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Review for Angelic Wing Designs
I come to this site quite often for transparent PNGs and I must say, I am awed each time by the elegance and simplicity of the site and the serenity of the layout. It is definitely on my list of recommended graphic sites. I like what I see during my first glimpse, and the site works perfectly in both IE and Firefox.
Information
Site: Angelic Wing Designs
Type: Graphics/Resource
Owner: Rosie
Reviewed By: Misao
Date Received: 07/06/06
Date Completed: 12/30/06
Preview
Presentation
I love the layout. It is simple, yet elegant at the same time. There aren’t any added effects to the layout, which I really like. Sometimes in the midst of adding effects here and there, the layout becomes too busy. This is the opposite. However, there are three small errors for better visualization. Firstly, the site title is positioned much too high that it is nearly touching the shirt of whoever is on the layout header. It might look a little better if it was positioned about 20 pixels lower. Secondly, I believe you forgot to merge the layers together when slicing up the images, because there is a small inner/outer glow effect at the top right corner of the header image. Finally, the background colour of Home, FAQ, and Guestbook links is different from the background image. This only applies in Internet Explorer, so it isn’t such as big deal compared to the first two points. In the visual image below, I have moved the site title a little further down.
Navigation, update and credit links at the bottom of the page are displayed neatly and accordingly. I like how you are helping fellow affiliates with their in-site contest advertisement, but only the link to Fake-Wings open in a new browser. I recommend the other two contest banners to be linked to new browser windows so that visitors are not tempted to leave your site with a single click. Rather they continue to browse your site and another graphic site at the same time. The same goes for four of the five voting sites. I used the validation links that are provided at the bottom of the page, and Angelic Wing Designs passed both.
HTML coding looks great with rooms for a improvement. It isn’t necessary for you to indent the link targets so that they all appear in the same column although I can imagine that locating links for editing purposes would be a little faster, but not by much. Header and paragraph tags are used accordingly. Keep the quotation marks consistent when specifying the properties within an element. For instance, there were no quotations surrounding the properties to the date heading for the updates, and for the linkie divider layer. Also, HTML styles like
<td rowspan="2" valign="top" style="background-image: URL('images/index_04.gif'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: scroll; width: 538;"> can be replaced with
<td rowspan="2" valign="top" id="header"> in the HTML source, with the appropriate properties listed in the style sheet in the same fashion as follows:
td#header {
width: 538;
background: URL(’images/index_04.gif’) no-repeat;}
Since backgrounds are automatically set to scroll, there is no need to specify so within background-attachment. The style sheet looks great although you can simplify and shorten the coding by half if the same properties were specified together within a single element. For example:
body {
font-family: tahoma, verdana, sans-serif;
color: #29464E;
font-weight: normal;
font-size: 11px;
letter-spacing: 1px;
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
text-align: justify;
background-color: #E8E8E8;
background-image: URL(’images/bg.gif’);
background-position: top right;
background-repeat: repeat-x;}
can be shorten to just seven lines like this:
body {
font: 11px tahoma, verdana, sans-serif;
color: #29464E;
text-align: justify;
letter-spacing: 1px;
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
background: #E8E8E8 URL(’images/bg.gif’) top right repeat-x; }
Like the background scroll, text weight is also set at normal as default so there is no need to specify that in the style sheet. It is a waste of time and energy. Some of the elements are separated by line breaks into paragraph forms while some aren’t. Although the style sheet is working properly and there aren’t any visible errors, consistent coding style should be made a good habit.
Regarding backgrounds, there is a sudden break in the drop shadow effect behind the navigation field. It suddenly ends when the image ends and is not picked up again. I like the drop shadow effect of which you should find a way to import a repeating background image for the navigation.
Content
The home page looks great. Everything is organized and navigation is self-explanatory. The length of scrolling is reasonable to cover all the important things that a home page should have. There is no overcrowding of numerous updates, which is a bonus.
Information
There is a detailed page about the site that gives the visitors all they need to know about the site, the owner, and the reason why the owner loves designing. I like the determination and motivation you have for yourself and AW, as well as that fact that the graphic site is a one-person show, showcasing your designs. Though, there are a couple mistakes.
