Setting up a Gallery

[Shiho]

So I’m working on a character website (which are mainly otaku senshi and RPG characters) which will pretty much list all my characters, as well as alternate versions of Usagi and Queen Serenity which I created (you can find them up on Forsaken right now for those curious on the versions. ^^ ) However… I’m a little curious. When it comes to creating a fan art gallery (I need more fan art. ;_;), meaning you have to give credit and all back to the original artist, how would you set up the gallery?

This has always made me curious. Since right now the current style I have up is pretty much scrolling down with only one picture from each artist since its an iFrame layout and I’m still in the process of debating on whether or not to change it yet. So any suggestions?

[Amy-Chan]

Do you mean setting up or design?
For setting up I'd use a database backend with the data and picture fed onto screen as required.
Design... well i don't know, depends on preferences - could have a menu system or a front screen with selectable avatar pics which if clicked on lead to display details of that charrie.

[Shiho]

The design of the gallery was what I meant. I'm doing it all pretty much manually (unless I get tons of images, then I'd probably install some form of gallery system into it to make things easier). But since I'm always commissioning people for art, I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to set one up. Everything will more than likely have a mini thumbnail. Its typically the credit, and how the gallery would look (design) like because it seems kind of rediculous to have only one image per artist and start a whole new section for just them. u.u;

[Amy-Chan]

So kinda like a artist link(thumbnail), you click the link and it brings up credits and gives you a thumbnail view of all they pics which you can then click to bring up the full size picture?

Perhaps the easiest thing would be to draft out on paper how'd you want the site to work? i.e. picture form, it should prove easier then as you don't have to visualise it then.

[Sailor Astera]

The layout gets a bit messed up in Firefox. Looks good in IE, though it seems a little small to me.

You could just have a thumbnail with the artist's name below it and the name could link to their page, email, etc. I do my galleries alphabetically, with a small sentence saying who did it and display a thumbnail below. Probably not the prettiest idea, but it seems to work for me.

[Shiho]

amy-Chan: Eh. I'm a little confused. If you mean something like a whole new HTML page poping up with the image, then that's not what I'm looking for at the moment. Its too much of a hassle. Unless you mean just your typical thumbnail opening up to a larger image, I'm going for something like that. Just need a way to make it look 'cleaner'. :)

@sailor Astera: I had a feeling it wouldn't look good on Firefox. u.u; I hadn't had the opportunity to download Firefox on the laptop yet (not even sure if it'll work on Vista. o.O). So it may not be compatible with all other browsers. Maybe I'll turn on my desktop one of these days to check, but until then, it'll be mostly IE compatible. Hence why I have it marked as "Best Viewed in Internet Explorer" before you enter.

Also, what you suggested seems like a rather good idea. :) I think I might go with the first option. It seems to be the cleanest, and easiest thing. Right now I have it set up with the name of the artist in the header and their link in the header, following with the picture.

I just got around to creating a new layout for the profile website, but I'm not going to unleash it yet. It still needs tweaking, and pages need to be added. ^^;

[Amy-Chan]

The browser issues can be a pain, effectively if you can get it working on IE 6, IE7(not automatically garenteed by working on 6), Firefox and Opera, it'll probably work on any browser right.

And yeah poping up in layer or whatever method you're using (gets the same result) is what i meant.

[Larry Laffer]

Now, you know that people nowadays laid off IE(hence, Firefox works fine on Vista)

And, if you got a screwed up layout(even if it's the browser, tho' I have a feeling it's not that!) there's a big chance you'll loose that visitor you worked so hard to get. Honestly not many people are actually willing to switch to a different browser just to view ONE web site!


And back to the actual helpful advice: If you test a newmade site, don't do it in IE! That's it! I could also say rebuild it from scratch, but I won't!

And as for the actual pics, just do yourself a php script, on a hidden page, protected by a password and username, that allows you to add pictures and comments fast!

[Shiho]

Well, I just downloaded Firefox on the Vista. :) I'm also making an attempt now to code the new website to be compatible for both IE and Firefox. After I'm done with that, then I'd probably code Forsaken's layout to be compatible with it as well. Hopefully all of that will be done by the weekend or sometime next week. <3

As for the php script, I don't know if I'd do that. >.>; I'm not really into fiddling around/using php scripts. All my pages may be coded in php but that's only to make the layout changes easier. As for now, I'm pretty much going for what Astera suggested. I have the gallery set up like that now though if I ever get another idea/suggestion for a gallery design I'd probably change it to that.

Maybe when the site is done I'll release it or post a link on here for it. I only have three characters up on the site right now, and I'm still debating on whether or not to place other characters I have on it. Reason why I'm debating though is because the other characters seem rather... minor in comparison to the main three (Kalma, Voima, and Chikara). o.O;;


EDIT:
Well the new site is up. However for some odd reason, I can’t get the layout to look right in Firefox. For some odd reason one of the images on the layout seems to repeat itself, and appears to cover the whole layout area. (does that make sense?) o_O; I’ve tried fiddling around with the coding a bit, but I can’t seem to get it to work. T.T; There are some pages up. Mostly of the three, but hopefully I'll have some more. There are some pages which still need to be added.

usagi.sailorcrystals.net/index.php

[Amy-Chan]

looks ok apart from the bottom of the page is't reached (or perhaps that deliberate, i'll check ie later) which image repeats?

[Shiho]

If you open it up in Firefox, the BG image (where the content is) repeats. You'll see the image appear over the header image on Firefox. o.O; Meh. Maybe I'll get a screencap of it later.