User talk:StoneFrog

Greetings

Hope to see you around more. I'm sure the members of this wiki would find your knowledge on Arena and Daggerfall to be very useful. Whtwlf 22:51, 6 January 2009 (EST)

Hello. I'm Tim, nice to see another person working on the Daggerfall namespace. --Tim ^Talk 22:26, 31 January 2009 (EST)

Hey there! LIkewise. :) StoneFrog 22:40, 31 January 2009 (EST)

Skyrim Skill Icons

I definitely like the look of the icons you uploaded for all the Skyrim skill pages. But they also seem a bit ... bland, maybe? easy to overlook? An idea I just had is to change the color of the icons to match the color used for that specialization (red for combat, blue for magic, etc.) -- although perhaps a somewhat muted shade of the color. Just a thought! --Nephele^Talk 23:27, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Hey there, sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Yeah, I think that the Skyrim skill pages are kind of monochrome at the moment. I like your idea of using the three specialization colors, although I can't think of an elegant means of implementing them right now - it'd be too overbearing to use them as a fill or as the outline in its entirety. Another possibility would be to simply tint the infoboxes containing the icons with color, but then I'd have to deviate from the skills summary template a bit. StoneFrog 05:43, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

A couple ideas relating to the previous suggestion. Try either a subtle overlay of the stars in the trees' constellation, possibly in a faint coloring matching the class type. This could be messy for some skills, since the stars and what they represent don't always line up right (some artistic license might fix that). Or, add some knotwork to the whitespace around the icons, as it is prevalent in Skyrim, and fits the theme. Using subtle red/blue/green on such would help the graphic "pop" without being too distracting. -- Highyena 20:34, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

I like the knotwork idea. I actually vectorized the various "quest heading" knotworks from Skyrim's interface, here. They're used for the Companions(?), College of Winterhold, and Thieves Guild respectively. Not sure about the first one though as I've never joined the Companions. If somebody could clarify that, it'd be much appreciated. These could be condensed somewhat and used in the corners of the skills. EDIT: A rough WIP can be seen here. StoneFrog 05:05, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Oh yeah, that looks pretty good! -- Highyena 06:07, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

I'm not a fan of the knotwork personally, as I think it overwhelms the icon itself. However, I also agree that the originals are a bit bland. Maybe if the knotwork or lacing were a bit more subdued or backgroundish, it could spruce up the icon without taking attention away from the icon itself. I'm looking at the Oblivion icons (example, example) when I suggest this, but those came from the actual game files rather than being our own design, so take it with a grain of salt. However, I also don't think we should duplicate Oblivion's design entirely. Oblivion had its user interface and iconography which get presented on Oblivion pages, but Skyrim pages should look more like the Skyrim UI and iconography. If I were making the icons, in order to match Skyrim's style I would err on the side of too bland over too ornamented.

For the purpose of keeping the pages' styles in line with the games', I put forth the idea of using Skyrim's school icons on Skyrim spell effect pages instead of Oblivion's spell icons. Consider that as one possible place your icons may end up. (Current page with Oblivion icons, example with Skyrim icons)

Sorry for posting so much crap for you to read, but want to leave by saying my suggestions are only suggestions. If you end up getting a lot of feedback on these, you won't be able to meet everybody's expectations, you shouldn't try to, and my ideas are perfectly fair to pass over. I will harbor no ill will if the icons end up looking nothing like what I originally wanted. Chris3145 19:40, 7 December 2011 (UTC)

The knotwork is derived from resources in the quest log graphics, so they are technically in keeping with Skyrim's style. I know what you mean about them grabbing your attention, but I think outright coloring the skill icons may be too much. I was thinking, actually, of making smaller versions of the skill icons in a black-and-white motif (like those of the map markers or achievement icons) for external pages. I'm not sure how those would end up but they'd presumably read better than either iteration of the main icons I've done. Would you have any preference over how those ones are colored? I suppose just beige would be fine considering the spell effect infoboxes are already tinted.

As for the colors on the knotwork, truth be told, I wanted to keep the saturation consistent between them so I was using pre-set swatches in Illustrator. :P I really can't trust Skyrim's "visual style" very much on this, because I've noticed it kind of adopts a brighter, almost neon approach to how it colors things such as the health/magicka/stamina bars.

