New Journal Banner

[strangetomato]

Allow me to direct your attention to my new banner. *grins* I changed my page theme and figured out how to use some basic CSS to add my own banner.  I'll have to read up on it to figure out how to refine everything to make it just so (if you know how to center things in CSS, I'm all ears), but it will do for now. I've been thinking about adding a banner like this for a while now, and it feels good to actually do it.

They're quite the ensemble cast, and that's not even half of the characters.

Comments

[music-simbol.livejournal.com]

How the hell did you do that?! That's amazing! Good job!

(If you want I can peak at the CSS, thou I can't promise anything. :P)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

It wasn't really complicated. I just teleported everyone to a huge lot and started arranging them to where I wanted them in the shot. It's all one shot, just cropped to look like a wide-angle image. It took a bit of tweaking to get everyone in the right place. (In fact, I just replaced the image with a new one that's slightly better, I think... I moved the trio to the foreground, which makes more sense.)

How can you look at the CSS? Can you just view it, or do I have to show it to you somehow? (I am a huge noob, as you can see, but I can usually feel my way through things.) I'd just like to know how to position everything a little better, but I can probably figure that out by messing around with it.

[music-simbol.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess you could copy and paste it and email it to me.

Or, you can look at this guide that I used to tweak my own layout. It's for Flexible Squares, but even if you don't use that, you should be able to get something out of it. :)

And yeah, the trio closer up makes more sense.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

My old layout was flexible squares, but I wasn't having any luck with it, so I changed it. I might consider changing back, but I sort of like the new layout too. With a bit of adjusting and some custom colours, it might be even better. I wasn't a huge fan of the way flexible squares grouped everything. It took up a lot of room, but I also liked how it separated everything.

Thanks for the link! I'll have a look.

Yeah, that was my original intention for the arrangement, but it can be so hard to adjust those poses (with everyone overlapping each other), so I didn't bother moving them the first time. It makes sense to have them more prominent, since the trio and Nervous are more like the "main" characters of the story.

[amaryssobellus.livejournal.com]

Great job! It looks really good.

I like the Johnny, Ripp and Ophelia pic. I like that Johnny looks like he's trying to block Ophelia from Ripp in a way. Weither you did that intentionally or not, that's what I'm getting out of it. :)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) I just replaced the image and moved Johnny, Ripp and Ophelia a little closer to the foreground, so you can see them better. The placement had more to do with the fact that I wanted Ripp to be putting bunny ears on Johnny, but I like that it looks like Johnny is wedged in between them like that.

[franwi.livejournal.com]

Look amazing! I love how everyone's grouped. It reflects stories and personalities and also leaves me wondering about a couple things. Hmm. I have no idea how you managed to make it look like a panoramic shot, but awesome job!!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm glad you think so. I was really trying to give a sense of the plots and relationships of the story with this one shot. It's like a little summary of the whole thing. (I'm also wondering what you're wondering about... there's probably a couple of things that I'm suggesting here, for sure. *wink*)

The shot looks panoramic because of the way I cropped it. It's all one photo. I just set them all up on a lot and took the screencap. It was a bit of work to set them up, but a lot less work than trying to put them all together from separate images in the photo editing program.

[franwi.livejournal.com]

I can say one of my wonderings lingers on Vidcund and how he's hanging back from his brothers, looking a bit torn. Circe's in the background there with Vali and I get this "poor struggling single mom" vibe she's putting out like a lure.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's very observant of you. ;) You're getting the right feeling about that.

[sinderellah.livejournal.com]

It looks great!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks! ^_^

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

Oh my God it's beautiful! I'd love to do that with my own "ensemble cast" some time.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thank you. You should give it a try too, if you're interested in it. It's a nice way to show what your story is all about for any new visitors to your journal.

Sims stories can really start to pile on the characters after a while, can't they? Mine is just ballooning out of control, but I'm trying to keep the focus on the key players, even though some new characters are entering the story.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

I think it would be a good idea. I put all those family photos in my userinfo, but I'm sure eventually somebody would ask questions and not even bother looking.

Oh yes they do! I can't believe that I already have more than 20 main sims already. Some of them haven't even had their introduction yet, but they still will be important in the long run. Yeah, it's good that you just put the key players in. To make the banner have EVERYONE would be a bit confusing for new readers, not to mention hell to shoot.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I just checked your user info page. That looks great. :D I have a number of things on my user page too that I'm sure nobody ever reads, like some info about downloads (I'll eventually do a resources post to replace that). I really need to do an updated character profile page. It's on my to-do list.

The image would have been too crowded if I tried to include anyone else, even though I would have loved to stick the bands in there and the clones. I really almost put Erin and the clones there, since they all have their role to play, but I settled for the bare essentials. I didn't even include the Curious alien children (but that's partly because they've aged up to children in the game and they haven't in the story).

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :) I think it will work for now, since my story is still in the beginning. Yes, a character profile would be a good thing. I know whose who, but I always have a problem remembering who has what personality trait- even with my own sims!

Hehe, so you play ahead with your families too. It's kind of hard not to, isn't it?

Amazing!

