PAX forum signature mini-badges

MetricalSky

A couple years ago, I was looking at my forum signature, with the PAX Attended list and a checklist for the upcoming PAX, and it felt kinda cluttered and messy to me. So I decided to make a small image to visually represent the PAXes that I'd gone to.

Last year, I updated that image with a new badge, and refined it a bit because the badges felt too large and the numbers I originally drew didn't feel right. I also prototyped badges for East, South, and Aus (since I've only ever been to Prime/West), and tested variants for omeganauts, enforcers, and future badges ('cause I'm like that – when I get the idea for a set, I want to create the entire set, even if I only use part of it myself). At the same time, I got a request from another forumer who had seen my badge sig and wanted to do the same thing himself. So I pulled up my prototype, copied the relevant badges into a new image, and sent it off.

Now I'm very much a seasonal forumer – I don't look at the forum at all from mid-September after PAX West to mid-May before tickets drop for the next PAX West, and even when I am on I very rarely comment on anything, so my badge sig doesn't get out much. But I come back out of forum-hibernation this year, and I see badge sigs popping up, which is great... if a little surprising.

In any case, I figure if badge sigs are out in the wild now, I should at least go back to my prototype, finish it off, and release it. So here's the set, with omeganaut, enforcer, and future variants up to the end of this year:



Feel free to use this to create a badge image for your own forum signature!

Edit:

Malgaras wrote: »

So I stole borrowed MetricalSky's asset sheets and made a thing:
http://www.paxsignaturegenerator.com:8080/

It's super ugly and horrible right now (will probably rewrite a good chunk of it), and the UI is complete crap, but it's functional.

I still have quite a bit of work to do obviously, but here is the source if anyone is morbidly curious and/or wants to help make it less horrible.

https://github.com/gespo89/PAXSignatureGenerator

Edit Edit 2022/2023:

MrBroadstone wrote: »

Looks like "remyjette" on github made some improvements since I last touched it in 2016, but MetricalSky also made improved ribbons.
I'll look into adding the new ribbons. Some very careful copypasting should do it.

Next day edit: It is done.

https://broadstone.github.io/PAXSignatureGenerator/ is now updated.

Demonstration image after update:

kropotkin

This is amazing! Thank you very much for doing this. May I ask if it's possible to make media ones for PAX Prime and East? Alternatively if you could tell me want font you used and the size of it I shall make my own.

Thanks again!

zerzhul

Sweet, thanks! I know that some other community members have been modifying it or extending it here and there, but it's awesome to have this original all set up.

Do you have a source file in photoshop or illustrator or something like that as well? If you could post something like that, then other folks could continue updating in the future if you don't want to.

MetricalSky

Here's a couple prototypes for media badges:


As for a source file, well... that top image is my source file. I did all these up in the Mac equivalent of Paint, and my art skills are quite limited (I'm a software dev, not an artist), but I didn't need anything fancy for what I wanted to make. Also, the font isn't actually a font... I drew those manually. But yes, an assets file would be useful, so I've extracted out all the components here:

The Aviatrix

You are amazing.

kropotkin

All done! Thanks a bundle for sharing the base images.

Marino

Thanks!

Sgt.Mays

Thanks for these.

Coldbrew

I've been seeing those for a while and wondering where they came from, thanks for sharing!

RavenHusky

Thank you very much!

zerzhul

Now we just need someone with some spare time to take all those assets and create an auto-generator

zerzhul

Someone remind me after pax west to move this to the pax general section and sticky it.

MetricalSky

zerzhul wrote: »

Now we just need someone with some spare time to take all those assets and create an auto-generator

Funny you should say that... I was thinking that I should write an auto-generator for these after PAX.

ElmoFuntz

Very nice thanks for posting these! Hint if you are like me and zoom up your browser make sure you put it back to 100% zoom before screenshot or the end result will not look as good.

jukkakhan

Hey, look at that. Thanks!

dm_magic

This is awesome! Thanks so much!

zenprime

This is so awesome Metrical Sky!

DJofSparta

Really great idea. Thanks!

Bofur

What photo editor would you recommend to crop out the specific years? Paint is treating me like shit.

vid

Beautiful! I feel so much less naked now!

zerzhul wrote: »

Now we just need someone with some spare time to take all those assets and create an auto-generator

I was thinking about giving this a shot after PAX. I figure someone with more knowledge and experience will knock it out before I can, but I think I might give it a go anyway, seems like a fun "learn some stuff" project.

