Viewing Thread:
"EXTRA EXTRA GAMEADAY PRIZE - FEBRUARY BANNERS"

Blimey, that was a task and a half. Well done to all who entered, the standard of banners has gone up significantly since the last competition, so I look forward to the next one (as long as I don't have to judge it).

It was a tough decision to pick winning entries, but we narrowed it down to 3. You'll notice that the winning banners are quite simple and effective, fancy stuff is all well and good but when you've only got 15k to play with, you need to sacrifice it sometimes. Okay, enough waffle, the winners are...

Funkygamer for his Comanche Banner
Gabbo for his GetDotted Banner (fifth from top)
Natbuc for his Monsters Inc Banner (blue)

You all win the DVD of your choice from our database, up to the value of £25 - congratulations! Special mention must got to all the people who submitted loads and loads of banners and didn't win, sorry about that! And I apologise for ending the competition slightly early, I wanted to get it finished for the weekend for you.

Cheers
Ali

----------------------------------------------------

Completed Banners:

Funky Gamer - Click here
Er-no - Click here
Edgy - Click here
Gabbo - Click here
Natbuc - 1, 2 and 3
Rainier Wolfcastle - Click here
Lodge (or Darkness_2k, one of you) - Click here
Joe Dark - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
(May need www inserted into link)
PinkPig - Click here
cooldogs - Click here
1/2pint - Click here
messiah_4_ever - Click here
chris_uk - Click here
Rickoss - Click Here
Darkness_2k - Click here
Shaneo - 1 and 2
Doughnut Monster - Click here
No.2 - Click here
Oxide - 1, 2
dFox - Click here
Agent Smith - 1 and 2
cookie monster - 1 and 2
TomUK - Click here
Rakuga - Click here
Mr. Nice Guy - Your page didn't work, sorry
Dr. Duck - Click here
Force of Nature - Your page didn't work, sorry
Weird Kid - Click here
Dav1d - 1, 2

Some Geocities links may need a www inserted to make them work, it's an eternal mystery to me. I'm judging this as we speak.



Ali - please organise this.

1 banner used = FAD prize
2 banners used = GAD prize

Give url's and Ali will make them into hyperlinks in this thread.

Rule 1

Banners must be commercially inspired for the purpose of generating income and profit to Special Reserve or Freeola. i.e. Please do not design banners for UKcheats, Gameaday, Winacar etc. Design banners for SR Membership, Maxx, products we sell, Get Dotted, Freeola, Ram, PC parts - anything which is a source of income to us.

Rule 2

Banners must be under 15k, Indexed gif, 468 x 60 pixels. You can submit RGB gifs but better if they are "indexed" as they will apparently come up smaller.

Thanks in advance. Good Luck.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/salevaa/notable.htm - The Notable front page. Check it out!

Take a look at the opening flash for my Notables Website - http://members.tripod.co.uk/salevaa/notables.gif

Windows XP Advertisement - http://members.tripod.co.uk/salevaa/sr2.gif

64 USB Mini Drive Advertisement - http://members.lycos.co.uk/salevaa/sr1.gif

That's my first attempt. I was drawing out some sweet ones last night. I'd better get to work. Then I have to design the Notable Vote website.

funkygamer wrote:
> Darkness_2K wrote:
> That would be me. But anyway, I've made sites before,
> and
> knew that, so no pain for me please!


I pity tha
> fool who copies my tactics!


As long as SR know who the
> originator was! Now, where are those bolt cutters, handy for snipping of
> fingers...

Shush!

I entered this banner competition last time. And one of my 'rivals' used the alt tab technique, as do Special Reserve.

So, neither you nor I are the 'originators' as Special Reserve's banners have always had it! and I got the idea from someone who entered the last competition not you.

Shut up.

I was looking through some of my old demos. And i found Satori photo xl, and picture publisher by micrografx, i have the full versions of them. Are these any good and should i bother using them ?

Yeah i tryed that, and i had never done any thing like this before , but thought i'd try , and i made this ..is bit pathetic , will make better ones tommorow. http://www.geocities.com/my_banners2002/No.html?1012683891260

I just use banner maker pro. Its rubbish, but does the job. Sigh...

www.bannermakerpro.com

Darkness_2K wrote:
> That would be me. But anyway, I've made sites before, and
> knew that, so no pain for me please!


I pity tha fool who copies my tactics!


As long as SR know who the originator was! Now, where are those bolt cutters, handy for snipping of fingers...

In the spirit of sportsmanship.... If you want to make some banners...

1) find a demo (or even proper) copy of Adobe Photoshop 6.0 or above. Install it, hopefully you will get a copy of
Adobe Imageready with it, if not, get a copy of Adobe Imageready as well.

2) Download the pics that you want to use in your banners.

3) Open those pics in Adobe Photoshop, They may either be in RGB or Indexed already, right now, you need to make sure they are RGB. Got to the top menu item that says "Image", now select "Mode", now select "RGB". Once you have done this, you can resize those images without them looking all distorted, (if you leave them indexed and resize them, the images will distort)

4) Start a new image that is the size of your banner, make sure the new image is in RGB mode as well, this will let you copy and paste into the banner image from all the other images you are using without them changing colour and stuff.

5) Play with the images using layers (find the layer menu and experiment with it, you will sooon see how useful it can be!) until you get the banner looking how you want it. Put the text or images that you need to animate on different layers from stuff that you don't want to be animated.

6) Save your work so far!!! Now, got to the file menu and select "Jump To", then select "Imageready", this will open the current banner in Imageready so that you can animate it.

7) Use the Animation Window to create duplicate frames of the banner as it is now. You can now switch to each of those frames of animation, and turn on or off any layers of images or text that you like, in order to create animation effects... Don't go overboard or your .gif will be too big! You can preview your animation by clicking the little "play" button in the Animation window.

8) Save your work again! Now you are ready to save off the animated .gif - here is the good bit, go to "File" and select "Save optimised as" and give your anim a name, et voila! The image will automatically be converted into an indexed, animated gif. Cool huh?

9) Preview your banner gif in a browser, then go back to the drawing board and start it all over again....

Hope this helps.