Graphics for New Portal

[Raya Wolfsun]

Graphics

As mentioned in another thread, I've offered to do some graphic design work towards the new site design. I thought it would make things easier if we talked about graphics-specific stuff in a separate thread though... and needless to say I have some questions!

1. Will I be doing all the graphics myself, or will anyone else be working with me? I'm fine either way, just need to know (especially if I need to be consulting with others)!

2. What are the specs I should be working from? I guess I'm looking for a list of graphics I need to create, along with the requirements for each (dimensions, etc). Also, what resolution should I work at?

3. Where can I get stock images for the various games? I'm mostly concerned about copyright issues here... where can I get images that I can legally use/alter/etc?

4. Are there any official fonts or logos I need?

I'll probably have more questions, but that'll do to start!

 

[Aurora]

You can go to Blizzard Entertainment or the official StarCraft II site and get the fansite kits. I believe that you're free to edit anything in there.

Further, Blizzard encourages fanart anyways. They've even organized plenty of competetions with real prizes for it. One guy now even works for Blizzard as a designer since last week. Can't remind the name, but I'll look it up if anybody cares enough to ask me. His Zerg art was awesome.

So in short: copyright issues are almost non existant.

As for the dimensions: untill Andy comes up with a specific place that he wants them, there's really no point in making anything. Kinda hard to just guess the sizes, and resizing images later on makes them look ugly. But you probably already know that.

As for working alone: I could contact FullMetalBabe again. However, we had better add a friend link to her site in the footer before doing so. Me and Donny promised her that after she made up the new site banner and some buttons and badges. That was almost 6 months ago, and it still hasn't been added. I still have the image (mini banner) and link, so I'm kind of waiting for Andy to pm me about this.

I hope that clears things up a bit.

Edit: We'll also have to ask FMB for the font. She never told me what she used. >_<

The new banner/site logo can be seen at the resource center pages already. (the pages made with vba)

Also this site doesn't have a favicon. You know, those few pixel wide images you see in front of the address. I wanted to ask FMB to make one out of that B in the new logo, but thought I should wait because of the missing affiliate link.

 

[DirtyDog]

Hey Raya,

Firstly to clear up any misunderstanding here, BF is owned by DirtyDog LTD a UK company. and I (Andy) am the only representative of this company that you will ever see here on BF.

I'm glad you are willing to assist us going forward and from what I have seen so far I think you will probably make a good asset to the forum.

To answer your questions;

1> cortalos & metal gear flash are both working on a new theme so you will have to liaise with them to make sure anything you do falls in line with the new theme.

2>All the web images are 72dpi but we have no specifics until we see the theme and what we have to work with in the header above the main forum.

3> My signature is a photoshop mashup of graphics I borrowed from the game websites, I'm sure you can do the same without any legal worries.

4> We are open to fonts & logos. Any banners or fonts currently in use will ALL be replaced as they simply aren't good enough.

Favicons are easy with a favicon generator or any similar tool - I'll make one later.

 

[DirtyDog]

It seems that the current font is called "Starcraft" what a surprise!! You can get this at dafont.com also.

Starcraft Font | dafont.com

I'm happy to stick with this font. It's NICE!! (I added it to my sig!)

 

[Tyrael]

I know where to get the Diablo and WarCraft font, I believe.

Also, Diablo3.com has a kit as well.

 

[Aurora]

I think that the newest logo is pretty awesome.

 

[DirtyDog]

It's pretty cool but I think we're talking about if there is a standard BF logo & font. Which I don't think we have (apart from what's in the banner)

If someone wants to create a new BF logo/banner then go right ahead, but again it would be useful to know a little more about the new theme so we know how much space we have.

 

[Tyrael]

Yes, the theme. Cort or Flash got any news?

 

[Aurora]

That logo/banner was supposed to also replace the other one already. I think Donny never got to replacing it.

 

[Krovvy]

This isn't exactly for the new portals, but it is graphics related and also related to the fansite kits.

I've stated this before, but is there anyway we can add all the avatars from the fansite kits from Starcraft, Diablo, Warcraft? Right now we have a faux-default avatar, and a "BattleLogo" which hasn't even been our logo for years. I don't think it would be too difficult to add them all, one size. I take it the new site icon is the new logo, maybe we could set a version of it as the default avatar.

Does anyone know if their are older kits pre-Warcraft III with avatars?

 

[DirtyDog]

With regards to the avatars - if someone wants to put together a zip with them all in then I'll "make it so"

The new favicon is just something I put up today from the classic B in the current site font.

It came from this

if you like it we can make it a permanent logo - if not - make me a new one!

 

[Krovvy]

Well it's kind of basic honestly, but I thought it would make for some consistency.

 

[DirtyDog]

Most of the best logos are VERY basic, but as for inclusion in a header or banner then I agree - IT WOULD SUCK! :yikes:

 

[Aurora]

Why isn't it .png with a transparent background? That would be nice. This black background is just, meh, you know? Other then that it's nice. It took 7 years, but now this site can finally have a proper bookmark.

 

[DirtyDog]

It's only black to make it show up as a favicon. You can have a transparent png if you like but we'd have to pick a better colour for the logo or you won't see it!

 

[Aurora]

So maybe a black B with a silvery (if that's a word) shine to it? This doesn't look bad, but it looks silly next to all those other .png icons.

Edit: meh, just took a good look at it again. It's going to look way to small without a background. :/

 

[Krovvy]

Has anyone with the fansite kits gone through the avatars? If not I'll do it soon, just let me know.

 

[Aurora]

Those avatars are worthless. The ones that fans made from the sc2 user portraits are 10 times better. Just google "starcraft 2 avatars". That's way better stuff then the standard images.

 

[Krovvy]

So you're saying my current avatar is worthless? That's absolutely ridiculous, though if you think they're much better please go ahead and post them with comparisons. Also, I'm not talking about Starcraft only, I would be going through all the fansite kits for every universe.

 

[Tyrael]

I've got the kits in my documents, I can upload them later by images (zip folders are too big for attachment manager).