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How to alter banner to better suit overall design


Búri

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I have made a banner but it does not really match the overall layout, I have spent many hours on end tinkering in paint dot net to try and get the banner to suit the layout better but I have got nowhere.

I would post an example here but I cannot find the attachment function on this site, am I just not seeing it?

Please would anyone who has a willingness to see if they can help me take a look at the banner onsite for me and give me some pointers on how to make it fit the site better.

I am happy with how it looks in terms of the overall design but the center piece is supposed to look like a viking sword blade and it is supposed to look as if the blade were coming from both hilts as a single blade.

I should like to be able to make the center section not only look more like a viking blade but I would like to make it have similar tones to those in use now but have a sense of the blade being 'hot' but not red, I don't know if I am expressing myself clearly here.

If you are willing to try and help me would you please view the banner here:

http://chaosburnt.com/CBMentalHealth/index.php

I realise this could be considered spam as I am including a link here but I genuinely cannot find the file attachment function here. If my link is offensive to this site please delete it, I apologise in advance if this is the case.

Thank you, Búri

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I have made a banner but it does not really match the overall layout, I have spent many hours on end tinkering in paint dot net to try and get the banner to suit the layout better but I have got nowhere.

I would post an example here but I cannot find the attachment function on this site, am I just not seeing it?

Please would anyone who has a willingness to see if they can help me take a look at the banner onsite for me and give me some pointers on how to make it fit the site better.

I am happy with how it looks in terms of the overall design but the center piece is supposed to look like a viking sword blade and it is supposed to look as if the blade were coming from both hilts as a single blade.

I should like to be able to make the center section not only look more like a viking blade but I would like to make it have similar tones to those in use now but have a sense of the blade being 'hot' but not red, I don't know if I am expressing myself clearly here.

If you are willing to try and help me would you please view the banner here:

http://chaosburnt.com/CBMentalHealth/index.php

I realise this could be considered spam as I am including a link here but I genuinely cannot find the file attachment function here. If my link is offensive to this site please delete it, I apologise in advance if this is the case.

Thank you, Búri

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Unfortunately, I find it blend well with the overall layout, at least the colors.

Maybe you can add more cowbell, a shine, a shadow...

This topic seems close of this other one:

http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=3541

Some images are missing, but the topic's author seems lurking around.

Maybe you can contact him to know how to create more realistic swords.

Hosting an image : http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewt ... 1665#21665

No. Way. I've just seen Bob. And... *poof!*—just like that—he disappears into the mist again. ~Helio

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Unfortunately, I find it blend well with the overall layout, at least the colors.

Maybe you can add more cowbell, a shine, a shadow...

This topic seems close of this other one:

http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=3541

Some images are missing, but the topic's author seems lurking around.

Maybe you can contact him to know how to create more realistic swords.

Hosting an image : http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewt ... 1665#21665

No. Way. I've just seen Bob. And... *poof!*—just like that—he disappears into the mist again. ~Helio

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The 'mixing' of weapons and mental health is not as it is being percieved here. The choice of Valhalla is based on the resting place of the warriors of the norse lands. The valiant warriors whom stood tall in the face of adversity were granted access to Valhalla because of their great deads in the face of dire danger. This is my thoughts you see with regards to the layout, survivors of mental health issues, myself being one of these are just as brave as these legendary warriors.

The community is in itself a variant of Valhalla in my own perception, a resting place for those whom life has been tragically hard. The concept behind having the blade in place is using the notion of how a steel blade is produced. One must look into the workings of a handmade sword to get a glimpse at the underlying concept. It's not meant as a weapon, it's meant as a physical symbol of the blade (the spirit in our case) being forged in the furnace of life.

The Thors hammer was a choice made because of the ideology behind Thor, I found the notion of turning thors hammer into the hilts of this spiritual blade an interesting concept. I have used many mental health online communities and have found them all to be lacking in spiritual depth, just because Norse mythology is less understood than christianity, this should not immediately negate its value.

I am still looking for a way to impove the look of this banner if anyone has any suggestions on the actual basis of this topic. The link suggested is not the same sort of thing I'm looking for, I don't want to put writing on a sword, I want to generate a more spiritual looking impression of a blade.

Perhaps I am not making myself very clear, I was loathe to go into too much detail for fear of ridicule, mental health is a sensitive subject, and one which still has a great deal of stigma attached to it.

