Alert the Colbert Nation (We need a Colbert SuperNation TV-Ready Webpage!)

[Victoria Victrix]

OK this was Larry, Mr Professional Artist putting in his two cents

Larry: Not so sure about that revision honestly.  The heroes in the air in the Before pic now are obviously copy-paste-flipped... the symmetry glares out and makes it look sort of "ballot stuffed."
Larry: And the After pic had more impact without the copy-pasted NCsoft fireballs.  It has been overworked, IMO.
Larry: Too busy.
Larry: The last images worked well at a glance, and had focus.

You may feel free to ignore the critique

[Mandrake]

I tend to agree, but I am leaving it up to the artists - I am just the web designer. lol
I have all of the pictures archived so it is no problem whatever you all decide.

[Colette]

Too busy. Got it.

Old actor's rule: give too much, 'cause it's easy to tone it down a little. Never make 'em ask for more.

We'll work on simplifying tomorrow. Promise.

[TimtheEnchanter]

I'm a little bit of both - web designer and graphic artist - used to be anyway. I'm used to tons of revisions before something hits perfectly. And typically that involves simplification.

On Larry's comments:

(From a media perspective, I know Colbert tends to show web links, so... if this is something we hope to get thrown up on TV's all over the world, yeah, it's too complex. This needs to be something that's easy to see from a living room couch, not just from a computer chair. )

I have an alternative idea to the NCsoft fireballs, something more subtle with embers floating in the air, and a layer of mist over the ground. It's possible the NCsoft logo isn't needed at all in the splash screen. And if it does, it should only appear once. Perhaps that should be the translucent backdrop, in place of how the U.S. flag was used in one of the earlier versions.

As for the mirrored flying heroes in the first picture... why did  that even happen? Didn't Leandro's vid contain enough of them flying that such a thing wasn't necessary?

[Mandrake]

Ok then I'll throw my 2 cents in... I think that eye-candy wise for easy viewing and most importantly... messaging:

Before Atlas: Original Atlas City Hall with that seriously awesome Statesman fade in the background. Put in a few heroes, maybe even just one. Artistic license of course.
After Atlas: Just Kim and his 3 'honeys' with that little glow about him. Statesman faceplanted in the foreground works for me either way. NCSoft logo was nicely placed in the original - not too big, but perfectly noticeable especially when I route it through the TV.

I don't think the fire-storm should be present. On a 42" TV it immediately loses message. Your eyes start going to the individual balls that have defined circles and logos inside them.

So anywho.. as I said, I'm just the guy that makes things fit together on the page so people will best take notice of what we want them to and keep directing them on their way. I'm not necessarily the best to give out artistic advice.

[Little Green Frog]

Now let's get one thing STRAIGHT here, Green Frog and anyone else who wants to flail arms and scream about racism.

This image and website are NOT for general public consumption.  We are NOT going to make it part of the SaveCoH campaign as a whole.

My flailing arms isn't about the Colbert show. It is about the fact that the debate on these publicly accessible - for example by a journalist that has found CoH story interesting - boards freely wanders into the race territory (it is common to emphasize the fact that the company that wronged us is Asian or in particular Korean, that the game closure is surely caused by cultural differences and so on - like western companies are not known to pull similar stunts) and mostly everyone here seems to be okay with that. This stuff is accumulating and may bite us in our behinds when we least expect it. I know, I know. It's about giving our anger an outlet. It still doesn't change the fact that if this continues unchecked, we will end up as the villain here in the eyes of the people we hope to get on our side. So with the expectation that I will draw some of that anger at myself I am stepping in saying that no, sorry, in my opinion this is not okay. If not because of basic human decency, then because it may hurt our goals.

[Victoria Victrix]

My flailing arms isn't about the Colbert show. It is about the fact that the debate on these publicly accessible - for example by a journalist that has found CoH story interesting -.

You are giving modern journalists way too much credit for being willing to actually do some research.  When was the last time you saw a story that wasn't a recycled press release or taken straight off Reuters.

[TimtheEnchanter]

My flailing arms isn't about the Colbert show. It is about the fact that the debate on these publicly accessible - for example by a journalist that has found CoH story interesting - boards freely wanders into the race territory (it is common to emphasize the fact that the company that wronged us is Asian or in particular Korean, that the game closure is surely caused by cultural differences and so on - like western companies are not known to pull similar stunts) and mostly everyone here seems to be okay with that. This stuff is accumulating and may bite us in our behinds when we least expect it. I know, I know. It's about giving our anger an outlet. It still doesn't change the fact that if this continues unchecked, we will end up as the villain here in the eyes of the people we hope to get on our side. So with the expectation that I will draw some of that anger at myself I am stepping in saying that no, sorry, in my opinion this is not okay. If not because of basic human decency, then because it may hurt our goals.

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I always thought even the use of the "Korean" or "Asian" when it applies to referencing NCsoft in articles, isn't for racial purposes. If anything it's more Nationalist, but that's still a strong word. I don't know if I can convey it properly or not. In a similar instance, when someone in the West complains, "China is stealing our jobs!", I've never heard anyone crying racism over it. China just happens to be the 'flagship' of the gradual Asian takeover of the whole world economy and has become a catch-all symbol of it. In a similar light, the termination of U.S. employees by an Asian company, from a journalism perspective, is far too valuable to ignore. In the minds of much of the U.S. population, we're already being economically kicked to the ground, spat on, and sexually violated by Asian businesses. Mentioning Korea in reports greatly increases the odds that an individual will read it. Even those who don't care about video games, will be more likely to take notice when they see that.

