Metal userbars
Original post
Posted by corrupt, 13.11.2008 - 03:01
I've been doing a few old-school web 2.0 userbars during my last exams period to kill some time when I was bored from learning. I never really meant for this to go anywhere but I had a lot of fun with it. And since I just discovered that I'd reached exactly 100 posts here on MS, I thought I might as well share them with you in my first thread here.
I've done most of the work in GIMP (since I'm a Linux guy) and used Photoshop for a few details and things I was too lazy to do in GIMP. The first one was the Nevermore bar in my sig, where I started trying to leave the classic slightly polished web 2.0 look behind to go for a look as if the bar was made of thick glass and had a real depth. I really liked the outcome so I did a few more, using mostly bands I was listening to at that time and in most cases my most favourite album by every particular band. If that cover didn't provide good results, I went looking for an album cover of that band that was more suited for this. As with Trail Of Tears.
Maybe one or two of you have use for these. I'm also open to criticism. But probably not to change what I've already posted here (except a few like Edguy, Hammerfall of Trail Of Tears that I'm not really pleased with), but to keep in mind for future work.
Update Aug. 19 2009
I proudly present: The signature 3-image generator script.
If you want more than one userbar but metalstorm only allows one image in your signature, go here and use the fancy little script I spit together to generate one image containing three userbars. (I will adapt it to also allow for only 2 soon).
Feedback highly appreciated. Especially if you find a combination of userbars that metalstorm won't accept because of it's filesize.
Enjoy.
Update Aug. 28 2009
The script now allows for 2-userbar images by selecting "-none-" as third choice.
Update Dec. 12 2008
How to use:
Since people keep asking me how to put these images into their signatures, here's a little howto:
First download the image to your harddrive (screenshot taken using Firefox):
Then klick on 'Edit profile' in the top left corner of the Metalstorm page.
Where it says 'Signature image upload', put the url to your downloaded image into the textbox.
Then put the [image] tag somewhere into your signature. It will be replaced by the image as soon as your profile is shown to anyone.
Finally click 'submit' and check your signature in the Forum.
Bands:
Styles:
Requests:
Request [user_id]1763[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]22728[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]23361[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]36527[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]35649[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]12648[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]33116[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]6759[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]8309[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]36309[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]31185[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]23926[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]32187[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]8943[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]99525[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]21268[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]41261[/user_id]:
Request [user_id]37247[/user_id]
Request [user_id]24750[/user_id]
Request [user_id]99525[/user_id]
Request [user_id]102171[/user_id]
Request [user_id]105297[/user_id]
Request [user_id]36894[/user_id]
Request [user_id]28368[/user_id]
Request [user_id]18167[/user_id]
Suggestions:
Suggestion [user_id]207[/user_id]:
Misc/Fun:
Rework of a metalstorm bar I've seen on these forums:
Dedication to the MS Awards '08:
And while I was at it, one to the Awards '07:
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Done a few more and also raped the MS Awards 08 banner for one. Mainly because I liked the overall look of it and as long as we do have awards that are actually about the music we should do everything to keep that going!
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Yeah, good work indeed! Can you make an Ayreon one, if you're not busy? And maybe Sonata Arctica? 
----  Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one, and they all stink.
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Very zazzy! Is there any chance you could make an Arcturus one, please?
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Posts: 4331 Written by Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk on 07.02.2009 at 17:30 Anything to keep me from studying  There you go: With Ayreon I started the 01011001 version first but wasn't very satisfied with the outcome. That's why I gave it another try using The Human Equation as a motive (the album's better anyway ) The Human Equation version turned out to look fine, so I reworked 01011001 a bit and there you have em both.Sonata are difficult because their album covers usually blow. And Unia is out of the question because .. well, you know. So the one that worked is this one using the Reckoning Night motive. Any criticism my way please.
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Posts: 4919 Written by corrupt on 08.02.2009 at 18:20 Aye, totally agree.  About your userbars.. they're great, really. Looks interesting. Some time ago I worked with these ones too, but didn't like the result, so I quit it. My advice - don't cut off 20% of bands' logos, because it looks like you haven't got the place where to put them... but you always can resize them, so what's the problem?
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Posts: 4331 Written by Ascendant187 on 08.02.2009 at 16:39 La Masquerade Infernale is a nice album cover. That's why this went so quickly. Almost no work involved and it looks pretty good. Same here, tell if and why you like it or not please.
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Posts: 330 Written by corrupt on 08.02.2009 at 18:20 They are quite nice, thank you. Although, I like the 01011001 one better than the THE one, because Ayreon logo stands out better (=easier to see). As for Sonata - it's the best Sonata userbar I've seen so far.  (also, strangely enough, I don't have anything against Unia, I even like more songs than not)
---- Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one, and they all stink.
