FreeAmpSE update 1.5 what do you want?
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- KVRAF
- 8519 posts since 7 Apr, 2003
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- KVRAF
- 4215 posts since 10 Oct, 2002 from Nashville, TN USA
I'm not sure it would help, but you might try this approach on the stitched logo (I think it looks fine like it is). I'm sure a lot of GUI designers are watching this thread, so I make mention of this even though it's an old-skool approach and it's a handy trick.
Start with some sort of mid-color background. Any color in your current GUI would be fine.
Take the word/logo and reproduce it as a rasterized black version and a rasterized white version. In Photoshop, apply the "soft light" channel effect to both layers, with the mid-color beneath them as "normal". The logo will disappear. Then use your arrow keys to move either of the layers around. Suddenly you will see the word/logo become either "raised" or "etched" in the background. By adjusting the opacity of the layers at this stage, one can control the depth of the effect. This is an alternate approach to close drop-shadows and offers the designer a way of adding depth to a font (especially a pixel font) without adding significantly to the font's size.
Note, one can do this with any shape in Photoshop. It doesn't have to be text. This is how people used to do bevels before there was a "bevel" effect in PS. By blurring one or both of the layers in question, softer edges can be achieved.
Here is an example. It uses an anti-aliased font and a pixel-font:
Start with some sort of mid-color background. Any color in your current GUI would be fine.
Take the word/logo and reproduce it as a rasterized black version and a rasterized white version. In Photoshop, apply the "soft light" channel effect to both layers, with the mid-color beneath them as "normal". The logo will disappear. Then use your arrow keys to move either of the layers around. Suddenly you will see the word/logo become either "raised" or "etched" in the background. By adjusting the opacity of the layers at this stage, one can control the depth of the effect. This is an alternate approach to close drop-shadows and offers the designer a way of adding depth to a font (especially a pixel font) without adding significantly to the font's size.
Note, one can do this with any shape in Photoshop. It doesn't have to be text. This is how people used to do bevels before there was a "bevel" effect in PS. By blurring one or both of the layers in question, softer edges can be achieved.
Here is an example. It uses an anti-aliased font and a pixel-font:
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- KVRian
- 534 posts since 22 Mar, 2006 from Adelaide, Australia
grymm its looking great... 
one tiny little thing - something about the little mic icon was pissing me off - then i realised - the little metal ring around the ball of the mic is a straight line - it should be curved...same curve as at the point where the ball meets the handle....
minor point i kno
one tiny little thing - something about the little mic icon was pissing me off - then i realised - the little metal ring around the ball of the mic is a straight line - it should be curved...same curve as at the point where the ball meets the handle....
minor point i kno
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- KVRAF
- 8519 posts since 7 Apr, 2003
I will have a fiddle with it tommorow and try this technique, thanks. Just to be sure, the desire of people has been to 'thicken' the logo and make it look more puffy or?Shane Sanders wrote:I'm not sure it would help, but you might try this approach on the stitched logo (I think it looks fine like it is). I'm sure a lot of GUI designers are watching this thread, so I make mention of this even though it's an old-skool approach and it's a handy trick.
Start with some sort of mid-color background. Any color in your current GUI would be fine.
Take the word/logo and reproduce it as a rasterized black version and a rasterized white version. In Photoshop, apply the "soft light" channel effect to both layers, with the mid-color beneath them as "normal". The logo will disappear. Then use your arrow keys to move either of the layers around. Suddenly you will see the word/logo become either "raised" or "etched" in the background. By adjusting the opacity of the layers at this stage, one can control the depth of the effect. This is an alternate approach to close drop-shadows and offers the designer a way of adding depth to a font (especially a pixel font) without adding significantly to the font's size.
Note, one can do this with any shape in Photoshop. It doesn't have to be text. This is how people used to do bevels before there was a "bevel" effect in PS. By blurring one or both of the layers in question, softer edges can be achieved.
