New Banners

[Faiien]

Would it be possible to implement new banners if someone was to create some? i think these look pretty outdated and I would be glad to make some new ones for WB

btw
would it also be possible to change the original thread title in the edit menu if you're the original poster?
and could we possibly expand the sig height to 160 perhaps >.< i know its a lot to ask but...ya

[AJ]

No one has given me the option to turn down new header images.
Though, I do not want 50 different headers on rotation, so they'd need to look better than what we have, or match that style and fit in nicely.

You can change the original thread title if you edit your thread within the first x number of minutes. After that, just ask.

And, no. :)

[Black.Ice]

Do you have a template file for the header?

It'd be a pain to make that from scratch.

[AJ]

Long: It's 4 Years Old.
Short: No.

[Faiien]

ya, i was just planning to use the same format but with more enhanced and different pictures
but it will be kinda a pain to get the old format up but i guess thats ok..this will take a while so i wouldnt hold my breath though lol

and @second reply NOESSSSSSSSSS!!!! lol...well cant blame me for trying XD

[kongurous]

On the subject of banners, would it be possible to link the banner to the front page of the forum? I hear people like that kind of thing.

[Neo]

ditto kong's suggestion.

50 would be a bit much, but could we do like 20?

-Neo

[Neo]

Remade the banner, touched it up, going to turn it into a template others might possibly be able to decipher, haha, or not.

SOOOO:

First, Not compressed at all. Not sure what to aim at for file size, Ideally I'd love to be able to hit 60kb, but 30kb is doable, it just makes stuff look a bit shitty.

http://up.kupatrix.com/f/1/newb1.jpg

Notice the left side shows a terran sc2 unit (The Thor) with a screenshot in the background. This first version is a full image, it would allow the screenshot -fade effect to go further towards the right, occupying about 75% of the banner.

However, this can make a pretty giant file size with the all in one approach, y'know?

OH! And notice the Terran Icon over there. I thought we could do that for each random banner to. Have a couple terran/toss, couple WoW/Warcraft, and maybe a Diablo themed one to, y'know?

Now, This one:
http://up.kupatrix.com/f/1/newb2.jpg

Would actually be two side by side, so as to conserve file sizes, and only one-half of it would be random. So something like:

http://up.kupatrix.com/f/1/newb2a_01.jpghttp://up.kupatrix.com/f/1/newb2a_02.jpg

Because the right-most side stays the same (WB's lion head), it saves on file size/loading.... aaand means we can go a little bit better quality for the left side.

Cant figure out what text was used though, so thats what it's blank.

Left out the bottom menu, since it's redundant.

thor will destroy you, RAWR!

-Neo

[King_Critter]

And.... Neo beat me to it. <_<

But here's mine. SVG, created with inkscape. No orb, at the moment.

Neo's looks better :(

http://kingcritter.kupatrix.net/warboards-header.svg

For some reason, firefox doesn't show the drop shadows... but if you save it and open it with something else, the shadows are there.

EDIT: changed it a bit, added a very basic orb. Will do more tomorrow, I'm falling asleep right now. <_<

[ZeroDarkStar]

i still dont get why half of it is just blank grey.

[AJ]

by the way, neo - to preserve the right POV you need to move the thor-layer ontop of the background rather than allowing the top portion of the thor to be cut.

[Neo]

i still dont get why half of it is just blank grey.

omfg.

http://img.orgnetwork.com/wb/custom/hf/title1.jpg

AJ: Yeah, I just realized all the banners have the bottom/sides cut with the top open, heh.

My fault -- i added the thor in pretty late in the design, so didn't spend much on it.

I'm gonna go tweak it a bit and try to cut down on the extraneous layers.

Also realized the scanlines might do better as an overlay or screen type with lower opacity.

-Neo

[Faiien]

ya if someone could get me an empty template that would be awesome

[Neo]

Ok, more tweaking, less excessive layers and crap.

No orb, replaced with Lion dude.

http://up.kupatrix.com/f/1/newb3.jpg

I figure things that get "cut off" on the bottom will have to be dealt with individually, rather then try to create a template where you could just drop something new in.

-Neo

[Biohazard]

The changing pictures are bothering me. Also, not being able to click on the giant WARBOARDS and go to home is bothering me.

