Jedi Council Forums - [GEN] Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners

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Author	Topic: [GEN] Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners
Raven Title: SFF: Books and Comics Mangler Registered: Oct '98	Date Posted: 4/19/04 3:41pm Subject: [GEN] Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners - Date Edited: 7/15/08 4:13am (10 edits total) Edited By: LAJ_FETT
	The purpose of this thread The purpose of this thread is to support Banner Makers. Here Banner Creators can do the following: Learn general information about JC banner making Discuss their and other JC banners Give hints and tips on image modification for banners Find out what others have learned about specific graphics programs Ask questions of other Banner Makers (related to making banners. "How did you do that?") Give or ask for Banner suggestions (images, colors, design, themes) Share fonts and add-in modules Banner Size and Format Each banner submission MUST contain four parts: the main image, the background image, the curve image, and the left strip image. Optional and highly recommended are the left and right ad holders, the reply image, and a custom style sheet. If the optional parts of the style are omitted, then either a) stock elements will be used in their place or b) there will be no elements of that type on the page. 1. The main image. This image should be 764x110. 2. The background image. This image should be 764x110. 3. The curve image. This image is may vary somewhat in size, but is usually 69x69. 4. The left image strip. This image is normally 32x465, but may be shorter or taller. See 5 and 6. The left and right ad holders. These images are normally 74x58 pixels, but may be wider. 7 (not shown). Reply image. This image once appeared on all replies and may again in the future, but currently only appears when new topics are posted. These images should be 437x88 pixels. Because this no longer appears when replies are posted, you might not wish for this to read “Post Reply” on it in any way. 8 (not shown). Cascading style sheet. See the cascading style sheet section below. Generally speaking, all banners should have a strong Star Wars theme. A banner that lacks a strong Star Wars theme may be rejected. Please include “theForce.net” or some variation thereof on all banner submissions. JPEG images are preferred, but GIF images are also acceptable. Please try to find a balance between image quality and image size (in terms of kilobytes); many people who use theforce.net still use 56k modems, and don’t care to spend minutes at a time downloading artistic masterpieces when they could be browsing in forums with equally effective banners. To see how recent banners are implemented via HTML, view source while on the board selection page. To make a template, save a copy of any forum that has had a banner change within the past few months and change the image paths as necessary to use your files rather than files on our server. For the latest version of the code that implements the banners, please PM Raven. Banner submissions There are two general circumstances under which banners are to be submitted: banner competitions and YOU taking the initiative. 1) Banner competitions. Periodically, we’ll hold banner competitions to create a new banner for a given forum. These competitions are generally run by forum moderators, and run over a period of a month or two. An announcement is made in Communications and the forum in question to inform people of the running of the contest, and at the end of the contest the Mod Squad votes on the entries. The winning banner(s) are then implemented in the forum and the winner is given VIP status. We’ll also generally have banner competitions for Halloween and the winter holidays period. 2) Taking the initiative. If you haven’t seen a banner change in a given forum in a while and are interested in creating a banner, contact the moderators of that forum and inform them that you’re interested. If they have no plans to have a banner contest, they may be perfectly happy to allow you to design a new banner for the forum, though they may reserve the right to turn down the finished product. If you create a banner, you can offer it to forum moderators. You MAY be given VIP status, but don’t expect it. Also, if there is a particular holiday coming up that you wish to have a custom banner, feel free to make one, but make sure that it’s still a Star Wars banner. As was said in another thread, “Jaxxon as a stand in for a mostly secular bunny is fine, Jesus on the cross is not – and no, photo-shopping Anakin’s face onto Jesus won’t help you any.” These banners will replace the main default banner for a day or two, and then we’ll revert back to the default banner. Holiday banners for holidays that last extended periods of time (like Lent and Ramadan) will not be put up for the duration of the period; they MAY be put up at the very beginning and the very end. These banners must be approved by one of the JC Administrators (currently Grilled-Sarlacc, Kimball_Kinnison and Raven); only one administrator needs to approve the banner. The default main banner will always be determined by a contest (likely) or by private arrangement by the technical administrator or head administrator (unlikely, but we’re reserving the right). Don’t PM us about the main banner default; we’ll PM you. Where to submit banners To submit a banner, please PM Raven or whomever is holding the banner-making contest. Do not assume that Raven or any other moderator is reading banner making threads, or any other such threads. The only way to be sure that anyone is aware of your banner is to send the appropriate moderator a private message. Cascading Style Sheets It is through cascading style sheets that much of the board style is controlled. All changes to the color scheme of the style should be done through cascading style sheets. We currently use external sheets to provide this functionality; to see the built-in style sheet that is overridden view the page source; it’s at the very top of the source. A tutorial on how to use style sheets is beyond the scope of this thread, but some can be found here. The most important things to know are that if you are going to use a background color other than white, you should include a style for the body that sets the background color. Style sheets may also be used to change the color of the scroll bars, as the current (as of April 18th, 2004) main default banner does. Also, the color underneath the left strip is now controlled by style sheets; please use style sheets to control this background color. Example (sets the color under the strip to white): .left { background-color: white; } There are two ways that style sheets may be submitted. The first is to link to an external sheet, as we do. The second is to modify the board generated style of a template. The technical administrator can copy and paste that style into a new file and use it. Questions Please direct questions, comments or queries about banner making to Raven. Last revised: 4/19/2004 by Raven LAJ Edit - Locking this since we have a new thread. -----signature----- 1. Seek enlightenment. 2. ??? 3. Prophet.
