This is not really art, but Art-forums seem closest related to this.
I've been doing a few old-school web 2.0 userbars during my last exams period to kill some time when I was bored from learning. I never really meant for this to go anywhere but I had a lot of fun with it. And since I just discovered that I'd reached exactly 100 posts here on MS, I thought I might as well share them with you in my first thread here.

I've done most of the work in GIMP (since I'm a Linux guy) and used Photoshop for a few details and things I was too lazy to do in GIMP. The first one was the Nevermore bar in my sig, where I started trying to leave the classic slightly polished web 2.0 look behind to go for a look as if the bar was made of thick glass and had a real depth. I really liked the outcome so I did a few more, using mostly bands I was listening to at that time and in most cases my most favourite album by every particular band. If that cover didn't provide good results, I went looking for an album cover of that band that was more suited for this. As with Trail Of Tears.

Maybe one or two of you have use for these. I'm also open to criticism. But probably not to change what I've already posted here (except a few like Edguy, Hammerfall of Trail Of Tears that I'm not really pleased with), but to keep in mind for future work.

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Update Aug. 19 2009

I proudly present: The signature 3-image generator script.
If you want more than one userbar but metalstorm only allows one image in your signature, go here and use the fancy little script I spit together to generate one image containing three userbars. (I will adapt it to also allow for only 2 soon).

Feedback highly appreciated. Especially if you find a combination of userbars that metalstorm won't accept because of it's filesize.

Enjoy.

Update Aug. 28 2009

The script now allows for 2-userbar images by selecting "-none-" as third choice.

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Update Dec. 12 2008

How to use:
Since people keep asking me how to put these images into their signatures, here's a little howto:

First download the image to your harddrive (screenshot taken using Firefox):


Then klick on 'Edit profile' in the top left corner of the Metalstorm page.
Where it says 'Signature image upload', put the url to your downloaded image into the textbox.
Then put the [image] tag somewhere into your signature. It will be replaced by the image as soon as your profile is shown to anyone.


Finally click 'submit' and check your signature in the Forum.

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Bands:


































































































Styles:












Requests:

Request Doc G.:


Request Kasper:




Request -DC-002-:




Request Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk:






Request Ascendant187:


Request GT:






Request Elio:


Request Dangerboner:


Request K✞ulu:




Request bard:




Request Metal_Militia:


Request Ellrohir:


Request Daggon:


Request MetalSpider:




Request Archetype:


Request FeskarN:








Request Haddonfield:


Request Troy Killjoy




Request Visioneerie








Request Archetype


Request Behdaad






Request Kennoth


Request Got Mayhem?


Request Guest


Request qlacs






Suggestions:

Suggestion Marcel Hubregtse:



Misc/Fun:



Rework of a metalstorm bar I've seen on these forums:


Dedication to the MS Awards '08:


And while I was at it, one to the Awards '07:

They look pretty cool. Nice work

Neat, I've always been kind of curious how these things were made...

Just by posting this and doing the High On Fire bar for Dr.Rock (So I'm also kinda accepting requests ) my motivation got back up again. I just finnshed drafts of a Dissection and a Haggard bar (as I'm listening to Storm Of The Light's Bane right now) and will probably do a few more..

edit: Also finnished a first Kamelot bar.

edit2: Aaaaand a machine head bar

Ohhh nice, really like the Nevermore, Opeth, Avantasia and Dissection metalbars.

You wouldn't mind making a Decrepit Birth, or an Amon Amarth bar? It's only if you have sparetime, and the will to make it. If not, then it's alright.

Written by Kasper on 17.11.2008 at 19:28

Ohhh nice, really like the Nevermore, Opeth, Avantasia and Dissection metalbars.

You wouldn't mind making a Decrepit Birth, or an Amon Amarth bar? It's only if you have sparetime, and the will to make it. If not, then it's alright.

Thanks. I revisited that Dissection bar twice already and I'm still not 100% satisfied.
Do you have a particular album from Amon oder Decrepit Birth in mind?

Edit: I made a quick Decrepit Birth bar. None of their albums provide a real good background image for this small picture size. But I think I managed to produce something interesting-looking.

