The Nexus Oscars (the Nexcars?)

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Wed May 03, 2006 6:41 pm

LOL talk about the cure being worse than the symptom...

I like the splash page, though it'd be neat to have the dragon logo in there (or another one, or a random one or something that fits in the text frame) too.

I vote 'no getting run over by a BigWheel and hoards of screaming 4 year olds.'

LakotaWolf · Post by **LakotaWolf** » Wed May 03, 2006 6:48 pm

Good idear, Shard! I stuck the Nexus logo right on there... I think I might get rid of the blue-outlined one altogether, if it's okay that I leave the dragon-logo up there! The dragon-logo looks good on there!

Who drew that, anyway? Was it Mystic? I can't remember. Mystic or whomever, is it okay to use the logo there? I'll put a copyright right under it or on the bottom of the page, o'course!

In fact, if whomever drew it has a slightly LARGER version of it, that would be even more fantastic!

Dray - I love those colors toooo ;_____; you make me want to make the page in those colors X3 I think the only reason I'll leave it space-y is because it kinda fits with the "Nexus universe" theme :}

JKatkina · Post by **JKatkina** » Wed May 03, 2006 6:49 pm

The idea of a splash page is an awesome one. :D Then I can link to something when I talk about the Nexus elsewhere, instead of a forum! I mean, I love the forum and all but it's nice to have an 'official' webpage -- forums tend to scare people who don't want to jump right in off...

I do like the idea of somewhere we can all login to, though. I know if I were a mod, people asking me to make changes to their link, or this or that, would get tiring after a while.

I have a space on a server that occasionally gives out space to other people, artdragon.mine.nu. If this splash page isn't going to take up much space (what was all that about hosting pickup pages there, on that note?) I could ask about getting us a 'nexus' login with a password we could share. I can't make any promises, but I could at least ask!

LakotaWolf · Post by **LakotaWolf** » Wed May 03, 2006 6:51 pm

I think with the FTP we could all do something similar :} FTP is easy to use and there are plenty of free FTP programs out there. If someone had a billion changes to make and couldn't/didn't like to use FTP, I can always be found quickly via a PM or an IM on one of my two SNs, depending on the time of day XD So I wouldn't mind changing that listing often.

I'll change my nameservers tonight, so by tomorrow, we should have nexus.dragonbytestudios.com up and functioning, so to speak XD

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Wed May 03, 2006 6:54 pm

I'm pretty sure that we chose Yakima's artwork for the logo, but the samples in the Nexus Logo/Mascot thread are broken now. I like how it blends in with the black, though. It's nice. There had been some larger ones, but those were the samples I think.

Xenoqueen · Post by **Xenoqueen** » Wed May 03, 2006 6:55 pm

Yakima's the one who did that logo.

Post by **Dray** » Wed May 03, 2006 7:09 pm

It looks like that logo was /made/ for that page! Awesome! :DD

Would it be possible to tone down the space-ishness, though? Make it more implied and less obvious? XD I know the nexus-universe thing is a strong theme, but it's more about the dragons! There ought to be a strong element of that in there!

JKatkina · Post by **JKatkina** » Wed May 03, 2006 7:11 pm

We should make dragony graphics for the front-page. X3 I think it would be neat for those of us who are graphic-inclined *nudgeDraynudge* could make dragony titles and things...we could really snazz it up!

Starburst · Post by **Starburst** » Wed May 03, 2006 7:19 pm

We should have a HUGE picture, with one dragon from every member of the Nexus who wants one there, as a splashpage-type-thing. Just a suggestion.

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Wed May 03, 2006 7:22 pm

Oooooh.

yeah.

Like little 200x200 squares or something, mosaic'd in... Isn't there a program that could make a mosaic out of our images?

(now I'm stretching. lol) But we could have like a spectrum of dragons, right? Or switch out cool colors, warms, earth tones, brights, etc.

Starburst · Post by **Starburst** » Wed May 03, 2006 7:39 pm

Yeah! A dragon-mosaic! And a spectrum sounds fun. (raaaaaaainbows... O.O shiiiiny...)

Yakima · Post by **Yakima** » Wed May 03, 2006 7:50 pm

Lakota, I still have the large version of the file - however, I have to redo the font part as I don't have that part for some reason...*blink* What format do you want this in? And...I don't know what font I used...;_; Evil...*goes to find font*

ADDED AFTER FAILING: Yeah, don't have a clue and it's obvioulsy no longer on my comp...*threatens to use Matrix font*

I'm going to go check old Thread now...again...

Yakima · Post by **Yakima** » Wed May 03, 2006 8:09 pm

BTW...I know PSP and probably Photoshop can make a mosaic...i know both can tile an image so that it looks decent...

Mystic Dragon · Post by **Mystic Dragon** » Wed May 03, 2006 9:43 pm

:D Actually, Lakota, you hit on my concerns exactly. We're not ready for that kind of publicity just yet. It's a fond idea, but it needs a lot of planning and a stable base first. Plus, as you said, it'd just be us buying from it at first unless we can come up with a product that other people will want.

And very nice splash page. Yep, that's Yakima's image. As for the mosiac... maybe that could be a link? o.O It sounds a little hefty to be putting on a front page. It'd cause too much load time for slower modems. Though it's a neat idea.

Shard, you still have those intro pages to dragon adoption? Think we can convert those over to the splash site?

Astra · Post by **Astra** » Wed May 03, 2006 9:43 pm

If someone wanted to open a cafe press shop or something, I would totally buy a t-shirt with the nexus logo image on it

Indigo · Post by **Indigo** » Wed May 03, 2006 11:18 pm

Agreed - we might not be ready to open our own shop just yet, but if a shirt/hoodie whatever ever turned up with the Nexus logo on it I'd -so- buy it in a heartbeat.

