A skin for WikiBound: Help!

[Tina]

I've been meaning to get around to touching up WikiBound a lot more when it comes to designs, and making the place more fun and colorful than just boring ol Vector/Monobook. I tried my hand at making my own skin, since I had modified monobook before and I have basic CSS knowledge... but that didn't go quite well. XD;

So I figured I would post a topic here asking if someone would be willing to volunteer with creating a skin? I'm not really sure where else to ask- I don't know anyone specifically who has wiki/CSS experience, and I would rather try to see if anyone from NIWA would be able to help before moving on to more outside sources for assistance. D:

I have a vague idea of what I would like... something bold, colorful, or pastel-y, and oriented with mostly light colors. Something very Earthbound-esque. Something fun! And... that's about it. I wish I didn't suck so much at web design.

[SoujiroElric]

Wait, a skin or a modification of the monobook css?

I've been playing Earthbound lately. What about using something similar to the battle backgrounds as the actual background?

[Tina]

Probably a modification of monobook- anything would do, though. Obviously not a skin from scratch because that would be a pretty big pain. XD

I think using the battle backgrounds would be too distracting, though. That's what I've been having a lot of trouble with... getting a nice background, but something not really distracting. Blerrghh.

[Axiomist]

I just googled "Earthbound final boss" and a lot of pyscedelic-trippy images showed up. I'd go with that if it were mine :p

[Tina]

I don't want to scare visitors away with having Giygas as the background ;_;

A backup plan of mine was to draw a background instead of trying to figure out a pattern/plain color that would work well... except for the fact that I wasn't sure how big I would make it, and that it would probably be covered up anyway. (Unless we were to do a semi-transparent background...) Har har.

Argh. I have no idea. I don't know what colors to go with or what theme to go with... I'm pretty braindead right now. :v (I'm sure I'm not helping much right now, seeing as I don't think many people around here have played the Mother games very much... blargh.)

[tacopill]

I don't want to scare visitors away with having Giygas as the background ;_;

A backup plan of mine was to draw a background instead of trying to figure out a pattern/plain color that would work well... except for the fact that I wasn't sure how big I would make it, and that it would probably be covered up anyway. (Unless we were to do a semi-transparent background...) Har har.

Argh. I have no idea. I don't know what colors to go with or what theme to go with... I'm pretty braindead right now. :v (I'm sure I'm not helping much right now, seeing as I don't think many people around here have played the Mother games very much... blargh.)

are there any other pastel colors?

[Tina]

Something along the lines of this, I guess:


Not necessarily those same exact colors, just an idea of it. Pastelly ideas on the top and then the bold ideas on the bottom. I spent about 5 minutes coming up with those colors, though, so I didn't really put any effort into coordinating them. :V

[tacopill]

Something along the lines of this, I guess:


Not necessarily those same exact colors, just an idea of it. Pastelly ideas on the top and then the bold ideas on the bottom. I spent about 5 minutes coming up with those colors, though, so I didn't really put any effort into coordinating them. :V

if you get me the color numbers, i want to run experiments with my in house wiki and See what i can come up with.

[Tina]

Pastel ones:
[spoiler]Red-orange gradient thing:
#f49b9b
#f4959b
#f4b09b
#f4bf9b
#f4d49b
Purples:
#e2caef
#e8d3f4
Blue/green:
#bfdff7
#bcf3ca[/spoiler]

Bold ones:
[spoiler]From left to right:
#f2d374
#f0c669
#e28766
#9166ad
#8b89ea[/spoiler]

Obviously you don't need to use *all* of the colors, or those exact ones, but there you go. XD

[SoujiroElric]

I'd go with the pastel ones. It goes great with EarthBound.

They resemble a battle, even if you're not using a battle theme itself.

[tacopill]

So, here is what i think: Since none of us have experience, no knows anybody else with experience, how about we make it collaborative? we each pick at it a little, and bring to hear our results.

