Stargate (Defender II) - stargate(manipars 11-29-2008)

[manipars]

Greetings! I'm just filling a request (bent98), please note that the preview below is just a quick mockup in Photoshop that I made and that the final theme might look completely different. I just wanted to ask for some feedback about the final design. A Defender space-ship will be added along with rain-floating/hovering small green pixelated Aliens. The size and positioning will be corrected once I start with the theme but I'm not currently sure about the simplicity of the design and layout, it looks plain so far. Cheers

Preview mockup:
http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq210/manipars/stargatemockup.jpg

[manipars]

Greetings! update: this just looks wrong and dull, perhaps it might look better with a defender/stargate ship like the pic below masked out and added. A good background is very important and it should be game related. Any suggestions are welcome. I'll put this on hold for now until I find more artwork for the bg. Cheers

http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq210/manipars/stargatetest2.jpg

http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq210/manipars/defenderiiship.jpg

[tolomame]

The link below has a high quality ai marquee for stargate that might be useful.

http://vectorlib.free.fr/Stargate/

[The Loafer]

Looks like a good beginning. IMHO, I don't think it's necessary to have both Defender II and Stargate as a title, that takes up too much real estate for nothing. Anyone who doesn't know what Stargate is needs to turn in their arcade emulation nerd badge of honor. :)

[BadBoyBill]

Um that second picture below should be the whole theme. Thats the look we should have.

[manipars]

Thanks for all the replies and for the links to the HQ marquees. You're right I'll definitely drop the unnecessary 'Defender II' title and I agree with BadBoyBill that the HS theme for this game should have the same look and feel as the whole defender spaceship-artwork/wallpaper. I think that older games definitely need more eye-candy in their theme-artwork than newer games. Cheers

PS. hehe.. " emulation nerd badge of honor" =]

[manipars]

Update:

Greetings again! I followed BBB's advice to see how it would look if I used that artwork in the theme and it looks indeed better than my last dull try (I hated that from the beginning=), I'm on progress or separating and masking out the space-ship from the background. The video-preview will be much larger later. I'm not sure about the experimental electrify/lightning effect behind the STARGATE title, I personally like it but it might not fit with the rest of the theme. Cheers

http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq210/manipars/StargatePreviewTest.jpg

[miguelsluma]

Looks beautifull! I know there isnt much space anywhere else in your theme, but i was wondering if the round space isnt too small to see a descent preview.
Maybe you could cut that part loose and increase it a bit.

[bent98]

I think is awsome. I agree with lightning. I think it should have a little less red glow though on the back of the ship it will give the title a little more contrast.

I am excited to see what you do with star castle.

[manipars]

update: thanks for the replies, here is a new and much improved version with a much larger video preview. I removed the circle-video preview from the background and I also removed the red lens flare but I kept the electrify effect behind the STARGATE title. It is still a very early WIP progress and the background still needs to be worked with; I'll start with the theme when the layout is final. Cheers

New Preview:
http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq210/manipars/StargateWIPPreview2.jpg

[BadBoyBill]

Lookin awesome.

[The Loafer]

I love the title, actually the entire theme looks fantastic but the title is striking! I think the video preview could perhaps be a bit bigger but as it is, it's awesome.

[hollywood]

I love it. Great job!

[ACE]

Thumbs up!

[RetroBorg]

Great looking theme, well done!

[manipars]

update: Greetings and thanks for all the inputs and replies! Sorry for the lack of updates. I haven't had much time lately. I made some additional changes to the theme. If I get the green light from you guys about the changes then I'll make it final and will start with the .xml.

* Increased the video size and under layered it behind the space-ship.

* Added transparent motion trails to the space-ship so that it looks like it is flying out from the video preview window, you can still see the video behind the motion trails without any problems.

*removed the white Williams logo under the video to the wings of the space-ship instead and changed the colors to black.

* The STARGATE title first grows/zooms in without the electrify effect, after ~5sec the electrify effect slowly fades in behind it...

* STARGATE Defender II sound mix added as BG-music for the theme.

- Failed Attempt: I tried to create Defender lazer-beams replicas in multiple colors (as in the game) saved as .swf flash, shooting/glowing/fading from left to right with the original shooting sound added to it but it did not turned out the way I wanted it to look (looks awful) since I just started with "Adobe Flash CS4" for HS. I'll give it another shot before dropping it.

hopefully some of the changes are for the better. Cheers

RC. Preview: (edit: broken img-url. fixed)
http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq210/manipars/StargateRCPreviewupd.jpg

[bent98]

Any updates?

[manipars]

Greetings bent98!! This theme has been done since a while ago, the only thing that currently holds me back is the title-logo and the cleaning of the background, the electrify effect looks very cool, especially in action but it has also made the theme look cluttered in my opinion since the background already looks kind of "busy", so I've been testing different versions of the title-logo with different outline effects etc. in order to keep the look more simple and plain. Here are a few test versions directly taken from HyperSpin:

#1: Original STARGATE title with no additional effects added
http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq210/manipars/1-OriginalTitle.jpg

#2: Original Title + Electrify effect
http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq210/manipars/2-OriginalTitleElectrifyEffect.jpg

#3: Gradient Outline effect
http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq210/manipars/3-Gradientoutline.jpg

#4: Gradient Outline Effect + Electrify
http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq210/manipars/4-Gradientoutlineelectrify.jpg

#5: Experimental Outline effect to match the BG-grid colors
http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq210/manipars/5-Experimentaloutlinetomatchthebggr.jpg

/Edit: updated img-urls and added #numbers+info for the screenshots

[bodydump]

Personally, I go for #3. Gradient helps make the title stand out without making it too busy. Great work.

[EvilDindon]

Number 3 for me too.

[bent98]

Hands down #3

[ACE]

3

[80'S GAMER]

#3 looks best. The electrify effect takes away from the retro look of the theme. Beam it up!

[manipars]

Thanks everyone for the inputs, it has helped allot since I had a hard time to decide, I went with #3 but with a slightly thinner gradient outline, I didn't wanted to overdo it. I agree that it looks cleaner and matches the retro look of the game. I just uploaded the Alien Syndrome theme and it is waiting for approval so tonight I'll focus on cleaning everything up on this theme for the release tomorrow. Cheers

[FatNasty]

This is a great theme

[manipars]

Greetings and thanks for the comments! Theme uploaded and awaiting approval from the HS staff.

It got delayed because I was cleaning-up all the artworks and was also working on a "abductor spaceship" flash animation for this theme. The abductor spaceship was re-created with a simple 80s look and the head/top flashes like in the game when hovering down. It only appears from top to the video- preview screen and fades away at the bottom so it does not make the theme cluttered at all. I wanted to spice up this theme before releasing it, also a very cool BGM stargate defender remix music has been added, enjoy. I just started using Flash CS4 and the learning curve was quite steep but hopefully I'll improve the results in the future. Cheers

[Dazz]

I just approved this theme... Another excellent theme by Manipars.

[manipars]

Thank you sir for the fast approval, usually it takes 2-3 days so I was surprised =). Your themes and the entire HS-Team themes was the inspiration that got me started and I'm still amazed every time I run them. Cheers

>> To the downloader's: If some of you dislike the abductor spaceship flash particle effect then just remove "stargate.swf" from the images/particle folder and it will be gone =)

Download Link: http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=671

[brian_hoffman]

Very Nice.

[hollywood]

someone ban this twerp wewetq9884677.