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My skin idea - comments please

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Eruname
Post subject: My skin idea - comments please
Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 6:55 pm
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edit: current skin possibilites:

1. http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/Er ... out1-3.png

2. http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/Er ... out2-1.png

3. http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/Er ... out2-2.png
with a bit of pink added to the picture:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/Er ... adient.png

4. http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/Er ... out2-3.png

---------------------------------------------------------

Link, because the image is waaaaaay big:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/Er ... ayout1.png

The font on the banner can be changed if it's not to people's liking, but to me, those fonts have the Rivendell/Elvish feel. Also colors can be changed...the more I look at that black box, the less sure I am about it...but I'm not sure what else to do other than trying to blend the rivendell picture into the background or placing it on the side.

There's another rivendell picture that could be used:

[ img ]

or I could even cut Frodo out of this one and use the rest:

[ img ]

I didn't mess with properly matching the blue colors of the message board to the banner as that could be done later if we went with this idea.

Here's what I think would be really cool:

The Rivendell theme could be the board's main theme, but we could also have a Shire, Gondor, Mordor, and Rohan theme. All that needs to be done is a new banner and matching the colors. Alatar has graciously offerred to help actually code a skin I come up with and if he were to do the Rivendell one, I could probably do the rest of the themes once I saw what he did.

I just think it would be really neat to let people pick which one fits them best as some of us are pervy elf fanciers and others are pervy hobbit fanciers.

Anyway, that's my idea. I think it would be lovely to have awesome scenery pics from the movies. We may not be a LotR site really, but it's our roots and it's what bound us together to start with.

Last edited by Eruname on Thu 15 Jun , 2006 4:48 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Estel
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 7:02 pm
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I like your Rivendell skin quite a lot. I don't know about having every single skin we can choose from being LotR themed, but I really like the Rivendell one as the main theme, given we are "The Last Homely Site." It fits :)


The only thing I see is that the banner resembles the on on HoF, with the writing next to the pic. I like their board design very much, but I would want to have a little bit more individuality. Perhaps using a wider pic, or cropping the pic you have used so it's wider and having the writing on the bottom? That's pretty much my only suggestion. I like the color and I love the pic you have used. :)

Last edited by Estel on Wed 14 Jun , 2006 9:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Eruname
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 7:52 pm
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Okay, this is as wide as I can get the pic to be so it still stays looking nice. I can make it thinner by further cropping it...it may need that as it's fairly large.

I did two versions..one with no black background, one with. These are both rough just so we can get a general idea of what it could look like. I can try some blending possibly:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/Er ... out1-2.png

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/Er ... out1-3.png


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Eruname
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 8:06 pm
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Should I even bother trying to do a blend like this?:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/Er ... s/mask.png

It's going to be darned hard to get looking even...unless I experiment with gradients to do it. I just want to know before I devote time to it.


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Eruname
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 8:16 pm
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I went ahead and messed around a bit more with the blending. This is about as even looking as I'll be able to get it I think. I don't think I like it. It would look better on a black background (and I'm not sure anyone here wants any black). Was worth a try though:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/Er ... mask-2.png

I may experiement with a black background...I mean, what the heck? Why not?


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Lidless
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 8:33 pm
Als u het leven te ernstig neemt, mist u de betekenis.
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Very, very nice, Eru. Me? I'd go with the second of the three.

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elfshadow
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 8:42 pm
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I do like the blending, I think it would gives a good contrast to the sharp lines of Rainy Day (if that was the style we chose to base our own skin off of). The colors are beautiful, Eru!


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Eruname
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 8:49 pm
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Lidless wrote:
Very, very nice, Eru. Me? I'd go with the second of the three.
you mean layout1-2?

Glad you like the blending Elsha. We'll see how it works out.


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Alatar
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 9:22 pm
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They look great Eru. Only one concern, with a banner that size, you'll have to scroll to see even the first post. If possible I'd recommend superimposing the Title on the image to save space and keep it wide while reducing the depth.

Colour scheme works well for me too. We're a night-time kinda board. :)


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Estel
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 9:52 pm
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I'm with Steve - I like the second of the three - the one with the black background. It looks the most professional, and it looks really really really good. :)


Maybe, since it is so big, as Alatar says, you could make the whole thing about as wide as the Profile thru log-in line. Maybe shrink the pic just a bit, and then make the lovely borders you have just the tiniest bit wider. That way you're not stretching the pic, the borders would show up more, and the banner wouldn't be quite so large.


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Eruname
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 10:05 pm
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I'll work on your suggestions later, Estel.

Here's trying a black background. The blend looks really pretty on it. I just don't know how people feel about the light message board blue on a black background. I took Alatar's suggestion of placing the text on the image to reduce the size the banner would take up.

I have two different versions...one with a border on the sides, one with the blue outline...or it could be totally black.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/Er ... out2-1.png

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/Er ... out2-2.png


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tinwe
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 10:19 pm
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Very nice Eru! :)

The dark background works especially well with the faded edge effect because it hides the sharp line of the bottom of the image. That works really well.

