New HCF Banner
 

Alright, due to all the complaints about the HCF top banner, we're going to let you guys try and put something else together. There are rules that HAVE to be followed. These are not up for debate, so don't even bother asking. Just design an ad to the best of your abilities, following these rules to a T, and in a week or so we'll have a poll to see who's gets to stay.

RULES TO BE FOLLOWED:
1. Your banner's dimensions must be the same as what you see on the current banner.
2. NO COPYWRITTEN IMAGES! Do NOT use the Honda and/or Civic logos (i know there is one up there now, just don't do it!)
3. If you use pics of cars, make sure they are YOUR car, or a car that belongs to someone who has granted you written permission to use. (I will ask for a copy of this written permission if necessary).
4. Use the current "hondacivicforum.com" logo (I have a copy of this, if you need it, PM me)
5. Include the word "Unofficial" (preferably spelled correctly :D)
6. Leave a space for the banner ad that sits in the middle/right side of your screen.

I think that's it. If anything else comes to mind I will edit the post. Happy chopping everyone!



DISCLAIMER: We the mods/admins do not have any control over this site, only it's members. If the people who actually own the site don't like what you've designed, and decide to stick with what they've got, than that's the way its going to be. Lifes a bitch, have a sammich!

Id just like to add that the reason these rules are in place are because of copyright laws. They must be made this way so that the owners of the forum do not get in trouble

honda is pretty cool with us using their words, but its always best to avoid using copywritten logos and trademarks.

one thing, i believe that the company prefers if the title across the top excludes the ".com" portion, similar to the current logo.

I also like the logo, so Id prefer to see it stick around as well...

The original that I have includes the .com portion. Whoever made the current banner must have removed it.

i think that the header logo looks good with and without it...if it was just centered i think that it would look better the way it is..

So wtf? You guys cry and whine that the Mods/Admins never do anything, then when we set something like this up, you all duck back into the shadows?

Wow, I didn't even notice the thread. I guess if I saw it, I mistook it for the complaint thread. Can you add the word "contest" to the title?

Please PM me the logo. I have work to do...

Instead of editing, I'd like to add this:

I need to know something from the IB people. The current banner has these components:

1. hcflogleft.gif, which is the left part that has the the HCF logo and all that. This portion is 490 pixels by 148 pixels.
2. hcflogbg.gif, which is the center part that gets stretched behind the K&N ad that's usually up there. This portion is 2 pixels by 148 pixels. Your web browser stretches this portion to allow the browser window to be resized.
3. hcflogrig.gif, which is the right part of the banner that has the early 6th gen Civic on it. This portion is 132 pixels by 148 pixels.

Do we need to make our banner ideas using the same format so it will retain the same functionality? In the same 3 pieces?

Ok. Here's something to toss out there for a start.

This is what the current banner looks like, except I corrected the spelling.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...hcflogleft.gifhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...w/hcflogbg.gifhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../hcflogrig.gif
(I hope that displays right)

This is what I envision a newer one looking like. This is merely a start, not a finished product.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...hcflogleft.gifhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ewhcflogbg.gifhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...whcflogrig.gif

We're trying to bring the banner up to date, but I'd like to pay homage to the old one. The right side should have a newer civic than the early 6th gen. (The current image is a stock pic of the 2009 hybrid. I hope to find a member with some pics of their 8th gen to use.) The big white space on the left is just a placeholder. I dont know what to put there yet. Maybe ROTM?! The area under the HCF logo is a little empty. I hope to put some sort of slogan or catch phrase there. This design is clean and simple, sort of reflecting the general attitude of our forum towards mods. Clean and simple, not ricey.

Lookin great so far Itinerant. I will get with pat to see if he has solid answers to your questions.

Knowing the IB folks though, I would have to assume that they'd like to maintain the same format.

i think that if you did it that way, it would make implementation the easiest..do you agree?

Agreed.

My major question now is if there's any room for play with the 2x148 piece. It must not have ANYTHING custom in it. It's specifically for the ad banner. But for some reason when you stretch the 2x148 to, say 400x148 (when resizing the browser window), a darker line appears in the gradient. I don't know why this is. If we could put a piece that's 100x148 or more, it might eliminate that. I can understand why there would be a tiny gradient piece to begin with. If you were running a 640x480 resolution, you would want as little extra as possible so the forum design fits. But this is 2009. People might run a minimum of 1024x768 and are more likely to have a 1680x1050 or better. There's room to play.

This is gonna be ridiculously hard without some free license stock Civic images. Those are the easiest to clean up. Unless some forum members want to go wash and wax their cars, then park them in giant light boxes to get some good photos...

I've just spent a few hours trying to clean up some of mine so they'll work like that stock 8th gen one I used. No dice. It's really tough to get them right.

... i have no problem with the current banner and lack the creativity to make a new one lol

I talked to itinerant about this but I lack the skills to do it...

I have an idea.

