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Note: As a result of a recent poll, I've decided to (for now, at least) discontinue this project (due to its unpopularity with a significant enough proportion of the LR community). You may still use what's here, but do so at your own risk!
So after opterown raised concerns over how LR threads are being handled, I felt quite bad for not being able to contribute anything constructive, due to my timezone/schedule. I really wanted to improve the LR experience somehow... and finally I decided that if I couldn't run the threads, I would work to spiffy them up a bit for those who do.
As is, the LR thread content is pretty in-depth. There isn't much immediate improvement necessary there. So instead, I'm going to focus on making the threads prettier, using modular banner graphics. What do I mean by modular? Well, you think of them like lego blocks or jigsaw pieces. I supply everyone with the pieces (and some guidance), and people can use them to create various types of banners and headings in LR threads.
If you see my graphics/designs in threads, please let me know what you think, both from an aesthetic and performance point of view. If the graphics are lagging mobile devices and things, I may have to rethink my approach to the project a little!
Without further ado, let me introduce you to the graphics in question. In particular, player banners:
Player Banners
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Z5cWpPd.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/sTiCBcp.png)
These two images above are the examples of the player banners I've been making. They consist of the player's team and ID done up in a similar style to the GSL ID calls, on a textured background in the color of that player's race (T=Blue, P=Green, Z=Red). There is two player banners for each player, one which is left justified (as seen above), and another which is right justified:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/i6mw9Bd.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/yNPy63b.png)
I'm going to refer to these as the Left Name Plate and the Right Name Plate. In addition to these two types of 'pieces', there is a third important piece: the Center Block.
The most commonly used center block in the context of player banners will be this, the VS. Using this, you can combined a left and right name plate to make a cool little banner that shows off a particular player matchup:
+ Show Spoiler +
Over time, practically every relevant player will have their own name plates, allowing an LR thread creator to put together a banner for any match-up they'd like, without needing to bother anyone about making banners, or even any experience using programs like photoshop!
Additionally, there is two other types of pieces, Banner Headers and Banner Footers. These are designed to go directly above or below the player banners, respectively. For example, suppose the match-up above was in the Ro24 of Code A. The header can be used to indicate that...
+ Show Spoiler +
Footer example coming soon...
Now that you've seen what you can do with them, it's time to talk about how you can construct them yourself:
Constructing Player Banners
The format for posting a simple 3-piece match-up banner is as follows:
<Left Name Plate><Center Block><Right Name Plate>
All three pieces are on the same line and no spaces are put between them. To get the left name plate and right name plate, look up the players in the asset index, and use the links provided.
Make sure that you use a left name plate and right name plate, and not two of the same side. Otherwise it'll look something like this:
+ Show Spoiler +
Additionally, there are nine different VS center blocks, one for each match-up. Because of the gradients used in the banners, mismatching your VS center block with the races of the players around it while create visible seams that are aesthetically unappealing. Although you can't really see them with a dull monitor, you can with a bright one (like mine). Still, if you're feeling lazy, you can probably overlook this and not too many people will notice.
Wrong VS:
+ Show Spoiler +
Right VS:
+ Show Spoiler +
Once again, you can find the different VS banners using the asset index.
Headers and footers go directly above and below the player banner, on separate lines:
<Header>
<Left Name Plate><Center Block><Right Name Plate>
<Footer>
Technically the two are interchangeable - you can use headers are footers and virca versa, but the two types of assets are weighted specifically for their intended position. If you use them in the other position, it may look a little off. Ultimately it's up to the LR creator.
How I like to construct these things is to start off with the following:
[img][/img]
[img][/img]
[img][/img]
Then I look up the two players, and copy-paste their image links into the 1st and 3rd tag, respectively.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/7DkSzyZ.png[/img]
[img][/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/ZdrkrG2.png[/img]
Next I pick out the VS center block to use. In this case it's a ZvT, so I'll use the ZvT block:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/7DkSzyZ.png[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/pdT0fZd.png[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/ZdrkrG2.png[/img]
Then, to finish, I put it all on one line:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/7DkSzyZ.png[/img][img]http://i.imgur.com/pdT0fZd.png[/img][img]http://i.imgur.com/ZdrkrG2.png[/img]
And we've got ourselves a banner:
+ Show Spoiler +
Optionally, you can wrap a URL tag around each image so that clicking on the player name (or even the VS!) will take you to a particular page. Most commonly, I like to have the player names go to their TLPD pages, and the VS take you to the Aligulac prediction for that match. If you want to spiffy it up further, put a header on top of it!
