Icons/Avatars Section

[dubiousdisc]

Personally I don't do that anymore because I don't think they're needed, but if you like to make them, then make them!

[Eimii]

@ Aku: Oh my gosh, you made Winamp skins?! I remember Winamp and loved seeing people's skins. Wow, that takes me back! XD

that does take me back!

As for me in the past i always made some icons of some sort for my sites. Nowadays, most of my sites dont but they arent quite done yet. i like having some eye candy in my media sections. not just images everyone has seen everywhere else. i feel icons, etc. add that kind of flair. i used to try and have some sprites too. i like making sprites.

[Aku]

@ Aku: Oh my gosh, you made Winamp skins?! I remember Winamp and loved seeing people's skins. Wow, that takes me back! XD

I did! I actually at one point, even had a Winamp skins site! XD It was called Sugarless Shanghai... those were the days! They were actually a lot of fun to make. I remember there was also a Gundam Wing site that had custom Gundam Wing calculators too. XD Like, chibi Heero on the skin and when you pushed the numbers, he'd say them in Japanese hahaha. You could really find a lot of cool stuff on shrines back then, desktop themes and whatnot.

[Mikari]

I used to make icons, I've gotten lazy lately, but I still think icons look cool when sites have them. I have also made a few wallpapers. Most recently I've been doing PSVita backgrounds, mostly because I'm making them for myself so I might as well put them online. XD

[Laura]

i like having some eye candy in my media sections. not just images everyone has seen everywhere else. i feel icons, etc. add that kind of flair. i used to try and have some sprites too. i like making sprites.

I agree! I like to have something more than just an image gallery in my media/extras sections... I always want to provide as many "fun" things as I can and making icons/avatars seems to be an easy way to do that. I remember making some sprites a lonnnnnnng time ago... that's actually a pretty good idea. I love seeing people's sprites. X3

I used to make icons, I've gotten lazy lately, but I still think icons look cool when sites have them. I have also made a few wallpapers. Most recently I've been doing PSVita backgrounds, mostly because I'm making them for myself so I might as well put them online. XD

Ooooooh, PSVita bgs! That's a pretty good idea too. I think when I get around to making some iOS backgrounds, I'll try to make PSVita sized ones too. I don't have one myself so I'm glad you mentioned it, I might have not thought about it otherwise. :D

[Mikari]

The only problem with vita backgrounds is that the vita compresses the images, so even if your quality is good when you save the image to the system, when you apply the bg it'll be downgraded. I find that lineless art works best for this purpose, since the vita is especially evil at messing with the lines. I've seen threads online asking sony to fix this, it just doesn't make sense to compress bg images like that. Maybe they'll get around to adding a fix in a future patch. I also have a few iOS backgrounds, though mostly in the iPod Touch 4 size, since that's the one I have. I also have my old PSP size background online, though I no longer have that model. That's the story of the wallpapers sections, resolutions just keep changing on us. XD I suppose making the wallpapers bigger, while still proportional in ratio is a an option, then the bigger devices can use them and the smallest seem to be able to resize them well enough as long as it's from big to small. Too bad ratios keep changing too...

[Megan]

I personally LOVE media sections. I have them on mostly all of my sites, (including my one-paged ones even if there are only a few avatars) mostly because I just really enjoy it and they never got old for me. I even take the time to take screen shots and manga scans as well. For me its just fun and helps me get motivated to work as hard or harder on the content! I also love to look at other people's media as well. I think it helps creativity and helps to see some cool designs ! Sometimes the colors and combinations of icons or wallpapers give me inspirations for layouts as well. I don't really use icons besides for forums or MSN, but I still love the idea of them :)

[Laura]

The only problem with vita backgrounds is that the vita compresses the images, so even if your quality is good when you save the image to the system, when you apply the bg it'll be downgraded. I find that lineless art works best for this purpose, since the vita is especially evil at messing with the lines. I've seen threads online asking sony to fix this, it just doesn't make sense to compress bg images like that.

Ooooh, I had no idea! Thanks for the info! It really doesn't make any sense for Sony to compress the images like that, unless they're storing it on their internal hard drives, which are quite small to begin with (I think). Seems kind of like it's one of those things that they hard coded in the beginning and it's too much of a bother to fix it. I hope they do though!

That's the story of the wallpapers sections, resolutions just keep changing on us. XD I suppose making the wallpapers bigger, while still proportional in ratio is a an option, then the bigger devices can use them and the smallest seem to be able to resize them well enough as long as it's from big to small. Too bad ratios keep changing too...

I usually design wallpapers in illustrator or photoshop at the highest available resolution with the largest widescreen ratio available, regardless of how many people use it at the moment and then provide several sizes for the most popular resolutions/aspect ratios. Resolutions change often, but it takes years and years for people to upgrade their current hardware. 1366x768 is the most popular monitor resolution right now because of all the smaller laptops that people own; I haven't personally used something that small in like... 8 years. XD

iOS was nice because they had one aspect ratio for the iPhone/iPad/iPod until the iPhone 5 came out. Still, two aspect ratios isn't bad. I love that they're very standardized compared to Android, which can be a nightmare to develop for. :x

I personally LOVE media sections. I have them on mostly all of my sites, (including my one-paged ones even if there are only a few avatars) mostly because I just really enjoy it and they never got old for me. I even take the time to take screen shots and manga scans as well. For me its just fun and helps me get motivated to work as hard or harder on the content!

I enjoy working on all the media stuff as well, especially the galleries. :) I find it's a nice break from writing, while still being productive on the site!