larryb123456

On another forum I'm on I just replaced my old avatar, "Chimp with a Gun", shown in my Post # 473, with this new one, that Pee-Wee Herman would be sure to like, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/NEWAVATAR.gif This is a frame-by-frame animation: 18 frames, 0.14 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 111x92px, 21 KB. I was simply amazed that the file size was that small.

@ K/K.ED: Out of the infinity of human emotions that could be conveyed by that statement, I'll interpret it as "enthusiasm". Please correct me if I'm wrong. New WPI Logo, 100x74px, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/NewWPILogo.jpg

Sorry for being away for a couple of days. As you can tell from your image, the avatar will wind up being 100px wide by "X" pixels tall, where "X" is less than 100px. (That is, the avatar will be a horizontal rectangle. Nothing wrong with that, IMO.) I'll put a small area of black on each end of the avatar, for the fuschia and lime to "glow (i.e., transition) out of". (Believe me, the black is necessary.) I'll make the avatar's rounded corners exactly the same size as on the userbar. I won't be able to start on this for a couple of days. (Sorry) Please give me your feedback on my comments here so that we will be "on the same page". Thanks. BTW, I'm very glad that you like the userbars.

@ Kelsenellenelvian: Kelsenellenelvian EverDawn (K.ED) the same length as Windows Post-Install Wizard (WP-IW) in the earlier version, 230px, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/EverDawnWP-IW230pxlong.jpg Just in case you might feel that WP-IW overpowers K.ED in the above, I made another version with WP-IW reduced just a tad to 220px long, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/EverDawnWP-IW220pxlong.jpg Bonus? Sounds like the booby prize to me !!! (lol) Seriously, we need more discussion on this. By recreated logo, do you mean the logo you posted for downloading but with the bitmap/pixel letters for "WPI" ? Did you also want the "WPIW.net" as in your present MSFN avatar ? I am of the philosophy that you let all the graphic elements (images and text, etc.) in the avatar dictate the final proportions of the avatar. To me, that gives a more natural result than "force-fitting" the graphic elements into a 100x100px box. Of course, following my philosophy, one dimension of the avatar will be 100px. The other dimension might be 85px, etc. But I can start off with the 100x100px size and adjust the graphic elements as best I can, until it might become clear that 100x100px won't give a good result. Did you want the lime (luminosity = 21) scanlines and the hint of the ellipse layer ? I know that you want rounded corners. When I get your feedback on all this, I can start work on this new project.

@ Kelsenellenelvian: This is just FYI, in case you want to see different versions of your userbar. The background (defined as base color + linear-horizontal-gradient "splash", scanlines, and ellipse layer) is easy to change. The ellipse layer is that lighter blue area at the top of your *present signature*. There is a hint of an ellipse layer in the bar I made for you, but I couldn't increase its opacity any more, because it turned the black background too gray. So, everything is fixed -- except the background -- because I investigated *all* the possibilities, and, believe me, what you see is best. For example, you might say: "Replace the lime and fuschia area with blue (which will allow the WPI logo to be seen against the black background) and use lime and/or fuschia scanlines (or any other color scanlines)." or "Use some other base color, that you'll specify, with these background parameters, etc., etc., etc." I'm sure you understand what I'm saying here, with regard to what is easy to change and what is fixed.

Thanks for your kind words, dencorso. Honestly, I consider myself to be mediocre at best, someone who enjoys fiddling with Photoshop, and learning new things, mostly by trial-and-error as I "play" in my own endeavors.

@ Kelsenellenelvian: Here's what I came up with, 350x40px, I hope you like it. I made 2 versions for you to choose from, the first with the lime scanlines a little more noticeable than in the second. If you want me to tone the scanlines down even more to suit your tastes, let me know. It won't take long at all to make another version. Scanlines luminosity = 21, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/withlimeluminosity21scanlines.jpg Scanlines luminosity = 18, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/withlimeluminosity18scanlines.jpg Your idea about using a black background, giving maximum contrast (i.e., readability) between the text and background was good. And I really like the fuschia and lime combo "light" behind the WPI logo. I only used lime scanlines, which I really like. (Fuschia scanlines looked terrible.) I couldn't stretch your name out any longer, for 2 reasons: it became more blurry in direct comparison (i.e., proximity) with Windows Post-Install Wizard; and the widths of the vertical legs of the letters became so wide that your name totally over powered Windows Post-Install Wizard. IMO, you were a co-creator of the userbar because you provided the specs (i.e., image proportions, black & fuschia & lime color scheme, logo, font).

