Preserved Topic: New interface for homepage

I am working on a new interface for my homepage and I would like some input. Thank you in advance.
http://www.krets.net/house/knet.jpg

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www.krets.net
If you shoot a mime, should you use a silencer?

Very nice looking, but now to hammer it with criticism. <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

1.) The thing seems to be a little shy of width. I suggest that you extend the screen more to the right in order to fill up that "empty" space. I'm assuming that your using the interface for the top left of the screen.

2.) Adding Scanlines to the tv and perhaps a tv glare could help.

3.) The pipe connecting the tv to the circle thing looks a bit unrealistic. The reason? There's a small line of white pixels at the top and the bottom of that pipe. Remedy: Get rid of the white edges and also drop shadow that tv onto the pipe.

4.) The text on the pipe is hard to read. Not sure if you intended that effect.

5.) Try insetting the about me button and the blue buttons on the left. They seem to be insetted but it isn't smooth. you need to try to get all the jaggies outta the whole image.

6.) Perspective on that vertical tube holding the blue buttons up seems to be a little odd...especially at the bottom. I can't pinpoint it because my eyes are groggy. <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

Other than that.....very nice looking. Just clear out the extra white junk around some images.. heh i suppose you made it on a whie background and clipped it. Try using a transparent background next time, makes your life easier. Btw, i like your screws but try not to overuse them. TV might look better without them screws.

Btw, nice wires.
*grin*
*Eviltoylet goes off to compare these wires to wire tutorials.

-eviltoylet-
AIM: EviLToYLeT
www.eviltoylet.com

Wheeee! I love critiquing... okay. First thing I noticed... there's a problem with your wires. The yellow wire goes under the red, then over it and over it again. Clearly, you used a layer option of shadow to create the shadow of the yellow wire over the red... one thing you missed.. the yellow wire also casts a shadow on the red even when it's supposedly going UNDER the red. Look look and you'll see...

The ends of your blue pill buttons have little pointy bits. They're a tad distracting. It's probably caused by when you were making the rounded edges.

The large screws look cut and pasted on... there's a thin white circle around each one like it was copied off a white background or something...

I love the layout, but the texturing seems phony and off... if the texturing looked more realistic, it would be absolutely sweet.

Oh, and your sister is very pretty and a tad distracting too... :P But you knew somebody was going to say that.

Yeah, my sis is a cutie. She has a VERY large boyfriend though! <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

Anyone have any suggestions about how I could remove the jaggies from the blue pill buttons?

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www.krets.net
If you shoot a mime, should you use a silencer?

What you could try is to soften the edges on the pill layers. I'm not sure if this will work, but try it out. select the pill shapes on the layers, make a new layer underneath, and fill it with white. Optionally, you could try gaussiaun blurring that white layer.

-eviltoylet-
AIM: EviLToYLeT
www.eviltoylet.com

You can make the same shape for those pill buttons by creating two circular selections and dragging a rectangular selection between them from the tip top of the left one to the tip bottom of the right... or however you want to drag.. left/right, whatever. As long as your circular selections have antialiased edges, it should improve the look.

You can also try this and see if it helps:

1. Create a new layer above the pills.
2. Select the transparency of the pills.
3. Invert the selection and fill the new layer with with black.
4. Invert the selection back and use Layer > Add Layer Mask > Reveal Selection to hide the black. (It looks like it has no point so far, but keep going.)
5. Creating the mask will have deselected your selection, so select the transparency of the pills again. (You might want to use CTRL+H to hide it so you can better see the following.)
6. Use Gaussian Blur to bleed the black into the selected area.

From here, I will usually adjust the opacity of the layer and maybe even duplicate the layer to get the right effect. BTW, this also helps make the edges of the pills look a little rounder.

On another note, I disagree on expanding the width. I try not to design anything larger than 610 pixels wide max to accomodate a 640x480 screen. While it may be true that most people run at higher resolutions now, that doesn't mean anything when people don't maximize their browsers. I run at 1024x768 here at work, and larger at home, but browse with my window at 640 pixels wide and stretch it taller--I find it easier to read that way. I would, however, make the elements on the left a bit smaller. That would allow for more room for content.

Nice work so far, keep it up.




[This message has been edited by Wes (edited 31-07-2000).]

WES, you've just reminded me about a nagging question I've been meaning to ask you guys. Firstly WES, how to you set your window to exactly 640 pixels wide? Is there a way other than clicking and dragging?
And also another thing thats been bugging me. When I open another window when browsing the net, is there a default setting somewhere that you can set up to determine the size of the new window, or is it determined by the web page you are currently viewing??



[This message has been edited by TheTrixter (edited 06-08-2000).]

>Cheesy PSA Music<

To learn more about this and other subjects, visit your local OZONE forum and read up on the topic "Window size ?" -or- click on the handy link below. You'll be glad you did...and so will your kids.

http://www.ozones.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/000260.html

To get rid of the jaggies:

ctrl-click the layer an oval is on to select the oval. go to "channels" and create a new channel from your selection. you should now have a jaggy white oval as a channel. go to filter-->gaussian blur and blur the channel a few pixels, until you can no longer see the jaggies on the image, but just one nice smooth blurred edge. now go into image-->adjust-->levels and drag the two levels sliders on the outside towards the inside slider, making sure they are even distances away. move the 2 on the outside inwards in small increments until the blurriness goes away and you are left with a sharp, crisp oval of approximately the same size as your originals. you can now ctrl-click that channel to make a selection of your new oval, and fill it with whatever texture you had used before.

hope that helps, if it was unlear I will try to clarify.

EDIT: I'm a spelling idiot.


Timing has an awful lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.



[This message has been edited by Tycho (edited 09-08-2000).]