I’m reluctant to offer any advice or criticism on any of this because I’m not trying to do one myself, but if I could make one suggestion - the monochromatic color scheme can be a bit, well, monochromatic! Perhaps introducing an accent color would make it more interesting. For instance, I think a dark burgundy would go really well with the blues you are using (which I love, btw - matches my avatar nicely!) Maybe in the small background field for the post icons, or something.

Just a thought.


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Eruname
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 10:22 pm
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I could give it a shot. :)


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Elian
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 10:28 pm
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I didn't think I would like the dark background one...and then I saw it. :love: Absolutely gorgeous. I liked the one with the border on the sides better, but honestly, all the ones you've done are lovely. :)

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Eruname
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 10:44 pm
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Okay, I tried a bit of burgundy...maybe it's not what you had in mind, but I can't say I like the look of an accent color:

[ img ]

When you take a look at HoF, TORC or the other skins people use...or even the skin that TOB is thinking of using, really, they are a monochromatic. They use one color in different shades. I suppose HoF is using two colors but they are very closely related. I'd say you have to be careful with accents colors. Yes they accent, but at the same time I'd think they'd need to be subtle. A subdued green could possibly work. What I try to do is take colors from the original picture to make it look uniform.

There's one message board I know of that is pretty vibrant:

http://dillson.proboards30.com/

I think it's neat looking. But when I compare it to other layouts, it looks a bit garish to me. I guess I lean towards a sleek and sophisticated style. (see my LJ http://erunameundomiel.livejournal.com/ )Those all tend to be monochromatic I suppose. Really monochromatic never occured to me. :P

What I think is making a difference here is the picture used. It somewhat monochromatic, wouldn't you say? I can try some other Rivendell pictures and that will most likely liven it up. :)


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Eruname
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 10:45 pm
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Thanks Elian. :)

I can try making that border look a bit better. :)


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elfshadow
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 10:48 pm
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The dark background looks lovely! I liked best the one with the border, it wasn't overpowering but it gave it a very nice touch.

It's just too bad we can only choose one design for the site, there have been so many wonderful creations. Thanks for all your work, Eru and Estel!!


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Estel
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 10:57 pm
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Elfshadow - we can make more than one, and people can have options ;)


Eru - I love love love love what you've done with the borders and the black background. Stick with that, and forget anything I said. As for the burgandy accent colour - instead of making the background behind the posts the burgandy, see if you can make the "Unread post" colour burgandy instead of whatever the normal colour is. That way it is subtle, but it's still there. The only way it won't show up is when you've read every single post on the board.

Perhaps it is also possible to make the descriptions of each forum (not the title though) the burgandy color.

Both of those would probably have to be done in the actual coding, so I think you would have to ask Alatar about that.

Otherwise, you could do a very very subtle shadow on the "Board 77 The Last Homely Site" in a burgandy colour, and you could bring out the sorta burgandy tone already existing in the pic.

Any of those would be subtle enough to not mess up the styling of the board, but add that lovely accent color tinwe was talking about :)


I can't do the shadow on the Title lettering, nor change the colour of the descriptions, but maybe something like this...


[ img ]


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tinwe
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Posted: Wed 14 Jun , 2006 11:27 pm
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Eru, I agree, that’s a little much. But some of Stella’s ideas might work. I still think something subtle would help.

If you look at HoF they actually have four colors. There’s the sepia background, the green bars, the yellow in the unread post icons, and, if you look at their banner and one of the emblems at the top of the page, there is just the slightest little hint of red there. To me, that little speck of color makes all the difference in the world.

I really like the banner picture you’re using though. It would be nice if it had that extra speck of color, but I don’t want you to change it just for me. Only if you want to!

Edit - ohhh, Stella’s idea looks niiiiccce... yes, something like that!


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Eruname
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Posted: Thu 15 Jun , 2006 2:16 am
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Estel wrote:
see if you can make the "Unread post" colour burgandy instead of whatever the normal colour is.
That will have to be done by making new buttons. This is a part you don't know about ... and it's the tedious and crappy part. You'll have to make all the buttons (new post, no new posts, locked thread, global sticky, sticky, announcement, etc, etc) match your theme. And the animated gif buttons are the worst to color...or at least I haven't found an easy way to do it.

I'm so not looking forward to making all the buttons again! (I did this for HoF)

As for the burgundy on the buttons...well, I'm not sold on it unfortunately....on the burgundy on the actual board at all. I can't say I like it.

Now adding a pink tinge to the sky could be nice. I can try a soft gradient. I can possibly do a small drop shadow on the letters...we'll see how it looks. But even with the pink tone in the picture I can't say I like putting the burgundy anywhere else. It just sticks out like a sore thumb to me.
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If you look at HoF they actually have four colors. There’s the sepia background, the green bars, the yellow in the unread post icons, and, if you look at their banner and one of the emblems at the top of the page, there is just the slightest little hint of red there.
What HoF did was take the colors from the painting. The actual message board (aside from the temporary yellow on the buttons) only has two colors: tan and green. Then there are 3 values of tan (by values I mean light to dark) and two of green. The majority of the "pop" comes from the banner picture. The rest is very uniform and monochromatic.

So, how about a compromise? A pink tinge to the sky to warm up the picture. :) Then we'll still also have the yellow on the buttons. Personally I think the yellow goes better with the blue.


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