Should We Change Our OPU Header?

[jcj94]

Well to vote, you have to see the new one.  




You will have to zoom in, but I can shrink the image down for use as a header IF it gets approved.
This is actually the Thumbnail of it.  It would take up to much room as it normally is.

go here to view the actual header at its full size

and the old on:



Well Which is better?

[BlackBox]

The image you posted doesn't even have a correct aspect ratio so everything looks squashed vertically. I'd prefer not to use images on the website that don't even look right.

[jcj94]

Well close the post...

I guess I need something better than paint to try and do this in.
    Whatyah say? wait until summer when:
         1: more people are on to vote
         2: I have more time to make this better (its really a kind of rough draft)
         3: I have a better tool to manipulate the images the way I want.

 

[CK9]

To be (brutally) honest, yours looks very unprofessional.  It is overly cluttered with action and detracts from the overall appearance.  The nice thing about the current header is that it gives you a small taste, just enough to encite curiosity.  The only thing I would really change about it is to use some PHP coding to select from a number of in-game images.  That way, you get a bit of the varied flavors and potentially more of the overall image.

[TH300]

To be (brutally) honest, yours looks very unprofessional.  It is overly cluttered with action and detracts from the overall appearance.  The nice thing about the current header is that it gives you a small taste, just enough to encite curiosity.  The only thing I would really change about it is to use some PHP coding to select from a number of in-game images.  That way, you get a bit of the varied flavors and potentially more of the overall image.

I fully agree with that. Don't resize anything, keep units their original size. Keep one scene per header image (which is selected by a php script). Take not only fighting scenes but also ones with merely some buildings, maybe ore production or even a few advanced residences next to a nursery.

[evecolonycamander]

what we need to improve the header:
 Image variance(changing images from colony games and multiplayer. NOT just the action, but some of the building)
 a red planet image OTHER THEN mars photos.
a classy title. use lynx or Denmark font. MABIE bank Gothic bt
 clickable(takes you to downloads page or home page)

this sound about right?

[Freeza-CII]

hmmmm. I think if you were to have a image with buildings of OP2. I would use a animated image of the buildings. So it doesnt look so stagnate. I wouldnt make battle scenes animated to much going on. Whats wrong with mars photos. Its suppose to resemble new terra with out looking horrible.

[CK9]

Did they use mars for the intro video?

[Zardox Xheonov]

I don't think they did, so what im understanding ck9 is that you don't want mars either? would we all rather have an original looking planent (not mars) but still look good and just like new terra?
 

[evecolonycamander]

well new terras image looks more like an orange gas planet, so if we can find an image or two of that we SHOULD be able to have a better image

CK9: no, they used a photoshop quality image that was unique.

freeza: agreed. any way of getting the images though? in full gif format. the art veiwer cant do that. only stillframe

[TH300]

freeza: agreed. any way of getting the images though? in full gif format. the art veiwer cant do that. only stillframe

You could capture videos of games and convert parts of those videos into gifs. This seems to be very involved and may require you to use advanced software for video editing and conversion.

The idea is great, though.

[evecolonycamander]

that makes the images low quality. more so on older computers

[TH300]

that makes the images low quality. more so on older computers

Of course you should do a lossless capture on a modern computer (you can probably keep the framerarte low, since anything far beyond 10 fps will probably make the gif file too big). Otherwise forget it. If jcj's computer isn't good enough, he should ask someone to do it. Or probably ask a few more people, because quite a few videos will be needed.

[jcj94]

IF we do a .gif,I can fiddle around with some software I have.  The links would have to be overlays done by the site code itself.. i.e. the html code.  We have something like that for a slideshow on our FIRST Robotics website here.

If you guys could do something like that (not as gentle / "kid"ish)  and use multiple images, I could simply do some animated .GIFs of ConVecs picking up Cargo, a cargotruck pikcing up food, and a mine puting ore in a truck and use those.  

But on that, should it be all 3 in one ore 3 seperate .gif files?

EDIT: I can only use my software that I found so save video as an .AVI file.  I don't know if I can figure out a way to convert .avi to .gif

[CK9]

you don't even need to do a vid.  There are programs that allow for rapid-screenshot capture (I think either Camtasia or Fraps has an option for this, but there are others that are made specifically for the function).  You could use that, set up a hotkey OP2 doesn't use, and take a series of screenshots that show the animation.  Or, unless I'm thinking about howw the images are done incorrectly, you could build them from the game files and combine them into a finished image be using the PHP image functions.  I played with this type of thing a bit a LONG while back, and someone who actually knows what they are doing could easily make it look nice.

[TH300]

I was thinking of real in-game scenes, not just a convec loading and unloading stuff (that'd be boring). Now I'm seeing one little problem: You have to either make a loop or switch to another gif if one has played through in order to make it look nice. Probably the latter, since the first cannot be done with most scenes, e.g. fighting scenes. That'd however increase the amount of data that needs to be transferred... not so much hope for this nice idea

[CK9]

and that's why static images work better

[jcj94]

So, more focus on the fight scence?

Could we setup a slide show in the site?  

I could mod SEVERAL images as use for a header, just simple OP2 Screenshots, while still useing our current header.  If we do THIS, tough, the html coding would be needed to setp the different header at different times.  Again, in a link in one of my earlier post, i have a link to what my teams website area has done for us, and the slide show they have done was all in the website, those aren't gifs.

I can EASILY make a header with 2 battle images and a building image

I'll post when I can
 

[TH300]

After thinking some more about it I believe that too much animation would be rather irritating. I say: Choose one image when the site is loaded and keep that. (BlackBox's signature is a nice example)

[evecolonycamander]

hmm... yeah. loads one image form a small database(or just a random variable attached to images ) and loads it up to the header

[jcj94]

Well to do that then we need some header images.  

How about we keep our old one AND have some new ones in there for a little flavor?

[evecolonycamander]

Well to do that then we need some header images.  

How about we keep our old one AND have some new ones in there for a little flavor?

i vote for this idea until we find the newer ones MUCH better

[Zardox Xheonov]

I secound the idea, g00d idea, above.

[Spikerocks101]

Can we just not change anything for a bit. I actually never minded the OPU header as is. >_>

[jcj94]

Here is one



and another



and another



and ANOTHER



and yet ANOTHER





So, Like them or not?

Used with express permission from a particular member, hope he likes what ended up happening to them.