Here is what i got so far:

Code Select Expand


/* Framework */
html, body
{
    font-family: courier, sans-serif;
}

body
{
background-color: #8b89ea;
}

/* Content */
#content
{
background-color: #e2caef;
}

/* Head */
#mw-page-base
{
/*background-color: white;*/
background-color: #f4959b;
}

#mw-head-base
{
background-color: #f4b09b;
}

#mw-head
{
position: absolute;
top: 0;
right: 0;
width: 100%;
background-color: #f4bf9b;
}

/* Personal */
#p-personal
        {
background-color:#f2d374;
}

        /* Navigation Containers */
#left-navigation
        {
background-color:#e8d3f4;
}

#right-navigation
       {
background-color:#e28766;
}

       /* Namespaces and Views */
div.vectorTabs
        {
background-color: #bcf3ca;
}

div.vectorTabs
        {
background-color:#9166ad;
}
     
        /* OVERRIDDEN BY COMPLIANT BROWSERS */
div.vectorTabs ul li
        {
background-color: #e2caef;
}

div.vectorTabs li.new a,
div.vectorTabs li.new a span,
div.vectorTabs li.new a:visited,
div.vectorTabs li.new a:visited span
       {
color: #8b89ea;
}

div.vectorMenu ul
        {
background-color: #bcf3ca;
}

/* Panel */
#mw-panel
{
background: #f49b9b;
}

/* Footer */
#footer
{
background-color:#8b89ea;
}

/* Categories */
.catlinks
{
background-color: #f4d49b;
}




Keep in mind, 2 things:
1) This is butt-ugly.
2) The purpose of this is too isolate usable CSS classes.

Remeber to implement this on your user/vector.css pages only.

[Tina]

Actually, I may have got someone to do the skin.. XD;;; I was just talking with a friend on AIM tonight and he said he would try taking a shot at it. This is awkward. It... just kind of came up in conversation. orz

A group effort with something like a skin I think would be really hard to do, anyway- different tastes in design styles and it just seems like it would be difficult to settle on a final product.

Of course there's always the matter of having different completed skins to choose from, and then have a vote on which would be used/default? '-' I still wouldn't rather do the collab idea, though, no offense.

[tacopill]

eh. Not a problem. It was still fun to pull apart the css.

[Tina]

Okay I am almost in tears attempting to do this myself, so I'm throwing in the towel and hoping that a godly skin designer or something comes along and sees this. ;-;

I really, really want a custom skin for WB: this would also make coordinating colors on the wiki much easier, figuring out set styles, and so forth. And it would be so much sparkly than just having boring ol Vector as the default. Sparkly things are nice!

Anyway. There's only a couple things I was hoping for in a skin. This as the background, aligned to the top right - if someone actually responds I'll find the more background oriented version I made. Colors... red/light blue and whatever you think would go best with that. And in general a star/planet motif. That's all, really. But I can't come up with anything I like myself, and it's frustrating me to no end, so... can someone else try? Please? *puppy eyes*

[Greenpickle]

Hmm, I'm going home for 4 weeks of holiday today, so I might be able to find time.  I have no Mother/EB experience (though I watched a speedrun once...), though.  Is there anything in particular you're struggling with, or is it just that it's slow going trying to work each thing out?

Disclaimer: I'm not much of a designer in the graphics sense, mostly because I don't like how long it takes me to put anything together, and I'm colour-blind, so...may need guidance in that respect.

[dkpat]

Tina.. would you like me to take a go at some of it? lol

[Tina]

Is there anything in particular you're struggling with, or is it just that it's slow going trying to work each thing out?

I really don't know anything about web design, myself-- I can't figure out a layout nor do I know where to look for MediaWiki skins as a starting point. Plus I can never seem to get a good color scheme that clicks. (Also I am CSS-retarded. Hahaha.)

Tina.. would you like me to take a go at some of it? lol

If you could, that would be awesome 

[tacopill]

Is there anything in particular you're struggling with, or is it just that it's slow going trying to work each thing out?

I really don't know anything about web design, myself-- I can't figure out a layout nor do I know where to look for MediaWiki skins as a starting point. Plus I can never seem to get a good color scheme that clicks. (Also I am CSS-retarded. Hahaha.)

Tina.. would you like me to take a go at some of it? lol

If you could, that would be awesome 

woo! 

[R7308xx]

I can try to get you the right colors, and I know a bit about CSS. Hope I can be helpful! (woohoo snow day)

[tacopill]

I can try to get you the right colors, and I know a bit about CSS. Hope I can be helpful! (woohoo snow day)

I'd recommend talking with Dillion or Tina on it, as i am sure any feedback would be helpful.

And thank you for the offer!