I agree with your choice. That looks best to me too. 3 it is then.

These are true sizes of the WPI logo in your new userbar, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/Options.jpg 1: This is how the logo reduced down from the size you provided. Everything but the WPI "sharpened up" great. The WPI is unreadable at the small height, and it can't be improved. I tried to make a WPI from scratch in Photoshop at that size with the same unreadable result. Remember how I said bitmap/pixel letters were very readable at that size? Here's proof. 2: These are *true* 5px tall letters. 3: I made 4px tall letters from 2. The W and the I are great, with the P a little quirky, but still readable as a P. Probably 2 is best, because you want the WPI to stand out well. But 3 is more in balance with your original, 1. IMO, we shouldn't worry about using pixel letters here, since we are transforming your signature anyway. Let me know which you want me to use: 1, 2, or 3.

My concern about losing 4px in height with the 2px-wide border was because the letter height would also be reduced by 10%, a great amount for such small letters. But the border is a feature that makes your signature unique, so, for starters, I'm going to try to incorporate it, and see what happens. Give me a few days to fiddle with this project.

OK, 350x40px Did you want a 2px wide border (1px white on the inside + 1px gray on the outside)? Know that this will reduce the "real image size" to 346x36px. You really lose a lot of image height with the border. I'm going to have the WPI logo on the left, filling up most of the height, and the rest of the text centered to the right of the logo.

It has been so long since I've made a non-animated userbar, where I don't have to be afraid of using gradients, which are not rendered well in animated GIFs, that I forgot about the fact that I can make a horizontal linear gradient background, going from lime or fuchsia on the left of the bar -- (so that the WPI logo black portion can be seen, as being lit from behind) -- quickly heading to black on the right. It will kind of look like a "splash". I can also use the lime and fuchsia scanlines as well in this scenario. I'll just have to experiment a little. As promised, here are some different "quick and dirty" looks for different widths for a 40px tall userbar. Tell me what looks best to you, and that's what I'll try to do. I did them in width increments of 25px. BTW, it's not always a guarantee that a given anti-aliased font, such as yours, will show up well at small pixel heights. But a pixel font (aliased edges) definitely will. That's just a little FYI. 350x40px, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/Step1_reduceoriginalto350x40px.jpg 325x40px, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/325x40px.jpg 300x40px, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/300x40px.jpg 275x40px, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/275x40px.jpg 250x40px, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/250x40px.jpg 225x40px, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/225x40px.jpg 200x40px, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/200x40px.jpg 175x40px, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/175x40px.jpg 150x40px, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/150x40px.jpg

@ Kelsenellenelvian: As I was going to post this message below between the 2 dashed lines, I saw that you had posted a new one. I'm going to go ahead and post it as written anyway, mainly so you can see what the image would look like at 350x40px. If this image is too distorted (i.e., elongated) for your tastes, let me know and we can try a different length. I see you have the font and the WPI logo. That is GREAT !!! We can't use a black background because the WPI screen and the bottom part of the keyboard would "disappear" into it, unless that's what you want. Can you think of another color you like and won't cause disappearing problems? I don't like the idea of "splashing" lime and fuchsia (or other colors), since it would interfere with the reading of the text, IMO. But the idea of using both colors in an orderly, subtle scanline pattern should work great. So, please let me know if the 350px length is OK. When we decide on a length, I'll start work in earnest. I'll go ahead and make a number of samples ("quick and dirty" as shown below) of different lengths to help you decide. I'll post those next. Also, do you want the gray/white/gray border that is in your signature? Normally, such borders are not included in userbars and to me they would take away from the "precious" space? But if you want a border I can make a 2px one, white on the inside, gray on the outside. Rounded corners -- OK, will do. So, this is what I had written to Post, before I saw yours: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is how all the "components" of your signature would look at 350x40px. (I put the re-sized image on a gray background so that the gray/white border would show up.) http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/Step1_reduceoriginalto350x40px.jpg I sharpened the image to get the letters as clear as I could. As you can see, the letters are more blurry than in your present signature. If I had the font, I *might* be able to make the letters more clear. Obviously, everything is stretched out horizontally to a great degree. Of course, the WPI logo would have to be made in the correct proportions (i.e., same height, but not as wide) which would require that "Kelsenellenelvian" be stretched out even more. A better option, IMO, would be to make the WPI logo in the correct proportions and filling up the left side of the bar, and making "Windows Post-Install Wizard" not as long and centered over "Kelsenellenelvian". All this is just to give you a preliminary look at the double-height-userbar transformation of your signature. IMO, the success of this project would depend on using the original font or being given the flexibility of using another font that is something similar. There is just too much blurriness introduced to the letters by Photoshop re-sizing. This is why I asked if the person who made the original for you was still available to make the changes you want. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@ Kelsenellenelvian: I'm sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I got tied up in Christmas-related activities, but now I'll have more time to devote to your request. BTW, I have long admired the beauty of your signature and I wondered to myself if I had the ability to make something that pretty. But now, it seems that we'll find out........GULP........(lol). Is the person who originally made the signature no longer available to do the work? I ask this because he would probably have all the "goodies" needed for a new version on different Photoshop layers, and it would be easy for him to modify each aspect. Do you know what the font is called? I just have what's available with Windows XP and what's online. (I use dafont.com to get general categories of fonts. They really don't have specific ones, but I could check there and other free-font sites to come up with something similar.) When you say double-height userbar, do you want the "standard" ellipse layer at the top, which gives the polished look? Also, do you want the scanlines, usually diagonal? I ask this because that is what userbars have. What I'm going to do now is re-size your current signature to 350x40 pixels. 350px is the width of a standard userbar and 40px is double-height. I'm going to do this "quick and dirty" just so you can see how your signature would look undergoing the userbar "transformation".

