Preserved Topic: come on in (again). . .

Omera, Tea, jestah, and Zox:

Thanks for your valueable input on my last posting. Regarding the home page, I did some re-thinking and came up with something new for the menu and the picture collage. This new menu was my original plan, but I made the mistake of first showing my client the wooden sign posts- and he liked the latter better. Anyway, here is the new link, critique away!

Oh yeah, by the way how can I "melt" together the pictures? Feather option? Masks were mentioned in the last posting, but I am not sure I know how to do that. Channels yes, masks. . .not sure.

NEW: http://www.hotfrogdesign.com/new_index2.htm

ORIGINAL: http://www.hotfrogdesign.com/new_index.htm

Thanks

I like it.... the new image is alot better, but I don't understand why you changed your navigation bar?.. I prefer the older version

new image good
old nav bar good ... <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

The old nav bar was much better. I think this page needs something though. Like a boarder around it. It's kinda plain to me.

yes, I liked the wooden signs! I remember when you first posted it.....signs good <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

the new pic in the middle is better though

...

about your main image.. the more I looked at it the more I noticed the hard transitions between the four photos.. I think it would look 100 times better if you could soften or blend in the 4 photos better....more of a montage if you know what I mean? sorry to be picky!

just a thought...

Vogonpoet- no, no not picky at all. This is how I learn dude (don't be offended if you are a CHICK, I use 'dude' for everybody: grandpa, sis, bartender, ...).

If you read the original posting at the top, I mention "melting" the pics togther. Melting, or whatever you want to call that. How can I do it? I know of the feather option. Maybe filter > distort > ripple? Ooooohh. That sounds interesting, I will experiment and return later.

this is the first time i peeked at this page ..im no expert-.i liked the wooden signs- i also thought yeah a border or accents would be kool like canoeing stuff ..and maby recess the front pic instead of a solid black line ...its very promising... mikey should take a hint to wut i mean from your text and pic combos .. all and all promising...

roflmao.. chick?.. LOL.. now I am offended! hehe .. nope definately a "Dude" thanks very much!!!

if you have your 4 photos on separate layers still. this would be a good time to practice your layer mask skills! which basically involves arranging your 4 layers in the postion you like, then using masks to transition them together... by using masks you dont permanently delete anything, just masks it... if you dont like the results you throw the mask away and create a new one..

<img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

Hah, glad no one answered this one because it just so happens that I've been making a ton of these blended images for the headers of various parts of the site I'm working on and I've come up with a really effective way to get a perfectly smooth transition of any width you want. Examples:
http://www.spsc.umn.edu/larson http://www.spsc.umn.edu/outdoorstore http://www.coffman.umn.edu/Coffman/skywaystore

Start by laying out your images where you want them to be, but not overlapping, and all on separate layers.

Choose one of the images as the base image. Now select one of the images next to it. Choose edit-->transform-->numeric, make sure relative is checked and move it so it overlaps the first image by the number of pixels that you want the image to blend by (I used 20 pixels in the examples).

Next, choose the rectangular marquee tool, set it to fixed size and specify the width and height of the overlapping part of the images. Then use it to select the overlapping part perfectly.

Now create a new channel. Select the gradient tool and make a straight black to white gradient (hold down shift to make it straight) across the selected area making sure that you are starting and stopping on the very edges to ensure a smooth transition from the start to end of the blend.

Now simply load this new channel as the selection and select the layer of the top image and hit delete.

Perfect transition.

Now, if you don't want to permanently feather the edge of the selection then u can simply use the same channel, invert it, and use it as a mask over the top image layer. Personally though I end up merging all the pictures together as a single element anyway...

Oh, btw, in critique of your new design. I like it, think it's a good clean design that has a good feel for the subject matter.

The thing I would change is to make the border around the center images more smoothly curved, it looks somewhat amateurish compared to the nice clean insets and smooth background texture.

My approach to achieve the same effect would be to draw the curve with the freehand pen tool then delete some points and tweak it.

I also liked the sign posts much better. Not because they were particularly important for this site (they were nice though), but because they set off the links from the background. I think a simple box with a solid background color would help this aspect out a lot.

Ah well, your call, looks good all in all.

[This message has been edited by jiblet (edited 27-09-2000).]

Thanks for the advice. At my level, I can only get better- and with the sound advice you all are offering- it helps a ton.

nice advice jiblet. I have been playing around with moving it 10 pixels, its not enough- I betcha your suggestion of 20px will work better.

Expect to see it soon....