real issues with it. http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/ShamanLord/Misc/FreakingBeautiful.gif

ChillBill (7 Dec 2012 at 4:34am PST) Reply
Nice work, Frost! It's pretty good.

Arcanelord (9 Dec 2012 at 7:44am PST) Reply
Hey, just want you to know your hard work is appreciated! Good job man!

griffinwolf (10 Dec 2012 at 5:36pm PST) Reply
you don't have to give us the details of the work, we're happy people are out there breaking their backbones for us anyway :)

twistedturtwig (12 Dec 2012 at 8:34am PST) Reply
Awesome job Frost! It's great that you put so much work into this.

Spoinkable (17 Dec 2012 at 4:44pm PST) Reply
Nice! Now how about some updates to the BW2 section?

Smells Like (23 Jan 2013 at 10:41pm PST) Reply
Impressive work, Frost. I'm also incredibly jealous, my collection is only roughly 2000 cards :/

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