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Desktop background generator

 
  • Desktop background generator

    I took all the pictures from my albums page and made a background for my desktop. It would be great if there was a function to automatically generate this type of image in a specified resolution. I have included a link to my background to show what it looks like.

    Take it easy
    Cameron

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/johndopeyman/Background1_small.jpg

    "You don't have to be evil to be cool" - waddy jones

    http://www.myspace.com/greenisforturbo
  • It's nice :)

  • very nice!!!
    :D

    • spacefish schrieb...
    • Benutzer
    • 11. Jun. 2006, 8:32
    It's nice until over half the page is filled with Image not available. I'd much prefer the devs work on getting album images first, then they can work on the nice-to-haves. But yours looks cool. ;)

  • Re:

    Quoth spacefish:
    I'd much prefer the devs work on getting album images first

    And, of course, getting the albums. And separating between regular tracks and all these live tracks fouling the system.

    • Russ schrieb...
    • Alumni
    • 11. Jun. 2006, 10:56
    Cool, but I guess there'd be copyright issues for this.

    Still, that's not stopping me writing one for my personal consumption ;).

    • dave schrieb...
    • Moderator
    • 11. Jun. 2006, 14:19
    Russ is on the trolley, this poses similar legal issues as lyrics. As a result a third party or unofficial solution is best.

    This script (replace the username with your own) might be the ticket. It needs work, on the colour adjustment and resolution customisation, but that's it for now.

  • WOW! I didn't think anyone would even reply to this post, let alone actually write something to do it. Nice one dave! Post the link again when you've sorted out a final version, looks great so far.

    Thanks
    Cameron

    "You don't have to be evil to be cool" - waddy jones

    http://www.myspace.com/greenisforturbo
    • Russ schrieb...
    • Alumni
    • 11. Jun. 2006, 17:02
    Well, I wrote one myself, but it's too slow to do as realtime and it directly accesses our system, so I probably won't release it.

    However, here's an 1280x1024 image of the top albums:

    http://playground.audioscrobbler.com/russ/top.jpg

  • That looks really cool Russ. Some great albums in there too.

    @ dave I get major errors with your script + my username. I've PMd you... :)

    • spacefish schrieb...
    • Benutzer
    • 11. Jun. 2006, 19:55

    Re:

    Quoth Russ:
    Well, I wrote one myself, but it's too slow to do as realtime and it directly accesses our system, so I probably won't release it.

    However, here's an 1280x1024 image of the top albums:

    http://playground.audioscrobbler.com/russ/top.jpg


    Mighty lucky man there having no Image not available. :)

    • KarnEvil9 schrieb...
    • Benutzer
    • 11. Jun. 2006, 21:38

    Re:

    Quoth dave:
    This script (replace the username with your own) might be the ticket. It needs work, on the colour adjustment and resolution customisation, but that's it for now.

    Very nice start! Hope you're able to develop it further.

    Thanks. :)

    • muz schrieb...
    • Alumni
    • 11. Jun. 2006, 22:16

    Re: Re:

    Quoth spacefish:
    Quoth Russ:
    Well, I wrote one myself, but it's too slow to do as realtime and it directly accesses our system, so I probably won't release it.

    However, here's an 1280x1024 image of the top albums:

    http://playground.audioscrobbler.com/russ/top.jpg


    Mighty lucky man there having no Image not available. :)

    I think he wrote something in it specifically to disregard the "Not available" ones.

    • DoctorT schrieb...
    • Benutzer
    • 12. Jun. 2006, 0:13
    I've done something similar before using Photoshop when Last.fm and Audioscrobbler were two sites. I redid it just now using my current charts page. I have a Mac, but the same procedure should work with Windows. This is a semi-automated process. I have Photoshop 7.

