Thread: A Concept

just a note that i'm receiving some comments now about the themes, and brightness has been an issue. i'll play around with the horizontal lined background and see if i can make it just a little darker, without darkening anything else; maybe that will work well?

i'll also play with the blues and see what happens.

any chance anybody in here is good at flash?

CHECK THIS SHIT OUT:

we could like animate the banner (the one with the mountains and the tree branch watermark): we could have lightning in the background occurring at different places in the image, and then have the leaves and branches moving like they were being blown by the wind! we could also perhaps add a little effect to the logo, and have it look like it's kind of blowing or something. well? how's that sound? i'll tell ya how it sounds: damn good! oh yah baby!


oh man, that would rule so much.

That would look so awesome!!!!!

For the Text on it, you could make a simple Water Touch, so it would be wavy, if thats what you mean by blowing maybe...?


lol

well theres my 2 cents

Originally posted by Santa 'dawg
any chance anybody in here is good at flash?

CHECK THIS SHIT OUT:

we could like animate the banner (the one with the mountains and the tree branch watermark): *we could have lightning in the background occurring at different places in the image, and then have the leaves and branches moving like they were being blown by the wind! *we could also perhaps add a little effect to the logo, and have it look like it's kind of blowing or something. *well? *how's that sound? *i'll tell ya how it sounds: *damn good! *oh yah baby!


oh man, that would rule so much.

That is a great idea. I'm kinda a flash pro but the only thing that worries me would be that it would be a bit of a large file with all those animations happening at random and constantly looping. It might be hell for the people who are using dial-up.

Here's a banner I animated and did the interactivity for. You can see it takes a tad longer to load and I got a hella fast connection. Just something to think about. http://distributionondemand.com/

Originally posted by Lukeman+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Lukeman)</div>

For the Text on it, you could make a simple Water Touch, so it would be wavy, if thats what you mean by blowing maybe...?[/b]

if water touch means like water ripples, then yah, that's what i was originally thinking.

Originally posted by lucidnina+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lucidnina)</div>

That is a great idea. I'm kinda a flash pro but the only thing that worries me would be that it would be a bit of a large file with all those animations happening at random and constantly looping. It might be hell for the people who are using dial-up. *

Here's a banner I animated and did the interactivity for. You can see it takes a tad longer to load and I got a hella fast connection. Just something to think about.http://distributionondemand.com/[/b]

yah, i'm already concerned about the banner we've tentatively decided on being too large, and obv. a flash animation is going to be larger. i think it's something to consider, anyway...remember users will be able to select different banners, so they could choose something more dial-up friendly. i think it would be pretty sweet though...with clouds moving in the background, randomly lighting up and having a bolt of electricity race down (or up), along with the leaves & branches swaying back and forth.

great job on the flash example, btw.



anyway, many of the comments from people on the new theme involved brightness, so i'm going to play with it a little more tomorrow and probably end up darkening the horizontal-lined background just a tad to see how i like it. some others complained about the size constraint, however i don't see a way of overcoming that if we'd like to keep the shadows and the watermark. personally i don't think that's a huge issue and i suspect people would get used to it in a fairly short period of time.

once we reach agreement on colours, then maybe Dylan can finalize his banner with the watermark and we can get things rolling! unfortunately, i don't think the watermark extending below the menu bar will work if we're also going to allow users to change their banners (keep in mind other banners won't have the watermark): the watermark would be mostly stored in the header template, but the extending bit would have to be stored in each of the main body templates; that's all fine & dandy when used w/ the intended banner, but obviously won't look right when the banners are changed. the only alternative would be to have the extended bit also in the header, but then a larger gap will appear between the header and the content, which probably won't look right.

there were a few comments on the template which quite honestly i didn't even understand, so i'll have to go over them and see if there's anything else we should look at changing. personally i still think it needs something more (setting aside the fact that it doesn't have a footer yet) but i'm at a loss as to whatelse could be done.

as for a footer, i'm wondering if something somewhat similar to the banner would look good? smaller of course, and maybe changed in design...but adhering to the existing blues & greys.