Here is an example. It uses an anti-aliased font and a pixel-font:
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- KVRAF
- 8519 posts since 7 Apr, 2003
matthewjumps wrote:grymm its looking great...
one tiny little thing - something about the little mic icon was pissing me off - then i realised - the little metal ring around the ball of the mic is a straight line - it should be curved...same curve as at the point where the ball meets the handle....
minor point i kno
You want to know something funny? That mic is a resized/masked out and slightly edited version of a shure SM58 I snagged off the web. Therefore, the mic ball part is actually correct if you can believe that, I could make it more curved but then I would be bending the laws of physics
All I did was mask the mic out, add some lighting and voila, flat ball mic
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- KVRian
- 534 posts since 22 Mar, 2006 from Adelaide, Australia
wierd - one of those photos that look so wrong but are somehow right....
odd anyway, i did a google search for shure sm58 and most of the side view ones still had a curve in the ring - maybe when you scale em down the curve gets too small to notice....
but the mic on ur gui looks like a perfect 45 degree pixel line has been drawn in..looks a bit too perfectly straight ...
whatever
odd anyway, i did a google search for shure sm58 and most of the side view ones still had a curve in the ring - maybe when you scale em down the curve gets too small to notice....
but the mic on ur gui looks like a perfect 45 degree pixel line has been drawn in..looks a bit too perfectly straight ...
whatever
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- KVRAF
- 8519 posts since 7 Apr, 2003
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- KVRian
- 534 posts since 22 Mar, 2006 from Adelaide, Australia
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- KVRAF
- 8519 posts since 7 Apr, 2003
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- KVRian
- 1214 posts since 10 Aug, 2005
Whoa, that looks amazing. You will have people definitely wanting to pay you for your skills grymmjack!
Last edited by spuddle on Fri Jun 02, 2006 4:42 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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- KVRAF
- 3944 posts since 7 May, 2004 from behind his workbench
looks
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- KVRAF
- 8519 posts since 7 Apr, 2003
@asseca; I will do that as a last resort. I think the pedals look ok, cramped a bit yeah but I'm fighting for real estate anyway. If I put the text on the pedal I loose flexability of keeping the LED indicator there in a nice clean way. I was going to make the word a big LED but it didn't pan out and is too time consuming to bother with it. I'd prefer to keep things as is for now and only as a worst case scenario/contingency further tweak the pedal steps.
@supddle; thanks. FYI; my goal isn't to make money, just to help out and have fun and in the case of FreeAMP pay homage and respect to a hard-working developer who deserves it.
@sonicfire; thanks alot.
@supddle; thanks. FYI; my goal isn't to make money, just to help out and have fun and in the case of FreeAMP pay homage and respect to a hard-working developer who deserves it.
@sonicfire; thanks alot.
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- KVRian
- 1214 posts since 10 Aug, 2005
Even so mate, you'd be well placed to enter the industry if you wanted to
P.S The 'up switch' looks a little odd in shape and shading, the 'down switch' feel much more solid in comparison so you might want to have a look at that?
P.P.S You might want to consider a way to seperate the speaker cabinat a little from the amp graphics or make them fit together better, at the moment that bit looks odd and 'sudden' if you get me?
P.S The 'up switch' looks a little odd in shape and shading, the 'down switch' feel much more solid in comparison so you might want to have a look at that?
P.P.S You might want to consider a way to seperate the speaker cabinat a little from the amp graphics or make them fit together better, at the moment that bit looks odd and 'sudden' if you get me?
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- KVRAF
- 1981 posts since 29 Feb, 2004
Option: Remove the LED, and let the text light up when the pedal is on ...grymmjack wrote:@asseca; I will do that as a last resort. I think the pedals look ok, cramped a bit yeah but I'm fighting for real estate anyway. If I put the text on the pedal I loose flexability of keeping the LED indicator there in a nice clean way. I was going to make the word a big LED but it didn't pan out and is too time consuming to bother with it. I'd prefer to keep things as is for now and only as a worst case scenario/contingency further tweak the pedal steps.