Learn the ways of the Force(.net) - the banner idea thread - Request for Christmas

A couple of days ago in the Welcome Newbie Party thread talk about banners brought up the idea of submitting a new one to the rotation. Considering that thread is primarily a social place for everyone to talk about anything and share cake, banner discussion has moved over to this thread with Skiara's permission.

I've tried to wrap up all the ideas originally posted in the other thread, but I might have overlooked one or two. If that is the case feel free to repost the suggestion/idea in here - just keep in mind that we have both forum and SW related banners already and that we are simply aiming for a heavy presence of OT in this banner. Although, personally I think if anyone wants to give a try at making the banner they should go ahead.

Suggestions from the WNP thread:

- The Imperial Cookies
- Chibitalia
- Azure's paintings
- Luke's first lightsaber training aboard the Falcon
- Colour theme: grey with lightsaber blue
- Writing: Learn the ways of the Force(.net)
- Leia's hologram
- Preference for a curve

 

I still think that a pillow or two needs to be on the banner.

 

I suppose we could photomanip the remote to a pillow...

 

Thanks for starting this thread, Fallen! And thanks to Skiara for giving her okay and for the links!

To recapitulate my thoughts from the "Newbie Party":

I'd love to have a Classic Trilogy-banner in the rotation, since we've only had Prequel images so far

I really like morrison85's idea of using images from Luke's lightsaber training session aboard the Millennium Falcon from "A New Hope"

"Learn the ways of The Force.net" seems quite a perfect slogan for WNU, and it fits the aforementioned scene too

Based on that, I have compiled a rough draft of a banner. It took all but half an hour, so don't expect to see quality here, okay? It's just a first idea and the easiest way for me to show you what I'm thinking.

[image=http://img807.imageshack.us/img807/4469/wnubannerconcept.jpg]

Notes:

Obi-Wan: looking at the full page, I think I should have made him bigger

left sidebar: would like to see more of Obi-Wan's robe here, but source image ended there

I imagine the sidebar fading to either black or white at the bottom

font: "standard" Verdana right now and definitely open to change. Looking for suggestions!

font color: I tried to do something close to the "lightsaber-blue", but not quite happy with it yet

sub-headline: Should probably have a different font,

background behind it is too busy - makes it too hard to read,

not sure about the best spelling of "TheForce.net" (with spaces? without?)

background behind the text: a very simple (and dirty ) repeated pattern of the Millennium Falcon's bulkheads. Didn't find too many interior shots of the ship, so I had to improvise

Luke: seems rather tiny too, now that I look at it again

background image (the right half of the banner): only part of it is visible here, because the screenshot was taken on a 1024x768 screen.

The rest of the image shows the passageway to the Falcon's cockpit and Han sitting at the console, smirking. Well, or at least it will, once it's finished.

transitions between images still need to be smoothed out, obviously

the whole thing: is way dark, Fallen's suggestion of using a "brighten" filter seems like a great idea right now

ad holders: the little training droid (with transparent background) seemed the obvious choice. forgot to mirror the left one.

the "Post Reply" image: is not done yet, I was thinking of using this image of Luke and Obi-Wan with the slogan "You have taken your first step into a larger world"

style sheet: borrowed from RPG forum, as you can see. I wanted something gray, but this is anything but final

All images were taken from Swannee's Movie Screencaps (thanks to Fallen-Hero for the link! ), category "A New Hope", pages 11 and 12. They are not hi-res - good enough for this "concept art", but whoever does the final banner should probably get themselves some HD screencaps to work with.

Whew, I think it took longer to type this post than to create that image.

Alright, now it's your turn! Once again, this is only a first draft, and I'm far from satisfied myself, so please do criticize all you like. Any and all ideas and suggestions are most welcome!


//edited to add one more point:
I really, really want Yarael Poof to say "Let the Wookie win!" (Somebody please tell me they remember that tradition!!)

//last edit, then I'm off to bed:
Thinking of switching the positions of Obi-Wan and Luke. Would give me more space to make Luke bigger without having to cut too much of the lightsaber, maybe his hands could be in place of the "curve" image. I might give that a try tomorrow, depending on the feedback.

//very last edit for today: spe

 

I think it's a great start.

 

I know. It's a real shame, I always thought it was a funny little detail.

I think it needs more than "a bit more work", but thanks. Glad you like the concept.

Agreed. I've tried brightening that area a little in the second version (see below), but now it doesn't match the rest of the images as well anymore. Still needs some tweaking!

I forgot all about the reply image, will deliver that one later.

Thank you for the feedback!


Here's a second, slightly different version with Luke and Obi-Wan exchanged:

[image=http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/9224/wnusecondconcept.jpg]

I do like the "curve" having a more individual shape. But I think I preferred the original lineup... Any opinions?