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FlamingSword Registered: Jun '01	Date Posted: 4/19/04 5:48pm Subject: RE: Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners
	Very nice. I just want to add A slightly outdated list of resources by StarFire
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rhonderoo Title: Former Head Admin Registered: Aug '02	Date Posted: 4/19/04 6:13pm Subject: RE: Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners
	I just made the scheme for our FF and the main image appears too small here. Did the banner sizes change? I need to go in and make my sidebar longer also. On the mock up I had the background color set to that. That's cool about the curves! What are some other sizes? So if we want to tweak it ourselves, we can link from our fanforce site? That would be cool! Also, one more silly question... The font in the message body (this font). What is it called in the style sheet? Any more hints? Like how to get the curve to match!!! -----signature----- DT421 FYI: You don't deal with me. I deal with you. Damned right the Jedi's fire has gone out of the universe. I was the bad-ass Class C extinguisher who snuffed them. - @darthvader (Darth Vader on Twitter)
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Kinobe Registered: Apr '03	Date Posted: 4/20/04 2:32pm Subject: RE: Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners
	The font in the message body (this font). What is it called in the style sheet? This font comes under the BoardRowB style, so if you edit the font settings for BoardRowB, you'll edit the text in this box. Any more hints? Like how to get the curve to match!!! The way I make banners is to design them in one big image, and then cut the image up into the different sections. That way the images should all match up OK. -----signature----- A tiger? In Africa? http://www.last.fm/user/Alienspacer/ I keep my underwear up with a piece of elastic.
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rhonderoo Title: Former Head Admin Registered: Aug '02	Date Posted: 4/20/04 8:38pm Subject: RE: Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners
	Thanks! What size do you make the whole image? Both the main and background banners together the length of the sidebar? -----signature----- DT421 FYI: You don't deal with me. I deal with you. Damned right the Jedi's fire has gone out of the universe. I was the bad-ass Class C extinguisher who snuffed them. - @darthvader (Darth Vader on Twitter)
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Jedi_Benji Registered: Oct '02	Date Posted: 4/20/04 10:55pm Subject: RE: Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners
	I just made a Banner, And I cant figure out how to get it into a Sheet, Can anybody either Help me, Or do the Sheet for me if I supply them the Images? -----signature----- Rogue Wing, Ace 6, Mark 10, Locked in! AOTC Defence Force, Avenger 6 TPM Defence Force, Echo 11
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Grimby the Hutt Title: JC Head Admin Fan Design/RMFF Webmaster Registered: Apr '00	Date Posted: 4/21/04 1:06am Subject: RE: Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners - Date Edited: 4/21/04 1:43am (2 edits total) Edited By: Grimby the Hutt
	I am currently finishing up a complete reference guide for all style sheet elements. Look for it early next week. edit: What size do you make the whole image? Both the main and background banners together the length of the sidebar? Like Kinobe, I usually start the whole banner on a large canvas and then crop each specific piece out and save it as a separate image. As per the current image dimensions, my canvas is 1528x575. Tricks of the Trade Every time I make a new banner, I try to do something new. I try to add something to the design that I've never seen before (i.e. bevelled table cells or rounded borders). I also try to make the color scheme pleasing to the eye without making it seem too dark or too bright. This is where the use of style sheets comes in. To me, the images are really only half of the banner. The images may be the first thing people see when they open up a board, but they're going to spend more time reading threads and navigating through the boards. A good color scheme is underrated IMHO, but always appreciated. edit 2: Flammingsword's link above has some excellent references for anyone who's new to banner making or could use a few pointers. In addition to that list, a lot of good quality star wars images can be found on my website. -----signature----- "Ratio Tile, the wish power are together with you." - Allah Gold, Backstroke of the West
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Jedi_Benji Registered: Oct '02	Date Posted: 4/21/04 1:31am Subject: RE: Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners
	Sweet, Cant wait -----signature----- Rogue Wing, Ace 6, Mark 10, Locked in! AOTC Defence Force, Avenger 6 TPM Defence Force, Echo 11
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Kinobe Registered: Apr '03	Date Posted: 4/21/04 2:45am Subject: RE: Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners
	Does anyone know where to find a decent Star Wars typeface? In some of the banners I've designed I've tried to have 'THEFORCE.NET' in the Star Wars logo typeface but all I can find on the net are 'StarJedi' and 'A New Hope' and they're not great. Does anyone know what typeface they used to do the 'THEFORCE.NET' in this image? -----signature----- A tiger? In Africa? http://www.last.fm/user/Alienspacer/ I keep my underwear up with a piece of elastic.
