New editor's tool buttons

[vultraz]

Since fendrin/fabi's editor updates are adding more tools, I'm (attempting) to make buttons for them, at his request. Currently the soundsource, items, and label tools need buttons, and I'm working on the first two at the moment:

Screen Shot 2012-03-16 at 4.12.01 PM.png (16.01 KiB) Viewed 6221 times

The label one (the "A") suffers from low contrast, no shading, and no border. It was basically something I just quickly put together and needs heavily updating.

The the soundsource one (the music noite) seems to be to be done shape-wise, but still needs to be shaded. Also, I'm not sure about the border. The other buttons seem to have a fuzzy border around the images, while this one has a hard border around the note. Should I update it with a fuzzy border? Shadowmaster also mentioned the color seemed off and the angle of the note looked 'not good' either. Any suggestions about that or how I can improve it in general would be appreciated.

Here's the zip with the .xcf and the .png of the soundsource buttons; I'll post the label ones once I've improved them a bit.

[vultraz]

Update for the label button. SpoOkyMagician recommended to try a light blue, so I decided to go ahead and use the starting position tool's palette and shading. For some reason it seems a bit...loud. Maybe would be better if I removed the second band of lighter colors?

label_button_editor-active.png (3.79 KiB) Viewed 6126 times

EDIT: I realized that previous shading attempt made it seem the 'A' was wavy like the flag, had multiple lightsources of the same strength. It seemed a bit...disconcerting as well, so I made an alternate:

label_button_editor-active-anternate.png (3.74 KiB) Viewed 6111 times

Which is better?

[AI]

You really need to recalibrate your monitor. Even with the 'loud' colors, the contrast is still far too low.

[vultraz]

Hum....the blue A does seem to be a little hard to see, but is the orange music note also low contrast?

EDIT: my monitor's contrast was set at 79/100. I made it 100/100. Should that make a difference? Or am I supposed to make it lower

[Anonymissimus]

EDIT: my monitor's contrast was set at 79/100. I made it 100/100. Should that make a difference?

Shouldn't it be 20/100 or something like mine ? So that your monitor makes it hard to distinguish things, but the buttons are still easy to realize.
The note could also be more reddish. A gray background is (was) probably not the best choice. The existing buttons are already that way I suppose.

Low monitor contrast is better for the eyes btw.

[SpoOkyMagician]

I'd recommend making the label similar to the undo/redo arrow image. Light on top and dark/alpha on bottom. That would look nice imo but be careful on the contrast. I still recommend the blue though. I like that color.

As for the note, perhaps red would be better? (or magenta?)

~ SpoOkyMagician

[vultraz]

Wow...dark at 20/100. Well...at this contrast the light parts of the A can't be seen well; that dark parts are ok, though. hummm

I'd recommend making the label similar to the undo/redo arrow image. Light on top and dark/alpha on bottom. That would look nice imo but be careful on the contrast.

You mean like, instead of the side-to-side shading, make the lines go top-to-bottom?

[vultraz]

More updates to the label button. SpoOkyMagician gave me some palettes which totally helped a lot. Wish I knew how to make those...

Anyway, here's two versions that seem to work. Which one is better?

[SpoOkyMagician]

After seeing it on the forums with the wesnoth forum skin, I am starting to like the second one again. (darker blue) It just looks better. I like the aqua but you are right, it stands out too much here. Go with the second one.

~ SpoOkyMagician

[Mabuse]

Since fendrin/fabi's editor updates are adding more tools

Link?

[SpoOkyMagician]

http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php ... map+format

I believe this may shine some light on it mabuse.

~ SpoOkyMagician

[vultraz]

Allright, with SpoOky's palettes and lots of his help I was able to shade the soundsource icon too. Only nitpick I have is the sightly jagged edge on the top, but I can't seem to fix it. Doesn't seem very important, though.

soundsource_button_editor-active.png (3.86 KiB) Viewed 6034 times

[vultraz]

Completed a set of item buttons. Basically, they're just a pic of a box/cube, same palette as the soundsource buttons to keep color consistency. Critique?

EDIT: realized I'd got the rotation wrong on the active variation of the items button. Re-upload with the fix:

item_button_editor-active.png (3.63 KiB) Viewed 5774 times

[SFault]

I would suggest to use outlines on the icons. The shading of the box was really weird but I don't know if I got it right either.

[vultraz]

Hum...basically my shading was meant to be a bright light shining on it from the side. But your version has it's benefits. Humm
Not sure about the outline on the A. Looks a bit better, but still a bit jagged, though. I wonder if I should anti-alias the edges.