Other differences:

left ad holder has been mirrored now

as mentioned above, the chess scene has been brightened. transition to the next image looks even worse than before now

slightly different background pattern behind the text (mirrored, not simply repeated)

two different fonts for the two lines of text. I don't want to use these fonts in specific, but I do like having two different ones

still no gradient on the left side, sorry. also, the cut out job on Luke's hands is really bad

Thanks, glad you like it!

Yes, please do! I'd love to see other concepts.

 

D'oh! That's what I get for not checking before posting my message. I was thinking of the other banner we had up a while ago - that was missing the Poof.

 

To be honest, I'm not sure anymore. I looked at so many banners yesterday, I'm a little confused now. I'll try to pay attention to that next time I come across a WNU banner.

I knew we had a lot of banners, but it's even more than I expected! Question for you: Each banner has a four-digit number. From the admin panel, can you tell which is the lowest and highest number in use, so I know when to stop looking? (Not going to ask you to count them, I already know there are hundreds). Or do you only see the names there?

---

Edit:

Guys, we're still looking for input! Let us know what you think. :D

 

Sorry for not posting any sooner.

FIRST ATTEMPT:

• I think the idea of showing more of Obi-Wan's robes is a good one. If we find a picture with more robe showing we could always make the bottom of it fade into the background of the banner. As for resizing him, I think he looks just fine this way. If he becomes too big, I fear we'll pay more attention to him than anyone else.


• I love the way you have arranged the writing, though I agree we need to figure out a font to be used. As for the colouring, we can always apply styles, glowing, etc to make it more realistic, but it'll depend on how that looks with the final background.


• Chewie and the droids are definitely too dark and the general feel of the banner is a little dark, but I think it's possible to lighten the whole thing with gradient maps and a few other filters. I know a lot of people use those stuff to make all the pictures work together and feel like they were altogether from the start.

SECOND ATTEMPT

• Personally I prefer the original line-up you had. I think it's something about Luke's hands that are just not doing it for me.


• The mirrored background here looks a lot more cleaner and less busy than in the previous one, so I think we should stick to this method.


• In regards to the Chewie&Droids pic, check above.

So in general, I think Gunny said it right. It's a great start and I love where you want to go with this banner Morgaine. I believe the idea of the Post Reply button is a nice touch and would definitely keep the theme going. Now, I'm curious: Did I read properly, after Chewie&Droids, we get the passageway to the cockpit and then the pic of Han in it? If so, I think it's a great idea - I'm all for some Luke and Han in the same banner

 

I liked the original banner better, because I liked having Obi-Wan on the curve, because the banner's about him, too. And about the darkness that engulfs the image of Chewie and the Droids, maybe something else could go in its place?

 

Ah, dammit. I typed up a long reply, and then I accidentally hit the wrong key combination and it all went away. Let's try this again!

I'm sure there are full-body pics of Obi-Wan that we can use. Some color adjustment might be necessary, but I don't think that should be a problem.

I don't know much about fonts, that's why I was asking for suggestions. I could always try the classic Star Wars font, but I think that's probably too... bold.

Yeah, in the first banner there were no adjustments made at all, and in the second one I only did a one-click brightening in Photoshop to be quick. I could play around with filters and settings, but I'd much prefer if somebody else took over from here, since I have zero experience with this kind of image editing. This is only meant to be "concept art", a discussion starter.

We seem to be all in agreement on the lineup so far! I can put together a version with the background from the second banner, Obi-Wan on the left and a maybe slightly bigger Luke to the right of the text (probably will test some other font there, too). Should be able to take care of that tomorrow morning.

Agreed. I was thinking of "dimming the lights" a little, that strip on the top is maybe a bit too bright.

Yes, that's right. You would only see Han on a monitor with a fairly high resolution, though - but I guess that's okay, especially since so many monitors are wide-screen these days. I might be able to give you a wider version tomorrow, to show you that part too.
(I wish I could find a reason to include Leia too, but that would break the pattern of using images from this scene only - so, sorry Princess, but you're out. )

Thanks a lot for the feedback!

Another vote for the original lineup, great.

I suppose we could use something else instead of the "chess" scene, but personally I'd prefer to keep it limited to pictures from this one scene. I promise I'll make sure they won't be "engulfed in darkness" on the final banner!

 

Oh, I was merely pointing out that I agreed on the writing implacement and that the font would need adjustments. As for font ideas, well do we try to keep to the same genre of family (i.e. Verdana and Arial) for both the forum name and the slogan, or do we go completely out a try two different styles (i.e. Times New Roman and Scriptina)?

As I said in the other thread, I don't mind giving it a try. I was just waiting for your 'concept art' and now I'm just giving time to others to post in the discussion before trying anything.

