Tanki Online Selfies: A 101 Guide

[Ninja 10,468]

 

Hey keen snappers!

 

Selfies in Tanki online are a popular thing and editing them is a rather hotly debated topic. People like you and I want to look their best in those Mammoth/Freeze M0 pictures so read on to discover how to take a perfect snap of your chosen combo!

 

 
 
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SELFIES:
 
You have two options here: Option A is to use an alt account to photograph your main and Option B is to photograph yourself using a single account. Method B is simpler but may not offer as much flexibility as method A depending on the situation.
 
Let's start with method A. You'll need the following:

• Two accounts of close enough rank to enter a battle together.
• A computer capable of running two Tanki Online's in separate browsers, or download Puffin browser on your phone and run Tanki in that. 
• A PRO pass on both accounts, or a quiet server so nobody can sabotage your shoot.

Create a battle in a map of your choice with the following parameters:

 

 

Invite the other account to the battle.
 
Set up the composition on your alt, let's visit Lux's quick tips:

• Keep it uncluttered, no corners of buildings poking the edges of the frame or anything.
• Try finding a unique location - think OMP.
• Sometimes, map elements add to the impact of the image; such as the edge of a wall leading to the subject (tank) or an archway over your subject to act as a frame.

After your composition is completed press CTRL+SHIFT+K and a white box should appear on half your screen like this:
 

 

Type in:

vars.set cam_maxmove 0

into the textbox and hit Enter. Once again, press CTRL+SHIFT+K to close the window. Your camera will be fixed however it will still follow the rotation of your turret unless you're using mouse controls. (See method B )
 
Now go back to your main account (the one being photographed) and pose in your preferred position, obviously you can't be controlling your tank and snapping a photo at the same time as you're in two separate windows (unless you are using Puffin). Once again, Lux's quick tips:

• Take the enemy flag, try to make it look like you're doing something rather than standing like a potato.
• Equip a paint that ties in with the colors of your composition.

If you are using Puffin or have two PCs it gets a lot more interesting, with a certain amount of perseverance you can have a muzzle flash erupting from your turret, of course with turrets like Firebird it's a lot easier thanks to their constant firing. Railgun is rather interesting as it has a warm-up glow then it's laser trail, if you get the correct sequence of shots you can combine them in your editor for something cool like this:

 

 

Ok, now you have your composition and pose setup and hopefully you haven't been kicked from the battle. Go back to your alt and choose the correct parameters in the settings panel depending on the map and location, usually your settings panel should look something like this:
 

 

 
Now enter your browser into full-screen mode and snap a pic by pressing Print Screen on Windows/Linux or Command+3 on a Mac. Doing this on Windows places the screenshot in your clipboard so you will need to paste it in a program like MS paint or whichever editing program you use. An alternative to this is to download Lightscreen which automatically saves your screenshots to a designated folder. Macs simply save the screenshot to your desktop without the need for a third party application. The same goes for most Linux based OS's.
 
 
Now we get to the part where many newcomers go wrong, editing. Editing is a very controversial topic and I don't particularly want to any hate comments. There are many great editors out there so Photoshop isn't a must.
 
Let's go to Lux's quick tips for some editing advice:

• Don't use preset filters. Please, just don't!
• Don't take contrast or vibrant sliders to the extreme, a small 10-15% boost is all you need. Trust me, I'm a photographer.
• Don't become obsessed with the blur tool, it can sometimes improve pictures but I've seen all too many blurs which make the tank appear to be floating in space.
• Use the clone tool to remove any pieces of text that may be in the frame.
• Keep it simple, you're editing not manipulating.
• Crop the exp bar and supplies panel if required. 
• As long as it doesn't interfere too much with the composition cropping to 16:9 from your screen's aspect ratio is usually a good idea.

All that's left is to save your screenshot as a JPEG or PNG and upload it to an image hosting site such as postimg.org or imgur.com then post it on the forum!

 
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Let's talk about method B, shooting a selfie without an alt.
 
You will need a browser which supports mouse controls such as Firefox for this method. Make sure it's enabled in settings then set up your composition. After your composition is completed press CTRL+SHIFT+K and a white box should appear on half your screen like this:
 

 

Type in:

vars.set cam_maxmove 0

into the textbox and hit enter. Once again press CTRL+SHIFT+K to close the window. Your camera will be fixed however it will still follow the rotation of your turret if you use the keyboard therefore you'll need to hold down the right mouse button to completely fix your camera.
 
You can take a fairly decent selfie by just holding down the right mouse button and avoiding the vars.set command, this will however give you less scope for compositions.
 
Pretty much all the rest of the techniques such as editing composition and posing remain the same as method A albeit obviously without an alt, so refer back for the relevant parts.

There isn't much else to write about this method so as a bonus I'll include a quick overview on using MS for shooting video.

 
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VIDEO: (BONUS)
 
Once again you have Two options, A is a moving shot and B is a static shot.
 
Moving shots are extremely tedious especially in parkour but offer a much more professional shot while static shots are great for watching a certain spot in time lapse such as a 'mine hunt' or 'save the gold'.
 
You may have noticed the 0 in  'vars.set cam_maxmove 0', adjusting that figure between 0 and 5 varies the speed at which the camera will follow your tank. For example if you wanted a group shot of your clan on the bridge in Highways you would drive here:
 

 

 

Now press CTRL+SHIFT+K and type in:

vars.set cam_maxmove 0

Hit Enter then press CTRL+SHIFT+K again to close the window, then drive along the bridge past your clanmates, your camera won't follow your tank so don't fall off. When you've reached the end of the bridge open the CTRL+SHIFT+K window again and type in:

vars.set cam_maxmove 0.1 //Adjust the number to adjust speed.

the camera will pan slowly along the bridge past your team mates until it reaches you.
 
