Hydaelyn Role-Players
Graphic and Technical Assistance (RPC Update Stuff) - Printable Version

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Graphic and Technical Assistance (RPC Update Stuff) - Kylin - 01-22-2012

Yay for more Lounge spam!

The RPC site overhaul is slowly coming together. I've been mostly tied up with the graphical overhaul in this moreso than anything else at this point (although the graphical overhaul is far more intense than anything else and is the most important aspect of Part II). However, I'm reaching some points where my graphic skills are hitting a brick wall and need a tiny bit of assistance.

The assistance largely just includes optimizing a few images (transparency tweaks, fancy text creation, editing lightness for better picture to picture transitions, and a tiny detail regarding an animated gif). If anyone is confident that they can help with any of this, please post here and I'll be more than happy to go into more details and send the images in question (plus, you'll get an exclusive sneak peak at the new site concept!).

As for technical stuff...I'm running into roadbumps with the following things: Eorzean clock and carousel news block. Should anyone be experienced in php/html/css/javascript coding, please help! I have the basic code for the clock thanks to one of our wonderful members, but I'm at a loss of what to do with it (php? js? html?).

Finally, we'll also be up for domain name and web space renewal in not too long. I'll create yet another spam thread for this in about a week or so but donations are the only way we'll be able to keep the site for another year. So if you want to get a jump on it, please navigate to the main page and then to the Paypal donation sidebar box to donate some funds to the cause. Make sure you select the proper payment type (dollars, euros, etc). Currently, we have a whole $3 toward the cause Laugh . I don't know yet the full amount we'll need until I do the official calculation, but I do know it'll be over $100.

On a semi-related note, here's a mini-report of where I'm presently at in regards to the redesign just so everyone knows that I'm not sitting back doing nothing XD.
Spoiler: show
*A completely new background has been created and is ready to go, although I intend to still add one more element to it in order to give it more of an Eorzean feel.

*A completely new secondary background has been prepared, save some needed optimization. By secondary background, I'm referring to the stone-colored background you currently see.

*The new button concept/mockup (those buttons above the banner) is complete and is my present main priority. I think most of you will really like this! I expect to have this completely done within a couple days time.

*The new banner concept is complete, save for some optimizations. With this will also come a slight rebranding. While people are free to continue using the "RPC" if they so wish, the banner will officially refer to us as "Hydaelyn Role-Players."

*The login/user panel box up in the banner has been optimized/altered so that everything is a bit more compact, yet still appeasing to the eye.

*All guildleve borders (save for one needed instance) have been totally removed from all pages and those files are ready to go.

*A brand new forum specific cursor is being prepared and is mostly ready, save optimization.

*New sound effects for the buttons are in the works (in which match up with the new cursor!)

That's about where I'm at right now. Once I finish all of that (which isn't too far off now), I'll be moving on to the actual physical colors. The blue will be gone, though I haven't decided what to replace it all with it yet and it will likely require some experimentation to find the right shades. I can tell you that instead of just one color, the current blue boxes will instead be comprised of two colors this time around. I may go the extra mile and create fancy FFXIV backgrounds for each forum section. Text colors will also be changing with this and links will stand out more. Once all the new colors are ready, I can move onto the more technical stuff (such as a gallery sidebar widget, the forum title system, etc). I also wanted to make it known that I have no plans to overhaul the look of the wiki, as that's pretty satisfactory I think save for a few overly light colored texts here and there. The wiki, however, is constantly being worked on in terms of category cleaning and organization. If you have something specific you'd like to see changed/added anywhere in the site, be sure to speak up!


Re: Graphic and Technical Assistance (RPC Update Stuff) - Eva - 01-23-2012

I can help with the graphical components and I may be able to help with the PHP/HTML/CSS/etc. I'm a bit rusty with that, but I'd be glad to at least take a look at it. Much more confident with graphic edits though.

Re: Graphic and Technical Assistance (RPC Update Stuff) - Kylin - 03-12-2012

Bump. All I need help with now is with a mere two images. That's it. Everything else is 99% done aside from some coding stuff I'm experimenting with. After playing around with the above mentioned two images, I've come to the conclusion that it is beyond my skill to complete. So until I can find someone willing and able to get it done ASAP, the site overhaul is at a complete stand-still.

Image 1: Requires knowledge in animation creation. You'd simply be creating multiple layers to give an image a glowing effect. Tried this myself thinking it would be a breeze. Boy was I wrong! >.>. Sample image (along with the actual image in which the effect is needed) can/will be provided to show what I'm aiming for here.

Image 2: Requires knowledge in image cloning/completion. I have an image that is partially cut out and is missing it's bottom lower right half. I'd need someone able to use mirror copy/paste and/or cloning techniques to make the image whole again.

Please either post here or contact me in private if you prefer if able/willing to help with this. Once these two images are done, I can finish everything else within a day or two and have the new site officially up within a week's time. So the sooner, the better! Thanks in advance.

Re: Graphic and Technical Assistance (RPC Update Stuff) - Aysun - 03-12-2012

I enjoy playing in photoshop, send me a PM telling me what you're looking for. >>; I can't tell what exactly you're looking for from these descriptions. Glowy effect needing animation experience makes me nervous when it comes to anything on a website (I hate flashy pages with extra scripts/cursors/weird link colors). XD

Re: Graphic and Technical Assistance (RPC Update Stuff) - Kylin - 03-13-2012

Assuming Aysun is able to finish up the two images by tomorrow (no pressure :twisted: ), the site update will be scheduled for Thursday. The site will be unavailable for several hours starting around morning hours. You may/may not see multiple error messages throughout the morning/early afternoon (EST time) if you try to connect since I'll be modifying about 80% of the site's image and coding files.

Some things to note:

1. Refresh your browser (possibly multiple times) after the update in order to update your browsers cookie files for this site and display everything properly.

2. The update may end up restructuring the entire site map slightly. For example, ffxiv-roleplayers.com/forum may become ffxiv-roleplayers.com/index.php. I plan to try my best to set up automatic redirects so this won't impact anyone in terms of bookmarks and the like. However, should I fail and should you get a constant error message saying the page doesn't exist or whatever, please manually type in the url bar "www.ffxiv-roleplayers.com" and update your bookmarks. Again, I hope to avoid this via auto-redirects but everything doesn't always go as planned.

I'm super excited for this relaunch of the site and have put a tremendous amount of work into it. I'm sorry it's coming so late but I wanted to make sure there were as few bugs as possible first. I promise you that every aspect of the new design looks better than this one. And it's very "Final Fantasyish" as well ^^.

Further ninja edits/tweaks will be made after the update over time to get everything better matching. Full notes will be made regarding this update after it's done. Comments and suggestions will of course be welcome once the update is live.

Also, a preemptive congrats to Sha and Rain for becoming soon-to-be new moderators for the forum!

Re: Graphic and Technical Assistance (RPC Update Stuff) - Eva - 03-14-2012

I know I've been busy lately but if you want another pair of eyes for any of the graphics or need any minor adjustments made (or major ones over a longer time span), just let me know. Wink