- Angelic Wing is the reincarnation of my previous graphics sites Anime Lovers Graphics and Access Login Designs. - Spelling error
- AW was born around March 2004. - Capitalization error
- When I make my layouts and graphics I aim for beauty and practicality. - Spelling error
- I just want a place to showcase my graphics and mine alone. - Misuse of possessive noun
- Co-owning Angelic Wing has never crossed my mind and I don’t think it will every happen. - Spelling error
- Real life will not take away
fromthis site because simply this site has become part of my life. - Too many words
You also keep a practical graphic goal, which I admire. I haven’t seen any other graphic sites that strive toward a certain number of graphics, but be careful as this can be a downfall as well. When you are frustrated to meet this goal you’ve set for yourself, there is a chance you might start lacking in effort and originality by rushing through the graphic-making process. That would be a pity since I like your graphics.
AW certainly has a nice collection of awards of which I believe is never really updated. Crystal Tears Awards has closed, Fairytale Awards, MidniteAnime, and Resentful Thoughts are offline, and Anime Circuity has moved. However, all award images are linked properly. I really like version 0.6 of AW’s past designs. It’s too bad that there isn’t an original layout image to go with the thumbnail.
Usage guidelines are fairly straight-forward, and the breakdown to different graphics is helpful. When trying to scare away leechers or graphic thefts, “serious consequences” isn’t going to cut it. Be specific about the consequences that will be taken or else thieves are going to think that it is merely a joke or an empty threat. General term #3 sounds awkward the way it is written in the form of a broken sentence. Rewrite it as “Redistribution of any graphic found on this site is not allowed.”
Since the contact form is also a frequently asked questions page, the link title for this read as ‘faqs and contact form’ in the navigation column. The site credits are really thorough and credits are also given for the current layout. However, it wouldn’t hurt to be specific about how Aethereality and Squidfingers have contributed to the current layout. Torre’s graphic site has moved; the old URL that AW is linked to is only used for redirection purposes. Not many graphic sites are fond of a link out page as they see it as competition, but I like how AW at least provides several links to the more popular graphic sites on the internet. For the most part, the links are working properly with the exception of Linx Cafe, Fifty-Six Listings, and Real-Bitch Listing, which have all closed. Mango Reviews on the other hand has moved.
Affiliation requirements are also straight-forward as the usage guidelines. Simple and easy to follow, but I have a few things to point out. Noe is spelt wrong in the fifth bullet, explaintion is also spelt wrong further down after the bullet rules, and years should be year’s (”it will reopen within a year’s time”). What do you mean by “artistic” nudity? Do you mean private areas are covered, or can they be shown but somewhat discreetly (like a side image of the breast) or do you mean nudity as long as there are added Photoshop effects? One of the things I find common among graphic sites is the use of tasteful and artistic nudity but each and every person’s definition of what is artistic and tasteful is different. It is hard to depict your definition of the same issue from my point of view in something so ambiguous.
Designs
I like the idea of a latest additions page here rather on the home page as it makes more sense, and is more efficient. The sort by series option is also a great idea as well. I see that you try to make a variety of graphics across a broad list of anime series to appeal to a larger audience. Great thinking on that part. I really like how all your designs are different and never quite the same. There is either a different style to it, or a different colour and effect touch to it. I find that much more appealing than the graphic sites that offer the same type of designs over and over again. I can’t argue on the quality of the designs, but some of the images used in the designs are not as top quality as I would expect. For example, the image for ‘Gentle Soul’ is really blurry and not as sharp along the edges. I can’t say much on the others because I couldn’t find any visible errors. They are all so lovely. My absolute favourite design is ‘So Smooth’ of Kurosaki Ichigo.
Graphics
For the 100 x 100 avatars, I take it the search function is for series? What else can I search with it? I like the mouse-over info. Half of the avatars don’t have borders. It isn’t a crime or anything, but some people use avatars for site updates or for their blog entries, etc., and without borders, the avatars look funny floaty in mid-air. Of course, borders can be easily added with HTML, but the avatars would look better if the designer added in a border that was unique to the avatar’s style. But I really love the avatars. Beautiful work although some look a little busy with too many gradient and border layers.
