changing the banner

[TM™]

If you're trying to merge two of the same images, click on Layer, Layer Mask and Click 'Reveal All'. Make sure though, that one of the images your merging is overlapping the other image, then get gradient tool and where you overlapped the image, use the gradient around there and it should make a nice fade in.

[Thomas.]

I'm gonna try something like that banner TM made with those little squares. Don't expect something good nor bad, it's my first attempt at something like this.

[.•®©•.]

I am not stopping you or anything, but don't you think you guys are ment to try something better then mines? By trying my idea, there will be no point because you both will look like clones, and aint we ment to try and come up with our own unique ideas? I think we should talk out some new ideas, so different attempts can be made.

[Thomas.]

Well me and TM were meant to be working on a new banner, but we can't as I am going on holiday in 2 days. Therefore I am making one last attempt at a banner before I go away for 3 weeks.

[GTA Don]

I can't wait to see what it looks like.

[Thomas.]

No need to wait GTA Don, I have completed it:

[JustADummy]

Nice one! That Niko one with the helicopter was the spot!

[Thomas.]

I may try another one but that will be after my holiday. I really want to keep making these because it is something to do and keeps me occupied for a while when no posts are being made her on TGTAP and no-one is on TSOGTA so I won't need to Moderate it.

[JustADummy]

Well, make some good ones.

[Gerard]

I added the grunge technique on TFY's banner:

That's really nice. However, on top of the grunged background I would have left the characters and text unaltered, and (probably) still in-colour.

I could try sepia tone on it. It may not work though.

Sepia doesn't really fit the GTA and GTA IV themes. New York 2008 isn't really Victorian England.

I think the gta place banner should just remain the same till we dont get a response from the admin. There are alot of good banner's in this topic, however there are just 3 response from one admin. The first thing that should be decided is that are we making the banner for the main site or the forum. Another thing that we should consider is that, does the admin want to change the banner.

Most of these banners are for the main site. The forums typically have a different design and a different banner. If we have more than 1 good banner, we can use one for the main site and alter another one slightly to be used for the forums (eg add the word forums).

I've been okayed to carry this forward on behalf of Chris. He'll make the final decision when we have a selection of finished banners. Yes, everyone realises the banners (and the rest of the design) need updating.

Bluntly... we don't have ANY reference to GTA IV in the current banners, and the one on the main site is crap.

We don't need to change the banner on the forums, only the main site, and the GTAIV Page. Those two are probably the only one's that need updating.

We need to add GTA IV to the forum banner. We might as well make a whole new one. The current one looks great with all the masking effects and shine, but that will have to change because the orange theme from SA is out-of-date now, and we really really should update.

I wouldn't mind seeing a new Forums banner. I really thought that the one above was kinda "old". It has been there since I joined a year ago this month. Maybe a change of banner every year or within a time limit such as 6 months or 12 months.

Having it changed that often would probably mean we have a lot of "quite good" banners, and never any "awesome" banners that lots of people have collaboratively worked on for ages. Definitely a new banner around the time there's a new main game (not small ones like VCS).

There will probably be a huge forum poll to see what Banner looks the best. Therefore it would be all of our decisions.

A poll is probably a good idea, but remember that that not every opinion poll definitely confirms the result, unless they say they say the members' choise is final (like we do in the awards).

I made a edit the the old banner, for the news page.

I think the banner looks good on the forum and the main page.

The design is nice - the screenshot on the right looks quite a lot like the effects on the current banner. The blue glow looks a bit weird, and that would need to be on 3 sides, cos currently the sides would just chop off and defeat the point of the glow.

However, you can't really tell who is on the bike, and the bridge doesn't really show much about the new Liberty City. Is the rest just Vice City?

I think it needs to show more games than just 1 - TFY's shows a lot of VC, SA and IV.

No need to wait GTA Don, I have completed it:

Not a big fan of this one. The buildings aren't really recognisable, and I think they're all from SA apart from the helicopter one. The characters seem to stick out a bit, which looks funny on a "normal" background.

[Thomas.]

The majority of the buildings are from GTA III. There is only one from GTA SA, one from GTA VCS, one from GTA LCS and one from GTA IV. The main attraction of the Banner is the Characters, I may try to make them stand out a bit in the future, if this topic is still open or the banners are still being taken in April then I will attempt another one.

