CC Skin -Seeking Opinions-

[Fragleheart]

The Crooked Cross

In no way am I a graphics or skin expert, but I do what I can. Basically, I want to know what works on the skin I have, and what doesn't, etc etc.

[Smangii]

Not bad at all! A lot of brown, though...it all seems a bit monotone but it's alright.

Maybe have a grunge texture for the background? Something not so plain, at least.

[Fragleheart]

I was trying to give it a somewhat rusted look, since the timeline is the 1800's, so a lot of steam and gears. It didn't work as well as I'd planned, hence why the images have a little bronze tone to them. XD

I'll look into a grunge texture ^^ Your right about the brown being plain.

Thanks for the advice ^^

[Fragleheart]

Bump!

[elli]

I'll do my best to give you some constructive criticism based on my experience with custom roleplay skins and web design in general, so take it for what it's worth. (: There aren't many huge changes I'd make --just little things-- but here's what I see that could use some work.

The banner is huge. The top of a web page is prime real estate to get your message across, and get it across efficiently. The message for a roleplay isn't actually the banner -- it's your boards. In this case, your banner takes up a good half of the page. Someone told me on here once that you don't want your guests to have to do a lot of scrolling to get to the bottom, they get bored. And with as many boards as you have, plus the size of the banner, that adds up.

Another thing is the text on the banner. It's a bit pixelated, or aliased. Do you not have a program like Photoshop that allows to set text to be anti-aliased, or is the font pixelated whether you change the aliasing or not? Maybe you just didn't notice, in which case I might suggest you fix that. It could also stand to gain a few pixels between the C and S and the edge of the banner, maybe even align it to one side. Otherwise it stands out well.

The rest of the banner is interesting. The colors work for it, and I like the gears sitting in the top right. It definitely ties it in with the theme. However, the one thing I notice is that there isn't a focal point -- it's all just texture and some low opacity photos. I'd probably up the opacity on those people looking in enough that you can tell at first glance what those shapes are.

Like Smangii said, the board itself is very monochromatic. That's fine, since steampunk is a lot of rust colors and sepia tones. But it does make things look a bit dull, and everything sort of blends together. I'd change some of the background colors --maybe the category bg-- to kind of a dull red-orange. There are two splatter dots in the top left/center of the banner that could fit. You can use the eye drop tool in Photoshop to pick up the hexadecimal code.

The side tables don't blend in with the banner --usually you want the two to match to some extent. Try adding the same textures you used in the banner to those images in the side tables, maybe with a little red radial gradient set to overlay.

Then you still have those default ProBoards icons in the info center. I'd suggest either using this code to remove them or customize them like you did the on/off icons.

You could also do something a little more interesting with the menu than just text wrapped in brackets. This code will let you change what character(s) you want to use in place of the brackets. Something else you could try is making the menu inside the banner in Photoshop, and then slicing the image into two pieces: one would be the menu background, the other would be the rest of the banner. If that interests you, I'd be happy to help you with the CSS for it.

I know these are changes to the entire board, but of course pick and choose which suggestions you think would actually benefit the skin. I've been making custom RP skins for a few years now (this is my favorite) so I've learned a few tips and tricks with the codes and CSS. Just let me know if you need anything apart from CC. (:

[Fragleheart]

Thanks for the advice/constructive criticism. ^^

Yeah, the banner is pretty big. Should I just trim off some of the height? As for the text, I don’t have any art programs what so ever, I use what I can with online ones. I didn’t even notice the text was doing that until you mentioned it! Thanks so much for bringing that up.

I have to agree with the banner and sidetable images not matching. That’d be bugging me a little that they were so different. I’ll look into that ^^

Yeah, the colors are off. I've been trying to get the colors of the categories and things to work, but... It's proven reluctant to cooperate. I finally just stopped messing with it when it wasn't completely horrible. XD

I was able to get This code to work, but the other one is being abnormally stubborn I’ll keep trying to get it to work. I’ve been wanting to do the menu instead the banner, but I really don’t trust my vague artistic skills to try it. Any help would be welcomed and appreciated.

…. The example you gave me. I am so jealous. That is so amazing, I could never do something like that. *sigh* I wish I could get a board to look that awesome…

Again. Thanks for the suggestions ^^ I’ll get to them right away.