The animated blinkies are a nice addition to a graphic site, but it has one downfall. Visitors don’t have the option of making one unique for themselves. It would be great if images templates of the animated blocks were provided with a tutorial on how to make them into animated blinkies.
I especially like the large selection of transparent PNGs although some of them require a little extra work. The upper left corner of PNG 189 is not cleared. The outline of Ed’s hair in PNG 177 is very choppy. PNG 60 of Tsukino Usagi is also very choppy around the edges, and you missed the small areas around her fuzzy sweater. None of the PNGs have an AW watermark brush stamped on them. Some people use the stamp to demonstrate ownership over the images, but the stamps help designers (like myself; I design my own site layouts with transparent PNGs taken from various graphic sites) remember where the PNGs are taken from and give proper credit where due. The images you use are of high quality but relatively small in size. Usually transparent PNGs are of high-quality large-sized images so that they can be used for various graphic designs such as layouts, avatars, and wallpapers. When shrinking a high-quality large image, the density and clarity of the image is maintained, but when a high-quality small image is enlarged, the quality of the image diminishes, no matter how high the quality of the image was before enlargement. AnimePaper provides a very detailed page explaining this in their rules for uploading scans.
The proper name to the anime and manga series featuring Ranma is Ranma 1/2 as opposed to just Ranma. The latter is incorrect. Since the PNG collection is rather large, I believe four or five display per page is more reasonable than three. With the layout’s scrolling capacity, changing the amount of previews from three to four or five won’t distort the scrolling too much. On top of that, the designs page had a preview display capacity of four per page. The next comment I am going to make is going to sound a little offensive, but that is not my intentions. Some of your Cardcaptor Sakura PNGs are exactly the same PNGs offered by other graphic sites like Aethereality. To be honest, the PNGs offered by Aethereality are of better quality and bigger sizes (as they are scanned directly from artbooks) so given a choice, I would pick the other site’s over AW. In order to prevent this, instead of making transparent PNGs already provided by other graphic sites, find some high quality images that have never been used and make these into transparent PNGs.
AW has some really cute and original photoshop brushes. I like the twists and swirls. The desktop wallpapers are also very well-made. However, the same issue about scrolling applies here. Three per page is rather a small selection to choose from. Clicking through seven pages in this section is not bad compared to the 63 pages of PNGs but the page can afford another one more wallpaper to the preview capacity. Many computer users nowadays are using resolutions of at least 1024 x 768, where half of them are greater solutions, and maybe a quarter using wide screen laptops (such as myself) so I would love to see wallpapers made with the option of 1280 x 800 resolution.
Interactive
The suggestion box is very similar to a contact form but I guess it must help you in sorting out the mails. Though try to stick the acceptance rules together and the non-acceptance rules together. For example. swap bullet three with four. The site of the month is a great idea to promote graphic sites and to bring the graphic site community together. But instead of restricting nominations to website owners, try allowing visitors to nominate graphic sites that they believe are well-made and should receive an award. I don’t own a graphic site (not yet) but I have about two in mind that I would like to nominate for an award simply because those sites are considered to be one of the best (well, my favourites anyways). Banner advertisement is commonly used now across all types of sites and I like the idea of site promotions of all sort. There are two grammatical errors on this page underneath the deletion heading.
IfYou moved and did not submit a update form. - This is not a matter of ‘if’ or ‘not’; simply a definite action that they moved and failed to contact you with the new information.- If you site goes on hiatus for a period longer then a month. - Spelling error
I like the option to request a layout even though it isn’t guaranteed. At least you are concerned about what type of layouts your visitors are looking for, and help them and your site out by taking requests. One small error on this page, “If you are to vain in describing what you want I will most likely not make the layout.” Perhaps you misunderstood the word ‘vain’ but it is defined as 1) excessively proud of or concerned about one’s own appearance, qualities, achievements, etc. conceited: a vain dandy; 2) 2. proceeding from or showing personal vanity: vain remarks; and 3) ineffectual or unsuccessful; futile, according to Dictionary.com. If vain is used as an adjective, a noun must follow it, therefore it is used incorrectly on AW. “If you are not specific enough in describing what you want” does better in getting the meaning across. Find the pixel is really cute. Since I reviewed the site, I should be able to find it quite easily correct?
