New application icons for the BYOND executables/filetypes

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ID:135063
 
Mar 29 2005, 11:37 am (Edited on Mar 29 2005, 11:43 am)
I've been kind of working on my old set of icons I remade for BYOND a long, long time ago. I reconsidered on what Tom said, and started making some that don't have a flat square background. I've only really finished the DS icon, but I'm working on the pager and Dream Maker as we speak. Check this out:



Note, this is the 48x48 pixel icon version, I'll do the 32x32 and 16x16 icons after I get the details of each individual icon sorted out in 48x48.

What do you guys think? Should I continue on with icons in this kind of theme? I was thinking about a BYOND atom-like thing for Dream Maker, and a couple of small atoms with lightning bolts shooting between them for the pager icon. For the Daemon, I was thinking about just making the lamp icon, and I'm still in the process with the actual filetype icons.

I want BYOND to have new icons, I think it's time for an upgrade. Any thoughts? Should I continue to work with this?
Mar 29 2005, 12:40 pm
Ter13 wrote:
I want BYOND to have new icons, I think it's time for an upgrade. Any thoughts? Should I continue to work with this?

Very nice! I really like the transparent background. Note that BYOND 3.5/4.0 revolves around the pager application (which is simply called "BYOND"), as that will launch DS and DD to connect to and host games. So we really only need icons for byond.exe and dreammaker.exe, as well as the associated filetypes. I like the idea of using the atom in these icons.

For the pager, we need a few additional small (16x16) icons:
* A default system tray icon (just a 16x16 version of the normal application icon)
* A "you've got a new page" system tray icon
* A special "BYOND member" badge to display in the pager's friends list next to people who have contributed to the system (more on this later).

I'm very impressed by your work here, and would love to see what you can do with these. Contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions. Thanks!
Mar 29 2005, 2:43 pm
In response to Tom
...That might explain the lack in development as of late... You've been sneaking in a precursor to 4.0. I understand now, So 3.5 is the next big thing we have to look forward to as a step forward.

Anyway, I'll see what I can do. It does make my job much easier, as I'm just now getting pretty far on the Dream Maker icon. I think I'll use the icon I intended to use for Dream Maker as the BYOND.exe icon, and then think of something more "development environment"-like for Dream Maker.

Maybe I'll think of something more ingenious as these fabled releases approach, but I think I can pump out some decent icons that will at the very least look good in place of the current ones.
Mar 29 2005, 3:07 pm
I finished the BYOND.exe icon, I guess... Any suggestions on it? I preferred the blue sphere to the crappy globe I drew. I also liked the horizontal "electron" better than the vertical.

Mar 29 2005, 8:30 pm
Hmm, doesn't seem like much of a an icon. I went and made it have a transparent background and set it up on my desktop. It looked ok, but it really doesn't stand out much. How about a blue orb behind it, accenting the candle(bright around the flame). Just an idea.
Mar 30 2005, 1:57 am
In response to Ter13
I like the concept, but I think the image itself needs a little cleaning up; it looks a bit too hand-drawn for my liking.

Some ideas for the other icons:

- "You've got page" icon - perhaps the normal icon, but the globe could be pulsing, and red or yellow electrons could be whizzing around the... electron paths, or whatever they are.

- "BYOND member" badge - a while back I made a forum banner with "Crispy approves!" written on it. (I don't think I actually ever got around to using it; and looking back on it now, I don't like the design much, but that's not important.) Point is, I used a golden version of the BYOND logo as decoration:
'Crispy approves!' banner
Perhaps a gold BYOND logo, similar to the one in that banner, could be used as the member badge.
Mar 30 2005, 12:53 pm
In response to Ter13
Ter13 wrote:
I finished the BYOND.exe icon, I guess... Any suggestions on it? I preferred the blue sphere to the crappy globe I drew. I also liked the horizontal "electron" better than the vertical.


Thanks for the quick submission!

I like the concept here, but the icon is too "fuzzy" for my liking. I don't think it would come across well as a transparent icon, which is one thing I'm looking for.

BTW, anyone is free to submit their work or suggestions here. We could even make a contest out of it. I have a very poor artistic sense so I'm not really the best to judge these sorts of thing.
Mar 30 2005, 1:33 pm
In response to Tom
Go BYOND Stickfigures!
Go Tom's artwork!

Heh, I can't wait for 3.5, (BTW, will the "badges" be for the BYOND admins?)

