29 Nov, 2009, Mudder wrote in the 1st comment:
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As this is likely an area most of us do not have a firm handle on, I am curious how many in this community would consider themselves capable graphic artists?

Looking at some of the banners up there, we definitely have a need. :stare:

So if you're a capable graphic artist and are willing to partake in this section of the forum, make yourself known and also list areas which you feel you are weak in and would thus prefer for a trade.
05 Dec, 2009, jurdendurden wrote in the 2nd comment:
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I have reasonable skills in Adobe Photoshop and could make some decent banners (better than some that I see but not quite as good as others… :P) for people if they were interested in trading for a bit of building.
20 Dec, 2009, Brinson wrote in the 3rd comment:
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I was decently good with photoshop before becoming a linux user ruined me. I personally think my signature looks very cool. Hehe.
20 Dec, 2009, Skol wrote in the 4th comment:
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15+ years in graphics post-college. For me, any graphics mud-side are purely for play.
20 Dec, 2009, David Haley wrote in the 5th comment:
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Skol said:
For me, any graphics mud-side are purely for play.

What do you mean? Do you mean play vs. profession?
20 Dec, 2009, Skol wrote in the 6th comment:
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Exactly, I do them for my own amusement and fun.
As a designer I don't often get to do things 'i' want to do, if I do things for the mud I get to :).
The guy who mentored me in programming C was the same way, he didn't get much fun from writing embedded code for contracts (or any 'ooh that rocks!' feedback) so he did MUD programming as his 'fun' version.
22 Dec, 2009, Sandi wrote in the 7th comment:
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Mudder said:
Looking at some of the banners up there, we definitely have a need. :stare:

Many of the banners suffer from existing graphics being scaled down too much. I even thought of starting a thread on this, as many of them are unreadable. You'll note mine is from an old design, as I can't scale my current design (used on my webpage and TMC) down to the size required here. (yeh, I could drop the cat face and just have letters, but I think the old drop-shadowed letters look better. :) )

For example, look at Skol's .sig, then look a his banner. His .sig definitely displays his talents. On the banner, the text to the right is pretty much lost. (not to single him out, others are worse, but Skol's right here, and I figure a pro can take a critique.)
22 Dec, 2009, Skol wrote in the 8th comment:
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Rofl, no doubt Sandi. I think it (the banner) pops up so rarely that I forget in between moments of blushing at the forced sizing ;).

I'll probably re-do the rotating one with the more 'red-dragon skin' version like this one:

… of course, sized to the correct squish heh.
23 Dec, 2009, Davion wrote in the 9th comment:
Votes: 0
Sandi said:
Mudder said:
Looking at some of the banners up there, we definitely have a need. :stare:

Many of the banners suffer from existing graphics being scaled down too much. I even thought of starting a thread on this, as many of them are unreadable. You'll note mine is from an old design, as I can't scale my current design (used on my webpage and TMC) down to the size required here. (yeh, I could drop the cat face and just have letters, but I think the old drop-shadowed letters look better. :) )

For example, look at Skol's .sig, then look a his banner. His .sig definitely displays his talents. On the banner, the text to the right is pretty much lost. (not to single him out, others are worse, but Skol's right here, and I figure a pro can take a critique.)


Some of the banners are out right awful! But don't worry, the banners with the better CTR are all non-skewed and fit the screen just right ;). People using images that don't look right usually don't get clicked.
23 Dec, 2009, Skol wrote in the 10th comment:
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Lol, ok ok, I updated ;).

I didn't feel like re-designing the 460 banner, so did a more simplistic version based off the dragon skin.
23 Dec, 2009, Sandi wrote in the 11th comment:
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Wow! Now, that I like. Very cool lighting.
23 Dec, 2009, Sandi wrote in the 12th comment:
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Anyway, sorry for the side-track.

I'm looking for someone that can do figure studies as I'd like to add character sketches of our races to our webpage.
23 Dec, 2009, Skol wrote in the 13th comment:
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Sandi said:

Wow! Now, that I like. Very cool lighting.


Thanks! The texture was a macro shot of a maple leaf last year (still wet, had an amazing look). Zoom in and it's almost scales ;). But it also ties into the 'Autumn' theme in the start of the roleplay in Dragonlance.
24 Dec, 2009, Exodus wrote in the 14th comment:
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My wife made this one, too bad I can't talk her into updating the address now :sad:



For those of you with access to Adobe Photoshop, there's a million tutorials online that show you how to do very simple effects. How you use the technique is more important than your skill with it really. I've seen some really cool looking banners that are little more than a few colors accenting some text. As long as it gets people's attention, that's all that really counts.
24 Dec, 2009, David Haley wrote in the 15th comment:
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If you have a GIF editing program like ImageReady (which comes with Adobe PS IIRC), it should be very simple to update that to a new address by working off of one of the blank frames and adding from there. You might have to change the font if you don't have the old one available.
08 Jan, 2010, Kjwah wrote in the 16th comment:
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pff, MUD banners should be all text to reflect the nature of the game. :p

Everyone is talking about photoshop but it should be noted that The GIMP will work for most peoples needs as well without the cost of photoshop(unless you steal it but then you're going to hell).
24 Dec, 2010, DemiGod wrote in the 17th comment:
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I am quite a proficient self-taught designer. Both 2D Photoshop and intermediate 3Ds Max skills.

I am available if there is a need.
24 Dec, 2010, Davion wrote in the 18th comment:
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DemiGod said:
I am quite a proficient self-taught designer. Both 2D Photoshop and intermediate 3Ds Max skills.

I am available if there is a need.


That's a very nice offer, DemiGod! Thanks :). Got anything that showcases your abilities? Portfolio maybe?
24 Dec, 2010, DemiGod wrote in the 19th comment:
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The Tome Wolf image is a contest winner from the Simutronics MUD Gemstone IV.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/38430092@N0...
26 Dec, 2010, Jamdog wrote in the 20th comment:
Votes: 0
Personally, I prefer to use Flash for creating banners, although my Flash skills are very basic…
Luckily, you can make a little easy work look impressive if you know how.
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