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Post by Indigo Wintertrap on Apr 23, 2008 16:42:09 GMT -5
The following is an archive of all of the skins we have had on Carpe Diem since its Grand Opening on January 1st, 2008.
Compiled by Indigo.
*Note* The screenshots of the skins were not necessarily taken during the time that it was actually in use on Carpe Diem.
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Post by Indigo Wintertrap on Apr 23, 2008 16:47:18 GMT -5
Version 1: Dormant Slumber
January 1st - January 20th [2008]
The first skin of Carpe Diem, Dormant Slumber lasted for twenty days and received good reviews and comments from guests and members alike. Purple is a lovely color and I enjoyed working on this skin and having it up. It was supposed to reflect a calm theme, lacking super brightness. Unfortunately, that was its downfall as it was switched on the site due to it being dark and myself growing irritated with it as much as I liked it.
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Post by Indigo Wintertrap on Apr 23, 2008 17:06:58 GMT -5
Version 2: Subtle Explosion
January 20th - February 18th [2008]
Apparently Subtle Explosion ended up being a lot less subtle than intended. Either that or not everyone is as big a fan of pink as I am. I tried to do it with not that much pink but the white is fairly bright as well. After Dormant Slumber I was looking to do something not dark and this skin definately fell into that category. If you happened to notice the gradients behind the top image in the table in the screenshot, ignore them. They came into play with roboards v.4.5 and were not there while the skin was actually in place. And smart me didn't think to make the images in the original skins transparent.
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Post by Indigo Wintertrap on Apr 23, 2008 17:18:20 GMT -5
Version 3: Welcoming Lapse
February 18th - March 3rd [2008]
I was never sure what the name was supposed to represent but I'm pretty sure it kind of symbolized a welcomed break from the brightness of Subtle Expression. Haha. Anyway, this skin was very simple, a solid background, but I thought it looked rather nice all in all. It was also the first skin that I tried out a larger banner than the usual roughly 700 x 200 pixels. The width stayed the same but the height was much larger, note how this screenshot is bigger than the others? Again, don't mind the gradients (explanation in v2 post above).
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Post by Indigo Wintertrap on Apr 23, 2008 19:38:16 GMT -5
Version 4: Butterfly Effect
March 3rd - April 7th [2008]
This was a fairly nice skin, simple as well. I liked the turquoise theme, calm and ocean-like. Originally the skin featured a different banner than the one shown in the screenshot: Link (It was originally transparent but then the bacjground got spilled for some reason...Anyways it showed up transparent). But I felt that a more graphic image might increase the aesthetic appeal of the skin. This skin lasted for a bit and it was during this timeframe that we introduced the first colored names as well as had the Easter Egg Hunt. Also, this was the first skin which titled the left table column 'stats' instead of 'conditions' (and so far the only one).
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Post by Indigo Wintertrap on Apr 24, 2008 15:47:04 GMT -5
Version 5: Sandy Haze
April 7th - April 19th [2008]
The skin Sandy Haze was based off of the winning scheme of three colors in the Color Scheme Contest. The contest's aim was to find a scheme of three colors to be used in the next scheme and the winner, whose colors were the inspiration and template for Sandy, was none other than Violet. Once again, we see a larger-than-usual banner. The skin had a rather fall-ish theme though, with leave patterns on the on and off buttons. This influenced it's being replaced. Even those leaves were still 'spring-y' I wanted something a bit more and so this skin didn't last long - almost two weeks.
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Post by Indigo Wintertrap on Apr 24, 2008 16:02:53 GMT -5
Version 6: Vine Stoned
April 19th - April 25th [2008]
I'd been thinking about a grey skin for a while but a while back it seemed like nearly other rpg had a grey skin so I held back until it wasn't as popular because I didn't want Carpe Diem to look like every other site. This was actually the first background that I tested with the background center code - the skin in Sandy Haze has the same background in a different colour and was actually made after I played around with this one. The name was hard - at first I had 'Stone Vines' but that wasn't at all but I wanted to represent. I tried 'Vine Stone' which just didn't make that much sense. I wanted to stick to the two word naming but was starting to lean more and more towards using the name 'Vines on Stone' or 'Vines on the Wall' or something to that effect when I had the brilliant idea to add a 'd' and there we had 'Vine Stoned'. Teehee I love it. This skin may not have lasted long but that was only cause I got an awesome idea for the next skin. Also the first skin where I was smart enough to use transparent images! The green brushes look pretty sweet when you've set your profile to view the site in Dormant Slumber ;]
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Post by Indigo Wintertrap on Jun 30, 2008 8:20:17 GMT -5
Version 7: Soft Hypnosis
April 25th - June 12th [2008]
This skin was probably a favorite of mine just going by the way that it all seemed to fit together so nicely. It was during the time that it was up that I lost my photoshop for a while and was unable to make new skins so it ended up staying up far longer than most skins - so it was a good thing it was a favorite of mine! Also, it was during this skin that Carpe Diem's sidebar was introduced. A new banner was also put to the use when the sidebar came into existance and the first one started to become used in advertising on other sites. I really do like the background that was used for the skin originally but couldn't see how to modify it to fit the side-bar without re-doing and I wasn't sure how it would look or if there was even spaced so after the side-bar the skin was without a background. The on/off buttons were also a big favorite of mine, and I loved the cherry brush in the center.
