El-Hazard Online
General => El-Hazard Online => Topic started by: Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator) on May 18, 2003, 08:31:50 pm
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Never one to concider my primitive design skills anything to shout about, I've always been open to anyone having site design suggestions... but thus far I don't think we've had anyone here who is even remotely in that area of work. :P
Recently however, a new member named "executor82" happens to be in these design processes, and here's an idea he has for giving at least the main section a boost in visuals:
http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/temp/rob/HP1_mod.jpg
We're looking for input. Comment / suggest anything, please. I think it looks pretty rad at the moment and this might be a nice way to break in the one year anniversary that happens later this month.
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I think the design "de X" has suggested is an elegant and clean one. The one flaw I find with it is the selection of the main graphic. While I do like that picture (it's the same one that adorns the cover of the Guardians of Order EH RPG book) it doesn't have Ifurita in it! Ken Wolfe and I were horrified when we ran out and bought the RPG and saw the cover. We were like "whassup wid dat?!" I mean, Ifurita is only the catalyst around whom the rest of the story unfolds, right? :P
--me
Mark Engels
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In OAV1 primarily, yes. Well, this is trial 2, the first one was adorned only with the trio of priestesses (which I believe adorned an LD cover from OAV2.) I suggested right off that wouldn't be good because then we'd look like a priestess shrine.
EDIT: Er, Wanderers. ^_^; (this one) (http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/images/LaserDisc/pila1372.jpg)
At least he's got the right attitude. To quote "de X":
However, I think that I'll try to create an alternative design, I'm right in the mood ;). If this goes on, we'll make El Hazard Online the greatest fanpage in the net!!! (am I exaggerating it a little bit ??? Let's see ;))
Well, we'll see if he has something else up his sleeve. I'll post more images as his creativity goes along.
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Ifurita, huh?
Well let's see if I won't find a solution for that ;)
It's just a matter of time, but you won't wait too long.
I'm working on it right now. ;D
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Well...
I think the new design of the website looks great. Though the picture looks stretched a bit, but that's just about it. It certainly is more graphical than the current website.
However, I think that I'll try to create an alternative design, I'm right in the mood . If this goes on, we'll make El Hazard Online the greatest fanpage in the net!!! (am I exaggerating it a little bit Let's see )
Somehow, I think the "Jinnai bug" is in the air...
(Not to say I don't believe you, it's just the way it was written out.)
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Here's the current version in action:
http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/temp/rob/siteview.jpg
I'll admit, when he just sent me raw JPEGs, I almost couldn't believe his ideal-looking image could actually function in HTML. But there's my proof; his latest send was the actual code itself, and for my own benefit, I inserted a little text into the "main" window pane. This code has been proven reliable to run under IE 6.0, Netscape 7.0, and Opera 7.03, which is better than I can say for some of my stuff which fluctuates a little between those three. ;)
Of course, we have the dreaded resolution issue...
I'm working on a solution for the different resolution. At the moment all is concepted for a resolution of 800x600. But if i work it out, there would be a few more frames...er...ok there would be eight more frames. For now this would be my only solution for that problem.
Here's the code I already have pressed into 640x480:
http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/temp/rob/siteview2.jpg
As you can see, it does become just a tad claustrophobic. Interestingly though, the browser will drop the right-most frame. Probably the biggest change that would need to be made is smaller overhead graphics.
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I like the one that we've got, but that new one looks really cool. I think you should try it out and see how many members you get.
People say that the more attractive your pagefront is, the more visitors you'll get, and more visitors means more members! ;D
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Thanx for the credit to you all ;D
But you have to see, what I've done for the forum!
Rob will post it as soon as he'll find it in his E-mail account.
In fact there is still a bit of a problem to solve with the resolution and maybe we should care about the way how to get the HP scrolling in lower ones.
Maybe Rob has any Idea ??? or anyone else?
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In fact there is still a bit of a problem to solve with the resolution and maybe we should care about the way how to get the HP scrolling in lower ones.
Maybe Rob has any Idea or anyone else?
I'm supposing you mean how to get the frames to scroll. Not a problem! I don't know how it works in DreamWeaver, but I know how to play the HTML tag game. ;)
(http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/temp/rob/error2.jpg)
A frame is given the ability to scroll by a simple edit via Notepad
There's just one error that results because of this:
(http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/temp/rob/error.jpg)
We've sheered the priestesses legs!
I don't know much about frames, but I suppose they can be partitioned off from the rest of it?
