Mr. Krystal Posted May 20, 2007 Share Posted May 20, 2007 Just to let everyone know, I've got Wordpress installed locally, and I am learning how to create Wordpress themes from scratch. I've gotten over half of the information I need. I plan on working on it tomorrow and next weekend. If all goes well, I should have a custom theme for the main site within two weeks. Any suggestions are still welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krystal Posted May 23, 2007 Author Share Posted May 23, 2007 Progress Report. I've finished the tutorial for creating a Wordpress Theme from scratch. I only need to make a few small modifications to it before moving on to purely graphical styling work. In that spirit, and based on earlier suggestions, I've created a basic graphical template on which to base the design. This is purely the background. Within each area, especially in the title area, there will be much more graphical coolness, logos, etc. Right now, I need to know if the color scheme and layout are okay with you guys. Here's what it looks like: I NEED responses to this. If you like it, PLEASE tell me. If you hate it, PLEASE tell me. If no-one says anything, I'm going to assume that no-one cares and continue in this fashion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvolutionSFox Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 Looks good to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V-Starfox Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 Looks pretty cool! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padron Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 I do like it. But I'm concerned it will be a little hard on the eyes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krystal Posted May 24, 2007 Author Share Posted May 24, 2007 I do like it. But I'm concerned it will be a little hard on the eyes. Yeah, I tried to pick color combinations that were compatible. That's also the small version. Full size, it'll be easier to read. Thanks for your support. I'll continue in this manner then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owner/Technical Admin Sideways Posted May 25, 2007 Owner/Technical Admin Share Posted May 25, 2007 As long as you don't use green text it will be okay, lol. (try and make it Wii friendly?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krystal Posted May 25, 2007 Author Share Posted May 25, 2007 As long as you don't use green text it will be okay, lol. (try and make it Wii friendly?) Sure! By default, it should be compatible, but I'll test it just to be sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DZComposer Posted May 26, 2007 Share Posted May 26, 2007 Sweetness. I like that layout a lot. I say let's try to keep the colors consistent between the site and the forums. Also, I am going to look around and see if I can't find a theme or module that makes the forums more Wii friendly. Though I would sure hate to make posts on the Wii... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krystal Posted May 28, 2007 Author Share Posted May 28, 2007 http://dwightdesign.com/hosted/forumPosts/sfoThemeDemo2.jpg Here's an updated version. I've pretty much finished the sidebar and made basic edits to the header and footer. I didn't have time to properly remove the white background from that picture in the header, so please ignore that. What do you think now? Have a better picture for that spot? Or maybe you want something totally different for the header. Let me know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DZComposer Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 I think we need more graphics, especially in the header. The layout is great, the colors are good too. It just needs some "flare" so that it doesn't look generic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krystal Posted May 28, 2007 Author Share Posted May 28, 2007 I think we need more graphics, especially in the header. The layout is great, the colors are good too. It just needs some "flare" so that it doesn't look generic. I'm open to suggestions. If any of our artists out there would like to take a shot at it, please do! The header area is 200 pixels tall by 800 pixels wide, although the height can change if needed. Width is harder to change, but can be if we absolutely have to. Here's a nearly complete styling with real posts! In case you're wondering, I chose to leave the links blue because the red didn't work out where I used it. I'm still willing to change most anything here, so let me know. http://dwightdesign.com/hosted/forumPosts/sfoThemeDemo3.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvolutionSFox Posted May 29, 2007 Share Posted May 29, 2007 ^ That looks so awesome just because of the SSBB picture... joking, it looks very good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owner/Technical Admin Sideways Posted May 29, 2007 Owner/Technical Admin Share Posted May 29, 2007 Sweetness. I like that layout a lot. I say let's try to keep the colors consistent between the site and the forums. Also, I am going to look around and see if I can't find a theme or module that makes the forums more Wii friendly. Though I would sure hate to make posts on the Wii... A lot of my recent posts have been done on my Wii... :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taco-Man Posted May 29, 2007 Share Posted May 29, 2007 I think it looks fantastic! I'm surprised there is not a Star Fox-related font by now that would be perfect for banners... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krystal Posted May 30, 2007 Author Share Posted May 30, 2007 I think it looks fantastic! I'm surprised there is not a Star Fox-related font by now that would be perfect for banners... Anyone want to take on this challenge? Make us a Starfox-Online logo? Try modelling after this image: http://dwightdesign.com/hosted/forumPosts/SFASlogo.jpg However, it should be include the base color of the site: 831B1B - redish color encoded in RGB as a HEX value (8-bit) While you're at it, if you want to create a whole header, you can try that too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krystal Posted June 10, 2007 Author Share Posted June 10, 2007 In the absence of anyone trying to create a logo/header for the site, I've gone ahead and worked some more on the current setup. I've added rounded corners to everything except the overall layout itself. I've also added a welcome message that ONLY appears on the first page of the blog, which also serves as the homepage. I think this is a great combination of the latest news and a quick explaination of our site. Oh, and I'll be changing the message too, once we get the theme uploaded. Here it is: http://dwightdesign.com/hosted/forumPosts/sfoThemeDemo4.