All I'm missing is Yoda on the current banner and a tiny portion of the Ewok's stick... guess I'll just see some part of Han depending on where we place him in the background banner. Oh well, I can always check it out on my brother's screen, I think I see 1/4 of the background image being doubled on his.

If we do, then perhaps we might find a way to add the Princess. I'll dig in and see if we can put something else in there, or more importantly, see if my own Screencap version of the 'chess' scene comes out this dark as well.

EDIT: I forgot! Someone in the WNP thread - I think it was you Morgaine - that we use some of Luke's training on Dagobah. Only a little accidental trip to the FanFic Resources showed me that they already have a banner with that theme (it's the current one actually).

 

Well, I tried both, as you can see, and I kinda like having two different styles, as seen on the second banner. But either way is fine with me.

Makes sense, no need to do double work. Let's discuss first, and then you can start the good work once we've reached an agreement.

I'll see if I can find a way of placing Han closer to the chess scene, so that he's visible on more monitors! Will give you a visual tomorrow...

Sure, but I don't want to end up adding character after character until the whole banner is over-crowded. I'm a big fan of simple, even minimalistic banners, that's why I'd prefer to stick with that one scene only. But of course that's not my decision and I'll go with whatever the majority wants!

Goodness, that's a lot of Lukes in one banner. I actually saw a banner using the lightsaber training scene yesterday - I think it was from the Census forum? It's not currently up, but I took a screenshot. It's on my old notebook, but I'll post it tomorrow along with my attempt #3!


//edit: Note to self, don't post reply without using the preview first. Fixed some markups.

 

I totally understand that and I think that's why I love the current concept art. It's really simple.

As much as I love Luke, that is a little too much Luked.

Oh and I got an idea in regards to the whole merging the pictures. We could always add brushes or something equivalent to help disimulate the different backgrounds like what we have up at the SWC or even what they have at the FanFic Saga.

 

Fallen: I do like the effects used in both the banners you linked to! If you think you can do something like that, I'd definitely like to see it!

Still on the wrong computer, but I'll post the changes we talked about later today, hopefully still before lunch.

Skiara: 740! That's an impressive number. I think I saw over 200 already, but it looks like I still have a good bit to look forward to. Thanks for checking!

Yeah, I was hoping for a few more different voices too! Maybe we need to "advertise" a little and post links to this thread at the party and maybe the pillow fight. Some people don't really seem to check any other threads.

 

We really should post some reminders in the other threads.

 

Hey guys, just a quick post to say that I have not forgotten about this thread. Real life was just a little more busy than I expected these last few days.

Will try to get version three done still this weekend. If anyone else wants to go ahead and give it a try in the meantime - by all means, don't wait for me, go right ahead.

 

Morgaine, I can't believe you would dare put RL before us!

No, seriously, it's perfectly fine. My next day offs are Tuesday and Wednesday, so there's no rush really. Sides, Skiara didn't put a deadline to this, so I think we can take our time to flesh out everything and make something really good.

Point is, don't worry and give us your third version whenever you find the time to do it. RL is more important - though I hope it's not giving you too much stress

 

Hah, I gave top priority to the JC long enough. These days I actually have a real life. Nothing too stressful though, don't worry - I was simply out of the house more time than I expected.

Well, the weekend's almost over here (11 pm on Sunday), but I made it. Here's version three, tell me what you think!

[image=http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/6518/wnuthirdconcept.jpg]

changes:

Obi-Wan has a bit more body now. Image came from a different scene, so the lighting is off. When/if you take your own screenshot, see if you can find a frame in this scene that shows more of his body, it's probably easier than trying to match the colors in photoshop. Besides, the sidebar is still very short as it is. But at least it has a gradient now!

I've added a glow to the text, just to see how it looks. I'm not quite sure how I like it yet. Sometimes I think it makes the text look kinda blurry, but maybe I just didn't use the best settings.

Took the screenshot on a wider monitor this time, so you can see Han now! Unfortunately, there's still about 190 pixels of free space left to the right of him, and I'm not quite sure how to fill that. Maybe the passageway could be made a bit bigger/wider somehow...

The chess scene has been brightened a bit, but not as much as in attempt #2. I think it fits better now. The transition to the images left and right of it still needs to be "fixed", though.

If you can do something with this on your free days next week, that would be great!


Oh, almost forgot: Tried my hands on the "reply image" too. I think it looks like a freaking obituary.

[image=http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/7687/wnureplyimage.jpg] Somebody have a better idea, please?

 

It's late right now and my brain is somewhat dead, so this will be short.

I got an idea to remedy the obituary-styled post reply, so quit worrying about that

As for my own screencaps, I popped it in my dvd-rom today and I didn't exactly see much difference in the quality between that and the ones we got at the moment. Was a tad disappointed till I noticed I had popped in the original 77 that was released with the SE. I'll give the SE a try tomorrow and keep my fingers crossed for a less grainy feel to the images.