LakotaWolf · Post by **LakotaWolf** » Thu May 04, 2006 9:47 pm

All right... some tweaking.

I made a fast, simple "mosaic" of some Schatties and some other of my adopted dragons chosen at random from my website's /dragonimages folder. Thank you to everyone whose art I used, and apologies too XD If you see one of your dragons and want it off of the example mosaic, let me know.

Anyway, I set the mosaic as the background on a copy of the Nexus "splash" page:

http://www.splintyr.com/nexus2.html

There are a few reasons why I am nominally against a mosaic as a page background. One, it is VERY colorful and VERY "busy" and really detracts the eye from the page's contents. Secondly, it takes much longer to load than a simpler, smaller, tiled background :/ Thirdly, and this is not an insult to anyone's style or art, but the literally perhaps dozens of different "styles" of dragon faces in the background could be a little clashing and chaotic. We can still do a mosaic, a better one, I have no problems with it if people like it :D

I'm not opposed to changing the space theme at all - we could go with a lighter "parchment" type feel, so you could feel like you're reading an informative scroll or book while reading the Nexus info page :} The only reason I really went with "space" is that we've all got planets of our own, mostly, and they all "exist" within Nexus-space XD

Thoughts? Feedback? Comments? Flames? Pots of burning oil?

Post by **Dray** » Thu May 04, 2006 9:51 pm

I'll raise your pot of burning oil five fondu-sticks, Lakota!

I'm against tiles for the same reasons that you put out, and I kind of like the scroll-look. Sure, some places are less based in fantasy and such, but it also has a feeling of just... old wisdom, libraries, etc. etc. XD We should get JuJu in here to describe all of the attributes such a setup could represent, eh?

JKatkina · Post by **JKatkina** » Thu May 04, 2006 9:51 pm

Aaaaah. AAAH. No mosaic, please. x.x As much as it's flattering, it leaves a...bad impression. Too busy looking at the dragons to see the info.

Parchment sounds wondrous. :D

LakotaWolf · Post by **LakotaWolf** » Thu May 04, 2006 10:04 pm

Now, are we thinking "parchment-y look" like this: http://splintyr.com/physical.html

...or more like the whole background looks like a scroll or something? XD I'm not sure I can do that, offhand, though it would look awesome!... ::roots for tutorials::

Post by **Dray** » Thu May 04, 2006 10:15 pm

You know, you could probably just make it a more-fancy table, like how Yakima often lays her tables out. You just need an image for the top (say, the top of a scroll) a thin strip of the image for the middle that will look uniform, the more you add to it (the middle of the scroll) and a bottom-image for the footer. :3 It's virtually the same, only with images to fancy it up!

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Fri May 05, 2006 10:46 am

There's another way to do a scroll-y thing, too, and it's not actually all that difficult. It would need a nested frame tho, and for some reason, some browsers don't like nested frames. <.<; *pokes at firefox, which a friend of hers uses amost exclusively and hence never sees her pages how they're -supposed- to look*

*shrugs and returns to lurking again* ^.^;;;

I do like the parchment idea tho. *thumbs up!*

*sheepish bamf*

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Fri May 05, 2006 11:15 am

I think most people here use Firefox, though... And while it won't see nested frames, it also won't see any popups. Fair trade-off, I think.

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Fri May 05, 2006 11:20 am

Mreh, I guess so. ^.^; Tho I personally would rather deal with popups than a page that doesn't make any sense because I don't see it right. XD

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Fri May 05, 2006 11:22 am

But, if you're flooded under popups, you don't see the page anyway? *finds the popups that keep coming back /really/ annoying*

And Firefox displays PNGs properly, which IE can't, so either way you get pages messed up and not looking right. I suppose it's all a matter of preference, really... *shrugs*

Mystic Dragon · Post by **Mystic Dragon** » Fri May 05, 2006 11:23 am

:P This is really a case of agree to diagree. Both have their good and bad sides. Personally, I use IE cause I'm too lazy to get FireFox.

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Fri May 05, 2006 11:27 am

Yeah, good points all. ^.~ To each his/her own! XD *raises glass in a toast to individuality*

Also: o.o does it really? Maybe I should try looking at my pages in firefox, if only just to see what the pngs are supposed to look like... XD; (and here I was all set to ask you if you/I could make my lemurdragons' background black so it wouldn't look weird against the background color.. ^.^;;)

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Fri May 05, 2006 11:41 am

To each his or her own! *toasts, using real wine*

Yeah, IE has its uses. Maybe if Microsoft ever get some decent popup blockers and support for PNGs, I'll switch back to IE. But at the moment, it's nice not to have to virus scan my entire network every time I go onto a website with popups on them... Last time a virus sneaked through, it went a-network hopping and three computers had to be reformatted before I got rid of the blasted thing...

And go, Unyko. Go see what PNGs should look like. Transparent backgrounds, and you can use semi-transparencies on wings (which I used on Gen 01B). So you got colour on the wings but can still see your background behind them.

Post by **Dray** » Fri May 05, 2006 11:42 am

That, and Firefox seems to protect a little better against random virus-stuff, from what I've heard. (Is that true, to you guys who know the browser-systems better?)

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Fri May 05, 2006 11:45 am

Yes, Firefox does protect better against random viruses... It's designed not to run any script without your permission. So even if a little popup gets through the blocker, it can't actually do anything. Using Firefox pretty much removes the need to run a virus scanner, actually.