[Little Green Frog]

You are giving modern journalists way too much credit for being willing to actually do some research.  When was the last time you saw a story that wasn't a recycled press release or taken straight off Reuters.

Perhaps, but apparently I am not the only person that draws similar conclusions: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3489336&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=135#post410402914

Is this the kind of spotlight we are looking for?

[TimtheEnchanter]

Perhaps, but apparently I am not the only person that draws similar conclusions: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3489336&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=135#post410402914

Is this the kind of spotlight we are looking for?

Funny thing is, the responses to that post seem to be about NCsoft's decision being a race thing. 

[Victoria Victrix]

Perhaps, but apparently I am not the only person that draws similar conclusions: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3489336&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=135#post410402914

Is this the kind of spotlight we are looking for?

The poster is referring to NCSoft's decision being a race thing.

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I always thought even the use of the "Korean" or "Asian" when it applies to referencing NCsoft in articles, isn't for racial purposes. If anything it's more Nationalist, but that's still a strong word. I don't know if I can convey it properly or not. In a similar instance, when someone in the West complains, "China is stealing our jobs!", I've never heard anyone crying racism over it. China just happens to be the 'flagship' of the gradual Asian takeover of the whole world economy and has become a catch-all symbol of it. In a similar light, the termination of U.S. employees by an Asian company, from a journalism perspective, is far too valuable to ignore. In the minds of much of the U.S. population, we're already being economically kicked to the ground, spat on, and sexually violated by Asian businesses. Mentioning Korea in reports greatly increases the odds that an individual will read it. Even those who don't care about video games, will be more likely to take notice when they see that.

QFT

[Little Green Frog]

Funny thing is, the responses to that post seem to be about NCsoft's decision being a race thing. 

Yeah, well. It's SA.

[Mandrake]

Enough about this. If you want to have a debate about racism - move on to another thread. I have re-read this entire thread to be certain of myself and the only racism and bigotry being spouted here is that which is being *insinuated* by yourself and a few others. You are taking things entirely out of context and you are either doing so intentionally or your world-view is such that you automatically do so and are therefore concerned for the cause by it. I commend you for being concerned but you are antagonizing the people who are working to create a specifically purposed work for no reason.

Would it be better for you if everyone were to just PM me their updates and that way people could not 'search and find' the apparently horrid results here?

If there actually are some sort of Asian hating or Korean hating posts / threads I've not read then by all means please go and yank their chain and I agree with you. This just isn't one of those threads. All you are doing is dragging other opinions, posts, links, and other unwanted materials of your ilk into this which is not what this thread is about. Please stop hijacking the thread.

Sorry to be blunt, but I'd be happy to discuss the issue - in another thread or PM. Get this out of here please.

Thanks,
Manny

[Little Green Frog]

Sorry to be blunt, but I'd be happy to discuss the issue - in another thread or PM. Get this out of here please.

No worries. I have voiced my concerns and I don't feel there's much to be added. Sorry for taking your thread over.

[Mandrake]

It really isn't my thread it belongs to VV, I just want it to stay on track for everyone so we can stick to task. I also don't want people to get concerned to the point they are dissuaded from working together out of frustration and feeling patronized for their work.

Thank you for being considerate and leaving it where it is. My offer is genuine and I'm happy to take up any conversation you wish to have via PM if you still find concerns or issues.

Take care,
- Manny
 

[Colette]

Back to basics!

Tomorrow? I lied.

Okay, I went back to the very ground level. So I was able to take care of a lot of little annoyances that nobody but me would notice.

I cut the torches. I love the torches. But they draw the eye too much. I put in only three flyers. More would be busy. Got rid of the crowd on the dome. Put in a cool American flag because it's the Stephen Colbert show, dagnabbit!

Does this correct the busy-ness?

[Victoria Victrix]

Now that is cooking.

[mikoroshi]

My only feedback is that the images appear to have a lot of artifacting going on.  It's a flaw of working with jpgs, which are compressed and lossy with data as a rule.  You may want to consider exporting into .png from your graphics app and updating the site accordingly.  It'll look even better, I promise!

[Cryair the Twiceborn]

The problem is probably primarily that the image is being hosted on Photobucket. Photobucket kills resolution.

[Quinch]

A bit of feedback about the picture composition.

The heroes being crowded around the stairs, with the rest of the scene empty actually makes the scene look rather deserted. It's an extension of the Offscreen Inertia principle - if you scatter the heroes across the scene, it will convey the impression that there's a lot more of them. The reduced density might even work to reinforce that, as individual heroes, being much less obscured by each other, will be more easily identifiable.

For example, compare this still frame from the Unity Rally composite.

Spoiler for Hidden:

Because there are no visible "edges" to the crowd, the brain instinctively concludes that it must therefore extend indefinitely.

Spoiler for Hidden:

Similarly, I think that if you fill out the outside of the red line {so as not to obscure the Statesman Ghost and the city hall} with heroes, it might create a better "a mass of characters" impression.

That's my take on it, at least. Bear in mind, I'm not a graphics designer or artist, just a general sort of troubleshooter, so take my advice with a grain of salt.