Help needed. Photoshop skills required

Post by **sev** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 1:11 am

Hi all,

There was some internal work performed by clem to bring forums to new design. The work is very close to completion and you may browse and test it here. A truly commending work.

You may note that we use generic phpBB icons there and those really do not fit our design. I have some idea and some reference theme on how to do it properly, but neither me, nor clem are great artists, so we need your help.

So if you feel confident with Photoshop, GIMP, whatever else, capabling to tweak pixel art, please, contact me either directly, or replying in this thread. We really need your help here. Then we will be one step closer to putting everything in our new improved look and feel. All work will consits of dissecting a generic PSD, putting our colors, gradients and probably switching fonts there.

Also feel free to post comments on our WIP of new forum design. Additionally you may find all board style sources in our SVN repository in directory forum/ at the repository root.

Eugene

joachimeberhard · Post by **joachimeberhard** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 11:59 am

sev wrote:Hi all,

There was some internal work performed by clem to bring forums to new design. The work is very close to completion and you may browse and test it here. A truly commending work.

You may note that we use generic phpBB icons there and those really do not fit our design. I have some idea and some reference theme on how to do it properly, but neither me, nor clem are great artists, so we need your help.

So if you feel confident with Photoshop, GIMP, whatever else, capabling to tweak pixel art, please, contact me either directly, or replying in this thread. We really need your help here. Then we will be one step closer to putting everything in our new improved look and feel. All work will consits of dissecting a generic PSD, putting our colors, gradients and probably switching fonts there.

Also feel free to post comments on our WIP of new forum design. Additionally you may find all board style sources in our SVN repository in directory forum/ at the repository root.

Eugene

It looks REALLY GREAT!

Thanks to Clemmy for the good work!

Oh please update the forums soon! Pretty please with sugar on top.
I've been asking Endy for this for months without effect.

Natural_born_chilla · Post by **Natural_born_chilla** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 1:16 am

Hi folks,

is there any work left *g* ?

I am sophisticated in Paint Shop Pro (till late 9.x version). And I would like to help you because... no, there is no need to tell you, u know why

So if theres anything I can do.. contact me plz.

Oh, btw, I'm german. Sry for them ole mistakes ^^

clem · Post by **clem** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 6:44 am

Natural_born_chilla wrote:is there any work left *g* ?

as far as I know noone else has volunteered yet

I noticed there might be a problem with antialiasing since the same button occurs on different background, as the "new topic" button on http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0200586/ ... m.php?f=13

solution might be to move the button around, but I wouldn't know where to
any suggestions for that (or other usability issues) are welcome!

raina · Post by **raina** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:34 am

Use PNG with alpha transparency so they'll antialias themselves to whatever background.

Usability issue that could be corrected in the new design: The forum regulars are probably used to it as it is, but as a newbie, every time I'm trying to reply a thread, I find myself typing a new topic. It's the order of those buttons combined with the right alignment. I automatically click the button "closer" to the discussion when I want to take part in it.

raina

PS. I'm also available for pointers or actual work on the icons since I do a lot of tweaking of this nature.

PPS. Encapsulating the forum contents in a rounded corner box would look nice and consistent with e.g. the news items on the Home page.

Post by **sev** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 12:54 pm

raina wrote:Use PNG with alpha transparency so they'll antialias themselves to whatever background.

That's not acceptable. Transparent PNG is not supported by some unnamed Biggest Corporation's semi-browser. And due to great amount of users of that borwser we have to cope with it. So only transparency which can go is GIF.

Eugene

PS. We're started discussion on what has to be done with Natural born chilla

Natural_born_chilla · Tue Mar 21, 2006 12:55 pm

So why not specify a button with no smooth edges? It's not that nice, but it's a workaround...

Post by **sev** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 1:30 pm

Natural_born_chilla wrote:So why not specify a button with no smooth edges? It's not that nice, but it's a workaround...

I don't understand why this question was arised at all. We already have smooth gif buttons there. Just blend it with background and use 1bit transparency for background-only pixels (i.e. outer part of the button). That will be strictly theme-specific, but that's the only way to go.

Eugene

clem · Post by **clem** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 6:15 pm

sev wrote:I don't understand why this question was arised at all. [..] Just blend it with background and use 1bit transparency for background-only pixels

the problem is that the background to blend into is dark grey once and bright beige the other time.

I thought I was able to hardcode the url so to use two "reply" buttons, one for each background it blends into; however it is embedded into the .tpl files via a variable (as in src="{REPLY_IMG}" ) - and if the topic is locked the php scripts adjust it accordingly to put the image of the "locked" image there - so I can't hardcode it and we can only use one image for reply, etc which has to fit both backgrounds

clem

clem · Post by **clem** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 9:29 pm

raina wrote:The forum regulars are probably used to it as it is, but as a newbie, every time I'm trying to reply a thread, I find myself typing a new topic.

it's the other way around for me (that's the reason we switched "forum index" and "scummvm website" on top) - I tend to click the stuff further to the edge of the screen (like the X in windows to close a program, genius to make that a corner)

I've fixed it the clem way though - removed the "new topic" button altogether. It doesn't make sense in that context plus it's not clear in which forum the post will end up if click there - make more sense to create a new post from the forum index and not a post

check here:
http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0200586/ ... ic.php?t=4

(sev: if you want to commit that, the updated file is at http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0200586/ ... c_body.tpl )

clem · Post by **clem** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 9:42 pm

clem wrote:
raina wrote:The forum regulars are probably used to it as it is, but as a newbie, every time I'm trying to reply a thread, I find myself typing a new topic.
it's the other way around for me (that's the reason we switched "forum index" and "scummvm website" on top) - I tend to click the stuff further to the edge of the screen (like the X in windows to close a program, genius to make that a corner)

I've fixed it the clem way though - removed the "new topic" button altogether. It doesn't make sense in that context plus it's not clear in which forum the post will end up if click there - makes more sense to create a new post from the forum index and not a post

check here:
http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0200586/ ... ic.php?t=4

(sev: if you want to commit that, the updated file is at http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0200586/ ... c_body.tpl )

raina · Post by **raina** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:26 pm

clem wrote: I've fixed it the clem way though - removed the "new topic" button altogether. It doesn't make sense in that context plus it's not clear in which forum the post will end up if click there - make more sense to create a new post from the forum index and not a post

Actually I thought of proposing just that but considered it too bold.

fingolfin · Post by **fingolfin** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:33 am

BTW, folks, don't forget, the Forums are heavily modified in many ways, so the artwork will have be adapte for usag on-site eventually anyway. I.e. those template files will all have to be tweaked again before they can be used.

Post by **sev** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:59 am

fingolfin wrote:I.e. those template files will all have to be tweaked again before they can be used.

No question. Though we're talking about GFX here which will not need to be tweaked later.

Eugene

Jeune Albert · Post by **Jeune Albert** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 7:54 pm

sev wrote: That's not acceptable. Transparent PNG is not supported by some unnamed Biggest Corporation's semi-browser. And due to great amount of users of that borwser we have to cope with it. So only transparency which can go is GIF.

The upcoming version will.

For the elder ones there are various ways to get transparency with pngs, here's one that's easy to use: http://webfx.eae.net/dhtml/pngbehavior/pngbehavior.html

Help needed. Photoshop skills required

Help needed. Photoshop skills required

Re: Help needed. Photoshop skills required