Skins/Header Images

This is my variation of it. I'm still heavily thinking and changing things constantly but this is what I've come up with so far. Color of 8WR is off and the directional logo is my current pain in the butt trying to gain the right colors but 3D max isn't very good with color. -_-

8waybgminitz8.jpg
 
Damn, Jaxel! You are amazing. Do you want us to do bug-reporting/feedback here or should I catch you on AIM?

@Eclair: Thanks, man. Sorry if I encroached on your idea... I just kind of wondered if it would be possible to recreate the logo fonts with a degree of fidelity via layer styles, and uh, apparently you can. :P

@SWBeta: Glad you like the logo. =] Though what about the skin don't you like in particular? I know no one design is going to win over everyone, but it'd be good to get some feedback on what exactly it is that you don't like... maybe those aspects can be tweaked, or it can be taken into consideration for an alternate skin by someone else.

@Arslaan: It is pretty cool seeing community members making the icons, working on the Wiki, etc. no?

@sirkibble: The 3d stuff looks good, but that is some wonky text. IMO, you should focus on tweaking the texture/lighting on the arrows/sphere themselves in 3ds and worry more about the colors in some postwork in Photoshop.

@Archangel: I think once all the bugs are worked out in the light version, dark should be relatively easy to achieve. With the structure in place, simple switch of the CSS and images and bam. :D Though I'm not sure if it would be valid for me to submit 2 skins per the contest rules... So Shen Yu's still got you covered.
 
Just so you guys know... ALL valid entries will be added to the forum... however, only one will recieve the PRIZE.

ExM... your skin is a single entry... there are just two versions... and 26+ different header images (if we do custom headers)
 
That text sure is wonky but I'm far from done tweaking it. But thanks for the advice. I'm going to run with it.
 
Sometimes when I load the page the blue bars appear black. When it finishes loading it goes back to it's supposed color. It actually looks better with black than blue. Try that out. And if this happens to be the final Skin, change the Font on "wayrun.com." Just saying.
 
How hard would it be to have an option to choose the old plain skin? Sorry, but I'm boring and I would rather have that one on my screen at work.
 
ExM, now that I'm looking at the skin in full size, it looks better then I originally thought. I even see that you have the SC/SE swords as low transparency BGs in posts. Good stuff.

My few gripes are:

• The banner. More specifically, the logo's placement, font, and background. The soul calibur image on the logo is cut off at the bottom. I think it would look better if the entire logo was visible. Secondly, the font of the "wayrun.com" doesn't match the fonts on either the "8" or "WR," and doesn't fit the "SC font theme," if you will. You had it perfect in this image:

8wrtexturedlogorm4.jpg


Also, while the 8WR stands out, the soul calibur sword doesn't. Is there a way the image can be made to stand out more? maybe play around with the shadowing options on the sc sword image or lowering the brightness of the background a bit? Or maybe including borders/stroke widths around the image (similar to the stoke widths around the 8WR)?

Siegfried as the foreground image for the light skin layout is perfect. My gripe is with the background. It seems a bit... plain. Is there anyway you can make it more lively and eye-catching?

Also, have Nightmare instead of Taki as the foreground image for the dark skin layout, please. :D

• The Button Icons. More specifically, the "Home", "FlashChat", "Wiki", "Forums", "Quote", "Multi", "Quick", etc. icons. The font is too plain, imo. I understand that it's the easiest to read, but if the font can be changed to a font with serifs, perhaps, like the font in your 8wr logo image above, but made big enough to be read, it would look awesome. Also, the icon images themselves don't stand out enough. It's basically the same issue as the soul calibur sword image mentioned above. If you could make them stand out more, that would be great!

Good stuff, once again!
 
@SWBeta: Can't take any credit for the SW/SC bgs in tables, that's all Jaxel's doing. :P He's the one implementing the skin and making it look way better than my mockup.

