New header! and journal layout

[liresius]

WooHoo! I finally worked out how to load a header to my journal *pointsup*.

I'm pleased with it although I now wonder where my day has gone ... *g*

Here's the first version I made (and the faces are more in proportion), but it was shorter than it could have been.



Feel free to snag, but a comment and credit would be nice! :-)

Comments

[berlinghoff79.livejournal.com]

Hhm, I love the boys in the opening credits. They look so pretty and so does your header.*huggles*

[liresius.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Yeah, I like the way they slowly burn/multiply (to use layer property parlance) in the credits.

This "make over" has taken a good ten years off *ggg* It's much brighter than my more serious colours of before! *ggg*

[liresius.livejournal.com]

... and I love your icon. LOL!

[berlinghoff79.livejournal.com]

He was so cute in that scene. I wanted to include the looking around part, too, but the icon was too big.*pouts*

[liresius.livejournal.com]

Ah ... too bad it was too big, but you did beautifully with what you could include. You're very clever and Rodney is just so cute and adorable in it!

[liresius.livejournal.com]

Actually I wanted to ask you about "size". In the snowing icon you made me, did you use those textures of yumei_k's? It looks like they are the same ones.

I used them myself in another icon that failed (after my successful one)but ended up with it just too big to load to LJ. How did you manage to compress it (if that's the right word) and keep the snow flowing smoothly? I failed miserably at the full 100x100 px version with the 15 frames, but you suceeded because your snow falls and starts again perfectly. I tried it with fewer frames but then the snow went all weird and didn't flow, so I was stuck ...

Please don't feel obliged to answer .. I know it's probably complicated, but if you do have some time sometime, I'm rather curious!

[berlinghoff79.livejournal.com]

Hhm? That's weird.

Did you use one background picture or several? And if you used only one: Did you use a brush to add the snow or used each 100x100 b&w picture as a single frame together with the background?
Do you have a "save for web" or something similar in your "file" pop-up menue? I usually use it to change the preset after I'm finished with the animation. The preset is "GIF 128 dithered" I lower it step by step until I find a setting that has a just below 40kb result for the whole gif. It's not as sharp as the original, though.*points to icon*

If this*points up* is too confusing tell me if you want a step by step tutorial. I could send it to you.

[liresius.livejournal.com]

Ah, ok that's beginning to sound some alarm bells, in the sense that yes, I used several (in fact 15 background pictures), but this method worked for the snow icon I'm using in this reply because the snow section is much smaller. I used the full 100x100 b&w pictures then set each one to screen on the 15 bases.

Thank you! You've given me a few things to investigate in my Animation shop re the "save for web" and "dither" setting. It's 1:00 am here so I'm off to bed but I will get back to you and let you know how I fared.

Thank you again. You're lovely to reply and it's much appreciated! *hugs*

[taiteilija.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is fantastic! I love the colors and as berlinghoff said, our boys look great in the opening credits :D

[liresius.livejournal.com]

Don't they just (look fantastic in those credits)! Thank you for your kind words! I'm afraid I pale in comparison to all the wonderful artists out there in the nether, but the main thing was that it was fun and the colours came out pretty cheerful ... quite a change for me, so I felt I'd accomplished something new ... it's a bit like getting a major new haircut, but I've done it myself! *g*

I've just finished watching Echoes for the umpteenth time and I just screencapped tonight almost exactly your icon. I love how you've darkened it to give them the same skin tones and Tees!

[taiteilija.livejournal.com]

Uhh, thank you for your kind words, but I haven't done this icon myself *g* shippygem made it. She's made a massive icon post a while ago, and all icons were colored like mine - you should check it out, there were some really cool icons!

I'm afraid I pale in comparison to all the wonderful artists out there
Oh, I don't think so! And even if so - rather have a not-perfect header you like than a perfect header you don't like ;) And you're right, it's always a good feeling when you've accomplished something yourself, especially when you first thought you weren't so good at it!

[liresius.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the pointer to shippygem's icons.

LOL! It's a slow learning curve for me with all this stuff. I've never done any kind of code or html stuff to speak of, so the sense of accomplishment is in the technical achievements using LJ, as well as learning the art side of things *g*

[taiteilija.livejournal.com]

*gg* Yeah, I know how that feels! When I got my paid account I started working with HTML and I was SO happy when it eventually worked and actually looked acceptable :p

[liresius.livejournal.com]

Hee! I love THAT icon too! Crazy!John ... and poor Rodney in the back with head thrown back looks like he's having an apoplectic attack! LOL!

[taiteilija.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that icon's awesome! This time, _wwsd_ made it (as well as the icon I'm using now) *gg* Hehe, I think only 2 or 3 of my icons are actually selfmade :p

[liresius.livejournal.com]

It's such a lovely thing, sharing icon art. We are blessed with some very talented people (including yourself) in this fandom - both in fic and art!

[taiteilija.livejournal.com]

Aw :D *hugs you* And including you - *points on your header* ;) - When I was in the LotR fandom there were not almost so many writers and Photoshoppers! Maybe I dwelled in the wrong corner of the fandom, but nevertheless I have the impression that SGA is a very artistic fandom - and that's awesome!