    1. Using Firefox, I grabbed all the images off my charts page.
    2. In Finder, I deleted all non-album images (visitor's and my avatars, buttons). Using thumbnail view, it was easy to select the ~10 non-album images and trash them, one of which was the image for "Image Not Available"
    4. I put 50 album covers in their own folder I named Albums.
    3. In Photoshop, I went to File > Automate > Contact Sheet II
    4. I chose the Albums folder as the source.
    5. I set the page size to 18X10
    6. I set the layout to 10 columns and 5 rows
    7. I clicked OK
    8 Photoshop produced this image

    Note: it did take some experimentation to get the least white space between covers and I might be able to get it tighter, but that experimentation only needs to be done once. Also, I for now, I did not optimize the image size for the dimensions of my screen, which I would do if I wanted to use it as a Desktop image.


    Music, like language, is universal.
    • dave schrieb...
    • Moderator
    • 12. Jun. 2006, 2:40

    Re:

    Quoth Extreme_One:
    @ dave I get major errors with your script + my username. I've PMd you... :)

    The old link only did JPEGs, this one works with PNG files now.

    http://www.raelt.com/audioscrobbler/coverart.php?user=dave&res_x=800&res_y=600&img_x=130&img_y=130

    The res values are the size of the overall image, the img values are the size of the cover art. I'll put the source up when I get home tonight, it's very small.

  • Re: Re:

    Quoth dave:

    The old link only did JPEGs, this one works with PNG files now.

    http://www.raelt.com/audioscrobbler/coverart.php?user=dave&res_x=800&res_y=600&img_x=130&img_y=130

    The res values are the size of the overall image, the img values are the size of the cover art. I'll put the source up when I get home tonight, it's very small.


    Nice! Thank you :)

    Looking forward to that source code... ;)

    • dave schrieb...
    • Moderator
    • 12. Jun. 2006, 9:53
    It's available here. PHP's robust image functions makes this ridiculously easy.

  • Re:

    Quoth dave:
    It's available here. PHP's robust image functions makes this ridiculously easy.


    You gotta love the power of PHP.

    Thanks for sharing. :)

    • simulacra schrieb...
    • Benutzer
    • 12. Jun. 2006, 14:10

    Re:

    Quoth dave:
    This script (replace the username with your own) might be the ticket. It needs work, on the colour adjustment and resolution customisation, but that's it for now.


    it's absolutely... err... lovely. :) thanks :o)

  • Thanks Dave. :)

    "You don't have to be evil to be cool" - waddy jones

    http://www.myspace.com/greenisforturbo
    • KarnEvil9 schrieb...
    • Benutzer
    • 12. Jun. 2006, 18:09
    Thanks for the script, Dave. Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me when I change the dimensions to 1280x768, to match my desktop.

  • Re:

    Quoth KarnEvil9:
    Thanks for the script, Dave. Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me when I change the dimensions to 1280x768, to match my desktop.


    Well it doesn't for me either. I've tried 1024*768 & 1280*960. I've also attempted to alter the individual album image dimensions.

    Are you hosting it yourself?

    I was hoping that it was just timing out and when I host it more local to me the problem would be alleviated.

    • KarnEvil9 schrieb...
    • Benutzer
    • 12. Jun. 2006, 18:57
    No, I'm not hosting it myself. The original 800x600 works fine for me, so I suppose the larger size could be causing it to time out on his end.

    • ackbarr schrieb...
    • Benutzer
    • 12. Jun. 2006, 19:29

    Python Version

    I wrote a script in Python to make the tiled album image. It is still a bit rough, and requires python to be installed on your machine, but it works for me.

    http://ackbarr.xoops.org/archives/2006/06/12/lastfm-album-background-generator/

    ...and the moral of the story is: with a contrived example, you can prove anything.
  • Re:

    Quoth dave:
    It's available here. PHP's robust image functions makes this ridiculously easy.


    I'm now hosting this script and it works well. Thanks :)
    It's slow but that's not the script it's the amount of data being processed.

    I've included it on this page if anybody's interested.

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