LeBron James, nicknamed "King James", is an American professional basketball player -- (a 6 ft 8 in small forward) -- for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has achieved numerous awards and honors. Probably number one on his list is the NBA championship his team won last year. He was named the Finals MVP (i.e., Most Valuable Player). The userbar presented in this Post is similar to that presented in Post # 477 for NBA player Kobe Bryant, with both bars having the waving team flag scrolled on the left side, the player JPEG scrolled on the right side, a background with moving scanlines, and "pulsating" text, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/AniMSUB009sec80uniqueframes255colors350x19pxOOED157KB.gif This is a frame-by-frame animation: 80 unique frames, 0.09 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x19px, 157 KB. The Miami Heat waving flag (a 4-frame animated GIF) and the LeBron James JPEG are each scrolled vertically at the rate of 2px per frame. The background with the moving scanlines is a 2-frame animated GIF. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some LeBron James quotes: "I like criticism. It makes you strong." "The first time I stepped on an NBA court I became a businessman." "I don't read books much." "I never get too high on my stardom or what I can do." "You have to be able to accept failure to get better." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@ Kelsenellenelvian: I'm really not sure what you want. A "standard" userbar height is 19 or 20 pixels, so a double-height one would be 38 or 40 pixels tall The signature you show is 260x80px, so if you just reduce it proportionately by 50%, won't that give you a signature of the height you want (i.e., 40px)? Then the length would be 130px.

I'm really not a fan of fractal geometric pattern "art", since it just looks a little weird to me. Plus, I don't care for the concept of having equations and computers create the art, since it makes the result seem impersonal, IMO. I'd rather have the "real" human touch involved, with the associated flaws and all. But I saw a fractal art pattern that I liked -- [because of: 1) the striking pink and green colors on a stark black background and 2) the strong diagonal of the fractal image] -- so I made an animated GIF userbar from it, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/AniMS011sec72frames65unique255colors350x20pxOOED201KB.gif This is a frame-by-frame animation: 72 frames (65 unique), 0.11 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x20px, 201 KB. The fractal image is scrolled vertically at the rate of 3px per frame. The word rotation on the right side of the userbar is a 12-frame animated GIF, where each of the 4 unique component color combinations stays in place for 3 frames before the next color combination appears. Thus, each color combination has an effective display time of 3x(0.11 sec) = 0.33 sec per frame. To elaborate on this a little, let X/Y represent "fractal", in color X, and "fanatic", in color Y. So, I ordered the 12 frame GIF as pink/pink, pink/pink, pink/pink, green/pink, green/pink, green/pink, green/green, green/green, green/green, pink/green, pink/green, and pink/green. In a nutshell, this approach slows down the rate at which the words change color as compared to a strict display time per frame of 0.11 sec, which is way too small, IMO, as shown below, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/4-frameGIF011sec.gif

I saw a TV ad that I liked (because of the graphics) for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, a multiplayer online role-playing game that was released about 3 months ago. I finally got around to making an animated GIF userbar for it, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/AniMS010sec90uniqueframes255colors350x19pxOOED232KB.gif This is a frame-by-frame animation: 90 unique frames, 0.10 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x19px, 232 KB. The image is scrolled vertically at the rate of 3px per frame. The background with the moving scanlines is a 2-frame animated GIF. I keyed the colors on the left and right sides of the userbar to the colors on the logo, specifically gold letters outlined with dark brown on a greenish-teal background with brown scanlines. I think this "keying" works very well with the scrolled image and it's pretty all by itself, IMO. I made the scrolled image by combining cropped and re-sized versions of: 1) a larger promotional JPEG and 2) a logo on a black background.

