Quote: Original post by intrest86
Since my game is based in an office I decided that the menus would be whiteboards, where each button is actually a scribble on the whiteboard. That way I can just take an actual whiteboard and draw what I want, and it will look "good" (I hope). If it works out well, the only other button style I will probably need is just a circular one, and I can handle making those.

I like that.

[EDIT]
For the idle and down states, you could use alpha transparency, or scale the image down a bit to look like it's pressed.

[Edited by - ricekrispyw on July 10, 2005 3:33:05 PM]

Remember how simple the windows '3D' button effect is. For unpressed, a lighter colour for the top & left of the button and a darker colour for bottom & left. For a pressed button, reverse that for the suncken effect.

To make it look less like windows just round the corners and make them translucent, or textures with a 'noise' texture. For the 4E4 contest you probably don't want to spend too long on attractive buttnos though - clear readable ones would do IMO.

Quote: Original post by intrest86

Quote: Original post by superpig
Be careful to make sure that the images you use are ones that you can use legally.

There wouldn't be any legal ramifications to actually scanning a whiteboard I own, would there? If there are,, I guess I'll just run to the hardware store and make my own, but it would seem kind of silly for it to be illegal to just scan the one I have.

That's probably OK, provided you don't end up displaying any images that you don't have permission to use (like Kazgoroth said). I was more referring to the suggestions that people rip interface elements from existing software.

What the hell kind of whiteboard do you have that fits in a scanner?

Or maybe I should be asking what kind of scanner you have that fits a whiteboard...

Quote: Original post by Promit
What the hell kind of whiteboard do you have that fits in a scanner?

Or maybe I should be asking what kind of scanner you have that fits a whiteboard...

Actully... Yeah, on first attepmt the whiteboard was much too big. The scanners in the comp lab here are itty-bitty little things, not like the gigantic "If its flan, I can scan" scanner I have at home. They just don't make them like they used too...

There is a chance that the Digital Media Center has a larger scanner that I can use. Takinga picture of the whiteboard resulted in something a little too noisy and mis-colored to look nice.

Quote: Original post by intrest86
...The scanners in the comp lab here are itty-bitty little things, not like the gigantic "If its flan, I can scan" scanner I have at home.

I just found that very funny thinking about scanning flan [smile]

go to www.allegro.cc and Libraries->GUI->MASKinG, then you can use the pictures in a skin

Google after button tutorials? Might not be the best for whiteboard-like interfaces though. Photoshop tutorial about making "gel buttons" or this one about "aqua buttons".

My current game has a slight witeboard feel in the meny, and I accomplished this by simply only using black and white. All the buttons are black text(when hovering white). The background is a simple shade from black to white (with the blurred logo in the back). As a finish a got a black border around the meny,
Making it look something like this(.-space #-border <>-dynamic text ):

................................
.##############################.
.#.<meny path here>...........#.
.##############################.
.#.<meny option 1>............#.
.#.<meny option 2>............#.
.#.<meny option 3>............#.
.#.<meny option 4>............#.
.#............................#.
.#............................#.
.#............................#.
.##############################.
.< context sensitive help here>.
................................

hope that helps...