Early Report

I'm doing my report early because I'm starting to feel ill and if my eldest daughter is any indication for what I'll have, I could be out for the count on the 1st. That or too tired from New Years Eve :)

Herald Style Hanukkah

My first time participating in Herald Style Hanukkah was a lot of fun and a lot of work. Hats off to those who came before me because my god there's a lot of files to upload due to all the permutations of each item. There's a few things about this HSH that should be called out:

1. Herald Style Hanukkah was only 7 days even though Hanukkah is 8 days. Kind of a cop-out on my part but this is the first time the actual creation of items has been done by one person...and it was a bit draining :)
2. This HSH saw the creation of a new female and male paper doll for robes that I'll use going forward.
3. I got fed up with image generation and I learned that you can write Photoshop scripts to automate complex tasks. I can now - with a combination of some custom Photoshop Actions and this script - generate 42 versions of a saber in the appropriate dimensions/file type. Then with this AppleScript I can potentially automatically upload all 42 files (this script is untested on a large batch...I wrote it after being annoyed at uploading 84 saber images).

There's a lot of folks in the DJB with ideas for graphics. Special shout out to V'yr Vorsa, Ood Bnar, and Kazmir Natas for working with me on this year's content.

DJB Webcomic

This month saw the creation of 4 DJB Web Comics so far. It seems folks like this enough for me to keep trying to create them. They're fun for me so expect more. I'm still trying to nail down the style I want to use.

I can't promise they'll always stack up to expectations, but I'll try hard :)

Avatars

Most of you know that avatars can now be requested if you have permission to use the art you are uploading. There have been a few questions about what can be uploaded. Please read through the policy on the wiki.

Important to note: Avatars do not fall under Fair-Use with regards to US Copyright law. So: you need to own or be given permission to use the art before it is accepted. If you aren't sure about something, please don't hesitate to ask me or Socorra for info.

Error Images

James pinged me about creating some cool error page images. If you haven't seen them, here's the 404 Page and Error 500 Page.

DeviantArt

The Dark Jedi Brotherhood DeviantArt page has been re-organized and updated. If you are a creator of graphics, please let me know what your DeviantArt name is and I'll get you added as a contributor. If you create graphics for competitons, I encourage you to upload them to DA and we'll get your stuff into our group!

A special thanks goes out to Selika Roh for helping with adding commissioned works to the DA group!

Member Art

There's a few pieces of art that folks should check out!

• V'yr Vorsa did an awesome job coloring some lineart! Here's his character and A'lora's.
• A'lora created a sweet saber!
• I did a few pieces, too.

Other Herald Tasks

In addition to the above, I've spent a bit of time working on styling tweaks for the DJB site. A few items of note:

1. The news waterfall page changes that James and I worked on.
2. General CSS tweaks.
3. Separating the DJB name from the background image and making it clickable.
4. New "Join Us" image.

Sabers, Warbanners, & Stuff

This month, we've produced 2 Lightsabers and 43 Warbanners. There are 8 lightsaber requests in the queue and 9 warbanners in the queue. We're a bit behind on sabers due to HSH.

Sabers

• Ji - created by yours truly
• Montresor - modified version of an existing saber done by Socorra and myself

Warbanners

By Orv

• Alexander DelGotto
• Altheseus Levathan
• Archean Tarentae
• Benevolent Taldrya Whiner
• Carissus
• Ernordeth Puer-Irae
• Evoroth Stigaryl
• Halcyon Rokir Taldrya
• Kaira Rohana
• Kant Lavar
• Kazmir Natas
• Lexi Sarden
• Lucyeth
• Malfrost Xeon
• Methyas L'eonheart
• Mirado L'eonheart
• Nath Voth
• Rosh Nyine
• Sanguinius Tsucyra Entar
• Sithspawn Taldrya
• Valkish Ebbonvar

By Socorra

• Arcia Cortel
• Bendict Williams
• Deimos d'Tana
• Kalon Tsucyra Entar
• Malik Sadow
• Montresor
• Nero Inferni
• Ood Bnar
• Selika Roh
• Solari
• Uji
• V'yr Vorsa
• Vaar Mai
• Valhavoc
• Valkish Ebonvar

By Archangel

• Kanis Da'uul
• Krandon Lucian Firebringer
• Kz'set
• Marrek Gunstinson
• Silent

Ask the Herald

Stealing the idea of others, I've asked for some questions. :)

Marick asks: Where will ribbons ultimately be displayed? Will they be on the dossier page in the likes of sabers, accessories and robes?