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vacantlook Registered: Mar '04	Date Posted: 4/21/04 3:45am Subject: RE: Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners
	I also try to make the color scheme pleasing to the eye without making it seem too dark or too bright. This is where the use of style sheets comes in. To me, the images are really only half of the banner. The images may be the first thing people see when they open up a board, but they're going to spend more time reading threads and navigating through the boards. A good color scheme is underrated IMHO, but always appreciated. I so totally agree with the above statements about the importance of a non-harsh color scheme when it comes to the whole banner issue. Nothing makes reading in a forum worse than my eyes getting excessively tired because of the colors. -----signature----- "Mostly though, I think it gave us hope that there can always be new beginnings... even for people like us." -- Ivanova, Babylon 5 TPM DF Shadow Squadron Commander
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Lord_Tuvitor Registered: Jun '03	Date Posted: 4/21/04 5:20am Subject: RE: Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners
	Kinobe: I usually just use Star Jedi and then modify the spacing on the file itself. -----signature----- AHBY \|\| The Blue Prognosticator of Glorious Ineptitude http://www.tirlannon.net/ "Those who cannot change, die."
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rhonderoo Title: Former Head Admin Registered: Aug '02	Date Posted: 4/21/04 6:51am Subject: RE: Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners
	Blue Harvest has some good font downloads in the download section. Thanks for the tips on the size. If I could get style sheets down, I'd be in business. I use Front Page to alter our FF sheet and I'm really just doing it by trial and error... -----signature----- DT421 FYI: You don't deal with me. I deal with you. Damned right the Jedi's fire has gone out of the universe. I was the bad-ass Class C extinguisher who snuffed them. - @darthvader (Darth Vader on Twitter)
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Wes_Janson Registered: Mar '04	Date Posted: 4/21/04 10:18am Subject: RE: Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners - Date Edited: 4/21/04 10:40am (2 edits total) Edited By: Wes_Janson
	Im working on a banner for the EUC boards, since therye going to have a contest before to long. You can see an earlyer version of my banner here In the first post raven said that the curve image sometimes could be larger than 69x69 (best number combo ever ) Could I take that Tenel Ka pic in the curve, and have the cutoff leg comedown compleatly, just have the rest of it be transparent ? EDIT the curve would be 74x89 if the leg was added back in. I'll upload a pic showing it with the leg in a miniute. EDIT Ok, HERE's what itd look like if the curve size increase was allowed. Keep in mind, thats a lower quality screencap of a early test, not the finished product. -----signature----- Founder: YJK fan club NJO=/=SW Origonal Wraith 1: XW series fan club-Currently XO:Dinner Squad Ive begun reposting teh last fic I wrote. http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/26616831/p1/?0
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rhonderoo Title: Former Head Admin Registered: Aug '02	Date Posted: 4/21/04 5:04pm Subject: RE: Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners
	Well, I've got my image made. Now I need to crop it to the right sizes. One of my ignorances in Photoshop is slicing. Should this be what I use to cut into smaller images? -----signature----- DT421 FYI: You don't deal with me. I deal with you. Damned right the Jedi's fire has gone out of the universe. I was the bad-ass Class C extinguisher who snuffed them. - @darthvader (Darth Vader on Twitter)
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OBIX1 Registered: Oct '02	Date Posted: 4/21/04 5:09pm Subject: RE: Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners
	Does anyone know what typeface they used to do the 'THEFORCE.NET' in this image? star jedi,and "COMMUNICATIONS" was written in the "Shadows of Xizor" font style. -----signature----- Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go. - Joshua 1:9 http://www.gideons.org \| Check out this site for info on Christianity! God Bless!
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Raven Title: SFF: Books and Comics Mangler Registered: Oct '98	Date Posted: 4/21/04 7:07pm Subject: RE: Official Banner Makers Thread II: Attack of the Banners
	It can be done. It may throw off some alignment, but shouldn't be too much of a problem. If you don't modify the board code and just plug in your images, it's generally wysiwyg. -----signature----- 1. Seek enlightenment. 2. ??? 3. Prophet.
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