New OpenMW-CS Icons

Involved development of the OpenMW construction set.
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Lamoot
Posts: 176
Joined: 22 Apr 2016, 12:03

New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Lamoot »

Greetings, I've been working on some icons for OpenMW-CS. They are roughly inspired by KDE's breeze icon theme (which are used in a part of the attached mockup) and use the same colour scheme. The zip includes the new icons and the source .blend files. The .blend files are set-up to render all containing icons to a /Icons subfolder wherever you place the .blend. As the icons are renders of 3d models, a bigger size is a matter of setting a different output size. In addition, icons which combine multiple elements (e.g. exterior cell labels) are composited and each combination exported as an individual file.

The only annoyance is Blender insists on adding frame numbers to file names and you have to remove those after rendering.

I'm releasing these as CC-BY-3.0 or whichever license you prefer if you let me know.

Image
Image
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DestinedToDie
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Joined: 29 Jun 2015, 09:08

Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by DestinedToDie »

These look neat.
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Atahualpa
Posts: 1176
Joined: 09 Feb 2016, 20:03

Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Atahualpa »

Nice! They are more simplistic than our current ones (no offense intended) which makes it easier to detect their meaning. -- At least, for me.
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Ravenwing
Posts: 335
Joined: 02 Jan 2016, 02:51

Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Ravenwing »

I love them! I'm all about simpler interfaces so I like the minimalist design. Is anyone working on OpenCS development at the moment? It would be good to get a list of all icons needed so we can have a completely uniform design aesthetic.

As a side note, the icon with a bunch of eyes reminds me of Hermaeus Mora lol
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lysol
Posts: 1513
Joined: 26 Mar 2013, 01:48
Location: Sweden

Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by lysol »

While I do like the current ones, it's really nice to have alternative themes. It looks great.
Lamoot
Posts: 176
Joined: 22 Apr 2016, 12:03

Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Lamoot »

Great to hear such feedback, thanks!

My goal is to eventually provide a complete set of icons for OpenMW-CS in this style and for the 3d window there aren't that many left. It' an ongoing project I've worked on on&off and figured it was time to show it and share with the world. What I like about the style is it makes it easier to produce consistent results and also experiment quickly until each icon has a very clear meaning.

I'll keep you updated when I have something new. When that will be half depends on my day work but more so on figuring out what kind of representation to have for the remaining 3d window icons.
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Zini
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Joined: 06 Aug 2011, 15:16

Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Zini »

I like the original icons, but I must admit that these look a lot cleaner. I don't think we should switch out icons now, but if you want to continue working on them we will seriously consider them once OpenMW-CS 1.0 comes around.

I have a question and a comment:
- How do you handle the composite icons (e.g. visibility) ?
- For the orbiting camera I would put the eye icon on the other side of the circle so that it faces inwards
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lysol
Posts: 1513
Joined: 26 Mar 2013, 01:48
Location: Sweden

Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by lysol »

Zini wrote:I like the original icons, but I must admit that these look a lot cleaner. I don't think we should switch out icons now, but if you want to continue working on them we will seriously consider them once OpenMW-CS 1.0 comes around.

I have a question and a comment:
- How do you handle the composite icons (e.g. visibility) ?
- For the orbiting camera I would put the eye icon on the other side of the circle so that it faces inwards
Do we have a "theme" feature considered? Why not include both icon packs?
Lamoot
Posts: 176
Joined: 22 Apr 2016, 12:03

Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Lamoot »

I like the original icons, but I must admit that these look a lot cleaner. I don't think we should switch out icons now, but if you want to continue working on them we will seriously consider them once OpenMW-CS 1.0 comes around.
Sounds good to me.
- How do you handle the composite icons (e.g. visibility) ?
Compositing is done in Blender with nodes, inside the same file that houses the icons. For example for extra cell markers I have initially 4 render layers each with a single element. These go through the magic node setup (a node group) and produce the final files.
Image

Taking a look inside the node group we see it's organized further into sub-groups, 1 for each output we need.
Image

Going even further (in Status 0 subgroup) we see a straight-forward setup with 4 of the initial elements layered one onto another. The alpha value controls how visible/transparent the disabled elements are.
Image

The output node controls the naming and location of the composited icons. It's rather straightforward to set-up and once done allows for very quick iteration of colours / icon sizes / shapes / transparency / etc. Just hit the render button and all the icons are done.
Image
- For the orbiting camera I would put the eye icon on the other side of the circle so that it faces inwards
I've tried this but felt it didn't work well regarding the composition, though I agree your suggestion is closer to the meaning behind orbiting camera. Overall I'm not quite content with the view icons just yet and I'll do another revision after the missing icons are done. I'll keep in mind any comments or suggestions.
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Atahualpa
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Joined: 09 Feb 2016, 20:03

Re: New OpenMW-CS Icons

Post by Atahualpa »

Regarding the Orbiting Camera: If Zini's proposal doesn't work well on its own, why not also add something to the centre of your icon (like a small "planet"). This would make the meaning even more obvious -- although I think that it is quite clear already.
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