Talk:Characters/redesign

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Revision as of 16:44, 7 May 2007 by Misty (Talk | contribs) (Browsers)

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Ok I started a characters redesign page, but what I put up initially was just to get the ball rolling. Feel free to take it in a totally different direction, since what I did so far is really lame and needs the help of a decent designer Misty 21:55, 22 March 2007 (CDT)

header

I'd like to see someone make a new header image for this page that looks somethng like the header image for the list of videos. who has the photoshop files with the LG15 artwork, fonts etc. - Misty 01:43, 2 April 2007 (CDT)

Yeah, I'm sorry...I did start one a week ago, but Characters somehow didn't catch my attention as much as LoV...anyway, this is how far I am. I planned on putting black-on-white "Characters" in Giza 35 (LG15 font) to the left, scaling it down to 50% (or even lower), and coding the part in between as an empty table cell, to make the layout a little liquid.
But then I made Dawson's Cove instead.
Any input? Direct rejection?
~ Renegade (talk | contribs) 07:13, 2 April 2007 (CDT)
That's a really nice job, Renegade. Daniel's picture is so gangsta, though! Lemme see if I can fish some nice pictures of the three. OwenIsCool
I kind of like the way daniel looks in the header, but one concern I have is what happens if theres a chage in cast? imean daniel or Jonas could be gone in the next video _Misty 16:58, 2 April 2007 (CDT)
Well, going by that logic, we couldn't have anybody but Bree in the header. And a Characters header with only one character on it looks kinda dumb.
~ Renegade (talk | contribs) 20:10, 2 April 2007 (CDT)
Here's a little bunch that I got for when we replaced his main page picture.

OwenIsCool

I like Option 3. But then again I also like the picture of Gangsta Danny B. And I know it's best to use Giza 35, but compare that with Supafly 36. They both rock. Although you should probably use Giza 35, as it is the lonelygirl15 font. --SilverBULLETx3 10:02, 5 May 2007 (CDT)

Some edits

I just made a lot of edits to this page. First, I redid the way all of the characters were listed. You know the boxes with the Teen Angst Adventure Gang and the ARG characters as well as P. Monkey and Owen Who Daniel Has Mad Love For? I would like it if the boxes were aligned so that they were where that category started. I tried it but it messed it up on the preview so I didn't carry on. Maybe someone with more knowledge in the subject can help? I really like the idea of a Characters redesign. --SilverBULLETx3 19:08, 4 May 2007 (CDT)

I put the character boxes in the sections as a start, but they need a lot more work, and we still need a header for the page -misty 20:06, 4 May 2007 (CDT)
Thanks, misty! Well, do you know if Renegade is still working on the header? Because I saw the one with Gangsta Danny B, but that's all I saw. I'll try to work on it some. --SilverBULLETx3 09:57, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
I haven't heard if he's still working on it. Last night i had an Idea that maybe we should make this look like the List of videos, with the same kind of header and picture montage, what do you think? -misty 11:46, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
I do like the look of the LoV, but not enough to make the Characters page like that. I think that the Characters page should have a different look so it doesn't get played-out, if you know what I mean. Make it unique. --SilverBULLETx3 12:22, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
Oh, and I think every section (besides Unseen Characters and Ambiguous Mystery People) should have a character box like that. They do need some work, though. --SilverBULLETx3 12:25, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
Yeah, I just didn't do it yet. If you want to work on it that's great -misty 13:14, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
I will as long as I get the answer to one question. A character box that has 3 people is 300 px wide. Does that mean that every person is 100 px wide? And is the pic always 95px? --SilverBULLETx3 13:24, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
I just made one for Supporting Characters, but I can't get a longer picture of either Alex or Sarah. Look into that? I think Lucy and Bree's mom are fine there though. --SilverBULLETx3 13:37, 5 May 2007 (CDT)

Dead characters

I made a new section for dead characters, since they can't really be considered main or even supporting characters if the are dead. -misty 11:50, 5 May 2007 (CDT)

Good thinking, Misty. I wouldn't have thought of that. --SilverBULLETx3 12:22, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
However, I changed the name to "Deceased characters" so as not to be disrespectful. --SilverBULLETx3 13:26, 5 May 2007 (CDT)

Bree's Mother

I think we should move Bree's mother to guest characters, because she was only seen once and not talked about much either. -misty 11:50, 5 May 2007 (CDT)

True, Misty, true, but I think she should stay where Bree's dad is. Y'know? But now I just found out about the Dead Characters section so nevermind LOL --SilverBULLETx3 12:24, 5 May 2007 (CDT)

Help wanted

We've made alot of progress, but the character boxes still look like shit. We need better pictures, and we need some major design work still. anyone with design skills want to help out? -misty 20:10, 5 May 2007 (CDT)

I've started a new template which could help tidy up this page - Template:Characterbox. It's an early version and everything can be tweaked from sizes, colours, borders, fonts etc. (so don't be put off if it looks primitive at the moment). The reason this could be useful is that it combines the images and the bullet points into one place. There are only 4 bits of information per character in the redesign page, so I've only put these 4 into the template: Image; Name; Actor; Blurb. Psmith 22:32, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
thats awsome -misty 22:54, 5 May 2007 (CDT)