I was thinking getting rid of the little cutout on the left, and just having the logo centered in the center of the banner part we are editing, and then under it having a stock Civic from generations 4-8 (so, 5 small Civics lined up next to each other in an appealing fashion) (or we could do 5-8 if you guys feel that the 4th gen should be left out), and then having a second layer of the .gif file where each of the Civics turns into a cleanly modded Civic of that same generation.

It's a good idea, and all it requires is 10 images used with permission from forum members, 5 before and 5 after pretty much. I can do the animated aspect and if I do it right, the file size won't be huge. The only thing is that the changes might not be noticeable when I shrink the images down that far. I'll have to experiment. But then what goes on the far right side? It would be really weird to have all the pics on the left, then that huge ad banner gap, then nothing. I hate to say it, but the Honda Logo (c) would fit well under this new scheme...

It could end up being like so:

[4th gen] HCF logo! [5th gen] ------------[ad banner]---------- [H logo]
[6th gen] [7th gen] [8th gen]

We have a few 4th gens (jpnolan, hailchristian, etc)
We have a few 5th gens (danomatic93, trustdestruction, etc)
We have a bunch of 6th gens (me, sfazngiants, addiction2bass, justinwebb, etc)
We have very few 7th gens (that guy who just joined... and... uh...)
We have very few 8th gens (Apostle, ...that girl from BC that just joined... uh...)

So... now I need volunteers with high resolution before and after pictures, preferably with light backgrounds and good lighting. This may require a thread in the General Civic Talk forum. (https://www.hondacivicforum.com/foru...d.php)

i can get a pic of a 8th gen interior if you need it.

^could come in handy for the right side problem. Can you get a shot close to what's on the left side of the current banner? And be careful about what is visible through the glass?

i'll try later today bro.

Be sure to post them in the "permission thread" I created in General Civic Talk. That might help the legality part.

Why not have the logo rotate amongst the generations when you press refresh. If it's to difficult ignore me all together. ;)

That requires either a lot of CSS work or generally a lot of extra coding. The IB people probably don't want to do that.

Go to www.ocremix.org and check the top right. Then refresh. That's the kind of effect I'd love to have and that I think you're talking about, but the coding is time consuming.

Yup that's exactly what I meant.

You could just have a .gif file instead.

go to http://www.civic-eg.com/portal.php and look in the top left corner. it changes every few seconds.

http://www.civic-eg.com/images/forum_top.gif

that is CLEAN! lol love that

Im just gonna toss this out here since I made it... No transition or anything yet...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ftANI_TEST.gifhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...whcflogrig.gif

But then you toss two frames of transition in...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...tANI_TEST2.gifhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...whcflogrig.gif

The problem here is that I went from 26K and 2 frames to 41K and 4 frames. The more frames you add, the bigger the image becomes. (Thank you captain obvious.) This so far is 4 frames for 1 generation. We want to cover at least 5 generations. This means 20 frames. That'll equal 200K of banner for EVERY PAGE THIS SITE GENERATES. That means it'll eat up lots of bandwidth for the IB people and will make the page load a little slower. So, I want to keep the number of frames as low as possible. I kinda like the original idea of small pics of the stock "before" ones that morph into "after" pics. I also like how the angles worked out. sfazngiants' first pic was all stock and harmless. The second pic suddenly looks aggressive.


(why am I not doing this as a job somewhere? Its not that hard to do.)

something else to keep in mind, the "bigger" the header file is, the slower its going to open and function for people on slow networks...

eh, if you're on 56k you've got bigger problems than that... like overcoming your fear of the future.

brad it might be a few days till i get a pic damn rain & thunderstorms.

Im not a fan of the transitioning of cars from before to after.

I think if you just transitioned 4th gen > 5th gen > 6th gen...etc

it would be better. If you had them all at the same angle it would still look kinda cool.

Exactly why I wanna keep any possible animation simple.

And I'd love to do the whole generation to generation transition, but I still NEED more people to volunteer images. And then we'd have to decide what to move to and from because, again, we have to keep the banner file as small as possible. That's got to be a ground rule, regardless of what your net speed is.

Damm Patrick! You still using that footer I created for you years ago!???

Something's never change. lol.

BTW, I think I'll enter the banner competition if it's still open. I haven't entered a competition since the HCF t-shirt debacle. lol.

^^^^ who are you?

I think changing the color of the background, it's too "unoffensive"....and making in look more "animated" .....like more computer generated, something like this

http://www.soundsolutionsaudio.com/forum/ just without the kart fold over lol.

I love the idea of putting the ROTM in the header, that'd be sweet :D

I volunteer my civic (6th gen 4dr....), but really the only thing really outstanding about is the sound system (completely revamped as of pretty much this week :D)

I'm the one and only... lol.

I'd welcome more ideas coming in. I'd assume the contest is open until the thread is locked. I'm kinda at a standstill until I get more source pics for my drafts.

My draft is not forgotten. I'm asking a few people to donate pics. All I'm waiting for are responses.

if you guys wait a little ill dig up a photo from when i first bought the car and then one after i finish my build

holy ish, what's with the new influx of older members?

IDK but I think it means there's hope for HCF.