Help:Creating Images & Videos

The two primary goals for the images are:

Make the attack easily identifiable by players who only slightly know the character and have seen each attack once or twice at most.
Be a visual aid to explain how an attack works.

Image Guidelines

Use sprite rips with a transparent background for images even if the sprite does not use all the special effects used in game. As long as the attack is still easily identifiable as that attack, it's fine.
If no rips are available, use high quality PNG screenshots taken with a capture card or straight from the PC version of the game.
Characters should use default colors and face right (as if they are player 1)
Name images with the following format: GameAbbreviation CharacterFullName MoveInput.
- Examples: Sol Badguy's 5P in Guilty Gear -Strive- would be named GGST Sol Badguy 5P.png. His Gun Flame special move would be named GGST Sol Badguy 236P.png
- For moves using multiple images, add the image numbers after the input. For example, Ky Kiske's two-part Stun Dipper in Guilty Gear -Strive- would have two images named GGST Ky Kiske 236K 1.png and GGST Ky Kiske 236K 2.png
- For moves with multiple possible button inputs resulting in different move versions, substitute X e.g. GGST Sol Badguy 623X.png
Hitboxes should be named similarly, with "Hitbox" at the end.
- Examples: Sol Badguy's 5P in Guilty Gear -Strive- would be named GGST Sol Badguy 5P Hitbox.png. His Gun Flame special move hitbox would be named GGST Sol Badguy 236P Hitbox.png
- For moves with multiple hitboxes, the number of the hit should come before "Hitbox" and the number of the hitbox for the hit should come after "Hitbox". As an example:
  - The first hitbox of the first hit of Susanoo's 3C is "BBCF_Susanoo_3C_1_Hitbox_1.png"
  - The second hitbox of the first hit of his 3C is "BBCF_Susanoo_3C_1_Hitbox_2.png"
  - The first (and only) hitbox of the second hit of his 3C is "BBCF_Susanoo_3C_2_Hitbox.png". There is no second number, since the second hit only has one hitbox.
- Only use letters and numbers, -, _, (), and ~. For example, Sol's j.P should be named GGST Sol Badguy jP.png, Leo's [2]8X should be called GGST Leo Whitefang 28X.png, and Dragon Knight's charged 5S should be called DNFD Dragon Knight 5S-Charged.png
Nearly all images that have text use the font Arial bolded. Please continue to use it for the sake of consistency.
Combine multiple sprites together if the attack does an animation that can not easily be understood by one sprite alone.
If the move in question is a grab or command grab, make sure to include the victim in the image. As well, never upload just the whiff animation of these moves by themselves. Always accompany them with a successful grab.

Image Editing Tools

Photoshop
Gimp
Paint.NET
Krita

Consider taking a learning course on image manipulation basics to help you learn what tools are at your disposal in these programs.

Taking Screenshots

Have the character in default colors/costumes
Make sure the stage doesn't obscure the attack. Find a stage (or part of a stage) with colors that don't blend into attack
- Also consider taking screenshots while other effects darken the stage like RCs in Guilty Gear Xrd or Overdrive in Blazblue CF
Be consistent with the stage. Use one stage for all the screenshots for that character. Using a different stage for another character is fine.
Hide things that aren't related to the move in question if you can.
- Ex: In Guilty Gear XRD, Many of Ramlethal's normals don't involve her giant swords, so don't include them (or crop them out) if you can
- Ex: Granblue Fantasy Versus, Zooey can have her dragon with her, don't include it unless it's part of the attack
Avoid having the opponent in the screenshot unless needed (Ex throws, proximity normals, etc.)
- If they are needed, make sure they are easily distinguishable from the attacker (no mirror match, different colors)
- It's okay to crop out parts of the opponent like an outstretched arm
Try to avoid having the HUD in the screenshot if you can. You can move HUD elements up/down slightly in the game's display options. Some games even allow you to hide the HUD completely (or via mods).

Images Need to be Readable When Zoomed Out

Remember, these images are shrunk on character pages, so make sure text and diagrams are still readable when shrunk. Before uploading an image, open it on your computer and zoom out to see if the image is still readable.