Edit2: Aah what the hell. I have time anyway. There's an Amon Amarth bar. Consider them both drafts. Usually, after looking at them for a few days, you start reworking certain details that begin to annoy you.

Thanks man, they're really cool. Appreciate it =)

I think the Trail Of Tears' one is the best
Good job anyway, it has to be hard/annoying to do this.

Hey man, those are really awesome.

Written by Elio on 18.11.2008 at 20:06

I think the Trail Of Tears' one is the best
Good job anyway, it has to be hard/annoying to do this.

Actually it's quite fun. Once I got the first overall look right, the rest is just tweaking colors and gradients to make the most of the motive now. The annoying part is finding a good image. Album Covers mostly don't provide enough details, so I need to do some image work to make it look better. Making a new one now only takes about half an hour. And a couple of minutes everytime I notice something I want fixed. Now that there seems to be a use for them I'm much more motivated to make a few more every now and then. Great way to relax after a day of hard studies

I'm also posting a few ones I'm not actually satisfied with now. Some band logos are better suited for this than others. Nocturnal Rites for example. That bar looks really good without any logo on it but I can't get it anywhere near the others with it. But I'm still trying a few things on the boring ones to make them more appealing. And I still hope for some constructive criticism.

Edit: Megadeth, Death and finally a decent Tristania using one of their old albums and logos.
Edit: Blind Guardian, Iced Earth.

I´m not a huge fan of that "glass-look", I feel its being used way to much all across the net.
But all of them look great, really liked that you dared to hide parts of the logos, thats always a nice look.

Great job

I don't like how they have that '"band" fan' text in them...

Written by Guest on 29.12.2008 at 23:02

I don't like how they have that '"band" fan' text in them...

What'd you have it say?

Written by corrupt on 31.12.2008 at 16:39

Written by Guest on 29.12.2008 at 23:02

I don't like how they have that '"band" fan' text in them...

What'd you have it say?

Well...nothing I guess...I guess I don't like the idea of having the white text in the bar and just leave nothing there...same with all other userbars...it's nothing against how you made them because I see that whole white text thing in userbars and in my opinion it takes away from the heirarchy of the design...

Written by Guest on 29.12.2008 at 23:02

I don't like how they have that '"band" fan' text in them...

i agree with you, it should be just the background and nothing else. but it's still really good. i admire all these sort of works 'cause i have no idea how to do them

btw, how can i use them ad post them on my signature or something? i like amon amarth's and some others

Written by Guest on 31.12.2008 at 23:29

Written by corrupt on 31.12.2008 at 16:39

Written by Guest on 29.12.2008 at 23:02

I don't like how they have that '"band" fan' text in them...

What'd you have it say?

Well...nothing I guess...I guess I don't like the idea of having the white text in the bar and just leave nothing there...same with all other userbars...it's nothing against how you made them because I see that whole white text thing in userbars and in my opinion it takes away from the heirarchy of the design...

I didn't take any offence. It's just that I kinda also don't like the simple "<insert random band name> fan" thing too much. I just used it to get started and never changed it. But I do think that they need some sort of text. I was thinking of doing some overmodest things like "Metallica's alright" or emphasize certain periods of band's works like "Old Tristania Fan". But so far nothing did it for me. So I was hoping you'd have a good Idea.

Written by tulkas on 01.01.2009 at 02:21

Written by Guest on 29.12.2008 at 23:02

I don't like how they have that '"band" fan' text in them...

i agree with you, it should be just the background and nothing else. but it's still really good. i admire all these sort of works 'cause i have no idea how to do them

btw, how can i use them ad post them on my signature or something? i like amon amarth's and some others

If it's just one you want to add, simply copy the URL of the image into the 'Signature image upload' field on the 'edit profile' page. It will then be uploaded to your profile and can be accessed simply by putting [image] somewhere in your signature. For example: I uploaded the Nevermore bar into my profile and my signature text just says
. If you want more than one at a time, you'd either have to paste them together manually, or beg Ivan to allow for more than one picture in the signature I guess. I was thinking of writing a little php script that would allow for random combinations of userbars to be combined to one picture, but I was waiting to see how well they'd get accepted. And so far not much happened

Can you make a Crotchduster bar?