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The 'mixing' of weapons and mental health is not as it is being percieved here. The choice of Valhalla is based on the resting place of the warriors of the norse lands. The valiant warriors whom stood tall in the face of adversity were granted access to Valhalla because of their great deads in the face of dire danger. This is my thoughts you see with regards to the layout, survivors of mental health issues, myself being one of these are just as brave as these legendary warriors.

The community is in itself a variant of Valhalla in my own perception, a resting place for those whom life has been tragically hard. The concept behind having the blade in place is using the notion of how a steel blade is produced. One must look into the workings of a handmade sword to get a glimpse at the underlying concept. It's not meant as a weapon, it's meant as a physical symbol of the blade (the spirit in our case) being forged in the furnace of life.

The Thors hammer was a choice made because of the ideology behind Thor, I found the notion of turning thors hammer into the hilts of this spiritual blade an interesting concept. I have used many mental health online communities and have found them all to be lacking in spiritual depth, just because Norse mythology is less understood than christianity, this should not immediately negate its value.

I am still looking for a way to impove the look of this banner if anyone has any suggestions on the actual basis of this topic. The link suggested is not the same sort of thing I'm looking for, I don't want to put writing on a sword, I want to generate a more spiritual looking impression of a blade.

Perhaps I am not making myself very clear, I was loathe to go into too much detail for fear of ridicule, mental health is a sensitive subject, and one which still has a great deal of stigma attached to it.

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I have not seen any "ridicule" here.

I was just wondering as the concept seemed foreign to me. What you say makes sense--I'm not saying I'd take the same direction with your forum, but it does make sense.

I view the path to mental health as more of a centering, peacefull journey than a battle. But, then, I'm not imbalanced (some would argue that point!)

I'm sorry, but, I don't have any suggestions for you. I just wanted to say "thank you" for typing up your explanation. You might want to put that somewhere on your board.

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I have not seen any "ridicule" here.

I was just wondering as the concept seemed foreign to me. What you say makes sense--I'm not saying I'd take the same direction with your forum, but it does make sense.

I view the path to mental health as more of a centering, peacefull journey than a battle. But, then, I'm not imbalanced (some would argue that point!)

I'm sorry, but, I don't have any suggestions for you. I just wanted to say "thank you" for typing up your explanation. You might want to put that somewhere on your board.

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I too see you point, both about the mythological and practical side of your meaning. I see the connection you have made between the practise of the swordsmith and use of Norse mythos, the iconism you have used is brilliantly deep and I commend you for taking this route along with the strong orientation around spiritualism.

As for your blade, may I suggest a more silver approach; a two-tone silver to give depth much like you have with the brown. Make the blade look more blade like and maybe add an aura around it, like blue or even purple, something soft but still showing essence. The aura could easily be achieved by created a block of your chosen colour behind your blade then gaussian blur quite high or as much as you deem fit as to blend outward the edges of the block.

I'm sure somewhere on the forum there would be something to help you with the silver effect but maybe something as simple as the gradient tool (maybe this one in particular :LinearReflectedGradient:) would give the desired finish.

If you would like an example please don't hesitate to ask.

Hope this helps and I hope the best for your forum.

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I too see you point, both about the mythological and practical side of your meaning. I see the connection you have made between the practise of the swordsmith and use of Norse mythos, the iconism you have used is brilliantly deep and I commend you for taking this route along with the strong orientation around spiritualism.

As for your blade, may I suggest a more silver approach; a two-tone silver to give depth much like you have with the brown. Make the blade look more blade like and maybe add an aura around it, like blue or even purple, something soft but still showing essence. The aura could easily be achieved by created a block of your chosen colour behind your blade then gaussian blur quite high or as much as you deem fit as to blend outward the edges of the block.

I'm sure somewhere on the forum there would be something to help you with the silver effect but maybe something as simple as the gradient tool (maybe this one in particular :LinearReflectedGradient:) would give the desired finish.

If you would like an example please don't hesitate to ask.

Hope this helps and I hope the best for your forum.

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Thank you for your kindness and understanding BoltBait, may I assure you that I in no way suggest ridicule had been found here, I refer to my fears of being ridiculed, not having been ridiculed, I hope I am being clearer. I took your advice and posted on the forum about this topic here, it does make sense to allow people to understand my reasoning, thank you for the suggestion.

I agree with you, the journey toward' mental health should be a peaceful one, but the path which led to ill health is never a peaceful one. Hence the resting place of the weary warrior souls, the battles have been fought and a time of healing is to come into being. Some of the warrior souls are still trapped within their battles toward well being, they too have a place in our hearts.