I added clouds to the banner:

EDIT: I made 3 new versions of the first banner:

So, what do you think of these new versions.

Edited March 15, 2008 by Thomas.

[.•®©•.]

Hmm, If you look you will see that there is SA,LC,IV and VC in that banner. I think by now every one knows that person on the bike comes from gta iv. The banner would had looked messed if there was not blue glow, one side you tell me we need someting effective, and better then the banner at the moment, then you tell me we need charecters. When I add them you don't reconize them. So like what is going on, I made over 8 banners for differnt site, however I never got this many problems.

Edited March 16, 2008 by Gerard

[TM™]

I tried again with the same style RC had:

A little better if you ask me.

[JustADummy]

That Sabre Turbo fading looks a bit bad... :/

But the rest is cool.

[.•®©•.]

I tried again with the same style RC had:

What do you mean? You should remove the glow because people have a problem with that.

A little better if you ask me.

Edited March 16, 2008 by .•®©•.

[Rowie235]

in my opinion, there are 3 banners that need an update. first, the forums banner. it needs a newer look. i'd swap the tommy on a bike with niko on a bike firstly, then maybe the background. second, the main gtaplace banner is a bit old. it needs all the "main" gta game characters (including tony, vic, and niko.). third, maybe the gtaIV banner. it still has the cityscape. why not use the cityscape from the official website? just my opinion.

[Chris]

I actually quite like that. Although if the grunge effect wasn't so heavy it would probably be better, and as Gerard said I think some of the stuff should be left in colour, I'm not keen on having a B&W or Sepia banner to be honest.

The main reason I haven't been replying to everyone is that I'm still trying to decide on possibly having a completely new layout to the website, which would mean we wouldn't need you guys redesigning our banners.

Having said that, it's likely the forums will stay as they are for a lot longer than the site, so the banners you've all made could easily be put on the forums if not the main site.

If anybody noticed the banner change on the GTA IV pages it's just temporary until I can decide on new layouts and such... figured it was better than using a faux silhouetted skyline.

[Do_Not_Fear_cause_I'm_here]

Surely I really wanna change the banner now.

[Mike356]

when did you change the main page banner?

[JustADummy]

I hink it was at 3 days ago.

[Thomas.]

Is the homepage banner permanent or are you still looking for banner applications?

[Do_Not_Fear_cause_I'm_here]

Thomas, 1 ?, how do you make banners like that?

[Thomas.]

What, Like the one I made earlier in this topic without the grunge effect? Well, you use the Fade effect to try and match or put together two images just like the picture of the left hand side of the banner, it makes you think that it is one whole image as you may have noticed that the buildings on the left hand side of the Vice City pictures is located in Downtown Vice City and the buildings to the right of the Vice City picture is on Ocean beach, it's simple.

I got TM to do the Grunge effect on the dark banner, 50 - 50 credit on that banner between me and TM .

[Gerard]

Is the homepage banner permanent or are you still looking for banner applications?

Chris changed the banner a week or so ago, simply to get rid of the old crap one and introduce GTAIV into it. The GTA IV page banner has also changed, but the forum one (which still has no IV) has not.

If you check, you'll notice that Chris was never looking for "applications". It was a member that suggested the banner change, and was supported by a lot of people (myself included). It's great that the community asked for change, but not so great that Chris hasn't really bothered with any of the great banners in this topic, and made his own one (nowhere near as good).

Perhaps make ones the same size as Chris's (1000 x 100) and he might be willing to change it then.

[Thomas.]

Oh, ok. Anyway, I have updated the Banner to include 'The GTA Place Forums' in it. I am hopefully going to attempt another banner:

I am also going to try adding as much of the GTA III Liberty City, Vice City, San Andreas and the GTA IV Liberty City as possible whether it be on the water, in a park or countryside or in the city. I'm also going to include a vehicle in it but I am not sure which one to include. It may be from GTA IV if it is then it may be that Red Comet or those Black SUVs as they call it. Now what three characters should I include, the above banner include Niko, Tommy and Claude shall I change that?

Edit - Done it, here it is:

Edited April 17, 2008 by Thomas.