GWLTutorial

GWL Survival Guide

Overview

The Garrison Web Liaison (GWL) is the primary contact in a garrison for member Legion profile photos.

Duties

Your primary duties are:

• Obtaining your fellow Garrison members’ costume photographs
• Formatting the pictures for posting on their profile for 501st.com

What You’ll Need

To accomplish this task, you’ll need a few things:

• Access to the MemberDB website on the Legion forums. This will allow you to access to the GWL Upload Tool.
• An e-mail account. It is highly recommend you create a new email account specific to your GWL duties to make collection of photos easier.
• Image processing program. Many use Photoshop, but there is also GIMP, Pixlr, and others.
• All of the layered .psd templates for use as framesets. The link to their location is in the memberDB.
• Member images. You will need at least one in full costume and one with bucket off , if applicable. You may receive these from the GML, or from the member directly. Please ask for the original high resolution files to be sent to you via email. Accepting them via Messenger or other messaging programs can often do strange things with compression and make things difficult.

Formatting Images

Take the time to familiarize yourself with the various costume categories and be sure to use the appropriate frameset for the costume image you are formatting. When in doubt, send an e-mail to our Legion Membership Officer or post in the GWL Forum at 501st.com. In the case that a member has only provided a partially complete set of images (perhaps a photo in costume, but lacking a photo with helmet off), you may still format and upload the image(s) you have—some photos are better than no photos! A generic placeholder image will be used in the member profile until new photos are supplied.

Make sure the final images are named and formatted correctly (including making sure the final file size falls within the guidelines below). Files must be named after the following examples with a 4 or 5-digit TK number (please use zeroes if necessary such as tk0014 to reach the minimum 4 digits). Please also note maximum sizes.

• tk1138_thumb.gif --- (between 4Kb–10Kb)
• tk1138_head.jpg --- (between 10Kb–40Kb)
• tk1138_full.jpg --- (between 20Kb–50Kb)

NOTE: Although commonly referred to with capitalized letters, images should be uploaded with all lowercase letters:

• CORRECT: tk1138_full.jpg
• INCORRECT: TK1138_FULL.jpg
• INCORRECT: TK1138_full.jpg
• INCORRECT: Tk1138_Full.jpg

The “thumb” image should be a gif file and can be either a small version of the “full” image or a secondary masked/helmeted photo. The “head” image should be a jpg file of the unmasked/unhelmeted member’s face. The “full” image should be a jpg file of the member in full costume wearing mask/helmet if applicable.

It is recommended that gif files be saved with INTERLACE checked and dither set to a minimum (which is the lowest dither setting possible while still maintaining a smooth image, here’s one with too much dither). Also the number of colors in a thumb really never need be 256. For plain white Stormtroopers, try a setting of 32 or 64. In rare instances, 128 may be needed to provide a wide range of colors for some Sith Lords and Imperial Officers.

It is recommended that jpg files be saved with PROGRESSIVE SCAN checked and quality set between 40 and 60% compression, without blur. Be sure that there is no visible quality loss (artifacting). Do no use a low setting.

The biggest part of formatting a costume image is usually masking out the background. You will paste the original member-submitted image on a layer above the existing background but below the frame edge in the costume frameset, then use a selection tool (quick select, clipping path, lasso tool, magic wand) to select and remove the background (a layer mask is the preferred method) from the original member photo. If need be expand or contract the selection by about a pixel to remove any extra colour halo on the edges. Please do not alter the framesets, either by enlarging or shrinking. Always perform any touch up, color and curve or levels correction (helps a lot when you get those poorly lit gray or yellow Stormtoopers or if your original photo lacks contrast) on the original FULL resolution original image before resizing to fit the frameset. Feel free to add lightsaber, blaster, shadow and 3D effects, but please do so with good taste (we’re not creating a comic book here!).

Some things to keep in mind:

1. Profile pics cannot contain any non-CRL items. This includes patches on armor, or inappropriate accessories such as a crewman holding a gaffi stick or Greedo with a curling iron.

2. Corrective lenses are ok to include for things like crew, and non-specific characters etc, but not Face-characters who do not wear them IE Tarkin, Juno Eclipse, and so forth. Novelty glasses and sunglasses are not acceptable on any costume.

3. Keep poses appropriate. Remember that our garrison rosters are seen by the public, and we want to appear professional.

Visit the GWL Examples Gallery to see examples of Do's and Don'ts.

Uploading Formatted Images

To upload the images, go to the 501stWebTeam GWL Upload Tool. NOTE: You will not be able to see nor access the GWL Upload Tool until you have been granted access to the GWL Group.

Complete the fields shown on the upload page including First Name, Last Name, Garrison/Outpost, Legion ID#, Costume type (pull-down menu) and any comments such as “full and thumb only” or “replacement head shot.” Click the "Browse" button to attach your images. Please use .zip compression to archive all images per member costume into a single file and name the file using the Legion ID number (such as tk1138.zip).

If you have followed the correct procedures, you should immediately see your files listed in a queue under “Picture sets needing uploading to www.501st.com.” If there are any major problems with your images, you may receive an error message describing the problem such as wrong file format or incorrect naming. Also, if you realize an error after a successful upload, each GWL can delete their own files. Simply make the corrections and upload the files again.

The LMO Team will download, review, and upload the photos to the main 501st site (this may take up to 2 weeks, but usually much faster). Once your photos are posted on the main site, they are deleted from the queue. There is also an automated notification e-mail that goes to each member to notify them when their photo is online so you do not have to contact each of your members individually.

If you have any further questions, feel free to e-mail the Legion Webmaster, Legion Membership Officer, or post your question to the GWL Forum at 501st.com.