User talk:Aniki21

Great work!
Aniki, the Shenmue guide looks fantastic! For someone who hasn't done wiki in awhile, you're doing an excellent job! :) --Echelon 05:45, 18 January 2006 (PST)

Layout of Shenmue
I saw your Shenmue guide after looking at the Community Issues page and thought the layout was quite nice. I would like to apply it to other games very much so. My only problem is that I feel that the infobox with the boxart, genre, developer, etc... should be on the first page as well. Someone glancing through the pages should be able to get a quick feel for a game on the very first page. Do you have any ideas on how to do this? I would like your input on this matter since you have an excellent design already. --Chrono Warrior 3 19:53, 19 June 2006 (PDT)

Controller buttons
I see you've made some controller buttons. Would you mind categorising them correctly in the correct category, and perhaps applying them to some guides? Thanks. --DrBob (Talk) 04:46, 25 June 2006 (PDT)

Relicensing StrategyWiki - request for comments
Hi, I'm posting this notice on various user pages so that you can vote on our course of action. Please take a look at this topic about relicensing StrategyWiki. Your comments and vote would be much appreciated. Thanks.

If you have any questions regarding this matter, feel free to ask me on my talk page!  ech elon  11:08, 25 June 2006 (PDT)

Keyboard key
What were you planning with that keyboard key image? Any way I can help? :-) --DrBob (Talk) 06:41, 30 August 2006 (CDT)

Here's the markup I was trying to use, just for reference:  --aniki21 07:37, 30 August 2006 (CDT)
 * The theory was to create a template that used a div or span with that image as the background, and put a single letter over the top. The idea was to make it easier to generate keyboard images for PC game controls, rather than having to make dozens of different images for each key. You'd just call the template with something like, and it'd generate a keyboard button image. Trying to add the background-image declaration to the div didn't work though - it just stripped out the entire CSS style info from the element. --aniki21 07:25, 30 August 2006 (CDT)


 * You're saying MediaWiki strips out the style attribute because it's got a background-image in it? If so, this is in the same vein as the All Game Nav modifications on my todo list, and will need MediaWiki hacking. --DrBob (Talk) 08:23, 30 August 2006 (CDT)

Enhanced sprites
Hi Aniki! I've used the same technique on Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Galaxian. I discovered the technique to making them when I discovered this page on a video-game blog: http://iconfactory.com/freeware/preview/arcd I saw it and set about figuring out how to recreate the effect. I can teach you exactly how I do it (which may or may not necessarily be how Gedeon Maheux developed them, although I've been in contact with him and he said they're very close.) I use GIMP 2.2 That's the best way that I can explain it to you. If you're unfamiliar with GIMP, IM me @ procyoncoon through AIM or Yahoo. Good luck! Procyon 09:03, 31 August 2006 (CDT)
 * 1) Start with the original sprite, and scale it 7x
 * 2) Duplicate the sprite in a new layer and shift it to the right 7 pixels.  Darken the new layer through the Brightness and Contrast tool (I darken it by -96)
 * 3) Duplicate the sprite yet again in another layer, but only shift it one pixel to the right.  Brighten this layer with the Brightness and Contrast tool (I brighten it by 127.)  This layer goes between the original and the dark version.
 * 4) Now it gets a bit tricky.  Select the transparent space (or background color) around the sprite in the original layer.  I hit Shift+Q to show the selection mask, then I push it over to the left by one pixel.  Hit Shift+Q again to go back to the selection mode and press Ctrl-X to chop off the rightmost pixels.  This exposes a little more of the lighter pixels underneath on the right side.
 * 5) Again, select the transparent space around the sprite in the original layer.  Now invert the selection so you're only selecting the sprite.  Create a new layer, and choose the gradiant tool with a gradiant that goes from black to white.  With the area over the sprite selected, create gradiant straight across the sprite.  When you're done, select that layer in the layer dialog, and choose "Grain Merge" and set the opacity to 50% to soften the effect.
 * 6) Lastly, you want to sample the transparent space around the entire image (check the "Sample Merged" checkbox.)  Pick one of the dominant colors of the sprite, and darken it substantially.  Fill the transparent area with the dark color, and then shrink the selection by 4, and feather it by 2.0, then press Ctrl-X to cut it and create the dark border around the entire picture, and viola.