Crop the image so that extraneous details such as long ponytails do not take up too much space.
Consider moving objects closer together - these images are to help readers identify the attack and not necessarily show the attack's range. For example if the attack hits far away, such as Bedman 3H, or Cell's command throw, it's okay to move the hit effect closer.
Use colors for text and arrows that don't blend into the background. Consider adding an outline to them to better help them stand out

Video Content

Video content is primarily used in Combo Theory boxes and other places on the site that benefit from visual information.

When to use YouTube to host videos:

Use YouTube for anything over 30 seconds
Use YouTube if you want high quality video

When to use locally hosted videos:

Upload directly to SuperCombo if you have small, short videos focused on a single concept
Compress videos uploaded to SuperCombo with the information in the next section

Locally Hosted Videos

In order to keep file sizes low, it is strongly advised to compress them. Removing or lowering the sound of the videos is also recommended as they will be played at maximum volume by default. This can be done with various video editing tools, or by simply uploading them to common video hosting websites then redownload the videos. For more precise adjustments, the following method is recommended:

Download ffmpeg

Windows: https://ffmpeg.org/download.html
Linux: sudo apt install ffmpeg

Go to ffmpeg

Open a cmd/terminal and type the following command:

For windows:
cd [directory where you have ffmpeg] Example: cd C:\Users\Dustloop\Downloads\ffmpeg-master-latest-win64-gpl\bin
For Linux:
This step isn't required. However, it might be necessary to use "usr/bin/ffmpeg" in the next step instead. If it still doesn't work type "whereis ffmpeg" in a terminal and use that result instead.

Convert the video(s)

In the following section, "video_name.format" refers to the name of the video to convert and its format (mp4.webm) and "output.webm" the name the compressed video should have. To make it easier, move the video(s) to the same directory as ffmpeg.

For 16:9 games (SF6, MK11, SCVI)
ffmpeg -i "video_name.format" -vf scale=-1:480 -b:v 1000k -vcodec libvpx-vp9 -threads 4 -y -an "output.webm"

For 4:3 games (SSF2X, 3S, UMK3, most retro games)
ffmpeg -i "video_name.format" -vf "crop=iw-480,scale=-1:400" -b:v 1000k -vcodec libvpx-vp9 -threads 4 -y -an "output.webm"

Those commands divide the size of the videos by a factor of 8~9.

Details:

vf scale=-1:480: Resizes the video to be in 480p.
b:v 1000k: Reduces the video bitrate.
y: Overwrite the video.
threads: Decrease the amount of time required to compress the video but increases CPU load.
an: Removes the sound.

Trim the video:
ffmpeg can also be used to trim part of video with the -ss and -to options. They are respectively used to define the start and stop times.
For example:
ffmpeg -i "video_name.format" -ss 0:03.000 -to 0:08.000 -vf scale=-1:480 -b:v 1000k -vcodec libvpx-vp9 -threads 4 -y -an "output.webm"
Only keeps the part of the video between the 3rd and 8th seconds.

Keeping Audio:
If sound is required for audio cues, it is recommended to lower the volume of the video as they will be played at maximum volume by default. This can be done by replacing -an with -af "volume=0.1"
ffmpeg -i "video_name.format" -vf scale=-1:480 -b:v 1000k -vcodec libvpx-vp9 -threads 4 -y -af "volume=0.1" "output.webm"

Other parameters tested:

fps: Had very little impact on video size.
crf (constant rate factor): Had very little impact on video size. Adding --crf 40 can help reduce the video size a little bit but will affect quality. Increasing the value lowers the quality/size even further.

Exportation and Upload

Once the image has been created, you can export it to a PNG and upload it to the site. We recommend using PNG-8 as the file type for image uploads, since the compression helps keep file sizes low without losing much quality.

After all that is done, navigate to our Special:Upload page (which can be found under the "Tools" heading of our sidebar) and upload the file with the correct title. The naming convention of SuperCombo images is "(Game Title Abbreviation) (Character Name) (Move Input or Move Name)". Choosing between move name and move input doesn't matter much when uploading a file, so long as the image itself is correctly titled. You can click on the images at the top of this page to see this naming convention in action.

Renaming Files

If you need to rename a file due to a bad name, use the Move command.

Navigate to a file (ex: File:SF6 Ryu 5lp.png)
At the top right of the page, click ... > Move
Follow instructions on the page to rename
- Uncheck the "Leave a redirect behind" option. A Redirect makes it so the original file name still exists, but it points to the new file name. For the scenario of simply renaming a bad file name, this is not needed.