I have a friend who is heavily into internet bittorrent sharing (i.e., peer-to-peer file trading of software, music, movies, TV, games, digital books, photos, etc.) and he wanted me to make an animated userbar for him for a website he's a member of, http://www.mydlms.com . He wanted the text on the bar to read "MyDLmS User" and he wanted this resource logo image, http://i.imgur.com/rJNpc.png , to be scrolled up and down. I absolutely loved the turquoise color, so I made the text and scanlines in that color, and came up with this animation, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/zzz_TURQUOISE_4nn4.gif This is a frame-by-frame animation: 40 frames, 0.11 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x20px, 122 KB. "My Download Maniacs" is scrolled vertically at the rate of 1px per frame. The resource logo image, 2000px in width, is pretty, but a little "grungy-looking". I had to reduce the width of this image to 250px for it to fit in the userbar, a reduction to 13% of the original size. This large reduction made the image look a little more grungy-looking, but I like it. I think it's pretty (in an ugly sort of way -- lol). I fought the temptation to have pulsating letters and moving scanlines on the right side of the userbar, to maintain simplicity. So, I looked online for another "My Download Maniacs" logo and found one at http://www.trackers.gr/trackersg.php , down the page a bit in the left column of listed websites. I "downloaded" this logo image by a print-screen capture. I changed the text on the userbar to read "www.mydlms.com user" and came up with this version in which I keyed the colors to brown, beige, and black, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/AniMSUB010sec54uniqueframes255colors350x19pxOOED193KB.gif This is a frame-by-frame animation: 54 frames, 0.10 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x19px, 193 KB. "My Download Maniacs" is scrolled vertically at the rate of 1px per frame. The background on the right side of the userbar is a 2-frame animated GIF. "My Download Maniacs" is not to be confused with " ", but I'm sure you can download "10,000 Maniacs" at "My Download Maniacs" !!! But, I don't think you can download "My Download Maniacs" at "10,000 Maniacs".

In this Post, I'm presenting another Linkin Park animated GIF userbar, but this time I'm using an actual photographic image of the band members and not a cartoon version as I used in my last Post. http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/AniMSUB013sec68uniqueframes255colors350x19pxOOED179KB.gif This is a frame-by-frame animation: 68 unique frames, 0.13 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x19px, 179 KB. The band members JPEG is scrolled vertically at the rate of 3px per frame. The background on the right side of the userbar -- (with the moving scanlines) -- is a 2-frame animated GIF. I much prefer the cartoon version because of the higher quality of the image. It is incredible to me that a band with very great popularity such as Linkin Park has such terrible photographic images online for artists to "appropriate" (i.e., steal). The image shown is the best that I saw, and I worked with it to sharpen it to the best quality that I could. Well, "c'est la vie", as Forrest Gump would (try to) say !!!

One of my favorite bands is Linkin Park -- (an American rock band formed in 1996) -- and I saw a cartoon image of the group that I liked, so I made an animated GIF userbar from it, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/AniMS011sec108uniqueframes255colors350x19pxOOED310KB.gif This is a frame-by-frame animation: 108 unique frames, 0.11 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x19px, 310 KB. The image JPEG is scrolled vertically at the rate of 3px per frame. The background on the right side of the userbar is a 4-frame animated GIF. This background was made from the following resource 4-frame 100x100px GIF by simply re-sizing, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/ResourceGIF_grayverticalstripes.gif I really like the way this right side gray vertically striped GIF blends in seamlessly with the black background around the band members in this userbar.

Thanks, dencorso: A great song I remember from a few years ago. (She did a great job of keeping her top almost on.) So, I have 2 Funky Town songs and 1 Sabrina song to keep my brain paralyzed. I'll just play them in the percentages of 53%, 42%, and 37% to add up to 100%. (I think it's time for me to get a new calculator.)