<!--QuoteBegin-Dylan@
Well I meant the COLOURS *like the actual blues. I liked the blues in mine actually, yours aren't bad, they seem a bit too saturated. you know. I agree though, the whites are too light in mine, yours are nice.

hrm...i'll play with the blues then. i might still be hoping to get your help on the file folders and shadows, but i'll wait until i adjust the background and see how it looks.

<!--QuoteBegin-Dylan
Haha, can't these boards set a size limit? I remembered that on another PHP forum.

hrm. maybe?

Hey! I like how the watermark extends into the page. To be honest, I think it could stay as the page's theme... I think it would still look fine with the banners changed, I mean it's not very obtrusive, just a light little leaf thing... i really think it would look fine with other banners, if you want i could make an example.

Also, what if the leaves could be used as a footer.. just flipped upsidedown? Sort of like leaves crawling up?

Dylan

Originally posted by Lomebririon+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Lomebririon)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-Santa 'dawg

haha. sorry...as i've said, i'm not really good at saying what i'd like.

Darn it! I hate it when you say that. It's always a prophecy of ambiguous roads to come. [/b]

i think eventually that's just something artists have to come to terms with: those of us who are not artistically inclined don't have the same mental tools for visualizing what we'd like to see. sure, we know we like something when we see it, but it's not as easy for us to approach from the other direction.

anyway, i'd suggest--if you're still interested--that you not worry about what i'd like to see, but rather make something that'd you'd love to see above the forum. as i said users are going to be able to select their own banners, so i can make available to others whatever you'd like to offer. there were a few other banners in here that were suggested, including one by our leader aphius, and we'll certainly make those available as well.

Originally posted by Santa 'dawg
there were a few comments on the template which quite honestly i didn't even understand, so i'll have to go over them and see if there's anything else we should look at changing. *personally i still think it needs something more (setting aside the fact that it doesn't have a footer yet) but i'm at a loss as to whatelse could be done.

Well I noticed that a few people mentioned the size of the folder modules as far as width wise in comparison to other elements such as the banner...how they are centered down the middle with large margins on either side. At least that's what I took from what they had to say? Maybe it wouldn't hurt to make them wider and lessen the margins on either side to appease their concerns? I dunno. I kinda agree with them.

Originally posted by lucidnina
Well I noticed that a few people mentioned the size of the folder modules as far as width wise in comparison to other elements such as the banner...how they are centered down the middle with large margins on either side. At least that's what I took from what they had to say? Maybe it wouldn't hurt to make them wider and lessen the margins on either side to appease their concerns? I dunno. I kinda agree with them.

i believe they were referring to the imposed size limit on the overall page (i.e. just under 800 pixels)...?


today i changed the colour and font properties of the folder titles, made the horizontal-lined background just a tad bit darker, along with the one of the cell colours, and i also tried throwing in a shadow behind the folders. i'm not sure on the shadow, and unfortunately it doesn't look as good as it could because the horizontal lined background makes it difficult (there's no way to tell if the folder will start on a dark line or a light one, so i cannot include darker and lighter versions of the background blurred in the shadow since they might not match up). there are two styles there (the first with the right white border separating the shadow from the cells, and the other two w/o the white border); comments are appreciated. if the shadow idea is liked, are they dark/light enough, and big enough?


it still feels to me like it needs something though...like some more blue somewhere? or something.


http://www.dreamviews.com/kickass_forum

hrm. well, here's what i posted earlier today; these are auxiliary banner suggestions (i.e. they'd go directly under the menu):














they've all been distorted due to resizing and whatnot, but i don't think that's terribly obvious. remember, i want to pick at least 3 (only one of a waterfall though). i've got some nice panoramic beach images and forest images, so i'll go through those when i've time and post them as well.


also, just a note that i increased the new design's size to 950 pixels (from 778); i haven't increase the header yet so you can see the difference (http://www.dreamviews.com/kickass_forum/ )


comments and any additional help with the theme is welcome, because i really want to get this thing done and i'm running out of free time.