I could tone down the knotwork's colors though - doesn't matter much to me. I don't mind the critique at all, considering everybody's going to have to be staring at them at some point or another. I could do a few mockups this evening, possibly. Not a lot of free time these days. StoneFrog 20:20, 7 December 2011 (UTC)

I recognized the knotwork as the mage's guild quest graphic (I actually just discovered that those designated quest groups yesterday), but I meant that the decorative parts on the Oblivion skills are already in Oblivion's skill artwork. I think it's nice when we can pull art straight from the game without modifying it, alough in this case it might be justifiable.

To make sure we're on the same page, if the black and white icons you want to make are something like the one in the template on this page, I would completely agree. I don't know if they would need coloring at all - you might be able to have them be white with a black outline.

I'm not sure on the knotwork colors. I was going to suggest that you try to use the colors that are used for the constellations in the skills menu, but the differences between them are very subtle. Having all the icons as slightly different shades of blue would look weird. I'm not sure of a good alternative.

Here are two exceptionally crummy examples I made using Paint and Windows Live Photo gallery: Link 1 Link 2 Chris3145 22:29, 7 December 2011 (UTC)

Or the super easy solution - have an embellished version for uses on pages where the image is large enough to work, and have a basic version for use on templates or when the image needs to be small. Chris3145 02:32, 10 December 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, I've been thinking the fancy ones will only ever be used on their respective skill pages. For any other pages where the skills are listed/referenced, the small basic ones should be used. After all, the Morrowind and Oblivion namespaces use small icons for these. The knotwork for the larger ones look best in the corner IMO, since the large icons will only ever appear on the right side of the page. I'm just not sure what colors I want to use and if the icons should remain strictly beige - could probably get away with at least their outlines being tinted, but it's hard to visualize. Also, those MSPaint mockups are far more elegant than anything I've ever done with the program. :P StoneFrog 04:51, 10 December 2011 (UTC)

Additionally, I don't know what size you want the effect icons to be. They really wouldn't read too well at 64px, so I was thinking maybe a bit higher like 80px. I tried doing a double border effect on them to make them stand out more, but again, the size of the icons determines whether or not it'll ultimately serve this role. StoneFrog 02:48, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

(←) I tried 64 px and it works pretty well. Chris3145 03:48, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

I really hate using the Oblivion icons for Skyrim, so these are great. I think using the solid/original ones would be great for the small 20x20 icons. Then we could use the double border for the icon in the boxes (i.e. SR:Fire Damage), and then use the embellishes ones for the skill pages. Different, yet similar. Also, is there anyway you can email me the file for the knotworks? elliot (talk) 05:44, 18 December 2011 (UTC)

I like that idea. Also sorry about the delays, but my main computer hasn't been readily accessible over the holidays. I'll try to get back to them in a few days or so. StoneFrog 16:38, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Awesome work

You have been given a cookie! Your dedication and diligence to the wiki has not gone unnoticed. A user has seen the progress you've made, and has given you a cookie because of it. Good work! The user had the following to say: Your icons are simply fantastic. elliot (talk) 05:39, 18 December 2011 (UTC)

It might be tacky to add another cookie immediately below this one, so I'll just say that I also appreciate the work you've done on the icons. They look great. Chris3145 17:04, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

You've done a really wonderful job with the skill symbols. I'm currently working on a mod that will add some unique labels to the fortify skill potions and would love to use your symbols as the base for my label designs (ideally, I'd really like to work off of your illustrator files). I'm not sure if you're still around, but if you read this and would consider my request, you can reach me at krymods@gmail.com. Thanks! kryptopyr 16:39, 15 March 2015

Daggerfall Alchemy Ingredient Images

I'm looking at your images of the Daggerfall alchemy ingredients, but I can't find the background you used in the ingame menu. Am I missing something obvious here? I'd like to try to finish what you started. Kasijjuf (talk) 03:41, 11 June 2013 (GMT)

Skill Icon original vectors (AIs)?

Hey - do you still have the original vectors for these? I'd love to use them with my Cricut. Thanks! Clairelyclaire (talk) 05:14, 9 June 2018 (UTC)