Tutorials
Most of the tutorials are fairly easy to comprehend and can be managed by a beginner, so photoshop tutorials like ‘Wind Effect’ and ‘TV Scanlines’ should be dropped from an intermediate level to beginner. You should include a small note on how to change the colour of the gridline/scanline pattern since the default colour of the pattern is set at the colour it was created with. I don’t use much paintshop pro with my designs so it is nice to see a few tutorials designed for paintshop. I like the HTML and CSS tutorials as well, but since some of these codings are not “written” by you but taken from other sites, I suggest that these are to be taken down unless you proper credit the HTML site where you took the HTML from. What I mean by this is that there is only one Javascript coding for adding sites to favourites or a link to close the window that is created by the person who invented Javascript. The fact that you are reproducing his code on your site to educate other web designers is a good thing but the owner of Javascript or the site where you learned the code from is not properly credited and you restrict your visitors from reproducing these said tutorials when you did not invent the HTML code. Of course you wrote it in a tutorial for viewing, but since there is really only one way to write the code, isn’t that sort of reproduction and redistribution of someone else’s coding that you prohibit people from doing at AW? I hope that makes sense.
The on-page example for the ‘Last Modified’ PHP tutorial does not work or you may have forgotten to include it. The same goes for the ‘Page Load Time’ and ‘Showing IP Address’ tutorials. Since I am working on the navigation links from top to bottom, I just realize that the link to Silver Tears under Affiliates is not working; the site has either moved or is not longer online.
Final Statement
All in all, a great graphic and resource site. I certainly enjoyed my visit. Just make sure that you proof read all the content that you write for the site. A fast and easy shortcut is to copy and paste it to Microsoft Word and click on Spelling and Grammar under Tools. I have been to AW numerous times before and I will continue to re-visit AW in the future.
4 Comments to “Angelic Wing Designs”
Sanosuke Says:
December 31st, 2006 at 12:30 pmOne quick thought on the site that has bugged me since forever: I fail to see the point of disabling right clicking on the avatars. I also fail to see the point of opening a completely new POP up window to display information that was already listed on the page itself in the new POP up window.
Graphic sites cater to visitors, thus it is the site’s job to make things easier for the visitors, no? [Such is the case with every site actually, but graphic sites in particular in my opinion. For example, why include a search option? Because you want the visitor’s job to be easier.] Making them click yet another link is completely pointless and time consuming. Especially if a visitor decided to stock up on avatars to use for the Livejournal and has to click every single link of every single avatar they like, right click, save, close window.
Rosie Says:
December 31st, 2006 at 5:18 pmYou don’t know how much I want to thank you for reviewing my site. This review was great and well worth the wait. Thank you for the suggustions. I now plan on improving my site with your suggustions
Thy Says:
January 7th, 2007 at 1:38 pm(accidentally reads the comments)
One reason why I disable the right-click on the avatars is because it makes a little more trouble for visitors to direct-link. It’s easier to just right-click on that page and get the URL of the picture. But if I annoy them enough because they have to click on every avatar and also getting the URL that way, it’s fine by me. Hotlink protection doesn’t seem to work for me all the times (since there are still people who direct-link my stuff…). And another reason, heh, I want to count the hits.
Hmm…well, search because what if you have tons of avatars? Like what if someone doesn’t like a particular series but lately, the owner updates a bunch from that series? I don’t usually like the search thing because I can’t think of the series’ names. But I do like the drop-down menu because there are lots of series that I don’t want to waste time looking at.
Sanosuke Says:
January 7th, 2007 at 1:51 pmWell, I’m one of those visitors who hates to have to click on the avatar, be taken to a new page, right-click, and then save.
It’s still easy to direct link. There’s just a one click different [right-click and direct link or click, right-click then direct link.] Not to mention, if it’d annoy the direct linkers, wouldn’t it annoy the people who don’t direct link as well? [People like me…]
And I was under the impression that if you really wanted to direct link, one click wouldn’t stop you. Warnings not to definitely never stopped anyone.