Request For Help (Graphics Creation)

[dulux-oz]

Hi Guys,

My skill/talent with Graphic Design absolutely SUX, so I was wondering if someone - ANYONE - who's skills/talents in this area doesn't sux would be willing to do me a favour.

I need two Button Images and their corresponding down_Images created/modified similar in size & style to the v2.9.x 4E D&D Ruleset Large Menubar Buttons (the ones that look like shields) and which are not the pastel tones of the current Buttons available in the CoreRPG Ruleset.

If someone feels up to the challenge then if they could PM me I'll go over the details with them and supply the companion graphic files.

Thanks

[Blacky]

I can look at it, what do you need?

[Zeus]

Do you mean these ones:

60916092

I have made quite a few of the themes for FG dulux-oz including the base themes for 4E which originally introduced these shield buttons. I have a vast collection of pre-made assets that can be used for FG, post up exactly what your after and I'll send something back later this evening.

The button icons above are available in a range of metallic, base and pastel shades. Let me know which color you want (best to specify in RGB or HSV).

[Zeus]

Here you go.

60936094
60956096

Couldn't fit Characters easily so replaced with PCs. Will these do?

As for the font its a font I made called DnDLolth based upon WotC's proprietary LolthSC font.

[dulux-oz]

You da MAN!

Thanks mate - I really, really appreciate it!

Hmm, isn't the PCs Button the same colour as the existing Story Button from the 4E Set? It might look better in a nice dark purple (darker than the 4E Notes Button) - what do you think?

Either way, thankyou thankyou thankyou!

And thankyou to Nick, damned and Blacky who helped as well - thanks boys!

[Nickademus]

I did?

Oh and Dulux has some tutorials, yo.

[dulux-oz]

Oh and Dulux has some tutorials, yo.

You are such a smart-@rse! :)

[Nickademus]

Better a smart-@rse than a dumb-@rse.

[Bidmaron]

Might I suggest "Sites" rather than "Locations" to fit better on the button?

[Nickademus]

Or even Locales.

[dulux-oz]

Yeah, I thought about "Sites", but what I have in mind is a self-referencing series of DataBase entries able to be used for Countries, Provinces, Kingdoms, etc, which would contain Duchies, Earldoms, Baronies, etc, which would contain Cities, Towns, Villages, etc, (probably from the Towns Extension), which would in turn contain interesting Locations, including Shops (probably from the Shops Extension) - I "think" Locations is the best word for this, but I'm open to suggestions (even from dumb/smart-@rses :p ).

[dulux-oz]

Hmm, isn't the PCs Button the same colour as the existing Story Button from the 4E Set?

Nope, its not the same colour/shade - excellent!

Thanks again Zeus

[dulux-oz]

Zeus => Do you have the "Banner" graphics that go along with the Button graphics? I just realised I need a yellow Banner with Locations on it as well, if you could - thankyou

[Nickademus]

Yeah, I thought about "Sites", but what I have in mind is a self-referencing series of DataBase entries able to be used for Countries, Provinces, Kingdoms, etc, which would contain Duchies, Earldoms, Baronies, etc, which would contain Cities, Towns, Villages, etc, (probably from the Towns Extension), which would in turn contain interesting Locations, including Shops (probably from the Shops Extension) - I "think" Locations is the best word for this, but I'm open to suggestions (even from dumb/smart-@rses :p ).

Hmm. When I hear 'location' I think of a numeric code for determining the position of where something is. I use 'locale' to refer more to the place than the position. But from the sound of what you are going to use it for, I think the best fit would be 'People Groups' or 'Peoples' for short since you are focusing not on the land but how the cultures and people groups have sectioned it off. Doesn't have as good of a sound though.

[dulux-oz]

Couldn't fit Characters easily so replaced with PCs. Will these do?

Umm, the PCs Buttons do not have a transparent background - I've tried running them through Paint.net but always end up with a white boarder around the shields - help, please.

[Nickademus]

They do for me. Try clicking on the image in the forum post, then dragging the popup image over to your desktop. Should have transparency then.

[Zeus]

I have all the assets in Photoshop PSD format. Is it these ones you want?

6101 6102

[Zeus]

They should have? All the graphics I use for FG are saved as .png with full transparency. If this wasn't the case you'd see all the white backgrounds in the FG desktop.

[dulux-oz]

Yes, those are the ones I needed - thankyou once again.

Well, I don't know what I did wrong the first time but the PCs Buttons now DO have a transparent background - PBCAK

Thanks guys

[Blacky]

Just in case, those weren't optimized (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?20303-Please-optimize-your-images-in-your-ruleset-tokens-battlemap-and-such). Naughty boy :bandit:

Here they are (https://demo2.ovh.net/en/fc58eae6460c90ef8f065d23108d7712/), 17% slimmer…

(stupid forum with stupid attachments limitations grmbl).

[Zeus]

Just in case, those weren't optimized (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?20303-Please-optimize-your-images-in-your-ruleset-tokens-battlemap-and-such). Naughty boy :bandit:

Here they are (https://demo2.ovh.net/en/fc58eae6460c90ef8f065d23108d7712/), 17% slimmer…

(stupid forum with stupid attachments limitations grmbl).

Interesting, I'll have to investigate an equivalent tool for Mac OSX platform which is what I use for all my graphics work. Ironically, Photoshop's Save to Web & Devices option (which is what I used to export from PSD to PNG) is supposed to optimise output for web and mobile based apps. So much for professional apps. Looking at the available options it appears the optimisation is geared towards GIF/JPG and PNG-8 formats only. I tend to use PNG-24 as it handles transparency better (no diffusion or dithering required), but I can't seem to find similar optimisation features as per PNG-8 under CS5.

Hmm. wonder if I can use ImageMagick.

[Blacky]

Photoshop doesn't optimize its PNG, nor its JPEG. The JPEG output isn't horrible (but it's not the best either), whereas the PNG output is truly horrible. The most basic task there is, removing fully transparent alpha pixels from the PNG isn't done. No deflate optimization (which take times, but by itself it's almost 5% right there). Hell, even Photoshop CS6 can't handle indexed PNG with true alpha transparency (something wildly used on the web), only Fireworks can. And so on.

Look around, there might be something akin to ScriptPNG (a script that bundle various PNG optimizers, especially truepng, pngout, advdef, and a zopfli for a better deflate; and do a lot of automated trials&errors to automatically find the best way to optimize) on OSX. If not, maybe use one or two optimizer by yourself.

As far as I know ImageMagick doesn't do these kind of things.

You can use these images as a test case to evaluate what you find, since you have your Photoshop export, and my ScriptPNG optimized version here.

[Zeus]

OK. So did some investigation and it turns out Apple's preferred PNG lossless optimisation tool is pngcrush (available through Xcode Dev Tools). Some further poking around revealed a really nice GUI wrapper tool for pngcrush called ImageOptim (https://imageoptim.com/). I installed it, turns out to have a very simple drag n drop interface which optimises PNGs in line. Results for a single pass on the files above delivers: Shield icon file sizes down between 21.9% - 25.5% and the Ribbon icons down between 11% - 18.1%.

I can't really see any material difference in the output quality so all looks good. What do you guys think?

Thanks for pointing this out Blacky.

Right off to optimise all the recent graphics I have compiled for the new 5E ruleset.

[EDIT] Some of the file reduce another 5-10% on a 2nd pass. Blimey.