Purple's Wallpapers

[PurpleGurl]

Because of the PR assignment in my email, I started dabbling with Wallpapers. Here are 4 for now:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64882769@N03/6946996197/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64882769@N03/6947986059/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64882769@N03/6947508283/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64882769@N03/6951763229/

[Pesho]

Tiling patterns make for a pretty bad wallpaper, especially the last one. And im sure you probably love purple, but it clashes with the rest of the OS's colour scheme.

[PurpleGurl]

Tiling patterns make for a pretty bad wallpaper, especially the last one. And im sure you probably love purple, but it clashes with the rest of the OS's colour scheme.

I made those for 800x600 and the textures tile well. But they are intended to be used as full screen mode at 800x600, not in tiled mode.

With a screen name like mine, what do you think my favorite color is? Green? The clashing is not as bad as you might think since there are 4 main color palettes. The Reactos colors and purple fall under the "winter" palette. I will keep trying different things.

I can rework the last one to be 1024x768, and it won't clash with my XP machine at all. Most of the colors in XP can be changed, and even some not in the control panel (like the logon prompt background). In 98, you could even change the crash screen, and mine gave the MSOD ("magenta screen of death") instead of the BSOD.

[SomeGuy]

That first one looks pretty good.

I had some thoughts a while back, when I was searching for some, about what would make good wallpapers:

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=9923#p87907

Keep in mind that applications will usually fill the center of the screen, so the content should sort of be distributed across the image.

Perhaps something abstract with atom-ish shapes placed about. Just a thought.

[PurpleGurl]

That first one looks pretty good.

I had some thoughts a while back, when I was searching for some, about what would make good wallpapers:

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=9923#p87907

Keep in mind that applications will usually fill the center of the screen, so the content should sort of be distributed across the image.

Perhaps something abstract with atom-ish shapes placed about. Just a thought.

Thank you. You give some good ideas to try. The atom is certainly something to play around with as it is iconic and related to our overall theme. A space scene would be interesting. So would random abstract shapes. I might want to get away from overly symmetrical.

I just learned how to take advantage of layering in Photoshop. The nice thing is that you can have one project file and create many renditions, depending on what layers you make visible and in what percentages. I will certainly want a layer with a smaller logo too, and boiler plates for different resolutions. Combination layers and textures can be used to make new textures. So I certainly want to build a library of image components and derivatives.

[Pesho]

I made those for 800x600 and the textures tile well.

The point is not whether they tile well. A repeating texture looks like some amateur just clicked "Fill" with a pre-defined pattern on Photoshop and it's very unprofessional. If this is supposed to be an official PR wallpaper to promote ReactOS in a positive light, it's doing the opposite.

The clashing is not as bad as you might think since there are 4 main color palettes. The Reactos colors and purple fall under the "winter" palette.

The point of an official wallpaper is to be part of the same design scheme in order to promote a uniform product. I can't just decide that i like bright neon-green and start pushing that as the official wallpaper. It's fine to say you're playing around with these, and that it's what looks good to you, but that's not what graphic design for PR is.

Most of the colors in XP can be changed, and even some not in the control panel (like the logon prompt background). In 98, you could even change the crash screen, and mine gave the MSOD ("magenta screen of death") instead of the BSOD.

Of course, the user can and will change the colour schemes and wallpaper bitmaps regardless of what the default ones are. What i don't like is everybody trying to push their own preferences while completely disregarding the design choices that have already been established. And that is why the majority of design and PR suggestions in this forum are crap. Im sorry if that sounds harsh, but more popular operating systems like Ubuntu have a proper dedicated design team and it shows. The state of ReactOS design right now is a complete free-for-all where anybody can post anything and none of it ends up getting anywhere.

As a proper example i can give Angelus's "REACTOS7" wallpaper set from 2 years ago. Why aren't we using those? What's the point of posting wallpapers on this forum if none of them will end up being used?

[Z98]

Link didn't work. And note that Angelus' wallpapers are the ones we chose from for the past several releases for what to bundle with the OS. I also made sure he got credited for his work in the changelog.