This gets extremely tedious when parkouring as you have to set up the shot every time the jump fails. Not a good thing if you're the impatient type. Getting the correct camera speeds is tedious too, for example if you want the camera to pan at the same speed as a tank driving along, this comes with trial and error. Of course, unlike full spectator mode there are restrictions as to what's possible, you can't go up or down unless you manage to parkour on a building or you are on a map with different elevations. Left and right movement is also limited as the camera won't follow the exact route your tank took, rather it will come across at an angle to catch up. 
 
To include a full video editing guide in this article would be madness so for the final time I'll just going to hand it over to Lux's quick tips.

• As with photos, don't use filters or go excessive on contrast and vibrancy, also crop out any unnecessary stuff in your frame. 
• Always record in full-screen mode unless... 
• ... If you're using Bandicam with the watermark don't record in full-screen mode as you'll be able to crop out the watermark later. Tricks master.
• Get as many different angles as possible.

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Video method B:

 
Method B is too simple to write much about. Simply set up your composition as you would a photo, press CTRL+SHIFT+K and type in the vars.set command, set your recorder  going and drive to a safe spot where you won't get killed.

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NOTE: People who read the entire article will notice that I repeated myself  in certain areas. This is to help anyone who is only interested in a specific part of the guide.
 
SOME USEFUL LINKS:
 

Image Editors:
https://www.gimp.org/
https://pixlr.com/
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html
 
Inspiration:
http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=329388
http://postimg.org/gallery/2rr87e91m/
http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=255987
 
Other:
http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=265820

 
 
So, with that I wrap up my guide on selfies, I've written it in five hours without rest so I hope you learnt something and liked Lux's quick tips! :3 Let me know your thoughts!
 
 

 

That is all!

See YOU in battle!

 

Edited November 22, 2016 by Yisroel.Rabin

[Hex 11,520]

Approved.

 

Edits:

- A bit of spellings,

- Some grammar, and

- General re-phrasing and sequencing.

 

Good job!

[gabriele02 3,813]

Cool!

[PracticeParkourStunt 2,542]

Approved.

 

Edits:

- A bit of spellings,

- Some grammar, and

- General re-phrasing and sequencing.

 

Good job!

Great job*

[I3.R.0 1,700]

How about editing those selfies? Photoshop and other softies

Edited November 22, 2016 by I3.R.0

[Ninja 10,468]

How about editing those selfies? Photoshop and other softies

Its in there. ;)

[Ninja 10,468]

I realise one of the screen shots here doesn't follow my recommendations, I'll edit it. :ph34r:

[GeeVuh 1,647]

You don't have to copy-paste it to a program on a Windows. All you have to do is press the Start button while you're pressing prtsc.

[Ninja 10,468]

You don't have to copy-paste it to a program on a Windows. All you have to do is press the Start button while you're pressing prtsc.

I've never heard that method before, are you sure it still works on Windows 10?

[GeeVuh 1,647]

I've never heard that method before, are you sure it still works on Windows 10?

Do it all the time... :) I forgot to say what it does... it automatically saves it to your CPU. It should be in the "Pictures" section, under Screenshots.

Edited November 22, 2016 by GeeVuh

[Viking4s 10,791]

Do it all the time... :) I forgot to say what it does... it automatically saves it to your CPU. It should be in the "Pictures" section, under Screenshots.

omg, it does works ! Thanks a million Geevuh. i can make loads of them now.

Edited November 22, 2016 by Viking4s

[HAPPSHOT 2,029]

Sexy

[arnav0506 2,777]

Cos Rabin edits Lux's topics they be good XD XD TBH good article

[Ninja 10,468]

Cos Rabin edits Lux's topics they be good XD XD TBH good article

Rabin always messes around :P

[google3_tanker_TURBO 369]

I see reporter potential there....

Just saying.

[Ninja 10,468]

Cos Rabin edits Lux's topics they be good XD XD TBH good article

 

 

Sexy

 

Thanks and thanks!

I see reporter potential there....

Just saying.

Thanks. :ph34r: :ph34r:

[marto85 631]

Great job*

Good job is used more frequently. Anyway, nice article, learned some new stuff

[Jwimmer 2,835]

Very good article, I won't be surprised if it makes it into the best of the month.

 

I've got a question though. I heard a while back that if I have both of my accounts in the same battle, there is a chance a mod can find them and ban both for powerleveling (if a 2v2), or putting mults in a battle. If the battle is a private parkour battle, and I am not killing myself via my other account, is there still a chance that will happen? I really don't want either of my accounts banned.

[Ninja 10,468]

Very good article, I won't be surprised if it makes it into the best of the month.

 

I've got a question though. I heard a while back that if I have both of my accounts in the same battle, there is a chance a mod can find them and ban both for powerleveling (if a 2v2), or putting mults in a battle. If the battle is a private parkour battle, and I am not killing myself via my other account, is there still a chance that will happen? I really don't want either of my accounts banned.

Thanks!

 

So long as you don't have an abnormally high score I shouldn't think there would be any reason for a ban.

[PracticeParkourStunt 2,542]

Bump.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5haSPYvyIIM

 

Sorry for my ugly voice