Zoidyn

Thanks Metrical Sky, these are great!

Bofur, paint.net is free and works like a charm!

ElmoFuntz

Bofur wrote: »

What photo editor would you recommend to crop out the specific years? Paint is treating me like shit.

I use snagit to capture and edit. I love it use it almost daily. For more serious editing I use paint.net.

TOGSolid

Sham bam bamina

Thanks!

RILMS

@zerzhul

Reminder to move to General and sticky

Desert Leviathan

These are great! Am I interpreting correctly that the badges with dotted outlines are for PAXes that haven't occurred yet, but that you're going to attend? I made a South 2017 in that style just in case.

Edit: Hmm, somehow in assembling these I made them super small. Oh well, works for me.

zerzhul

you also made the picture too tall, it looks like :P

MetricalSky

The Hanged Man wrote: »

These are great! Am I interpreting correctly that the badges with dotted outlines are for PAXes that haven't occurred yet, but that you're going to attend? I made a South 2017 in that style just in case.

That was my intent, yes. I personally didn't feel right about showing a full badge until I had actually gone, so I made an outline.

Malgaras

So I stole borrowed @MetricalSky's asset sheets and made a thing:
http://www.paxsignaturegenerator.com:8080/

It's super ugly and horrible right now (will probably rewrite a good chunk of it), and the UI is complete crap, but it's functional.

I still have quite a bit of work to do obviously, but here is the source if anyone is morbidly curious and/or wants to help make it less horrible.

Edit: Now with new UI thanks to MetricalSky

https://github.com/gespo89/PAXSignatureGenerator

zerzhul

That is lovely

bacon_avenger

This is awesome, thank you for making these images and the generator, 'tis a very cool thing!

MrBroadstone

I like the generator. I find the server unnecessary.

So I stole borrowed @Malgaras's asset sheets and code and made a thing:
https://broadstone.github.io/PAXSigGenerator/src/index.html

It's super ugly and horrible right now (will probably rewrite a good chunk of it), and the UI is complete crap, but it's functional.
It runs entirely in the browser, however. You need to save the image and host it somewhere to make it work.

zerzhul

@Malgaras super nice job on the updated UI! Looks great!

Malgaras

zerzhul wrote: »

@Malgaras super nice job on the updated UI! Looks great!

Big thank you to @MetricalSky on that one as well. I made some small updates, but the new UI code is 95% his.

hobbseltoff

Would it be possible to add a BYOC tag for each year as well? For reference, the BYOC badges are orange. Also, could you add a way to start a new line when you reach 20 badges as to not have the image get cut off? Thanks!

MetricalSky

hobbseltoff wrote: »

Would it be possible to add a BYOC tag for each year as well? For reference, the BYOC badges are orange. Also, could you add a way to start a new line when you reach 20 badges as to not have the image get cut off? Thanks!

Yup! I had already thought about those two, just based on what I've seen people create from the raw images... plus a few other ideas rattling around in my brain, which I dumped on the repository's issue tracker: https://github.com/gespo89/PAXSignatureGenerator/issues

I don't know exactly when I'll get around to implementing it, but it's definitely on my radar. Alternately, Malgaras can just go and do it right now. Because he's amazing.

Malgaras

hobbseltoff wrote: »

Would it be possible to add a BYOC tag for each year as well? For reference, the BYOC badges are orange. Also, could you add a way to start a new line when you reach 20 badges as to not have the image get cut off? Thanks!

Added a BYOC badge and line wrapping for badges.

There's still a bunch of things to add still including badge types, style variations, etc, but for me at least, that's all the time I have this weekend to work on this.

The Aviatrix

Ahhh I love it!
And I can have them organized by PAX now.
And, for now, I love how every South badge of mine is different

'T'

Testing to make sure I did it right.

Sweet. All black, all the time. Until maybe I become an omeganaut. Until then, look at all that black.

jdw

This is great; now how do I get into my signature? I don't see how to add it under signature settings.

miker525

this is friggen awesome. Thanks for this

zerzhul

jdw wrote: »

This is great; now how do I get into my signature? I don't see how to add it under signature settings.

you need to save it to your computer, and then host it somewhere like imgur. Then you can add it to your signature using the "img link" button in the sig settings.