I like 3, 4, and 6 quite a bit. Sorry I haven't been around helping lately, I've been busy. I'm going to ontario tomorrow so I most likely won't even see this project until it's finished! Looking forward to seeing the finished product though, It's coming along nicely.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year, etc.

Cheers,
Dylan

I favour 2, 4 and 5. The water makes it seem, tranquil.

Just my 2 cents

~Haz

Originally posted by Dylan
I like 3, 4, *and 6 quite a bit. Sorry I haven't been around helping lately, I've been busy. I'm going to ontario tomorrow so I most likely won't even see this project until it's finished! Looking forward to seeing the finished product though, It's coming along nicely.

ah. hrm. i was kind of hoping you were going to finish up the banner for us. guess i'll have to find someone else then.

icedawg lives in ontario, meet him and do it at his place

anyway, non-senseless banter stuff whatever..
i like the third and the fourth, but the fourth is rather badly "distorted due to resizing". i posted this in cc but i thought i'd re-post it here.

-tech

does anybody want to try coming up with header and footer rows for the topic listings in the new theme? i mean these:



i was thinking one blue and one grey/silver. i was also hoping to get something neat looking and not plain. different designs for enclosing the topic listings are also welcome. basically i'm trying to come up with a unique design for the index page, then a unique design for topic listings, and finally a unique design for forum messages (not posts, but forum information). obv. everything should work together as well. anyway, i figured since i cannot fix the banner on my own i'd move on to working on the rest of the theme.

i tried playing with a dark blue leading into a light blue for the top bar, but i cannot get crappy paint shop to take more steps in its progression; thus, it's too sudden of a change.

Originally posted by icedawg
ah. hrm. i was kind of hoping you were going to finish up the banner for us. guess i'll have to find someone else then.

Pick me! Oh for the love of God pick ME!

Originally posted by icedawg
does anybody want to try coming up with header and footer rows for the topic listings in the new theme? *i mean these:



i was thinking one blue and one grey/silver. *i was also hoping to get something neat looking and not plain. *different designs for enclosing the topic listings are also welcome. *basically i'm trying to come up with a unique design for the index page, then a unique design for topic listings, and finally a unique design for forum messages (not posts, but forum information). *obv. everything should work together as well. *anyway, i figured since i cannot fix the banner on my own i'd move on to working on the rest of the theme.

i tried playing with a dark blue leading into a light blue for the top bar, but i cannot get crappy paint shop to take more steps in its progression; thus, it's too sudden of a change.

Do you mean something like this for the header/footer? (I didn't know the right font for the categories)

hey aphius, the silver looks good! i'm not entirely sold on the blue though.

and lome thanks for the offer, but i think we may have to put this project on the back burner for now. i guess i was hoping we'd get more people working on it (because there are apparently 20 people on the Art Design Team) but unfortunately few volunteered, and i've run out of the time i had to work on it, and there's still a fair amount of work required to finish the full theme.

Originally posted by icedawg
hey aphius, the silver looks good! *i'm not entirely sold on the blue though. *

Yeah, I don't really think it works either, but hey, improvements can be made.

Hey I'm back. Awesome holidays.... so how's this project going? What's happening now?

Dylan

Well, it seems we have to postpone it until later because Ice has run out of the time he had to work on it, and there's still a fair amount of work required to finish the full theme.

So, it's on the backburner for now.

Originally posted by Lomebririon
Well, it seems we have to postpone it until later because Ice has run out of the time he had to work on it, and there's still a fair amount of work required to finish the full theme.

So, it's on the backburner for now.

good summary my man! *high-fives*

Originally posted by icedawg
good summary my man! *high-fives*

To be honest, I would like to see a dark skin, the bright ones aern't that easy on the eyes, they still look cool.