I tried to make a better version based on your sugestions Myrddin, alas my skills with paint.net have much to be desired. I feel I have come closer to the type of banner I am looking for but I have a concern which is niggling me.

In order for the blade to have an aura I have had to save the image as a transparent PNG, when I saved it as a GIF the aura was cut out. Of course this is not really a huge problem as I do have the option of using a PNG. I do remember reading somewhere that not all browsers support transparent PNG files, some browsers replace the transparent areas with a grey tone or some such thing.

I cannot see this in effect as I use IE7, but should this truly be the case is there not a way to save the image as a GIF file and not have the aura area cut off. I realize I do have the option of placing the banner within a box kind of thing and forcing a background underneath the banner, but this is not ideally what I should like to accomplish.

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Thank you for your kindness and understanding BoltBait, may I assure you that I in no way suggest ridicule had been found here, I refer to my fears of being ridiculed, not having been ridiculed, I hope I am being clearer. I took your advice and posted on the forum about this topic here, it does make sense to allow people to understand my reasoning, thank you for the suggestion.

I agree with you, the journey toward' mental health should be a peaceful one, but the path which led to ill health is never a peaceful one. Hence the resting place of the weary warrior souls, the battles have been fought and a time of healing is to come into being. Some of the warrior souls are still trapped within their battles toward well being, they too have a place in our hearts.

I tried to make a better version based on your sugestions Myrddin, alas my skills with paint.net have much to be desired. I feel I have come closer to the type of banner I am looking for but I have a concern which is niggling me.

In order for the blade to have an aura I have had to save the image as a transparent PNG, when I saved it as a GIF the aura was cut out. Of course this is not really a huge problem as I do have the option of using a PNG. I do remember reading somewhere that not all browsers support transparent PNG files, some browsers replace the transparent areas with a grey tone or some such thing.

I cannot see this in effect as I use IE7, but should this truly be the case is there not a way to save the image as a GIF file and not have the aura area cut off. I realize I do have the option of placing the banner within a box kind of thing and forcing a background underneath the banner, but this is not ideally what I should like to accomplish.

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Your are correct: Internet Explorer 6 and earlier do not support PNG transparency.

However, your repeating background is center-aligned. This means that, regardless of the width of the page, the repeating background will always align in the same position in reference to the center, which is where your image is.

So, you can take a screen capture of your current background where the logo will be:

background.png

Add the transparent PNG on a new layer:

backgroundlogo.png

And add the aura behind that layer:

backgroundlogoaura.png

You can then save it as a solid PNG or JPG, and it'll look fine in IE6 since the background is part of the image. I know what a pain in the rear this is, and I've had to work around it before. This is a relatively simple method of getting around it.

I am not a mechanism, I am part of the resistance;

I am an organism, an animal, a creature, I am a beast.

~ Becoming the Archetype

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Your are correct: Internet Explorer 6 and earlier do not support PNG transparency.

However, your repeating background is center-aligned. This means that, regardless of the width of the page, the repeating background will always align in the same position in reference to the center, which is where your image is.

So, you can take a screen capture of your current background where the logo will be:

background.png

Add the transparent PNG on a new layer:

backgroundlogo.png

And add the aura behind that layer:

backgroundlogoaura.png

You can then save it as a solid PNG or JPG, and it'll look fine in IE6 since the background is part of the image. I know what a pain in the rear this is, and I've had to work around it before. This is a relatively simple method of getting around it.

I am not a mechanism, I am part of the resistance;

I am an organism, an animal, a creature, I am a beast.

~ Becoming the Archetype

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That suggestion has turned out to work perfectly Crazy Man Dan, oh I really don't mind things being more work if the outcome is desirable.

Thank you for your excellent suggestion, the banner looks almost exactly as I have it in my mind. Of course the center groove is not exactly how I'd like it but it's as close as I can get it.

Thank you all very much, I shall return to see if I can help others here from time to time, I found this experience thoroughly pleasant, thank you all.

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That suggestion has turned out to work perfectly Crazy Man Dan, oh I really don't mind things being more work if the outcome is desirable.

Thank you for your excellent suggestion, the banner looks almost exactly as I have it in my mind. Of course the center groove is not exactly how I'd like it but it's as close as I can get it.

Thank you all very much, I shall return to see if I can help others here from time to time, I found this experience thoroughly pleasant, thank you all.

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