Character Boxes and headers

I really like the new Character Boxes except for a few things. The name should all be on one line, and it should say "Played By:" on the line above it.-misty 01:20, 6 May 2007 (CDT)

I made some changes to the boxes/headers including the above (using "portrayed by" instead of "played by"). I also played around with making the height smaller so that the page length is reduced. Here are 3 options for height. I've left it at Option 2 for now although the blurb did fit in Option 3 as well, when I tried it out.
Opt 1 character's name
Portrayed by:

actor's name

character blurb
Opt 2 character's name
Portrayed by:

actor's name

character blurb
Opt 3 character's name
Portrayed by:

actor's name

character blurb

Psmith 03:16, 6 May 2007 (CDT)

See Template:CharacterboxMini for use with minor characters. You can fit 4 of these on a row. Psmith 09:25, 6 May 2007 (CDT)
I think Guest Characters ands Unseen Characters should not have pictures. We should do a table for them -misty 09:43, 6 May 2007 (CDT)
I changes my mind the table looks Bad --misty 10:47, 6 May 2007 (CDT)
Can you make it so that Template:CharacterboxMini can have picture and actors be optional? that way unseen characters wil just have the character name and blurb. If there's no pic of a seen character, it just shows: character name, portrayed by: actor's name. -misty 11:21, 6 May 2007 (CDT)
I'll give it a go tomorrow... although if any template experts want to have a go beforehand, feel free... and just revert it if it doesn't work. Psmith 12:12, 6 May 2007 (CDT)
Jonpro Are you interested? -misty 12:45, 6 May 2007 (CDT)
Hmm, that's a little out of my league. I'm sure I could learn it, but dealing with graphics and boxes really isn't my thing (although I do like templates....hmmmmmm....). If you don't mind, I'll leave it up to you guys. And besides, PSmith is the bomb at this sort of stuff.--Jonpro 13:12, 6 May 2007 (CDT)
This page is coming along very nicely! Good job with the boxes, Psmith. I just have a couple of suggestions here
  • consider reducing the sizes of the boxes and the font size of the text in them. They look more than big enough on my screen. Is anyone else experiencing that?
  • consider making a "pictureless" box for unseen characters. We have 9 unseen characters, and no pictures for any of them (for obvious reasons!). They'd fit nicely in a 3x3 table of some minimini boxes.
  • consider leaving the CharacterboxMini with picture required. I know Misty was suggesting you add that functionality, but if you make a minimini box for the unseen characters, you won't need to modify CharacterBoxMini. Just thought that save you time from tinkering with the templates, since we do have pictures for everyone except the unseen characters.
  • the blurbs still need a little work, but I can help with that. I can add a few more pictures for now too.
Again, great work, all.
OwenIsCool 14:05, 6 May 2007 (CDT)
OwenIsCool, make sure that you use the correct aspect ratio in your pictures. They need to be 4:3 not 1:1, like the one for Bree's mom-misty 15:44, 6 May 2007 (CDT)
Another thing that would be great, Psmith, is if all of the Characterboxes were the same size, and all of the CharacterboxMinis were the same size. Bree's dad's box is bigger than Gemma's, and Gemma's isn't a Mini, for obvious reasons. And, what misty said, the pictures need to be 4:3 so that there's only a thin border. And perhaps we can customize the color? I may be going too far here, but those were just suggestions. :) SilverBULLETx3 16:20, 6 May 2007 (CDT)

Browsers

Thanks for the feedback. A quick question: what does this page look like in IE7? I was editing in Firefox where it is nice and neat and the pictures are definitely 4:3. Just tried IE6 and it was rather messy. Is IE7 any better?


360px 360px
Psmith 19:31, 6 May 2007 (CDT)


Well the mini box has some trouble in safari with longer names like katherine mcPhee. I think you need to make it a little wider. -misty 19:59, 6 May 2007 (CDT)

Wait, this only happens when theres a minumum font size set, I had it set to 9. Without that it works fine in safari -misty 20:07, 6 May 2007 (CDT)
OK I booted up windows, to see how it looke in IE7, and it looked exactly the same as IE6. Maybe we should just force people to use a W3C standards compliant browser -misty 20:20, 6 May 2007 (CDT)
I think I have a possible fix: make sure eveything in in px not pt. That way it won't be effected by differing font specifications for the different browsers. Also avoid using demoted HTML tags like <center> or <font> -misty 21:01, 6 May 2007 (CDT)

I just want to point out that in smaller resolutions the page is too wide. It causes horizontal scrollbars (which I find unattractive). It's not a HUGE deal, most people these days use wider resolutions, but I did want to point out that it causes a problem in smaller ones. --Zoey 22:43, 6 May 2007 (CDT)

currently this page displays without horizontal scrolling at 1024X768 the same as the main page. Both scroll at 800X600 -misty 09:48, 7 May 2007 (CDT)

Ok I Got everything looking decent in IE. i'm now going o see if i can get "portrayed by:" to only show up is their is an actorname. -misty 11:44, 7 May 2007 (CDT)