NOTE: I am trying to find a screenshot of the original version of this skin without the side-bar but I can't seem to locate it so it will need to wait a bit. Sorry!
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Post by Indigo Wintertrap on Jun 30, 2008 8:24:18 GMT -5
Version 8: Fairy Lights
June 12th - June 29th [2008]
This skin was the first created after I got my photoshop back and it was very fun to make. The bright colors were nice and refreshing after the semi-darkness of the previous skin and also just really nice because we hadn't had a new skin in so long! It was in this skin that I first tried my hand at creating side-bar images - the ones in the previous skins were made by Wicked of RPGC free for anyone to use and they actually inspired the whole skin of version seven. It took two tries to get nice side-bar images but I think they turned out pretty well. This skin didn't last too long, for some reason I got bored of it. Of course, I was also eager to keep making new skins after going so long without lol.
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Post by Indigo Wintertrap on Jun 30, 2008 8:29:32 GMT -5
Version 9: Quirky Habits
June 29th - July 10th [2008]
Alright so I just want to start off by saying that I really like this skin. Once again I tried for a background despite the sidebar but the result was much more satisfactory as you can see - it looks more put together and doesn't go through the ad at the top of the page. The colors weren't really all that summery but they looked pretty nice together and fit well. The banner was kind of a neat experiment with the text alignment. I figured that the fact that the site's name is Carpe Diem would certainly help people figure out which way to read it and hopefully I was right. My sister helpfully pointed out to me that it looked like 'Carpe Weid' but who cares, the site's name is Carpe DIEM, I'm pretty sure not too many people were stumped lol. All in all I think it is a very nice skin. The side-bar images are much nicer than the previous one and I aligned the text in the category images differently so that looks kinda cool too. Also, first skin where all the images (sidebar images, on/off buttons, category images) were transparent so members can flip between skins without having it look too weird (even though the on/off buttons really wouldn't have made a difference lol).
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Post by Indigo Wintertrap on Jul 26, 2008 15:46:26 GMT -5
Version 10: Sherbert Freeze
July 10th - July 25th [2008]
It was hard moving on to version ten because the previous skin was definitely my favorite out of all the skins I've ever done, I believe - in some aspects at least. This skin had a few troubles over being named and choosing a banner but finally something that I was happy with was made. I don't like the side-bar images or the category images and never really did since they were kind of rushed and those formed part of the reasons why I was in a hurry to get rid of this skin - if I hadn't been busy at the time it would have stayed up for a much shorter amount of time. I like the background - it was the first time I tried having half-images at the sides and I was pleased with the result. The version that finally went up however was the fifth or sixth background - I'd played around with flower brushes and brushes on the inside section for a bit before getting something that I actually liked. The background would have to be my favorite part of the skin and the only part that I really really liked.
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Post by Indigo Wintertrap on Aug 6, 2008 18:00:26 GMT -5
Version 11: Lazy Blues
July 25th - August 6th [2008]
The skin easily became my favorite when it was up because it seemed to have so much going on without being an eyesore and confusing - it looked like a good skin with lots of stuff instead of the simple, bare essentials. I loved the background - it was one of the best I've done, I believe. The skin was actually modeled slightly after a skin I used on BitterSweet, a Warriors role-play I'd started a few days before making the skin. The image and background styles were very similar - only the colors were different. I really enjoyed having this skin up and it was hard changing it simply because I knew that what I did next probably wouldn't be as good and kept comparing it to this purple skin. It was actually the second purple skin on Carpe Diem but, in my mind, very different from the other one - our first skin - in both shade of purple and qualities though I really liked the first one too. Purple's just an awesome color, I guess!
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Post by Indigo Wintertrap on Aug 20, 2008 9:36:27 GMT -5
Version 12: Whispered Secrets
August 6th - August 19th [2008]
I really liked this skin....DESCRIPTION PENDING
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Post by Moon Coldbite on Mar 28, 2009 18:10:41 GMT -5
For some strange reason, there are no records on versions 13+, even though we are now on version 17. So Lu, if you have screenshots of these, I could fill this in for you depending on if you have the time or not, just PM them to me if you're too busy  |
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