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Star Fox Runner Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 That picture of Fox reminds me of myself when I play games, hunched over, angry look, really into it. More on topic, I might try to make a header for ya, but no promises, I'm pretty lazy. One idea you could do is maybe putting up an intro movie that plays when you first log on, but that's your choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krystal Posted June 11, 2007 Author Share Posted June 11, 2007 That picture of Fox reminds me of myself when I play games, hunched over, angry look, really into it. More on topic, I might try to make a header for ya, but no promises, I'm pretty lazy. One idea you could do is maybe putting up an intro movie that plays when you first log on, but that's your choice. I would love to see what you can do for a header. As for the flash intro... have you seen my "Deadly Sins of Web Design" article? Check number 8. LOL http://dwightdesign.com/articles/deadlySinsOfWebDesign.html The idea is that a flash intro is usually only cool to the people who make the website, and annoying to everyone else. At best, it's entertaining the first time, but gets in the way the next thousand times. It works for Flash-related websites because that's what the sites are about, but for ours, I vote for getting straight to content. We can put our intro message in the header and/or that new welcome text area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krystal Posted July 27, 2007 Author Share Posted July 27, 2007 As some of you know, I recently redesigned the Krystal Archive (http://krystalarchive.dwightdesign.com/). I used Wordpress as the basis and as a result, I know know more than enough to theme our main site exactly the way we want it. There are some problems that may occur. For example, I'm going to need to move the site, probably to something like starfox-online.net/main/, mainly because Wordpress takes over file names and folders within its active directory. We've already had some issues with it interfering with our forums and the sfo_media folder where we store all of the music and voice clips (soon other media) for the site. Don't worry though, I also learned ALL about htaccess redirects, so going to the old pages will automatically (for the most part) go to their new homes. Since I haven't heard from anyone about creating a banner for the site's current redesign, I'm going to give you all one more chance to tell me what you want and how you want it. Tonight, during Star Fox Talk, I hope that this can be our topic of discussion. So, come to the Star Fox Talk chatroom at 8 PM Central (or earlier maybe). You'll have till midnight to talk with me about whatever concerns you and make suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DZComposer Posted July 27, 2007 Share Posted July 27, 2007 What was it doing? I'm sure there's a way to disable it some how. It's written in php so it should be actively running int he background. Oh, and .htaccess files don't work on GoDaddy (at least in my experience) so we may have to do it with meta tags or scripting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krystal Posted July 28, 2007 Author Share Posted July 28, 2007 What was it doing? I'm sure there's a way to disable it some how. It's written in php so it should be actively running int he background. Oh, and .htaccess files don't work on GoDaddy (at least in my experience) so we may have to do it with meta tags or scripting. It's the way Wordpress works, if you try to go to a file or directory in the same folder or subfolder of a folder Wordpress is installed on, and the file isn't there yet, you get a 404 page. This is correct behavior. The problem is, from now until Wordpress is reinstalled (apparently), that file will be missing, even if you do put it there. Wordpress seems to remember what files are missing and doesn't bother checking if you try again. I've looked for a solution and found none except by putting the site in a sub-directory with an auto-redirect. The only real way to fix this that I know of is to edit the way Wordpress works at a core level. htaccess files must to be working, because Wordpress is using them right now. Edit: Also, kinda starting over by having a new install will let me do all kinds of things I couldn't do if we use what we have now. I've figured out most of the subtleties of Wordpress since I started using it here. If I can have a fresh install, I'll have... Cleaned up folder structure (no more long, complicated urls) Latest version of Wordpress (without the upgrade issues) All data intact, but easily changed (since there's an export function) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krystal Posted July 31, 2007 Author Share Posted July 31, 2007 Ok, here's what's happening: 1. The import/export feature doesn't work for Pages between Wordpress versions 1.x to 2.x, so I had to re-do all the pages and I did. (needed to anyway) 2. All the posts have been exported and reimported correctly, but I still need to go through them and make sure they are in the right category and have no broken links (thanks to the forum address changing a while back). 3. I've made updates to the categories and rules for the new version of Wordpress. I've done all this work on a subdomain of my site, and you can view it live, just DON'T COMMENT there! http://sfo.dwightdesign.com/ Once I'm done theming the site (which should take 2 or 3 days), I'll export all the content from this site and move it to ours. That's when the hour or two of shutdown time will be. When I export it then, all our posts and pages will be intact and everything should work no problem! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxbird22 Posted July 31, 2007 Share Posted July 31, 2007 Good stuff, Dwight. Can't wait for it to be finished! :| Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Krystal Posted August 3, 2007 Author Share Posted August 3, 2007 Assuming the Star Fox Talk doesn't take up too much time tonight, I WILL be done with the theme and redesign of the site, which means that late tonight or early tomorrow, I'll make the transition. During the transition, the site will be offline. I'll set it up so that a temporary page shows up with a link to the forum which will NOT go offline (but I'll make a backup anyway). Even after the site is back online, it may be a few minutes before I can get all settings, accounts, links, and other things reintegrated. Check out the theme as I complete it here: http://sfo.dwightdesign.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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