It’s simple as long as you follow some basic rules:
Choose your Face-it! card e.g:
Click on the 'Upload a Face' button to the right of the card:
An upload window will appear and show you examples of images that will and won’t work. Uploading the right photo is the most important part of using Face-it! please take a few minutes to read the CHOOSING THE RIGHT TYPE OF PHOTOGRAPH TO UPLOAD section:
When you click on 'Next Step' you are given a number of options regarding where you upload your photographs from:
TOP TIPS
Once you have created a Whamoosh! account (with your chosen email address and password) you create your own Whamoosh! library – this will give you instant access to your favourite images wherever you are in the World.
For those of you that store images on Facebook and Flickr you can directly access your photo albums by logging in to your account from Whamoosh!
Make sure the head you choose is a decent size in the photograph – if it’s too small or being cropped from a low resolution image it will either not be captured by our face recognition engine or it will produce a poor output image in the card.
Large files may take some time to upload depending on your internet connection speed; you will see a timer showing the size of the file and its upload status. Remember file upload size is limited to 5MB. If your file is larger than this then you can reduce it using your photo editing tools:
If the file you’re uploading is very small in terms of image resolution or file size you will see the following warning. This doesn’t mean it won’t work with Face-it! cards however the print quality may be compromised if it’s a very low resolution image:
After your photograph has been uploaded it will appear in a window like the one below. This allows you to crop the image you want to use:
If your photograph has just one face in it then you don’t need to do anything; just select USE PHOTO
If there is more than one face in your photograph you will need to select the face that you want to use using the CROPPING TOOL
Select CROP PHOTO or place your mouse cursor on the image, then hold down the left mouse button and draw a box around your chosen face.
• You can change the size of the crop box by dragging the small icons placed around the box perimeter (remember to hold down the left mouse button)
• You can move the box as a whole by placing the mouse curser inside the box (the cursor icon will change shape). Remember to hold down the left mouse button.
• If you want to start again place your mouse cursor outside the box you have drawn and left click the mouse button.
NB: TAKE NOTE OF THE CROPPING TIP IN THE TOP RIGHT OF THE CROP WINDOW – THE BOX YOU DRAW AROUND THE HEAD MUST NOT BE CROPPED TOO TIGHTLY TO THE HEAD
Make sure the head you want to use is a decent size in the photograph – if it’s too small or being cropped from a low resolution image it will either not be captured by our face recognition engine or it will produce a poor output image in the card.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT TYPE OF PHOTOGRAPH TO UPLOAD
The face recognition technology behind our Face-it! cards is very clever however there are some Golden Rules to follow so that the face in your uploaded image can be found and processed.
THE IDEAL PHOTOGRAPH LOOKS LIKE THE ONES BELOW:
Why? Because the person is looking square on to the camera and this will ensure that the face will match up to the head of the character in the Face-it! card you choose.
If the head is slightly rotated left or right (or up or down) then it may still work as long as the rotation is not too much.
It’s very important that the face in your photograph is not obscured by:
• Hair
• Thick rimmed glasses or sunglasses
• Thick beards
• Hats or caps
If hair covers parts of the face (e.g. forehead) then whilst the face recognition engine may find the face it will carry over the hair and place it in the card image which look odd.
Some tips once you’ve found an image that’s oriented the right way – make sure that it’s:
• Evenly lit
• A decent file resolution size (usually 500 pixels – width or height)
• A JPG file*
• Not over 5MB in file size
* If the image is not a JPG file you can normally change the file name extension to JPG by doing the following: Right Click on the image, Click on Edit, Click on Save As, Click on File Type and choose JPEG. You can type in a new name for your JPG file if you wish to.
IMAGES THAT WILL NOT WORK OR MAY PRODUCE A POOR IMAGE IN THE CARD:
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Face not square onto the camera or rotated too far from square on to the camera |
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Hair over face may stop the face recognition engine from finding the face or carry some of the hair on the face over into the card image which may look odd |
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Face obscured by thick beard or moustache
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Eyes need to be open because the face recognition engine needs to locate the eyes to find the face |
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Hats or other head accessories may stop the face recognition engine
from finding the face
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Placing hands or other objects over the face or parts of the face will stop the face recognition engine from finding the face |
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Extreme expressions may
stop the face recognition engine from finding the
face or key facial features
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Very poor lighting or too much contrast in the face may stop the face recognition engine from finding the face or produce a poor output image
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Sunglasses will stop the face recognition engine from finding the face as it needs to locate the eyes |
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Thick rimmed glasses may stop the face recognition engine from finding the face however thin rimmed or rimless glasses may work OK |