A: The current plan is to allow members to request the creation of a ribbon display that will fill the Accessory slot. If you'd prefer to not have that spot taken up by a ribbon display case, you can request to have the image created and then opt to not show it on the dossier and instead put that image on the wiki.

---

Lexi asks: I have a question about robes, what determines which rank a robe is placed at?

A: That's a great question. One that I don't really know the answer to, honestly. It is all somewhat arbitrary. If the robe is SUPER cool looking, you're going to find that it is placed a bit higher up the food chain to give folks something to work for. Just like in ToR, you don't see level 5 dudes running around with amazing robes/armor. We want a feeling of progression. That being said, there's some sweet pieces of armor/robes for lower ranks.

---

Furios asks: I noticed that other types of competitions like writing, gaming, and Shadow Academy are given inherent value in such policies as the Promotion Requirements but graphics are left behind significantly. Do you plan on enahncing the value of graphics and graphics based competitions in the Brotherhood? Do you think general member graphic creation can keep up with other participation avenues? Do you think a GFX society could be made for the Brotherhood?

A: Graphics are near and dear to my heart (as is coding) and you are right, the creation of graphics is heavily underrepresented in the advancement requirements. It honestly hadn't even ocurred to me that that was the case until you asked the question, so thank you.

I feel that we have a great group of folks that have proficiency in creating graphics and it should be encouraged. It is very easy to create piss-poor graphics, too. Writing seems like an easier activity to put requirements on. Yeah, there's a lot of writing styles, but there's some key elements that that can be defined.

Graphics/Video are harder to pinpoint because the formats can be so varied and a lot can be left up to interpretation. That being said, there are some guidelines that could be put in place for the various mediums...and I need to make that a priority.

In short: I'll look into bringing graphics into a more level playing field with other types of activity.

As for a Society? I'm not sure. It'd be pretty sweet to have an gaggle of doodlers ready for work, but I guess that's what the Herald staff are supposed to be.

---

Vaar asks: If one wants to help on the HRLD team, are there any recommended programs/skills?

A: Proficiency in Photoshop is the core requirement. Warbanners are a good example of some base skills. Warbanners are made up of a lot of "layers" that hold the various pieces of a warbnner (colors, shapes, stripes, tassets, etc). Toggling those layers is pretty easy to come up to speed on (a monkey can do it). The harder thing to learn is knowing how to take a submitted image and incorporate it into the warbanner. The images that are submitted often need some love and care so that they look right:

• removing anti-aliased edges
• altering colors
• extracting an image from a background
• adding glow, borders, etc
• setting blending modes - what to choose and when

Proficiency in Adobe Illustrator is a big plus, too. If you create sabers or robes, proficiency in another graphic tool is OK too - though I don't know much about tools outside of the Adobe suite.

Other things that are of use are: drawing/sketching of ideas, organization, artistic eye for layout, CSS, graphic design experience, etc.

---

Muz asks: What are you doing to be more awesome than me?

A: My character is a Teltior that has both of his arms. Need I say more?

---

Yacks asks: Orv, you sexy little devil. Can you explain to me what trauma in this life made you so anti-mango, and how badly your life has suffered without it's sweet, delicious goodness?

A: I tasted a mango. They don't belong in my face. I do not suffer for I have sunflower seeds and root beer.

---

Atyiru asks: Can we have an M/MA rating for banner graphics so I can break it?

A: Ha ha ha nope.

EDIT: Added Tarax's question

Here was Tarax's question that I missed in #db last night:

For warbanners, what's considered a "custom" image for the herald staff to do? say, if i give you a pic of tits, but then I say "make them bigger", is that considered too custom?

Here's my answer: The Warbanner page discusses custom shapes and stripes for appropriate ranks. Those are expected to be more work than hiding/showing a layer on our warbanner template. As for the crest: A lot of folks supply their own image - either for direct use or for reference. It is, however, within a members right to request custom crests provided the specifications are detailed enough. What falls within the realm of reasonable? Here's a shot in the dark:

• resizing an image
• altering an image's color(s)
• changing an images orientation (right to left, not straight to homosexual)
• creating custom shapes/symbols - within reason. If something is too complex (which is up to the HRLD staff to make that decision), we'll work with a member to find a happy medium.

What you won't find us doing:

• creating complex works of custom art for a warbanner - like a character picture to overlay or a custom weapon
• adding nudity - that's too custom :)
• eating mangos.

Warbanners can be fun to make so if you have an idea, run it by us. We like to make cool stuff.