New Opu Badge/icon Demo

[dm-horus]

This is a small demo of the icons to be used for the new OPU Badge System being released at the reunion. The entire set is nearly complete and progressing much quicker than the old set I was working on. I am pleased so far with the results.

The icons below are all displayed at 64x64 pixels. They were bicubically scaled from their original development size of 800x800 pixels. I reduced the dev resolution to lessen the .psd file size so the release directory isnt too large to work with.

As you can see, the current system is much simpler than the old. Having only two elements (the base denoting rank and the identifyer which denotes purpose) reduces the level of complexity, making the icon easier to distinguish when scaled to their eventual working sizes.

I created all of the icons from scratch. The gradients and shading are all custom and will be included in the release directory so users who choose to develop new icons can simply import the elements into photoshop to maintain continuity. Some of the icons use portions of dingbats I imported. There was no point in spending time making an element from scratch when I had a more refined version of the same thing sitting in my font directory

The icons were made using 8 bit RGB color to make them easy to import into a variety of editing software, again to make later development less cumbersome.

Unfortunately the icons as they are now seriously lose their quality when scaled below 64x64 pixels. I believe this will have to be the point at which the lo-res pixel icons take over badge representation.

Tell me what you think. Revisions will be released after reunion.






Here is a breakdown of the rate at which the icon quality degrades with resolution scaling. The effect is pretty dramatic when below 64x64.

[Mcshay]

The 3D modeler icon looks out of place among the colorless others. Mabe it should be a sketch of a cube instead. Aside from that, they're great!

[Leviathan]

Looking realy sweet

I think you should make the joystick a bit biger to fill more of the icon.

Great work

And people, keep suggeting ideas such as badges on the project here. And suggetons on Horus's work here.

Thanks

[dm-horus]

MCshay: The 3D Modeler icon is not the only one with color. It does look out of place when put next to the ones I chose to show you, Ill admit. I will revise these and replace the colored cude with an isometric line cube.

Leviathan: I tried to keep all the icons at the same size, taking up the same space within the circle. You sure it should be bigger?

[thablkpanda]

Freakin sweet dude!!

LOL.

That's nice- I agree with the previous comments though, they need to all be monochrome, or all colored to make it more 'symbolistic', I'd switch the cube to an outline, as 'Shay suggested.

Very, very pimp. We need some more ideas, because I'm not much of any one of those, yet I don't think I really hold a position here.... This is interesting, we need more stuff to do. Lol.

-Contemplating
Christopher Merchant
Merchant Enterprises

[dm-horus]

I applied your suggestions to the 3D Modeler icon and have also updated the above diagrams to reflect its new appearance. I think it looks better! Thanks guys!

[Leviathan]

Thing is, do we want do go for this for ALL the icons? Are we gonna do the black outline picture on all?

I think it works well but it means we cant have op2 ico and other such pictures.

[dm-horus]

I think having a single style for all the icons would be best. the simpler the icon, the better it scales. if you wanted me to have icons with any kind of color or any style, it would have to be larger than 64x64. its just too small to show any kind of real detail with complex colors and shapes.

remember that the icons in the diagram above are at the MAXIMUM resolution. the working resolution (what will be used on the site in the badge mod) will be 32x32 unless the badge team decides they want to go for the 64x64, which i highly approve of.

the main reason why i did a consistant style and color throughout all the icons is to draw the attention of the viewer to only two things: what the picture on the icon stands for and the color of the background. the background color changes only to denote what rank the icon is and the picture on top is only to represent what the icon is for. if i made the picture on top a varying color, the user would have to either ask someone what it meant or hover their mouse to see the alt text meaning. with the system i have in place, the viewer will see the icons on multiple profiles and see that the only thing that changes is the background color which means rank and the picture on top which explains itself. changing its color would only add another unknown element people would have to figure out. keeping it consistent makes it easier to understand.

i can certainly add color to the icon pictures but it might all blur together when they are scaled down to their working resolutions.

[thablkpanda]

Dude, you're the freaking man.

I think you were like reincarnated by me or something... or vice versa. This is completely what I'd do if I had the gfx skill. lol

Horus, I sincerely approve of the 64x64 also, but I think they're just too big for our mass-application of icons as we plan to do so. People that apply to multiple categories such as Levithian and Hacker- would take up completely too much space.

Maybe we could use the 48x48 resolution instead of the 32x32- that sounds like a reasonable exchange... The 48 is nice, just slightly smaller...

I'll be on IRC later-
Christopher Merchant
Merchant Enterprises

[BlackBox]

These icons do look very nice.

However, I'd have to say that 48x48 would probably be the absolute max on the site. If we get up into 64x64 and so on, they're gonna start taking up too much room.

How I think I'll probably implement it is, on the mini profile to the left of the post, I'd use the small (probably 16x16) icons. Then in the user's main profile (what you see when you click on their name) use the bigger ones, like 32x32 or 48x48.

I'm really liking it though and I think it will be a good addition to our site!

[dm-horus]

this is shaping up to be really awesome

panda: i can totally show you anything youd want to learn for photoshop and a variety of other gfx proggies.

