new icon graphics

joed · Post by **joed** » 27 Sep 2005 10:12

I'm continually tweaking and updating the image based on what everyone's saying. Not completely easy - especially in Illustrator.

I thought a compass might be better than the current design. Comments welcome of course.

I've also done a 3rd "Play" icon design to make is a bit more like a metal button. Which one do people prefer now? Alltaken?

Zydell · Post by **Zydell** » 27 Sep 2005 10:24

- I dont like the new metallic-like play button, the best play button would be the second one without the shadow effect but with the thicker black outline (same goes for the pause and ff buttons).
- I like the compass as it is now!

Born Acorn · Post by **Born Acorn** » 27 Sep 2005 14:01

I like these, very original.

dmh_mac · Post by **dmh_mac** » 28 Sep 2005 08:15

I like the black ones.

Could you post a mock-up showing how they would look ingame?

joed · Post by **joed** » 30 Sep 2005 15:24

I've now added a few more icons - see the updated first post.

All using the new "black background" style.

The rail and road icons still need work.

Comments on Save? Finance? Graph?

Born Acorn · Post by **Born Acorn** » 30 Sep 2005 15:28

can't say I like the black background ones. They look very weird.

Purno · Post by **Purno** » 30 Sep 2005 16:38

I like them

Arsenal · Post by **Arsenal** » 30 Sep 2005 21:19

The black background gets a big

lucaspiller · Post by **lucaspiller** » 30 Sep 2005 22:43

I am with Born Acorn on this one - the black backgrounds look wierd. I would like them better if they had more of a gradient though.

Born Acorn · Post by **Born Acorn** » 30 Sep 2005 22:52

Its partly that, yes , but i fiond nearly all the black icons aren't as detailed as their transparent cousins

Alltaken · Post by **Alltaken** » 30 Sep 2005 23:48

ok, why must the music icon have lines behind it? i think a note is sufficient.

i also think the icons (some of them) should have more similarity in styles. i.e. the thickness of the black border. i like the border on them, but the ones without the border look strange.

and i agree with the others, i am not a fan of the dark grey backgrounded ones. i think they are a bit heavy on the eyes. if they were an off-white (cream perhaps) then it may work better, but it just seems to much as it is.

Alltaken

joed · Post by **joed** » 01 Oct 2005 03:40

Alltaken wrote:ok, why must the music icon have lines behind it? i think a note is sufficient.

i also think the icons (some of them) should have more similarity in styles. i.e. the thickness of the black border. i like the border on them, but the ones without the border look strange.

and i agree with the others, i am not a fan of the dark grey backgrounded ones. i think they are a bit heavy on the eyes. if they were an off-white (cream perhaps) then it may work better, but it just seems to much as it is.

Alltaken

Alltaken I completely agree with the music icon. I tried it without the lines and it does look better, but I thought I'd try them on still for I don't know why!

Hmm, mixed crowd on those black icons. I think the black ones look sharper generall. But the there's no one style I seem to be going down. I'll try just a solid background and also a subtle gradient. I've gone off the idea of having a semi transparent background and it doesn't really go with the rest of the game all that well. I could be convinced otherwise though.

I also tend to prefer not having the black borders too. Again, wouldn't be consistant with the button in dialogues. I prefer the cleaner look - but yes, still needs some work.

What about the actual icons designs them selves? Comments on these? Like the graph? and hte disk? and the coins? Are these generally ok?

Alltaken · Post by **Alltaken** » 01 Oct 2005 04:16

i think in larger resolutions the GFX without the outlines looks fine, however at the smaller 22 pixel size i find them hard to make out.

the question mark sign, i think could be made more simple. less "curve" to the surface of it. currently it seems a bit blobbly like a baloon at one of the fairs you get, a flatter surface would IMO be a bit nicer.

the newspaper i think is fantastic. the one with the black outlines i think would be improved if the internal black outlines were removed or thinned down a lot, so that only the external outline is left.

save/file options i think is great.

i much prefer the compass to the map, i think it is a lot nicer, and cleaner, however it reminds me very very much of a program on mac.... is it safari that it looks like?

graph.... well i don't think you extended yourself on this one (but hey how many ways can one extend themselves on graphs) i think its ok, but i think the colour choise could be considered a bit better.

roads and rail, they seem to realistic, and not iconic enough this is IMO where outlines could help the most. these outlines don't need to be huge, you could reduce the outlines of everything by a bit you know.

these icons can be done seperatly to button style? i think it would be best for the GUI, because then we would be able to change the visual style of the game without re-doing all the icons, i think this is how its done already but i am be totally wrong on that.

also are you familiar with making websites, it would be really interesting to see some of these in action. i.e. in their normal state, in their Rollover state, and in their clicked state. a simple interactive mockup (would be fun

) perhaps someone else would be able to whip one together if you don't want to.

also about not liking semi transparency much, well i agree, i don't think its necisary. i think transparency can be used well, but i don't think it should be overused. i am still undecided as to wether buttons should be transparent or not, it could be used to good effect for rollovers. but so could desaturation.

I think the black ones look sharper generall

i actually think they are harder to differentiate between things the shape recognition takes a bit longer (my opinion)

i think the shininess idea is ok, but i am not a fan of the dark grey as i said in my previous post.

Alltaken

joed · Post by **joed** » 01 Oct 2005 04:38

Excellent feedback thanks Alltaken

With the "Land Info" icons (questions mark) I don't like this one at all. Was just trying to match the original. I would prefer to create a new icon possibly on an "i" in a circle - ie "information". Maybe that would fit better in the scheme of things.

Regarding the compass, yeah, it does look a bit like Safari

but is that a bad thing? I could change the colours a bit to make it not so similar.

The graph is a bit boring, I might try a couple of other options for that - like different type of graph styles - not just bar chart.

I haven't spend much time of the road and rail icons, I'm not fond of these yet. Still need work, and yeah I agree need to be a bit more iconic.

Agree that the icons be separate to the button - especially when we want to skin the UI. Having a black border around the icon will also help distinguish between the button design.

I can make web sites (JRPB mactimeline and 2 of mine for example). I'll work up a mockup window with working buttons. Might take me some time though - with full time work and all. Will see what I can do this weekend

I think we're on the same page generally though. Thanks again.

joed · Post by **joed** » 01 Oct 2005 12:02

Web site has been created and now online

OpenTTD Buttons

Born Acorn · Post by **Born Acorn** » 01 Oct 2005 15:54

I like. I like a lot.

The new Music Icon is much better too!

MeusH · Post by **MeusH** » 01 Oct 2005 18:22

I think 22x22 size is a bit too small, so could you render these buttons at 26x26, 28x28 and 32x32, please?

Born Acorn · Post by **Born Acorn** » 01 Oct 2005 19:02

I agree with MeusH, although the current sizes in OTTD are 22x22, I think, with larger resolutions they could be a smaj bigger, 32x32 sounding quite promising.

Think of other games, they have GUIs taking up half the screen, I think we could manage some slightly larger buttons.

Zydell · Post by **Zydell** » 01 Oct 2005 19:30

Comment: on some of the icons the 'metallic' effect is too much of a background and I feel that instead it should be a layer OVER the actual image.

ThorRune · Post by **ThorRune** » 01 Oct 2005 21:20

I think it's way to clear on the 22x22 that they are resized versions, especially the floppy wich has too many details for the size it is. They are good, though.

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