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Posts: 4331 Written by Ragana on 08.02.2009 at 18:39 I've actually been experimenting with different ways to present band logos. But of all my tries, cutting parts away yielded by far the most pleasing results. I really tried to create an illusion of depth and if you look at those bars closely you'll notice I've used shadows wherever possible to emphasize this depth. It's like looking through a window at a wider scene. At least that's what I'm trying to do. Now if I centered the logos within the boundaries of the bars, it would resemble looking at a picture on a canvas rather than create visual depth. Compare the Trail Of Tears bar with any other. It's the bar I dislike the most. But by the time I was making it, the band name was just too wide to cut anything of and leave space on the bar for anything else. So I'm hoping on their next album to maybe feature a decent band logo
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Yeah, I know how to make this shadow effect, but I'm talking just about those logos. I understand that it's hard to put the logo all in one userbar, even more - it may look not as good as you thought before, but at least it's readable. I mean, look at those two Children Of Bodom userbars - upper and bottom edges of both logos are cut off, and it just looks weird. Furthermore, userbar with the logo of High On Fire has an ultimate cut-off. If I haven't read the tittle on the right side of the userbar, I wouldn't be able to understand what it means, because you have cut off about half of that logo. Well... personally I am cool with the userbar of Trail Of Tears.
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Posts: 204 Written by corrupt on 08.02.2009 at 18:40 That looks really cool. Cheers, man. It's definitely a great album and the cover art throughout is interesting to look at.
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Could I request one with Wuthering Heights?
----  Dreams are made so we don't get bored when we sleep
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Posts: 4331 Written by GT on 17.02.2009 at 21:55 Course you can. Only I'm heavily studying right now and living at my girlfriend's. So it might be a few days/weeks until I'm back home with my Computer
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Posts: 5102 Written by corrupt on 17.02.2009 at 22:31 That's quite alright. I'm in no hurry.
---- Dreams are made so we don't get bored when we sleep
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Posts: 4331 Written by GT on 18.02.2009 at 10:43 OK. look at this. I don't consider it done yet. The gradientborder around the logo is still pixelated here and there but I really like this look. Any wishes as to what the text should say?
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Dude the Arcturus one is awesome! Any Moonsorrow?
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Posts: 5102 Written by corrupt on 19.02.2009 at 16:10 It looks really good. I especially like that you got the ravens in there since they're kinda important to the band. As for the text I suggest either Wuthering Heights Fan or WH Fan
---- Dreams are made so we don't get bored when we sleep
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Posts: 4331 Written by Elio on 19.02.2009 at 17:22 Thanks. How 'bout this? It's another one of those covers that work perfectly without having to photoshop the logo onto it. Looks darkly elegant Written by GT on 20.02.2009 at 12:49 OK, cool. I didn't know that. After looking at it for a day I got used to this look. Maybe I find a way to get it less pixelated. Here's one with "wuthering heights fan". I somehow fucked up the first post, making it unreadable. I don't know what exactly I did wrong there but I PM'ed Ivan about it. I hope he has access to the database and can fix my post. The Page doesn't let me edit it anymore. Just changes table widths when I click on 'edit'. If not, I may need to respawn the thread 
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Yeah, really nice
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Posts: 5102 Written by corrupt on 20.02.2009 at 21:16 Thank you. Yeah the thread seems to be kinda weird
---- Dreams are made so we don't get bored when we sleep
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Posts: 4331 Written by GT on 21.02.2009 at 18:43 Unfortunately, although the whole staff seems to be online at times, Ivan isn't. Is there anyone else I could contact about this?
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Posts: 5102 Written by corrupt on 21.02.2009 at 18:58 I think Ivan is the only one who can solve this. I'll inform him as well
---- Dreams are made so we don't get bored when we sleep
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Posts: 4331 Written by GT on 21.02.2009 at 19:00 Thx.
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How about a Funeral Mist userbar with a huge shot of the Jesus mangina from the newest album?
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Posts: 4331 Written by Dangerboner on 22.02.2009 at 05:03 I tried. Believe me but that thing is so huge on that cover that it just either looks like crap or like nothing if you resize it to userbar height. So I went with his face. The album cover is very recognizeable and if you look closely, there's still the angel with the trumpet behind the text.
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Man, this is amazing. I can't believe I haven't seen this thread before. Good job. Keep up the good work! And maybe, if you have time, to make a Coroner userbar? That would be awesome!
---- Savor what you feel and what you see Things that may not seem important now But may be tomorrow R.I.P. Chuck Schuldiner Satan was a Backstreet Boy
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Holy shit, corrupt, I just realised how many of these usebars you have created. You are bored, aren't you?  I had never seen the Death one, amazing with that eye there.
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Posts: 4331 Written by K✞ulu on 04.03.2009 at 19:14 I tried man, but those guys have the most fucked-up 80s album cover art there is  I tried different approaches using each of those and this one can be considered the best one.But I do think that Metallica bar suits your forum appearance very well Written by Elio on 05.03.2009 at 21:14 As I said, I do it to keep my head from studying. And right now I'm in the middle of an exams period that so far just sucked. So don't take this away from me No seriously, It's pretty enjoyable, plus I actually bought a student license of photoshop a couple of months ago and I don't find the time to put it to any more decent use than this. And seeing that you guys like the work is a motivator too, I gotta say that
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Posts: 2574 Written by corrupt on 06.03.2009 at 00:47 I like it, but if you put the Coroner logo itself on top of it, that would be awesome indeed. Sorry for the pain in the ass. Thanks.
---- Savor what you feel and what you see Things that may not seem important now But may be tomorrow R.I.P. Chuck Schuldiner Satan was a Backstreet Boy
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:banger:
