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Heroes Community > Turban Tribunal > Thread: Community Banners
Thread: Community Banners This thread is 7 pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 · «PREV / NEXT»
Salamandre
Salamandre


Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
posted December 07, 2014 02:06 PM

The era logo was not bad, do you have the tools for advanced animations, like this?

If not, just keep it as it was, its good imo.
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Era II mods and utilities

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Galaad
Galaad

Hero of Order
Li mort as morz, li vif as vis
posted December 07, 2014 02:10 PM
Edited by Galaad at 14:19, 07 Dec 2014.

Salamandre said:
The era logo was not bad, do you have the tools for advanced animations, like this?

Ok I will use the era logo, I'm on CS6. What tool did you use ? Something like this would look nice, but everytime I try such effects, I end up heavily above the size limit
Also, I'm not so sure about which font I should use.
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Salamandre
Salamandre


Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
posted December 07, 2014 02:26 PM

This is 60 bytes size, and uses two different animations, so I think you can remain under that size and do ok.


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Galaad
Galaad

Hero of Order
Li mort as morz, li vif as vis
posted December 07, 2014 02:34 PM
Edited by Galaad at 14:44, 07 Dec 2014.

Thanks
From my experience so far the fading is hard to optimize, but I will definitely post something according to your suggestions later today.

Quote:
This is 60 bytes size


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Salamandre
Salamandre


Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
posted December 07, 2014 02:45 PM

yeah seems heavy, was wrong. Changed to jpeg


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Era II mods and utilities

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Galaad
Galaad

Hero of Order
Li mort as morz, li vif as vis
posted December 07, 2014 02:47 PM
Edited by Galaad at 14:50, 07 Dec 2014.

424kb
Is the first animation handmade ? If not I'm on it btw you just gave me a wonderful idea if it works
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Salamandre
Salamandre


Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
posted December 07, 2014 02:49 PM

No hand made, this is type in automatic animation from gif animator tool. But each letter will require 1 frame, well, thats it. Forget.
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Galaad
Galaad

Hero of Order
Li mort as morz, li vif as vis
posted December 07, 2014 03:56 PM
Edited by Galaad at 19:28, 07 Dec 2014.

So this is 42 frames reduced to 72 kb.
I understood it while opening your animation into Photoshop to see how your tool made it. Each frame had a letter but also the huge background.
Instead, add each letter and only letters one by one and you gain over hundreds of kb.



Still above the size limit, and there is not even a background nor logo. If we could make the sentence around half shorter, I think it is possible to do something.

Edit :

Here's a step by step quick guide to anyone interested about handmade text animation (warning, takes time and is boring to do).

1. Open Photoshop
2. File new, then set size and resolution according to OP.
3. Window Timeline, if not visible already.
4. Under timeline Create Frame Animation
5. Create text layer, center text, type in first letter.
6. Unselect (hide) layer, duplicate (selected) frame.
7. Go to first frame, select layer.
8. Go to second frame, unselect layer (so it stays into first frame only).
9. Repeat process from step 5 with each frame and layer until you're done.
For each layer you will type in an extra letter (ie, frame 1 has M, frame 2 has Mo, frame 3 has Mod etc).
10. Finally, adjust the seconds of each frame to desired rate, and don't forget to loop it by selecting "forever" under the timeline options.
For the ending flashing effect, frame with text is 1sec, followed by an empty 0.1sec one, then back to  1sec text frame, followed by another 0.1sec one etc.
When you enter a new layer on any frame, it will duplicate it to all frames. After creating it, you will have to go back to first frame, and unselect it from here. Photoshop will then unselect it from all other frames too. Go back to specified frame where you want this layer to be input, and select it again. It will then only appear in selected frame, as intended. A bit tedious, but I couldn't find an other way.
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Salamandre
Salamandre


Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
posted December 07, 2014 04:47 PM

We are in the terabytes era. I find interesting the idea of advertising banners, but the size limit makes a huge difference between catching eyes or not. If we need to kill the sense to gain a few octets ("era is out" is not same as "era II now available"), then I think I am out of ideas.

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Corribus
Corribus

Hero of Order
The Abyss Staring Back at You
posted December 07, 2014 04:57 PM

@Sal

Yellow text clashes with background image. Hard to read.
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Salamandre
Salamandre


Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
posted December 07, 2014 05:00 PM

I didn't mean that as banner, just show that "type in" effect is much more readable and eye catching than pooping all text at once. From that, you can play with fade/hide/add transparency to background.
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Era II mods and utilities

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Galaad
Galaad

Hero of Order
Li mort as morz, li vif as vis
posted December 07, 2014 05:02 PM
Edited by Galaad at 17:35, 07 Dec 2014.

What about this



64kb (less than 40 without -hence ending- background) but just to know if you like the general idea, what is good, what is not.

Edit : Or with white background all along, somehow is lighter (just 60kb).



Would this be worth promoting ERA thread ?
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VokialBG
VokialBG


Honorable
Legendary Hero
First in line
posted December 07, 2014 05:34 PM
Edited by VokialBG at 17:35, 07 Dec 2014.

