Modifying and testing smileys in all page styles

[Argyle Sock]

OK, here's where I'm going to post the smileys as I try to fix them so they look good enough in all the page styles. Please, no posts other than mine. If you have comments, PM me or start a second discussion thread, and link to the post you are commenting on. This project will probably take me several weeks, as I don't have a lot of free time to work on it.

Project was made necessary by the new "Tactical" style developed in response to this thread, started by Tripler.

Posts where project was volunteered for, approved, this thread suggested, and that suggestion approved.

After I fix the following ones so they look good (or, at least, not abysmally bad) in the new "Tactical" style, as well as all the others, I'll check all the other smileys in all the other styles, and continue from there, if any need work.

Quoting the post (already linked in an earlier paragraph) from the other thread, since it saves me from looking for which smileys suck in "Tactical", again:

Originally Posted by Argyle Sock

has a funny ragged edge around it where it's colors are trying to "fade to white".

has the same thing, only in an octagon shape, rather than ragged.

:o is like

has a really bizzare figure-8-like version at it's four diagonal corners.

has a few random spots in the upper right that actually work well. They look like sweat drops that were smacked off and flying away. Don't bother touching those.

has a horrible, ragged upper edge.

has the same octagon problem as

's 'whistling' is too dark to show up, but fixing that would ruin its look on a white background. Don't bother fixing it.

has the same problem, with the same non-fix.

is just horrible. No suggestion on how to fix it.

:snark: has a rather strange beard. I don't know why. I'll look closer if you want to go to the effort of making smileys more compatible with this color scheme.

has the previously mentioned 'figure-8' problem. Probably the same fix.

:w has the same 'ragged edge' problem previously mentioned. BTW, how is this one different from , and why is it still here? It should be killed with fire come January, when we can repudiate results of the last 'Smiley War'.

:watch: has the 'figure-8' problem, in spades, with sharp, pointy corners. Rigs would not be happy...

altr: has the same ragged edge as , which I noticed, but didn't fix, when making it the avatar for my nr_elove sock, which you permaboxed after 5 posts... <mutter, mutter, asshole long-necked cunt, mutter, mutter>

has some serious problems. It looks like it's wearing rather ridiculous woolen leg-warmers, and has some major static electricity problems going on around it's head, possibly as a result of that static.

:disco: unfortunately, has no problems. I was hoping for a reason to kill this one. Nope. Works just fine in "Tactical".

:gorilla: is surrounded by a nice bright white square. It needs to bend to it's background, regardless of how bleak that may be....

has an unfortunate, but not too abysmal, ragged edge.

:skeleton: wouldn't look good regardless of what kind of background you put it on. It sucks on any background.

:weeraff: has the same stupid square white background :gorilla: suffers from.

's head has that same 'figure-8' problem, previously mentioned, but it carries it on thru the animation. Definitely needs fixing.

has the same 'octagon-head' previously mentioned.

:noyoudint: has some lovely earrings that you don't normally see in the white. Works better in this style than the previous ones.... The only one that's true for.

:iloveu: still looks like a 4-handed Goatse, to me. Only even more so. But no problems in "Tactical". Damn.



I could fix all of these, if you like, because I've been doing shit like that since DOS machines could display GIFs. Just say the word, and give me a place to upload the corrected ones.

Oh, and BTW, if you made the borders and shit totally black, there would be less light produced, and so less background light for snipers to zero in on Trip's head with. And I'd like it better, too.

[Argyle Sock]

First victim:

has a funny ragged edge around it where it's colors are trying to "fade to white".

[Argyle Sock]

Ambiant has the same problem as Tactical.

OK, those are the only ones. hi-ho-hi-ho- it's off to work I go...

Damn, but Raffoween sucks!

[Euryphaessa]

I can't remember how to make an attachment, so these have been uploaded to Photobucket. I know, I know, I suck.







I'm not super pleased with the way the edge of his jaw looks. Opinions?

This one looks like it still has a halo around the upper part of its neck, but it actually has a black outline, the lighter part is supposed to be a spot? Anyway, if it's deemed undesirable, I can fix it.

I gave a slight upgrade in the form of a glare on his sunglasses. If anyone hates it, it's an easy fix to change it back. Hmm, looking in Evil Giraffe, the edge on the left kind of disappears.

[Euryphaessa]

Here's a newer, sexier gorilla.

[Euryphaessa]

And a different



Argh, the edge is definitely not as nice as the original on a light background. Will the board let you use a GIF with partial transparency?

[DoubleJ]

GIFs with partial transparency don't exist. The way they handle transparency is that they take one color from the palette and say "don't show this one". So transparency is either on or off for any pixel. 24-bit PNGs have an alpha channel (opacity has its own set of bits that describe how see-through a pixel is) but the files tend to be larger than GIFs. I'm not sure how feasible it is for Giraffe to change the templates to use .png instead of .gif.

[Euryphaessa]

Gotcha, I was thinking of PNGs.

[BJMoose]

I wanna know which weasel renamed the default style "Clear Blue Sky".

[Dirx]

I made fixes for and :o, but they never took off...