If all goes well, the completely finished banner will look like:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/dZNv3om.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7DkSzyZ.png) ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/pdT0fZd.png) ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ZdrkrG2.png)
Code:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/dZNv3om.png[/img]
[url=http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/sc2-korean/players/2627_DongRaeGu][img]http://i.imgur.com/7DkSzyZ.png[/img][/url][url=http://aligulac.com/predict/match/?bo=3&ps=4%2C12][img]http://i.imgur.com/pdT0fZd.png[/img][/url][url=http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/sc2-korean/players/561_Bomber][img]http://i.imgur.com/ZdrkrG2.png[/img][/url]
That's everything you need to know to construct a cool matchup banner!
Asset Index: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=400207
Template Index coming soon (probably this upcoming weekend!)
What does everyone think?
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That's fucking awesome. Good job on this, you deserve a lot of credit!
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That looks pretty sick man! Nice job 
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Vancouver14381 Posts
This is a great idea but I'm not in love with the font choice. I think a simpler font would work better since Hero almost looks like HorO
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51472 Posts
Yeah the font isn't very good at all. Makes all the letters not look like proper letters lol
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On February 24 2013 09:07 JBright wrote:
This is a great idea but I'm not in love with the font choice. I think a simpler font would work better since Hero almost looks like HorO
I probably should have asked about the font before going ahead and making a ton of assets yeah...
Lesson learnt. If the font gets unpopular I'm plenty OCD enough to go back and do them all again in a new font once I have time.
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Oh looks like Dodgin used em on a test run for the GSTL LR thread :D
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I think a different font would be better
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I too dislike the font, but other than that, awesome job!
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Nice touch with the colours being based off of the players race. The glow or shine of the white text makes it quite hard to read the players names, and that is made worse because of the problematic font.
The final image looks amazing; just need to touch up on the texts. Really appreciate your efforts in these.
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So I tried two more fonts:
+ Show Spoiler [Font 1 with glow] +
+ Show Spoiler [Font 1 glowless] +
+ Show Spoiler [Font 2 with glow] +
+ Show Spoiler [Font 2 glowless] +
Also the reason I liked the old font is because it was subtle, even if it was harder to read, and fit the abstract angular style seen in the GSL logo. I'm fine with these two, but I don't like the first one as much because it's very "in your face" and bright, and the second one makes the banners look really empty because it's so squashed up. Most other fonts I tried were either too goofy looking, didn't feel unique enough (I don't want to use basically-Arial) or were case insensitive.
Still, this project is for all of you, not me! Do either of these two fonts appeal to everyone?
Poll: How about the new fonts?Font #1 no glow is good (7) 47% They're better, but still not perfect (4) 27% Font #2 no glow is good (2) 13% Font #1 with glow is good (1) 7% Font #2 with glow is good (1) 7% They're even worse! (0) 0% 15 total votes Your vote: How about the new fonts? (Vote): Font #1 with glow is good
(Vote): Font #1 no glow is good
(Vote): Font #2 with glow is good
(Vote): Font #2 no glow is good
(Vote): They're better, but still not perfect
(Vote): They're even worse!
And if anyone wants to see more examples using a particular font to be sure, just ask.
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opterown
Australia54784 Posts
good effort trying to get these to look a bit better :D
my feedback is that if you want to make banners like such, we need to have the section headers (i.e. the things that say "results" "streams" etc) to be the same, otherwise it looks kinda eh imo
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On February 24 2013 10:26 opterown wrote:
good effort trying to get these to look a bit better :D
my feedback is that if you want to make banners like such, we need to have the section headers (i.e. the things that say "results" "streams" etc) to be the same, otherwise it looks kinda eh imo
Yeah, I was going to focus on that once I got the banners themselves running so to speak.
I also plan on making modular title banners for GSTL/SPL. So if, say, Axiom-Acer and StarTale are versing each other, you can just stick together the Axiom-Acer and StarTale pieces to get a cool match banner (provided nobody else has kindly contributed a cooler one).
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Do we have the starters for LG-IM vs NSH yet?