Stupid Tom probably never goes on BYOND anymore, he would probably get bombarded with questions and newbs, but yeah I really like the new icon idea. I can't wait for BYOND to change.
Apr 3 2005, 10:19 pm
In response to Tom
BYONDatom 32 pixelsBYONDatom 16 pixels

Meh, they don't look so hot on this background. >.> I made them in Dream Maker's pixmap editor and saved them in Photoshop to preserve the transparency.

~X
Apr 3 2005, 11:13 pm
In response to Xooxer
Xooxer wrote:
BYONDatom 32 pixelsBYONDatom 16 pixels

Meh, they don't look so hot on this background. >.> I made them in Dream Maker's pixmap editor and saved them in Photoshop to preserve the transparency.

Not bad! Maybe the orbitals could be outlined to allow them to standout on any backgrounds?
Apr 4 2005, 10:04 am (Edited on Apr 4 2005, 10:59 am)
In response to Tom
I wasn't sure how this would turn out, but after converting it to an ico file, I was happy with the results. Sorry about the bmp, I needed to preserve the alpha-layer. Doesn't seem to show here, but is used when converting to an ico file to get a smooth fade to transparent on the edges. Anyways, I think this could still use some work. There are some things that are wrong, and others that could be tweaked with some aa. Basically, though, this is what'll you'll get. I had to reduce the size of the nucleus and shells to fit the outline, but I don't think it's lost much in the conversion. I'm not sure how the 16x16 atom will look, but I can get to work on that one shortly, if you're happy with this (convert it to ico for a real idea of how it will look. I used the bmp2ico program I found here: http://www.mikekohn.net/projects2.php).

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

~X

[Edit] As I think about it more and more, I'm just going to be re-creating the atom Mike rendered. I notice the atom used for the favicon.ico file for byond.com is about as good as it's going to look at 16x16. Why not just use the model Mike has and render that for your icons? That way it'll not only look sharp, but also be consistent with the atoms on the website, tying it all together nicely. I don't know, that's what I'd do anyways.
Apr 4 2005, 4:58 pm
In response to Xooxer
Xooxer wrote:
[Edit] As I think about it more and more, I'm just going to be re-creating the atom Mike rendered. I notice the atom used for the favicon.ico file for byond.com is about as good as it's going to look at 16x16. Why not just use the model Mike has and render that for your icons? That way it'll not only look sharp, but also be consistent with the atoms on the website, tying it all together nicely. I don't know, that's what I'd do anyways.

Yeah, Mike has been playing with it a bit and I think he has a good concept, so we'll see how that goes. Thanks for your input! We may commission one of you guys for some help later on.
Apr 4 2005, 11:01 pm
In response to Tom
Or we could buttonise it like the icons at the moment?

Apr 5 2005, 10:30 am
In response to AZA
I think they were going for a transparent background.
Apr 5 2005, 11:49 am
In response to Ter13
You mean like this?



=)
Apr 5 2005, 12:35 pm (Edited on Apr 5 2005, 12:41 pm)
In response to AZA
I tried my hand at making that thing transparent... I failed. It looks good on any _dark_ bg, just not gray or white.



(Note: IE (not supporting PNGs) does not display that image correctly. A real browser will.)

EDIT: Personally, I perfer some of the other hand-drawn byond logos.
Apr 13 2005, 1:15 pm
Just a darned second now. The blue man is a symbol of BYOND's past, but there's no reason it couldn't be revamped Buddy Jesus style and turned into a symbol of BYOND's future. I envision a hazy, excited-looking blue figure with undiscernable features, holding the little BYOND atom out for you. The "New Page" icon is an exclamation point where the "point" is really the BYOND atom. The Dream Maker icon can be just the BYOND Atom, and the Pager icon can be a small waist-up of the blue "Dram Maker" man holding out his shining atom.

Taking the blue man away from BYOND is, in my opinion, something that should be discussed before moved on. I really like him, and he can help preserve the mystique and image of BYOND even while it moves towards a more mainstream-friendly enviornment.

Thanks for your consideration.

-Lord of Water
Apr 15 2005, 9:53 am
In response to Lord of Water
Agreed
Apr 15 2005, 10:44 am
In response to Maz
Thirded.

~>Jiskuha
Apr 15 2005, 1:20 pm
In response to Jiskuha
No worries. Tobias, err, I mean the Blue Man will be preserved in the next major revision. Hopefully everyone will like his new look.
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