[Pesho]

Strange, the link works here. I also wasn't aware that any wallpapers from here were actually being used, that's good news!

[vicmarcal]

Strange, the link works here. I also wasn't aware that any wallpapers from here were actually being used, that's good news!

Then try 0.3.14!!!

[SomeGuy]

The SVN builds omit screen savers and anything else that is not absolutely needed for testing to save space. The releases include backgrounds, and they will usually switch them around a bit to whatever happens to be in style.

[PurpleGurl]

Well Pesho, the concept of Open Source is about freedom. Have you thought to consider that maybe some of the "design choices" could be wrong? Anyone can modify the UI to make their papers and themes fit. If you don't like what I offer fine. Nobody is forcing you to use it or even look at it. While we are like Windows, we are not Microsoft. I just put stuff stuff out there, and if nobody likes it, they don't have to use it. Everyone is not the same and cannot be expected to like the same things. While I expect nearly any OS to be capable of having a professional feel to it, the end customer should have the right to customize it as they see fit, without developers or others encroaching on their right to do so. That is one thing I like about Reactos over Microsoft in that nobody will need to apply a patched file just to get to use self-made themes and to let others use them.

I don't mean any of this to sound hostile. While the climate of civility has improved in these forums in the last year, and I thank the team leaders for their part in that, I feel we could all do more work. That means not urinating on each other's ideas. Sure, give constructive criticism and support where necessary, but don't jump on people after their first effort. Give lots of praise early on as you correct and help integrate the person into the team. I don't mean any of the Politically Correct stuff either. We all must start somewhere.

I also don't think we need a guild mentality about any of this either. We shouldn't be trying to lock people out just because they don't do things just like us. If it were to get that bad, some would have no problems joining a fork project. So we don't want to run people off unless we really must. It seems we have a momentum now which we didn't exactly have last year, and maybe more rapport, and it would be nice if we could keep this pace.

Oh, here is another based on that same template set.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64882769@N03/6951763229/

[Z98]

Praise implies approval. It is not obligatory when one does not approve. Pesho expressed disagreement with your design, first in a simple manner and then in a more detailed and stronger manner. The level of language is no more than what you'd likely see if a core developer decided to comment.

[PurpleGurl]

Praise implies approval. It is not obligatory when one does not approve. Pesho expressed disagreement with your design, first in a simple manner and then in a more detailed and stronger manner. The level of language is no more than what you'd likely see if a core developer decided to comment.

I respectfully disagree and I think you misunderstood what I was saying. I was coaching and giving a warm admonition using hints. That is all I will say about it here, and though it is not my job to say this and it is all a challenge for me to heed, I ask everyone to remember the rules, particularly to stay on topic and to be civil. I just hope that the improvements I've seen over the last year in the social climate continue.

I've just been playing around and trying to gain proficiency and to follow the assignment given. I learned things about Photoshop that I didn't know after a decade of use. The layers come in handy and allow you to vary the final images in many ways and to adjust components of an image without disturbing the entire image.

[Black_Fox]

With a screen name like mine, what do you think my favorite color is? Green?

I won't deny that I'd have much easier task considering my color Commenting to the first post, I really dislike the latter two, because they use the infamous "default" texture from Photoshop that isn't particularly visually pleasing. The "sticks" texture is fine, I'd only recommend making the logo smaller so that there can be at least two columns of icons on the left without interfering with the logo.

[PurpleGurl]

I won't deny that I'd have much easier task considering my color Commenting to the first post, I really dislike the latter two, because they use the infamous "default" texture from Photoshop that isn't particularly visually pleasing. The "sticks" texture is fine, I'd only recommend making the logo smaller so that there can be at least two columns of icons on the left without interfering with the logo.

Actually, the first two use default textures too, but I played with the layering and added a gradient to where you cannot recognize what I used.

I do have a close variant of the first which uses your suggestion and I could use my template set to generate a 2nd one. I feel the same way as you that if you use the default icon tiling options, then you don't want a collision with the logo.

Like I said, I was just playing around. It gives me a dry run to get feedback.