Nice work with the text, Gal! But we need something more specific for background. Is there something specific for Era? Creature - masterpieces and etc, towns, artworks. I never played it.
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Galaad
Galaad

Hero of Order
Li mort as morz, li vif as vis
posted December 07, 2014 05:37 PM
Edited by Galaad at 17:57, 07 Dec 2014.

VokialBG said:
Nice work with the text, Gal! But we need something more specific for background.

Thanks
I'm afraid any background taken from in-game screenshots are too heavy to fit the size limitation, if you want to keep decent image quality. Best would be some nice fitting background color, but I'm all ears to any idea.
Quote:
Is there something specific for Era? Creature - masterpieces and etc, towns, artworks.

Tons really
I think the image provided by Sal reflects how powerful Era is to modders, but even reduced to the max with jpeg optimizer I had to reduce its opacity and implement it into one frame only to stay within 60kb.
Quote:
I never played it

Worth a shot.
Era is so huge I didn't even played 10% of what's out there.

As a player I recommend any of the HoL mods, most graphical mods such as NIM, NIM Rampart or custom player banners are nice reskins, they are really tons to look out, affecting/enhancing gameplay as well.

The one I really await to go back to Era is the next, really promising release of the Succession Wars mod for H3 <3

edit : Salamandre, would you care to link more background images that you find relevant ? I've not given up yet !
Even though I highly doubt there is a way of having that much integrated.

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Salamandre
Salamandre


Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
posted December 07, 2014 06:00 PM

Galaad said:
Salamandre, would you care to link more background images that you find relevant ? I've not given up yet !
Even though I highly doubt there is a way of having that much integrated.



I think This banner you did is the most appropriate, both size and content. I see no point in starting a creative and long work and then have it refused for extra octets. Is ok.
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Galaad
Galaad

Hero of Order
Li mort as morz, li vif as vis
posted December 07, 2014 06:02 PM
Edited by Galaad at 18:09, 07 Dec 2014.

@Salamandre : OK maybe is best to wait a bit and see how Valeriy reacts.
However, the one you mentioned is still too heavy, it needs the white background (or web color, maybe some light grey?) to fit size.

Edit : with light grey webcolor background banner is 61kb lol
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Valeriy
Valeriy

Mage of the Land
Naughty, Naughty Valeriy
posted December 07, 2014 09:27 PM

Great collaboration happening here

A reminder to all GIF animators: right click the file > properties > size on disk. Has to be under 60,000 bytes.

We need to avoid flashing. Flashing text is irritating, and the intention of a community banner is to inform rather than to push or "hard sell" a thread. I've added this to the criteria in the master post.

Also, I don't think it is a good idea to make a banner for every notable thread on HC, because we will end up with dozens of banners. Perhaps this idea can be executed better by having a "Newcomers Guide to the Best Threads on HC" in the Newcomers Inn forum AND having a community banner to promote that thread to newcomers.

Community banners themselves should be reserved for the most notable - currently active contests, the best mods on HC, several of the best threads on HC - that kind of thing.

---

Suggestions about the ERA banner:
- no flashing as per above
- I think that having an image is good, banner is a visual thing
- using JPG optimization is useless and may even be counter-productive as GIF uses a completely different method of storing data
- I'd avoid the use of another unexplained acronym (WOG) because the banner will be seen by people who have no idea what that is.

My design suggestion based on your drafts:
- start with the adventure map image spanning most or all of the banner
- go to white or silver background with one phrase "Modify HOMM 3 as you never could before with ERA II" (no need for typewriter, its just distracting).
Nice and simple - attractive detailed image, short clear message without technical jargon, no hard sell.
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Be an example of what you want to see on HC and in the world.
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Galaad
Galaad

Hero of Order
Li mort as morz, li vif as vis
posted December 08, 2014 02:44 AM
Edited by Galaad at 16:00, 08 Dec 2014.

Thank you Valeriy
We might have lost ourselves a bit in the creative process indeed

Edit : Edited my main post with the latest banner proposal for Era.

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Valeriy
Valeriy

Mage of the Land
Naughty, Naughty Valeriy
posted December 08, 2014 08:52 PM
Edited by Valeriy at 23:26, 08 Dec 2014.

That's a nice and clean one, Galaad My final suggestion is to add a couple of words to it to make it very clear what it is about, like this:

- above "HOMM-III" add "Modify" (better to use modify than mod as it is more understandable to newbies).
- above "ERA II" add "with".

So: "Modify HOMM-III" (sample picture) "with ERA II".

EDIT: Thanks for making the changes - banner live Also, I think a QP is well deserved for making three nice community banners

I've updated the masterpost of this thread with the list of community banners in circulation.
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You can wait for others to do it, but if they don't know how, you'll wait forever.
Be an example of what you want to see on HC and in the world.
http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com

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Galaad
Galaad

Hero of Order
Li mort as morz, li vif as vis
posted December 09, 2014 12:13 AM
Edited by Galaad at 21:41, 15 Dec 2014.

Valeriy said:
EDIT: Thanks for making the changes - banner live Also, I think a QP is well deserved for making three nice community banners

The Era banner was a nice community effort, I couldn't have come up with the last one without the help I received. Thank you
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