Seibertron.com's Frequently Asked Questions
"THE METHODS TO THE MADNESS"
- I have a question about the Character Of The Month nominations and voting!
If you have a question about the Character Of The Month process (whether it's nominating, voting, or if you are just confused), please read the COTM F.A.Q.! - What is the purpose of Seibertron.com?
Believe it or not, this entire project began due to another project on which I was and still am working. I have begun a Transformers comic book project which details the years between the final episodes of season two (which ended fictionally in 1985) and Transformers: The Movie (which fictionally began in 2005). My goal was to stay as true to the styles of the cartoon series in both animation and storytelling manners. I began scouring the Internet for images of the Transformers cartoon series. After spending roughly a month or so gathering images from all across the vast Internet, I was coming up short many images that I truly desired, and more specifically, images of specific characters that were less popular. Hence, I decided to invest in screen capturing equipment and Transformers videos to better enhance my private library of images. What started as a 3,000 image library has now "transformed" into a 13,000 plus library. I feel that I am nearing an end to collecting images and I am almost in a position where I can return to working on my Transformers comic book, currently titled "G-ONE: The Lost Years". - Where are all 20,000 images that you claim to have in this library?
The images that you see posted in the libraries of seibertron.com are select images depicting specific characters. I am using Adobe Image Ready to reduce each image's file size which will enable me to post more pictures. In the meantime, the average image which I have made is approximately 70 - 80 kilobytes in size. If you take 20,000 images multiplied by 30 kb, I would need a web site the size of AT LEAST 900 megabytes. I have just increased the size of seibertron.com from 300 MB to a 500 MB web site to accommodate for the images. To reconcile for the lack of space for all of the images, I feature one specific character each month which will have at least 50 images posted unless the character doesn't have 50 images total (Runamuck for example who only has 26 images total). I truly do have at least 20,000 images on my personal computer and burned on compact disc. I have slaved through countless hours of Transformers cartoons creating at least 150-300 images per episode that I screen. - Can you e-mail me more pictures of a specific character?
Unless I receive some unusual request, I must decline requests to send pictures of specific characters. If you want to see a specific character featured in the Character Of The Month section, please post your comments and/or requests in the COTM section of seibertron.com's ultimate bulletin board. - Why are you featuring still images? What about full length videos in media player or real player format? what about sounds?
For those who are inquiring the above questions, I refer you back to the first section of this f.a.q. My intent with this web site is simply to provide images for the general public's viewing that I have created and (in some instances) found which I utilize for my Transformer illustrations. There are several Transformers related sites which feature downloadable Transformers videos and my intent is simply not to compete with web sites of that nature. You may find links to these websites in the official transformers links section or visit the fan posted sites on the message board. Occasionally, you will find unique Transformers episodes in the video section of seibertron.com. SCRAMBLE CITY and ZONE have both been feature videos as have the entire Beast Wars "AGENDA" saga. Please check back to see what unique Transformers episode seibertron.com will have next. - What are the rules to the RPG section of the message board?
The rules of the RPG section can be found by clicking here. If you can't find the answer to your question there, please e-mail myself or the moderator of the message board. - How much does something like this website cost?
- $200 for the UBB Message Board.
- $100 screen capture device
- $120 2nd VCR just for my computer
- $30 USB port for screen capture device
- $90 for Windows 98 upgrade to use screen capture device and USB port
- $150 domain name registration
- $75/month to maintain this web site with a host server
- $10 (at least) per TF episode I've bought from Rhino (that's about $250 currently)
- The countless hours I've spent screening through the episodes of Transformers frame-by-frame looking for awesome screen shots (takes about two hours to screen through one episode and file the images into directories by character).
- What type of screen capture equipment do you use?
I use software and equipment made by Dazzle which makes screen captures the traditional way. Here's a link to the hardware and software that I use: www.dazzle.com/products/photo.html. The Dazzle device cost around $100. It connects my VCR directly to the USB port in the back of my computer. Using the Dazzle software, I can make high quality screen captures from whatever videos that I own.If you are too stubborn to purchase this equipment, try making screen captures from videos you download off the internet. You can make screen captures of your monitor by pressing "alt" plus "print scrn" (takes a picture of the active window on your monitor) or simply press "print screen" (takes a picture of your entrie monitor). You might have to tinker around with the settings of windows media player and/or real media player to make the screen captures work. Try setting all of your settings for these programs on the lowest setting. Remember that the screen captures you make from those will not be anywhere near the quality if you used real videos.
- From where do you receive your videos for screen captures?
Thanks to ryan-jay, I was introduced to Photophile who has dedicated himself to providing high quality Transformers episodes to other fans. If you want to purchase high quality VHS copies of Headmasters, Masterforce, Victory, Beast Wars, Car Robots, etcetera, please check out Photophile's website at community-2.webtv.net/photophile/PHOTOPHILES0/. I highly recommend his services! - How can I become a moderator on the Message Boards?
Unfortunately we do not accept requests to become a moderator at this time. From time to time we investigate who has been making a great contribution to the message boards (in the form of helpful replies to users problems) and will ask if he/she would like to become a moderator. It requires complete cooperation between myself and the moderators of this site. WE MUST SEE EYE TO EYE and agree completely with how the site should be run. Essentially the only way you can become a moderator is if I ask you to become one. - What if my question isn't answered here?
If you have a question that was not answered in this section, then please visit the "Ask The Experts @ Seibertron.com" section of the message board OR e-mail Seibertron.com by using the form at www.seibertron.com/infozone/form.php if you have any additional questions that I have not answered in the F.A.Q.