[ricamarcella.livejournal.com]

Love the panoramic shot, and how everyone's distance from the viewer reflects their importance in the story. I also like how they're grouped by storyline: Stella/Jayne, Ripp/Johnny/Phi, Buck/Jill/the Smiths, Frances/Tank, Circe/Vali, Nervous/the Curious Bros. It's so clever. I also like how everyone's got their own "unique" pose.

Re: Amazing!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I was trying to summarize all those things, just as you described them - the relative prominence in the story, the relationships, and the different plots.

The posing was tricky with such a large cast in a single photo, but it worked out more or less the way I wanted it to.

[simfulacts.livejournal.com]

That's incredible!:O! Wow!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

That's lovely. I really really like the way it's put together and how it relates to each of the pieces of your overall story. I'm also exceptionally jealous I haven't thought of something similar first! :)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I wanted to give a sense of some of the major plots in the story with this one image, and I think most of them come across pretty well. If you like the idea, you're more than welcome to make something similar for your own journal.

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

What a cool banner!

Besides the work of figuring out the CSS code to accomodate your banner to your layout (I've never been able to make a decent layout, not even if my life depended on it, so I just stick with pre-made ones ^^), the pic is amazing.

I must have taken you a while to pose them, right? I like how their body pose, face expresion and even the position in the pic say a lot about their story. Like the trio at the front (with Nervous) and Circe in the waaay back. I also noticed that Jayne is showing her back to Johnny too!

And those Curious brothers don't look happy at all. What is Vidcund ashamed of? O_o

I really liked it! :)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :) I did a little customization with my previous layout too, but it was mostly just the colours of the background and text. I like how personal the banner makes the page.

It did take a bit of effort to set this shot up. Sims don't always want to cooperate, as I'm sure you know. Some of those poses were just the natural poses that the sims took (like Jill and Buck turning their heads, Nervous crossing his arms, and Circe scowling), so I that was really lucky.

I see that you've noticed some of my little hints there. ;) Jayne and Stella are doing their conspiring over in the corner. The Curious brothers are definitely not at their happiest and closest at this point in time, so I wanted to show that. Vidcund is actually brushing lint off his clothes *snicker*, but it does look like he has something to hide, which works for me.

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

Wow, it looks really great!

I don't know how to center things in CSS, but if you know the width of your content area, maybe you could make the image that exact width. For instance, you could add 10 or 20 pixels of white to both the right and left. Does that make sense?

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thank you. ^_^ I took your advice and added a white border to the top and sides of the banner, and now it fits perfectly. Thank you for that suggestion. It was a really good one.

Now I just need to figure out how to position the navigator bar and hide the title of the page. (Well, the title is hidden now, but just pushed down out of view. It's still there.)

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm glad I could help. It looks perfect.

Good luck with the nav bar and all. That sounds like a complicated CSS kind of thing. But there are plenty of wizards around to consult on that. :)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

It really solved the problem. Thanks again for your help.

I've been looking at some tutorials for CSS and this livejournal layout in particular, and I've picked up a couple of things already, so I think I'll eventually be able to figure out the navigation bar thing. I changed the colours of some of the text with CSS. The titles are now a sort of mauve/brown colour instead of the orange/brown that came with the layout (which really wasn't doing anything for me).

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

I love it! I don't even know whose missing, but I really love it. I LOVE Circe, Nervous/Pascal, Frances/Tank and Jill/Buck in the banner though. *grin*

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

It's missing everyone from the Singles household, Ajay Loner, the Worthingtons, the girls from the Shifting Paradymes, the newer students at LFT, the Curious children, and maybe a few others... Malcolm Landgraab? *snicker* Most everyone else is pretty minor, at least for now.

Thank you. :)

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

Oh, ok. I must not have realized that they were like, "real" characters, I thought they were just like background. Except for the Worthington's and Malcolm Landgraab, I really like that storyline. And the Pleasants as well. :)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

They're all characters, though some are pretty minor. If I've bothered to write about them, they have some role to play. You never know when someone might get to step into the spotlight.

I really like the Worthingtons too. I need to plan their role in the larger plot some more.

[indigoleo.livejournal.com]

That looks great. I love it! :D

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. ^_^

[muslemura.livejournal.com]

I love it! The poses and positions of all the characters seem very fitting :) But Jill, you really should focus on the youngest Grunt...wandering eyes, *tsk, tsk*

*grin*

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Yeah, it does look like Jill is glancing over at a certain someone, doesn't it? I like that it looks like she might just be looking at her brother too, or the three of them together. Jill and Buck are looking out at their siblings, and having them there in the center serves as a way of linking them all together. I'm glad you think that all of the poses are character-appropriate. :)

[80sfiend.livejournal.com]

Nice banner!!! :D I like it. :D

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

[abbycat900.livejournal.com]

Oh.. wow.... I praise your awesome-ness. I wish I knew how to do that! I love Stella and Jayne talking over in the corner! Everyone looks a bit bored to me, except for Ripp and Ophelia, or maybe not bored but confused. Like "How they heck did I get here?"

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I never considered that they might look bored. I thought it was more just that they looked serious. (And they probably are wondering how they got there. *snicker*)

[abbycat900.livejournal.com]

I also like Johnny and Ophelia looking up, sort of like thinking "If only I could just fly away..." Or atleast, that's what I'd bee thinking if strange things were going on in Strangetown. (But, if 'normal' things were going on in Strangetown, I'd be a bit nervous too)