Wow... Those bars totally kick ass. Great job I really liked the Ministry bar.

They are all very well done. kudos

you should (you have to do) an Immortal bar

Written by Guest on 02.01.2009 at 07:47

Can you make a Crotchduster bar?

Difficult. The only album, they seem to have released is "big fat box of shit" and it's cover image is a very bad one when it comes to taking a small part out of it. But I put the band on my list, maybe one night I'll get it right.

Written by -DC-002- on 03.01.2009 at 00:23

They are all very well done. kudos

you should (you have to do) an Immortal bar

Thx. I actually did an Immortal bar. Problem is that their album covers feature band pictures most of the time and I've mainly been using album covers as background image. I tried one a few weeks ago using the "Sons Of Northern Darkness" cover. But it didn't come out the way I wanted it, so I didn't post it.

Written by corrupt on 04.01.2009 at 01:59

Written by Guest on 02.01.2009 at 07:47

Can you make a Crotchduster bar?

Difficult. The only album, they seem to have released is "big fat box of shit" and it's cover image is a very bad one when it comes to taking a small part out of it. But I put the band on my list, maybe one night I'll get it right.

Written by -DC-002- on 03.01.2009 at 00:23

They are all very well done. kudos

you should (you have to do) an Immortal bar

Thx. I actually did an Immortal bar. Problem is that their album covers feature band pictures most of the time and I've mainly been using album covers as background image. I tried one a few weeks ago using the "Sons Of Northern Darkness" cover. But it didn't come out the way I wanted it, so I didn't post it.

try Battles in the North. Its way more cheesy and awesome

Written by -DC-002- on 04.01.2009 at 06:35

try Battles in the North. Its way more cheesy and awesome

Haha! You can imagine what white background with white glossy highlights will look like right?

Written by corrupt on 04.01.2009 at 12:35

Written by -DC-002- on 04.01.2009 at 06:35

try Battles in the North. Its way more cheesy and awesome

Haha! You can imagine what white background with white glossy highlights will look like right?

I guess that wouldn't work out to well. maybe Pure Holocaust?...

Written by -DC-002- on 06.01.2009 at 02:16

Written by corrupt on 04.01.2009 at 12:35

Written by -DC-002- on 04.01.2009 at 06:35

try Battles in the North. Its way more cheesy and awesome

Haha! You can imagine what white background with white glossy highlights will look like right?

I guess that wouldn't work out to well. maybe Pure Holocaust?...

Hm. Although I just made a cheap remake of the Sons Of Nortern Darkness version with Pure Holocaust, I think it looks way more classy and elegant. So far I'll keep 'em both. Tell me if you like this one more or less.

Both Immortal bars are good The, Pure Holocaust bar looks a bit more grim and black metal. But the, SoND bar has a more up to date line up and is contrasted nice with the bits of blue. Tough choice.

Nice. Clean, simple, edgy. =D

Sorry for my computing ignorance. how or where do i get the url for the bars? i'd like to put one on my signature and maybe a coulpe on my myspace (i'll give you the credit )

Written by tulkas on 09.01.2009 at 10:02

Sorry for my computing ignorance. how or where do i get the url for the bars? i'd like to put one on my signature and maybe a coulpe on my myspace (i'll give you the credit )

You right click on an image of your choice and click on 'properties' (depending on your OS and browser it might also be called 'image properties' or even differently). There, amongst other things, you find the URL (in firefox it's called 'Location'). But you might as well just download a few and then upload them again (takes load off my server, you know).

Written by corrupt on 09.01.2009 at 12:14

Written by tulkas on 09.01.2009 at 10:02

Sorry for my computing ignorance. how or where do i get the url for the bars? i'd like to put one on my signature and maybe a coulpe on my myspace (i'll give you the credit )

You right click on an image of your choice and click on 'properties' (depending on your OS and browser it might also be called 'image properties' or even differently). There, amongst other things, you find the URL (in firefox it's called 'Location'). But you might as well just download a few and then upload them again (takes load off my server, you know).

thanx man. so if you see the bar in my signature, it means i managed to pull it off