Layout stuff.

[Morgan Evanar]

Mark and I have been busy.

http://panic.hopto.org/swf/morg/newgjo1.jpg

[AmazonBabe]

:eek

ME LIKE!!! :D:D:D

[Marcus Telcontar]

<img src=http://panic.hopto.org/swf/marcus/newgjo1.jpg>

said to morg i'd try two things out - delete the "gjo" and make the blade stand out more. well, i found i started with a basis that wont allow the blade to be sharpened. going back now and fixing that. plus, doing some tidy up details on the logo.

edit : removing the gjo unmasks a layout error in the sword too.

edit 2 : new sword design test. morgan, dumped the .psd's for this and also the new gjo logo in normal directory.

[TheHolo.Net]

Snazzy. :)

[Morgan Evanar]

http://panic.hopto.org/swf/morg/newgjo1a.jpg

I think the red looks too mean. Blue?

[TheHolo.Net]

The red does seem out of place to me.

[Marcus Telcontar]

blue = good.

[Morgan Evanar]

http://panic.hopto.org/swf/morg/newgjopost.jpg

IMO, its too plain. I need some kind of background.

[Marcus Telcontar]

is the .psd of that up in usual place?

[Morgan Evanar]

Aye.

[Marcus Telcontar]

i'll have butcher's hook tonight and see what i come up with

[Ryla Relvinian]

Oh no, I like the red. Very much. Ohhh yes. It looks dignified and lovely.

Is there an option for adjustable layouts for this forum, like the main swfans forum has coruscant night and t-phantom? It would be nice to have a light-background theme for the GJO.

[Morgan Evanar]

Nope.

[TheHolo.Net]

Morg is correct, we spent the better part of a day trying to come up with a way to do that once but couldn't pull it off.

[Morgan Evanar]

More like on and off for a week. We'd have to seriously hack the board.

[Ryla Relvinian]

Ohhh really? Didn't know.

...I do like the red though. :D

[Morgan Evanar]

I'll be sure to make it red for one forum then =]

[Ryla Relvinian]

Eee! You've given my life new meaning.

What if the bars (that are now currently red) could change color depending on what forum you were in? For example, they could be green for the B&G, blue for arcan, red for avalon etc...

Just a thought. :D

[Morgan Evanar]

Yes, we could do that.

[Nevlonniel]

That's actually a neato idea, Ryla. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Morgan Evanar
Yes, we could do that. I concur, it can be done that way.

[Ryla Relvinian]

Eee! and I was worried about pulling a Jamel there, you know;

"Hey! Let's all make random, useless comments! Yeah! Freedom of speech and stuff!"

:D

[Marcus Telcontar]

You need to add random Martial Artist Fistings to be Jamel.

[Master Yoghurt]

Very nice work, Morgan and Marcus :)

[Lady Vader]

You need to add random Martial Artist Fistings to be Jamel.


:lol

[Ryla Relvinian]

Yeah, and bug the living hell out of everyone here, right?

[Marcus Telcontar]

Had a few ideas last night.

a) The sword in the logo looks too harsh. I'll soften it.

b) I'll put my other ideas as a .jpg later tonight after I do some web site updates

<img src=http://panic.hopto.org/swf/marcus/newgjopostb.jpg>

Oh and first post of this thread has the sword logo change.

[TheHolo.Net]

Alternating BGs for posts will work using the firstaltcolor and secondaltcolor replacement variables in the right way. (by closing the color parts leaving them empty and inserting BG variables for the table cells afterwards. A handy little variable would then need to be placed back inside the correct table cell by the name of $ post[backcolor] which allows for the alternates and as of right now does not exist in GJO's postbit template)

But.......the tricky part (still possible to work with though) I see right now is getting the gradient BG in posts to work right, seeing that not all post windows are created equal in height and tiling of gradients can look ugly unless accommodated for properly.

[Marcus Telcontar]

I dont feel attached to the gradients. But I do want some way to break the squareness of the set up of - What exactly that is, no idea.

[TheHolo.Net]

That is certianly possible via creative use of images and BG colors in table structures. The postbit in Taylor's Balmorra forums is pretty close to not having any square edges.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Hmmm.

k

(Makes note when discuss this with Morgan again next)

[Morgan Evanar]

http://casalecustomsbroker.com/misc/newgjopost.jpg

[Lady Vader]

It looks cool, though i'm trying to figure out if I like the planets in the bg or not...

[Morgan Evanar]

I could add some stars.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Fade em smewhat. They stand out like a honeymooner's dick and dont look right. Try 50% fade and some stars.

[Morgan Evanar]

I already was expermenting with the stars. Faded, much improved. I'll post results tommorow.

[Morgan Evanar]

I added some stars and faded Yavin Major and Coruscant.

http://panic.hopto.org/swf/morg/newgjopost.jpg

[AmazonBabe]

Looks much better. :)

But maybe a bit more fading of the planets?

[Morgan Evanar]

Can be done. =]

Oh, Mark, I don't like the green sword at all. The blue and the red both look much better. Maybe add a little transparency and change the glow color to blue/red/whatever as desired.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Once I get home (in about 6 hours -_-) I'll do some colour overlays and see what looks good.

[Morgan Evanar]

The issue is less the overlay than the fact that I like the Blue/Red ones' sturdier look better. If you make the glow the same color it might soften them a bit. I did that, in the banner at the top and uploaded the .psd in the usual place.

I also seperated the layer with the saber from the leaf, so you can just hue shift if you so desire.

[Ryla Relvinian]

Take the planets layer down to about 65%, IMHO.

Looks good.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Oh okay, you prefer the second sword version, not the first? Hmm. By itself the first version looks far better to me, more Jedi like. The second reminds me of Black Mountain tower and very harsh. But it does work better in the header. Probably the background mix makes ver. 1 not work.

Text box one = :thumbup

Text Box two - waaaaaay too much stands out that planet. White text over atmo glow = disaster. I'd be blue hueing the atmo, then fading the planet out about 50%. Sudden thought - have a Jedi Fighter from AOTC look like it's coming in. That'll be an interesting tuch.

[Morgan Evanar]

The first version looks bizzare and unbalanced. Like its... falling apart. There has to be an in-between, but I much prefer the harder one right now.

I agree with box 2, I'll fade Coruscant more. Probably by about 50%.

And Yavin looks sveet, if I say so myself (and I do.) ^_^

http://panic.hopto.org/swf/morg/newgjo1a.jpg

A happy compromise.


http://panic.hopto.org/swf/morg/newgjopost1a.jpg

[Marcus Telcontar]

Yeah allright. Fine by me.

[AmazonBabe]

Ooooooooooooo! Love the sword! :D

[Morgan Evanar]

I am actually now converting the layout to HTML. I simply wasn't able to think in HTML at all for the past month. Should be done within a week or two.

[Ryla Relvinian]

*jumps up and down in excitement.*

Yay! It looks great, I can't wait. :)

Question: Will the planet background be a tiled image or just a table background, the same for each post?

[Morgan Evanar]

It should alternate between planets, as for tiling, the images are very, very large.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Morg - I've finally got a version of the sword working on that I'm faaaaaaaaar happier with. I';ve chaged it to a sabre - I'll dig out the layouts and I'll nail up what it'll look like for looking and comments

(That's about the only bit I'm just not happy with. Rest will look good)

[Morgan Evanar]

Um, ok.