Also, Neo, I like it. GJ.

[Black.Ice]

Great designs.

I have a suggestion, don't go with a single header image. Use some div's with background images and positioning. It'd take a lot of tweaking to set up right, but you can possibly end up with a header that has a couple of tiny background gifs and the image on the left (in Neo's case, the Thor) would be a separate image. This way when you reload data, it'd only be reloading the small image, and not the background stuff.

I realize the images are going to be cached. If I get access to a computer with all my programming stuff on it, I'll try working on something but I doubt I'll have the time.

Neo, you're a CSS wiz. Do you think what I'm talking about is possible?

[Neo]

Not really. CSS/Transparency wouldn't work out to well. The screenshot/Scanline/gradient background, the wierd outer-black-glow around the "Thor" (other main thing) would be difficult to do with, say, transparent gifs or pngs. In this isntance it would be easier to just keep it one picture.

Also, take note, the graphic itself is uncompressed 100% JPG it's only what 110kb or something? At even 80% or 60% (still looks fine) it reaches something like 50kb.

Doing something via CSS would be very very complicated. However, I do wish it was possible to leave out the background gradient and do a transparency thing, but as a PNG or GIF it's really grainy (makes sense, as the screenshots/renders of sc2 units at least, use to many colors individually, toss in a gradient or two, and add them all up ><).

It would still be possible to do something like the right-side is static (never changes) and it's the left side that goes random.

And remember the current banner rotation is an imagemap IIRC, so replacing it with a single or double image that links back to the wb.org would cut down on code, at least a little bit =D.

-- and, I was just trying to recreate the banner. We could always try something new.

-Neo

[Darmago]

Ok, more tweaking, less excessive layers and crap.

No orb, replaced with Lion dude.

http://up.kupatrix.com/f/1/newb3.jpg

I figure things that get "cut off" on the bottom will have to be dealt with individually, rather then try to create a template where you could just drop something new in.

-Neo

The perspective is going to have to be done on an individual level, because for instance the frost wyrm comes off the bottom, so its not like you can just layer over it. It's dependent upon the orientation of the subject, so will have to be unique to the subject.

[Black.Ice]

CSS transparency sucks, you're right about that. But I was thinking about it. It's possible to keep the right side of the image static and have the left side be a JPG that's rotatable and changes.

For the current header that we have, the split could occur somewhere vertically between calendar and register. But that's only for the current. If we design a new header, we can design it with that in mind and make it even easier.


And 50kb is pretty big for a header. I know that people have broadband now a days, but it's still nice to have a smaller profile, especially for things that load on every page (like the header)

[Neo]

The current banners are 30kb, and while that is a stretch for my design (jpg artifacts are pretty visible), it's not impossible.

Anywho. As a whole warboards is pretty hefty anyways, so an extra 20kb for a banner image is nothing.

And BI: I meant more along the lines of PNG transparency (Especially in, say, IE) rather then the opaque: thing (although both are annoying). Also, because of ZDS' insistence the newer version had the gradiant only on the right about 30%~ in or so, rather then the current banner's where the screenshot/background seem to take up about 30% on the left.

However, if I increased the gradient a bit (say, make it fade out around 50%) we could do the static right, random left thing. But, again, it's not like it's going to save loading times, the right when sliced and saved comes in at like, 10kb or something. which is nothing.

Besides, at some point, you're going to have loaded every banner, so load times become pretty moot at that point.

Out of curiosity is the random headers something vBulletin does? It doesn't appear to be a standard random script, rather the source actually has "title1.jpg" or "title2.jpg" which means the images DO get cached, which is why there doesn't seem to be extra loading involved with the new headers.

-Neo

[Faiien]

keep up the good work neo

[Faiien]

~bump
omg!!! i just saw some of the new banners they look amazing
super props to neo if you were the one that did it
i sooo love them over the old banners

[Black.Ice]

I think all credit goes to Neo!

[TranquilNightElf]

/me agreee
The New banners look terrific. ^^

~TNE

[Francis]

And oh! The click-back-to-index thingy works!

[FrankZ]

And oh! The click-back-to-index thingy works!

Right. That's a feature that makes WarBoards WarBoards ;).