RE: Logo, banner, button concerns... I'll see if I can do something about those once I finish up this icon set I'm working on. Thanks for the detailed feedback!

@KingAce: Yeah, I think I'll go with SWBeta's suggestion and switch the font to the white serif text in the image of the logo by itself.

@Eclair: You don't actually have to know how to code skins, it's Jaxel who does the coding. All you have to do is submit your mockup PSD, layers and all, plus zips of the buttons/icons/etc.

For anyone who is interested in submitting something, I can put up the default vB style's images (includes gradients for table backgrounds and all the icons) for download so you can see what you have to modify, if you'd like.
 
Can we have the option to go back to the default skin? By selecting a skin in user cp? I don't really like this one and it really stands out at work. The default one is more neutral.

It's subjective. I prefer minimalism in design.
 
harlekein said:
Can we have the option to go back to the default skin? By selecting a skin in user cp? I don't really like this one and it really stands out at work. The default one is more neutral.

It's subjective. I prefer minimalism in design.
Click to expand...
The default skin is now selectable.
 
ExMachina said:
@SWBeta: Can't take any credit for the SW/SC bgs in tables, that's all Jaxel's doing. :P He's the one implementing the skin and making it look way better than my mockup.
Click to expand...

Wow, I can see them in tables all over the site. Looks real good. Good stuff, Jaxel!
 


Widened the header to 980px to fit the requirements.
Also a new logo. Decided to keep it simple.
 
SWBeta said:
My few gripes are:

• The banner. More specifically, the logo's placement, font, and background. The soul calibur image on the logo is cut off at the bottom. I think it would look better if the entire logo was visible. Secondly, the font of the "wayrun.com" doesn't match the fonts on either the "8" or "WR," and doesn't fit the "SC font theme," if you will. You had it perfect in this image:

8wrtexturedlogorm4.jpg


Also, while the 8WR stands out, the soul calibur sword doesn't. Is there a way the image can be made to stand out more? maybe play around with the shadowing options on the sc sword image or lowering the brightness of the background a bit? Or maybe including borders/stroke widths around the image (similar to the stoke widths around the 8WR)?

Siegfried as the foreground image for the light skin layout is perfect. My gripe is with the background. It seems a bit... plain. Is there anyway you can make it more lively and eye-catching?

Also, have Nightmare instead of Taki as the foreground image for the dark skin layout, please. :D
Click to expand...

Really? I think the pixelart font is great... it gives a very "Video Game" feel... I love it.

I think the Soul Calibur sword doesnt stand out because he clashes with Siegfried's armor... we'll be coming up with more headers soon, so it shouldn't be an issue. As for the background being bland... I'll post a PDF soon so that people can submit their own backgrounds. I plan on doing it with a randomizer script so that the character randomly rotates.
 
Jaxel, fyi... in the current logo, part of the bottom spike/handle/whatever of the logo has been erased. Here's a logo with everything intact, and I cleaned up the brushing behind as well. ;)

logo.png


Still working on those status icons... I've got all the thread ones done, just gotta do the random leftovers now. I'll let you know when I'm done.

ShenYu: Looking good! My only gripe with it so far is the fact that the header is "zomg blue!" when the rest of the skin is so dark. Aside from that, your color choice is noice. And I remember you using the armor indicator for the thread rankings when you showed the thread view... which was a really nifty touch.

New logo is solid, except the W seems kind of squashed horizontally and I think it would be stronger graphically if you moved the letters closer together so they were touching, and then put up the stroke, IMHO.
 
ExM: It won't be quite as zomg blue when the character backgrounds are changed. But it'll still probably be at least somewhat zomg blue. :P

I find myself wracking my head for ideas for the status icons that are SC related and would fit with my theme. Hopefully yours will give me some ideas. :)
 
Yo, this is DancingFighterG. I like the skin that I see so far but I want some of looks either by the same artist or a different one. I want to know that we have different styles that we can use!!
 
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