@ jaclaz: Left to my own devices, and not having to jump through someone else's hoops, I came up with this variation of the jaclaz duck emoticon. But in my version, which I call BRICK THROWER, the red-faced angry emoticon triumphs, since he is inflicting great psychic harm to the whistler -- (i.e., witness the look of shock on the whistler's face when he first sees the brick and as he ducks down) -- over and over again as he repeatedly throws the brick.The brick does not have to hit the whistler to injure him, since oftentimes being scared senseless is much worse than actual physical pain. BRICK.THROWER, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/BRICKTHROWER.gif I also tried to make the brick thrower look like he's mouthing the *expression*, "...and that's all I have to say about that." The red, angry emoticon is only a 6-frame animated GIF, but I did the best I could: I have the emoticon tight-lipped (i.e., mouth in a horizontal line) for 2 seconds, and as soon as the left period in the *expression* shows up, the emoticon starts mouthing, and he keeps it up until the right period in the *expression* appears, and then he immediately stops mouthing and is tight-lipped again. Please watch the animation with all this in mind, and you'll see what I mean. Of course, there will be no other variations on this animation, unless I choose to make them myself. Please feel free to use this animation as you see fit, if you want to, of course.

I think most of you know of Kobe Bryant, even if you don't follow NBA basketball, because he has "transcended" sports to become a true celebrity, in the same way Tiger Woods, the golfer, has. But I'll give a little info on Kobe anyway. He is an American professional basketball player who plays shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His statistics are phenomenal. Just as an example, as of June 2012, Bryant ranked third and fifth on the NBA's all-time post-season scoring and all-time regular season scoring lists, respectively. He is also the all-time leading scorer in the Lakers franchise history. He'll be a definite inductee into the NBA Hall of Fame once his playing days are over. I made the animated GIF userbar in this Post because I like both the colors and design of the Lakers flag as well as the wide-smiling Kobe image, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/AniMSUB007sec76uniqueframes255colors350x20pxOOED200KB.gif This is a frame-by-frame animation: 76 unique frames, 0.07 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x20px, 200 KB. The Los Angeles Lakers flag (a 4-frame animated GIF) and the Kobe Bryant JPEG are scrolled vertically at the rates of 2px per frame and 1px per frame, respectively. The background with the moving scanlines is a 2-frame animated GIF. I like the "energy" of this userbar. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some Kobe Bryant quotes: "Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise." "These young guys are playing checkers. I'm out there playing chess." “What I'm doing right now, I'm chasing perfection.” And since a (pretty) picture is worth a thousand words (i.e., quotes), ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everyone loves a real-life Cinderella rags-to-riches story, where someone comes out of obscurity to achieve great fame. Such is the case with professional United States NBA (National Basketball Association) player Jeremy Lin, who now is a point guard for the Houston Rockets, raking in a sweet $8 million (or so) per year. Lin received no college athletic scholarship offers out of high school and was undrafted into the NBA out of Harvard University, which is not exactly a "hotbed" of basketball talent. To make a long story short, in February 2012, Lin unexpectedly led a winning streak by the New York Knicks while being promoted to the starting lineup. This generated a *global following* known as "Linsanity". There were tons and tons of puns and jokes concerning "Linsane" (i.e., insane, but in a good way, as in a compliment) and Lin's Asian-American heritage, referring to his playing in a League dominated by African-Americans. Lin is one of the few Asian-Americans in NBA history, and the first American of Chinese or Taiwanese descent to play in the League. In the summer of 2012, Lin signed a three-year contract with the Rockets. The Associated Press called Lin "The most surprising story in the NBA." So, to celebrate Linsanity, I made the following animated GIF userbar, http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa403/larryb123456/AniMSUB010sec76uniqueframes255colors350x19pxOOED169KB.gif This is a frame-by-frame animation: 76 unique frames, 0.10 sec display time per frame, 255 colors, 350x19px, 169 KB. The Jeremy Lin JPEG and the Houston Rockets logo waving banner (a 4-frame animated GIF) are each scrolled vertically at the rate of 1px per frame. I made the banner by simply cropping a Houston rockets waving flag at the top and bottom. "LIN", "SAN", "ITY", and "!" move up and down at the rate of 2px per frame, as "bouncy text", a form I have used before in a few Posts. (The construction of bouncy text is covered completely in my Post # 344.) The background with the moving scanlines is a 2-frame animated GIF, whose form I have used in many previous Posts. I feel that the bouncy text used here fits in well with the concept of "insane". I also like the red letter pulsations. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Yes! I have a raging case of Linsanity. I have been declared legally Linsane. My symptoms... linsomnia, restless linsyndrome and lintestinal blockage!" Spike Lee "Chink in the armor" Anthony Federico, an ESPN writer who was fired for using this headline, an offensive racist pun ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------