I also should warn that if someone had a resolution insanely high (1280x1024 for example), we get looping from when it not only fits, but isn't long enough:
(http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/temp/rob/errorloop.jpg)
Hmm... I'm not incredibly familiar with frames to THIS extent. I also notice that the scrollbar rather rudely intrudes upon your yellow border design. I guess this will take a little more work then I thought. Perhaps since we're using a frame menu, you can significantly drop the stuff links from the main page. For example, let's try a menu that links to larger sections, such as "Series", which goes to a secondary menu.
We can also make the frame an IMAGEMAP (does DreamWeaver support this?) FYI, that's an image that has several internal links on it. And then the body background is something that will tile. That would take care of the "too large vertical resolution" problem. But you'll want to minimize the menu's complexity if the border is an important issue.
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I completely forgot what he had sent me that should be OK...
The new way the forums could be viewed:
http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/temp/rob/HP1_forum2.jpg
http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/temp/rob/HP1_forum.jpg (Ifurita desires :P)
I think he means this to be a top bar like the current black bar is.
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Ok, the higher resolution should be solved.
But I would like to have a scroll bar to the right and bottom if the HP won't fit on screen in low res. I don't know how to solve it now, maybe you can ???
If that works, this would be the easiest way.
The rest would be peanuts.
ok...lets say I hope my dreamweaver skills will be enough to do the rest :-/
hey, what do you think of rollover buttons?
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http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/temp/rob/HP1_forum.jpg (Ifurita desires :P)
Ah! Dat's betta! :)
--me
Mark Engels
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Report: Well, most of the problems up until now except low resolution have been solved by some extra FRAME-work! So far I'm figuring a "low resolution" version of the page with trimmed / reduced graphics is our only real option there. (For example, removal of the priestesses in the upper left, since they provide no actual function, as well as shrinking the overhead bar.)
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Somewhat off-topic, but I stumbled across another caption contest page this evening:
SpinnWebe A-1 AAA AmeriCaptions (http://www.spinnwebe.com/a1/?1)
I'm sure there's lots of things like that out there... but I thought of the EHOL Picture Of The Moment (http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/site/picoftheweek/current/index.shtml) while I read this topic. That page might work as a frameset. Maybe rules and previous picture links scrolling at the left, picture stationary at the top right, and captions and the entry box scrolling at the bottom right?
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Not a bad idea. I'll just have to convert the system to do CGI generated pages so I don't have to redo each and every one of our (actually 40) images ;D (which technically are all built from CGI to begin with, just written as files, not viewed via CGI)
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Personally, stretching aside, I prefer Rob's choice of picture for the lay out. Nice and classic imo.
To be honest, I think the current main page is a little dark and murky for an El-Hazard page. Not to be big headed, but this new design kinda harks back to my first ever one. You know, the one made up in 4 minutes with Dreamweaver. Yeah, that one.
Hmmm... Perhaps adding this layout in time for our first anniversary may be in order, Rob ;)
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Maybe rules and previous picture links scrolling at the left, picture stationary at the top right, and captions and the entry box scrolling at the bottom right?
Hmm...indeed, not bad.
I'll just have to convert the system to do CGI generated pages so I don't have to redo each and every one of our (actually 40) images (which technically are all built from CGI to begin with, just written as files, not viewed via CGI)
CGI programming is your domain, I won't be much of help. But I gonna read a bit about HTML the next few days, let's see what I'll find.
An alternative low res solution sounds good as well, but let's just see how we work it out for now. However I'm beginning to insert the buttons and the first link (the forum). The buttons will be with rollover effect, does look pretty smart 8)
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You know, the one made up in 4 minutes with Dreamweaver. Yeah, that one.
Ok, the work in dreamweaver didn't take me more than 10 minutes eather. But the designwork in Photoshop took hours :P
However I think that the solution with the frames isn't that elegant. I'm now working on a HTML coding solution, but my knowlege in is nearly zero :-[
A friend adviced me to use tables with <center> tag.
Also we would try to include CSS sheets. But at my current state of knowlege I would prefer to leave that kind of work to you people.
I'm trying to do my best in dreamweaver to keep your work less hard. Until I'm still learning HTML it would be a releaf for me to count on your skills.
I'm very thankfull for every help I can get.
If we won't find any solution in that res problem, we should use the frame solution and see how it will work.
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To be honest, I think the current main page is a little dark and murky for an El-Hazard page. Not to be big headed, but this new design kinda harks back to my first ever one. You know, the one made up in 4 minutes with Dreamweaver. Yeah, that one.