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On February 24 2013 10:29 Dodgin wrote:
Do we have the starters for LG-IM vs NSH yet?
Only that MadBull is opening for NSH. No word on LG-IM's starting player, afaik.
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United States97276 Posts
On February 24 2013 10:29 Dodgin wrote:
Do we have the starters for LG-IM vs NSH yet?
I checked the korean gom a little bit ago and I can look again. They didn't have anything up yet. English Gom hasn't even updated the starters for FXO vs Azubu...
edit: just checked. Still nothing
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Whoa, this is a super cool idea. The font could be improved though, I also think.
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Sick! The font is kind of hard to read. For example the e in Hero.
Thank you for the hard work!
The two suggested new fonts still aren't perfect in my opinion. So I voted for that. If I had to make a choice though, I would go with Suggestion 1 with glow. It seems kind of put together without the glow.
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So 13 out of 15 people want the font changed (ouch! I'm so bad at picking fonts *shot*) and of those, the new Font 1 seems most popular overall. Also 'without glow' tends to be favored. However, I agree with jojo, I think Font 1 looks slightly better with some glow, so I decided to do a go-between and just give it a very faint glow (less than before) so that it looks less "put on".
Still, this new font does have some funny things I feel the need to point out. For one, there is no hyphen, so LG-IM has to be written as LG IM:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/m0sw2k9.png)
Also most of the letters are case sensitive, except for K for some reason. That means anywhere a K appears, it looks like its uppercase:
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/lr/nameplates/ws/woongjinsoulkey_l.png)
And lastly, 'CJ' is... kinda weird looking:
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/lr/nameplates/cj/cjbbyong_l.png)
But the font is growing on me. Is everyone fine with me to go ahead with making a bunch of these?
Alternatively, if someone else wants to try their hand at picking a font, I can always upload the .psd I use. Progress will be much slower on my end after today though, because my first day back at university is tomorrow.
Here's some blanks too if people want to experiment:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/lr/nameplates/_blanks/_p_l.png
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/lr/nameplates/_blanks/_p_r.png
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/lr/nameplates/_blanks/_t_l.png
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/lr/nameplates/_blanks/_t_r.png
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/lr/nameplates/_blanks/_z_l.png
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/lr/nameplates/_blanks/_z_r.png
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You know...
Making this scriptable wouldn't be so hard. Imagine a service that let you input two player names and a map, event name, etc. (whatever you need), generated images like these on the fly, uploaded them to imgur and then spit out ready-to-use BBcode with links to TLPD, Aligulac, Liquipedia or what have you.
I don't know how automatised Shellshock has made his OPs though.
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On February 26 2013 00:52 TheBB wrote:
You know...
Making this scriptable wouldn't be so hard. Imagine a service that let you input two player names and a map, event name, etc. (whatever you need), generated images like these on the fly, uploaded them to imgur and then spit out ready-to-use BBcode with links to TLPD, Aligulac, Liquipedia or what have you.
I don't know how automatised Shellshock has made his OPs though.
At the very least, it'd be nice to have some sort of interface which would make including the urls easier. As it is, it's kinda fiddly making sure everything is in the right spot and the tags are around the right things.
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opterown
Australia54784 Posts
On February 26 2013 00:52 TheBB wrote:
I don't know how automatised Shellshock has made his OPs though.
not at all haha
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United States97276 Posts
On February 26 2013 10:10 opterown wrote:Show nested quote +On February 26 2013 00:52 TheBB wrote:
I don't know how automatised Shellshock has made his OPs though. not at all haha
I still do it the old fashioned way of copy and paste a template and fill in the names ^^
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EPT![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/banners/vs/vspvt.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/SJA8aXV.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/B4fadf3.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Tnvl121.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/c5G6GIq.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/g4d7ghn.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ZxiHtIo.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/J4cvGbA.png)
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/banners/fonttest1.png)
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/banners/fonttest1b.png)
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/banners/fonttest1c.png)
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/banners/fonttest1glowless.png)
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/banners/fonttest1glowlessb.png)
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/banners/fonttest1glowlessc.png)
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/banners/fonttest2.png)
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/banners/fonttest2b.png)
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/banners/fonttest2c.png)
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/banners/fonttest2glowless.png)
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/banners/fonttest2noglowb.png)
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5456268/pic/banners/fonttest2noglowc.png)
