Fri Sep 05, 2008 11:04 am
Creating New Stars Sets
Here is the small tutorial on creating new custom stars sets. You must know some basic stuff about PHP and adding new items into array, using Photoshop or some other photo tool that can work with PNG/GIF images. I don't have time to explain that here.
1. Right now is required to have 4 sets with different sizes of stars: 12px, 20px, 30px, 46px. Each set size consists from three stars in a single image. So for each of the stars sizes here are the dimensions of the actual images:
stars12.xxx: 12x36
stars20.xxx: 20x60
stars20.xxx: 30x90
stars46.xxx: 46x138
2. Creating new set requires two things: new folder where the images will go, and edidting 'stars.php' file in stars folder. Folder name should have only letters, numbers and underscore chacarters. Folder must contain all 4 images. Extension can be png, gif or jpg, and all images must have same extension.
3. For start, create copy of one of the folders (crystal for instance) and rename it to 'my_crystal'. Open the 'stars.php' file and edit first array called '$gdsr_styles'. At the end add new array row with your new stars info. For our new set, this line will be:
array("name" => "My Crystal", "folder" => "my_crystal", "type" => "png")
Type must be the same as the actual extension used for stars images.
4. When editing stars, my advice is to work with stars46.xxx and when you create biggest stars, then make that image smaller and replace other 3 images.
5. Creating new stars style from exisiting, and turning it into GIF with some fixed background is the only way to solve all PNG problems in IE5.5 and IE6. So, make a copy of one existing set (crystal), and name the new folder 'crstal_gif_white'. Open stars46.png in Photoshop. Now just save this using 'Save For Web & Devices' option in File menu (Photoshop CS3). Here, set image to GIF using transparency, and set mate color to white (or any other color you use as a background in your wordpress theme). Save the image, name must be the same, only extension will be gif. Repeat this for all 4 images in the folder, and then delete png version from that folder. Now add new line to 'stars.php', for this example will be:
array("name" => "Crystal On White", "folder" => "crstal_gif_white", "type" => "gif")
That's it.
1. Right now is required to have 4 sets with different sizes of stars: 12px, 20px, 30px, 46px. Each set size consists from three stars in a single image. So for each of the stars sizes here are the dimensions of the actual images:
stars12.xxx: 12x36
stars20.xxx: 20x60
stars20.xxx: 30x90
stars46.xxx: 46x138
2. Creating new set requires two things: new folder where the images will go, and edidting 'stars.php' file in stars folder. Folder name should have only letters, numbers and underscore chacarters. Folder must contain all 4 images. Extension can be png, gif or jpg, and all images must have same extension.
3. For start, create copy of one of the folders (crystal for instance) and rename it to 'my_crystal'. Open the 'stars.php' file and edit first array called '$gdsr_styles'. At the end add new array row with your new stars info. For our new set, this line will be:
array("name" => "My Crystal", "folder" => "my_crystal", "type" => "png")
Type must be the same as the actual extension used for stars images.
4. When editing stars, my advice is to work with stars46.xxx and when you create biggest stars, then make that image smaller and replace other 3 images.
5. Creating new stars style from exisiting, and turning it into GIF with some fixed background is the only way to solve all PNG problems in IE5.5 and IE6. So, make a copy of one existing set (crystal), and name the new folder 'crstal_gif_white'. Open stars46.png in Photoshop. Now just save this using 'Save For Web & Devices' option in File menu (Photoshop CS3). Here, set image to GIF using transparency, and set mate color to white (or any other color you use as a background in your wordpress theme). Save the image, name must be the same, only extension will be gif. Repeat this for all 4 images in the folder, and then delete png version from that folder. Now add new line to 'stars.php', for this example will be:
array("name" => "Crystal On White", "folder" => "crstal_gif_white", "type" => "gif")
That's it.
Read this announcement:
http://forum.gdragon.info/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=398&p=1574
http://forum.gdragon.info/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=398&p=1574