Hmmm... Perhaps adding this layout in time for our first anniversary may be in order, Rob ;)
Well, why not think of it as you were the original genius who was somewhat right in the first place ;p (I kind of noticed it myself, but hey, I had to be experimental.) The major thing that this one has, however, is a lot more eye candy. ;D I didn't like the blandness of our original design (still available here (http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/indexold.shtml); as I'm required by forum law to tell you, none of the links work now and the scripts haven't changed much so that's why they still DO work!) It also felt a tad disorganized, with everything linking to another hulking block. My design and executor's design will lend to the ability to change styles every once in a while, depending on our growth and the change of the internet and such. The original design required manual editing of ALL the pages to apply a new style. Alternatively, if I had redesigned the site to use your style generated from CGI like I do now, then it would've worked okay for at least letting us be able to change a bit.
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OK! I've prepared all so far as high-res version.
I don't know If we really gonna need the low-res one. I'm still working on a solution :P
there are buttons inserted and the first link between home and forum is done.
As for now thats all for me, now comes the HTML programming by Rob.
Or does anyone have an Idea what I could design now?
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Alright, I'll work with this now. At least immediately I'll give you the contrib' status you wanted. :)
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Thanks a lot! ;D
It was all a pleasure to me!
I can't await to see the site in its new look!
We will do the rest in no time!!!
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Just sent you the Font!
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Just sent you a PM of thanks and a current update. Get back to me as soon as you're able.
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Not that ... everyone ... needed to know this. :)
Um... something useful... well, anyone interested in doing EH-y graphics should get the wonderful new Zurich Calligraphic font now available in Trinkets. Unless someone knows of a better font. ;D I'm afraid it kicked Matura Script Captials' ass.
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Well, I know this is a little late, but I really do like the new design. It has a pleasantly compact, streamlined look to it. The background is also very pleasing to look at, and the entire layout has a rather polished feel to it. I am going to miss the old background with busts of almost all the El-Hazard characters, though, and the chibis in the old task bar were cute. Still, I do have to admit that it was a bit cumbersome having to scroll down so far to reach the goodies and links sections. Great job with the "facelift" so far, and I'm looking forward to the finished result.
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Ok, sent you my final judgement about the design via E-Mail. Take your time, it doesn't hurry. ;)
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Ok, sent you my final judgement about the design via E-Mail. Take your time, it doesn't hurry. ;)
Yup, my only concern is that the new joint for bands will require another bitmap right along the table junction.
(http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/temp/rob/exten.png)
Note where the current bitmap (and table) ends; a seperate image will need to be aligned right along side it. Hopefully, however, this won't introduce any distortion to the table. Maybe I'll try it later tonight when there's not too much risk of goofing the main page header. ;)
I also have to remember to make a low resolution version / option... this really shouldn't be too hard, and could quite possibly be part of your configuration (Profile).
AND I have to do the forum header. I'll get all this done, I swear. :P
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Sure thing! No need to hurry. ;)
I'll take care of the low res version. You modify the pages as needed. You got the Photoshop file now, I gonna send you the forum as well.
Did you get along with the file?
Besides, I like your new profile pic! It's cool ;D
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Did you get along with the file?
Everything's OK. I'll be working in the background on this and some other stuff I have to do. Hopefully we'll see it fairly shortly.
Besides, I like your new profile pic! It's cool ;D
I like it too, although it's actually a bit old (hence the text beneath it). I used it a long long time ago when I was helping show support for a point about Jinnai and Shayla being paired up. ;) Then the new member "Xel" came along and she was talking about Jinnai/Diva business, and I guess I'd wear the "pin" again...
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Ack!!! Wha...what happened to the font!!! All is so blocky and fat!!! Something happened to the site or is it just me ???
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No, it's not just you, the page did that to me a while back too. It goes away if you leave it over night.
Lar
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Actually even a refresh can cure it.
Sorry, sometimes the server goofs when transmitting data... or it's IE. I'm not sure which.
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Uff....lucky me! It's gone! :D
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See? Well done! ;D
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Hey I got an Idea about the profiles! How about a pool of avatars for everyone who hasn't his own URL? So that you can use your own avatars whenever you like. Just a small pool for 2-3 pics each?
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I've thought about giving everyone a little personal space for avatar loading. It shouldn't be too much of a deal to hold a few JPGs/GIFs/PNGs. :)
I'll just have to rig a clean system for getting them in.
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Alrighty! I got 3 more avatars waiting for action ;D
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I've thought about giving everyone a little personal space for avatar loading. It shouldn't be too much of a deal to hold a few JPGs/GIFs/PNGs. :)
I'll just have to rig a clean system for getting them in.
That would actually be sw33t as h3ll! ^_^ I have a few that are just dying to be used.