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April 22, 2008 05:28 PM

Categories: RoboCommunity Feedback

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Peter Redmer

  Administrator
Joined: 01/02/2008

I'm sure that many of you have seen the numerous changes we've made to improve our forums.  In case you missed the announcement, check it out here.

The forums now have three icons that show you the status of each forum:

We'd love to hear some creative ideas of how we can customize these icons specifically to RoboCommunity.  What are your thoughts on how you think the icons should look, what they should incorporate, the motions/animations, etc.?  We welcome any user-submitted creations as well!

You can check out the forums pages on SlingCommunity and TivoCommunity for some examples of customized forum indicator icons.

Thanks to all for your great participation, keep the ideas flowing, and I look forward to seeing what everyone has to say.

Pete 

Peter Redmer
Administrator
Visit my blog, "Caffeinated Pixels"
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Discussion:    Add a Comment | Comments 1-25 of 28 | Latest Comment | 1 2 Next »

Nocturnal Avatar
  Member
April 22, 2008 5:34 PM

How about a face planted RS Media for the Forum closed for posting.

RoboGuide - Your guide to hacking all things WowWee

Peter Redmer Avatar
  Administrator
April 23, 2008 11:34 AM

I like that idea - maybe he would be flailing his arms and legs, like a child pouting, because his forum was closed. With little teardrops flying out like a cartoon... :)

Does anyone else out there have any more ideas?

Peter Redmer
Administrator
Visit my blog, "Caffeinated Pixels"
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J. T. Avatar
  Member
April 23, 2008 11:46 AM

Well, I was thinking maybe use the WowWee tradmark symbol in different ways.

For example, for the closed posting, do it as you said, except just the head, with tears falling out of it. With the new post, put the head icon smiling. As for the no new posts, just have standard, but fading.

J. T.
Have a question about dinos? Then ask away.

J. T. Avatar
  Member
April 23, 2008 11:48 AM

Hey if you can wait til this afternoon, I'll post some pic's of what I was talking about.

J. T.
Have a question about dinos? Then ask away.

MrScott Avatar
  Moderator
April 23, 2008 12:55 PM updated: April 23, 2008 1:02 PM

I'd consider going with something mechanical/electrical.

New Posts - Lit lightbulb

No new Posts - Dim/Off Lightbulb

Closed - Broken lightbulb

or

New Posts - Two intermeshed, rotating gears

No New Posts - Two intermeshed stationary gears

Closed - Jammed/broken gears (missing teeth, one fallen off..)

I unashamedly pilfered this reference pic from a Google Image search result.

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

J. T. Avatar
  Member
April 23, 2008 1:01 PM

Excellent!

J. T.
Have a question about dinos? Then ask away.

Peter Redmer Avatar
  Administrator
April 23, 2008 2:31 PM

I like the technical idea quite a bit, with the gears. What other technical type icons do you think would work?

I like the gears and I'm curious if any other representations sound interesting to anyone. All three icons could be the same, or different, although I think there's a value in having all three represent a similar theme.

What say you, RoboCommunity-ites?

Peter Redmer
Administrator
Visit my blog, "Caffeinated Pixels"
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MrScott Avatar
  Moderator
April 23, 2008 2:58 PM updated: April 23, 2008 3:00 PM

Another animatable piece of tech would be a voltmeter

Here's another quickly found webgraphic reference.

If we went with this, I'd go with just the meter portion, with a needle wiggling high for active, low for no posts, and defunct for locked.

Here's another web reference.... pay no attention to the text on the meter Embarassed

And a third, probably closest to what I'd see as the level of icon graphic detail 

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

dkaz Avatar
Administrator
April 23, 2008 9:12 PM

I'm thinking something more along these lines:

MrScott Avatar
  Moderator
April 23, 2008 10:04 PM

Yeah, the animated robots would be an obvious choice....

Google Image searches gives some sample we could use to inspire our own creations. 

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

MrScott Avatar
  Moderator
April 23, 2008 10:37 PM

I knocked together these animated GIFs of the WowWee robot logo.

A sleepy thread.. 

An active discussion 

A locked thread 

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

Peter Redmer Avatar
  Administrator
April 23, 2008 11:14 PM

Those look great, MrScott - there's a lot of potential variations on the "WowWee" logo theme, a ton of possibility there.

Peter Redmer
Administrator
Visit my blog, "Caffeinated Pixels"
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J. T. Avatar
  Member
April 24, 2008 12:22 PM

Those are great MrScott, I like those.

J. T.
Have a question about dinos? Then ask away.

dkaz Avatar
Administrator
April 30, 2008 1:31 AM

I'm worried those are a bit large, MrScott...and that their edges won't blend well with the forum index background

I'll try them out sometime this week to see what they look like

MrScott Avatar
  Moderator
April 30, 2008 8:34 AM updated: April 30, 2008 8:36 AM

They weren't intended as final product, they are proof of concept.

Resizing is trivial, and the background can be made transparent so that only the logos appear on whatever background.

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

dkaz Avatar
Administrator
April 30, 2008 5:06 PM

sweet...they don't really have to transparent...if you make them match the gray i'll integrate them right in

dkaz Avatar
Administrator
April 30, 2008 5:10 PM

grey is #f2f2f2, btw

MrScott Avatar
  Moderator
April 30, 2008 7:06 PM updated: April 30, 2008 7:07 PM

Here are the borderless versions. Let me know if you what pixel dimensions you want if you can't shrink them yourself.

Update..... hmmmm... they're borderless elsewhere, but whatever dynamic background coloring the thread engine is using here shows them as a white square on my tinted background. 

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

MrScott Avatar
  Moderator
April 30, 2008 7:16 PM

Here are shrunken versions to more closely match the icon size already in use for the forum indicators.

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

MrScott Avatar
  Moderator
April 30, 2008 7:29 PM updated: April 30, 2008 7:30 PM

One more pass at it..... this time with a different transparency coding....

Those variations seem to be borderless regardless of what the background tint swapping in and out does. 

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

milw Avatar
  Moderator
April 30, 2008 8:34 PM

dkaz, how many frames are you using in the existing 30 pixel square icons? Looks like 8 or 10? I like the WowWee icon actions too, MrScott, but he's a bit rough at the edges, maybe due to his original dark background. Looks like you have 2-3 frames? I'd like to give a try too, if I can get a chance!

Visit my Roving RoboReporter blog!

MrScott Avatar
  Moderator
April 30, 2008 9:21 PM

Like I said, these are a proof of concept.
If you want to do it right, you can't take a fuzzy logo, hack the background off with a magic wand, and dump the raggedy edged frames into a 3K gif.

The talking and padlock are two frames.
The snoozing is three.

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

dkaz Avatar
Administrator
April 30, 2008 9:25 PM

to be honest, i have no idea how many frames they contain

they're off the shelf icons

Nocturnal Avatar
  Member
April 30, 2008 9:48 PM

The image from this site is a transparent gif



some random play things



RoboGuide - Your guide to hacking all things WowWee

MrScott Avatar
  Moderator
April 30, 2008 10:47 PM updated: April 30, 2008 11:22 PM

Here's a smoother (than my previous) talking head based on the RoboCommunity version of the WowWee logo.

ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)

Discussion:    Add a Comment | Back to Top | Comments 1-25 of 28 | Latest Comment | 1 2 Next »

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