[thablkpanda]

Oh, dude, I'm a photoshop and fireworks pro. I don't really like photoshop as much, I really use fireworks. I can basically achieve the same effects, I just don't have the patience or time to do the stuff, and that I congratulate you GREATLY on-

I mean it's two gradients, and a collection of lines.. lol j/p.

I could pull off the same thing, it just wouldn't look as good, and probably take me as long.

Chris

[dm-horus]

fireworks? how is that proggy? ive got it but never used it or installed it. yeah, the icons are pretty simplistic but that is their function. keep in mind its taken me actually a couple of days combined to figure out what looks good and what WORKS by trial and error. ive still got the dirs with my other attempts and it gets me how many lovely looking things you can make that dont work or functional things that look like crap . my icons are a delicate balance of crap and necessity. if i had my tablet i could make some really nifty backgrounds. i used to do illustration and that takes a LOT of time, effort and skill. more than i have to invest atm.

[Leviathan]

Thanks very much for your time and effot

[thablkpanda]

Yeah, I'm sorry, I don't mean to demean your work, it's teh hotness.

Fireworks is what I use when I don't feel like waiting for Photoshop, Imageready and any other utilities and all my brushes to load. It's pretty much like Imageready, except with Photoshop's -likeness. I don't know how to explain it. It's simple, and small. Two things I require when I'm doing photo retouching, or simple graphics creation.

I do also appreciate your time and effort, although Lev just appreciates your time and effot. I think he's boycotting the letter 'r' this week.

You know who.

[Freeza-CII]

Now i notice you have a ranking system set up.  How is one determind Guru or total Noob.  I hope it isnt going to be Self pronounced glory for some and the being of a total jack ass for others.

[HaXtOr]

Now i notice you have a ranking system set up.  How is one determind Guru or total Noob.  I hope it isnt going to be Self pronounced glory for some and the being of a total jack ass for others.

my thoughts exactly
will there be a vote thingy? or something like one of thoes "how is my driveing" bumper sticker?

[dm-horus]

haxtor: all of that is out of my hands. im just the guy making the pretty pictures. the duty of assigning badges and rank is not up to me and i think discussion on this subject is meant for another thread. i would imagine that giving someone a badge would require a committee or a group vote of some kind. im not really sure how the badge mod team wants to handle it and as far as i know the mod hasnt started development yet, so input to leviathan, freeza, op2hacker, hooman would probably be the ppl you should talk to on that. i have some theories on how it could be done but it would require a lot of coding. perhaps there is a link to a form after you login that lets you nominate a user for a badge. the votes are sent to the admins who approve the badge and rank whicn is then given to the user. i havent really given it as much thought as the icons themselves. just make sure to keep ideas for icons (especially the joke icons) coming in!!!

[BlackBox]

We still haven't decided how we're going to handle it.

The generic "rank" icons might just replace the old forum system of using those 'pips' and user ranks (i.e. Outpost Civilian, Outpost Scientist).

People will probably not be able to 'automatically' nominate people for icons. I mean, the system won't automatically add icons based on people's voting, it'd probably be all manual control.

However it's hard to say how we'll implement assigning icons yet.
This thread is to discuss the icons themselves.

[TH300]

They are ok so far. the cube could be turned left a bit so that it doesn't just look like some lines.

May I suggest for the low-res versions, that you do not place a colored something behind the symbol, but make the symbol colored? This way you have one thing to depict and nothing else.

[thablkpanda]

Seriously,

People, we're all sitting at the grown-ups table here, we can all self proclaim whether or not we're total noobs at coding, or more experienced. Honestly, I'm not going to blow myself up and make me seem good at something I'm barely proficent in, so why would anyone else?

Some of us, yes, are extremely childish at times, but in all fairness, I think we can handle this...

-Chris

[Leviathan]

Yea I agree. The rank depends on how much maping for example you have done. Someone who has produced a lot of maps would have a higher ranking badge than someone who has just started maping. Common sense..

Unless you have suggestions for these new badges please dont post on this thread. Post here thanks.

[dm-horus]

I agree, panda.

op2hacker: i know what this thread is for - I started it - but since many people are wondering about how to handle the icons, i made a suggestion.

my suggestion was reflecting the fact that nobody wants to feel like theyre getting a nod from some kind of committee in order to get a rank. the whole community would revolve around getting higher rank. when the user registers, why not let them choose what their abilities are in checkboxes and the icons appear in order to reflect it?

i do think everyone is capable of managing themselves with this. afterall, theyre just icons. my intention wasnt to create a pecking order, just something cool for us to look at and play with. why would someone announce themselves to be a coding pro when theyre not? the chances are high they will be asked to do some coding so theyd just be cornering themselves. yes, some people will be stupid about it but i doubt they could go very long and maintain the facade considering how tightly-knit the community is.

theres no reason to get in a huff over these things. to be honest, if i see things getting out of hand i simply wont release the icons. i dont want to be responsible for starting a subject of contention. these are supposed to be fun, not frustrating.

[Leviathan]

I think your idea of having the ranks for each aspect was a very good one

Unless you have suggestions for these badges please dont post on this thread. Post here thanks.
 

[Sl0vi]

the colors of newbie and regular are a bit too similar. Difficult for colorblind people like me to see the difference

otherwise, they are quite nice.