Inkscape 0.46 splash screen contest

Inkscape is one of my favourite tools, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I quickly became attracted to this program, and I am sure that it is the best vector graphics program out there. The 0.46 release is on its way, it brings a lot of new stuff; and in the context of this release, a contest for the splash screen was announced.

The moment I found that out, I knew I had to try to come up with something and submit my own splash screen. I know, it does not look very hi-tech, and it does not use the program's new mega-wow features... but I had to do it, at least to express my respect, and let the developers know that I care.

Follow up:

Some stuff about the splash screens:

The new gradient manipulation tool is much more intuitive and easy to use
The snowy hills were drawn by hand with a digitizer, some were made with the mouse, and some were then tweaked with the new object sculpting/painting tool. Later the paths were simplified because too many nodes were created and I guess it was not worth it
This release takes place in winter, so the moment is captured "as is" (notice the realistic snowflakes on the hill that is the closest to the observer)
There are two versions, one of them is called "day" and the other one - "night"; I'll let you determine which is which :-)
The moon and the stars were recycled
You can download the SVG and experiment with it

inkscape-046-splash-night-small

Here are the other entries:

My chances are very slim, but you never know... My personal favorites were marked with a '+'. The one made by needcoffee uses the new 3D tool effectively, while the one by dnfjud is simple and classy.

Looking forward to a great release!

This entry was posted on January 6th, 2008 at 03:55:21 by Alex and is filed under Photo / graphics.

10 comments

Comment from: Constantin [Visitor] · http://ascending.wordpress.com/

IANAAC (art critic), but I think yours are absolutely in line with the others. Definitely worth a try ;) Good luck!

2008-Jan-06, Sun @ 09:58

Comment from: XDex [Visitor]

I definitely agree with Constantin - the splash screen looks very nice and compared to others your chances are not that slim.
Btw, taking into account your big devotion to this project and your advanced language skills maybe you should consider giving the guys a hand with the translation to RO (according to the latest Translation Statistics - RO = 7%) ?

2008-Jan-06, Sun @ 14:25

Comment from: Alex [Member]

Thanks, it is in line with some entries, but there are much better ones too.

XDex, I'm not sure I'll have enough time to work ok the translation, but right now I'm on their page dedicated to translations, reading stuff... So that's a start.

You might be interested in checking out this page, it's a list of technical terms in Romanian.

2008-Jan-06, Sun @ 23:59

Comment from: nicu buculei [Visitor] · http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/

Actually, the release will not really happen in winter: there are still some weeks ahead (500 points fixed, at least a couple of pre-releases), so I expect end of February at best.

Here are some place where I think you can improve your design:
- the text, made with the calligraphic tool, can really be better. maybe use a fancy font instead? (and convert text to path)
- the moon is quite simple and flat, think at something like this unfinished sketch: http://nicubunu.deviantart.com/art/Flying-low-49824111
- the clouds look very un-natural
- you should do something fancy with the logo, add a gradient, highlight, something to give a 3d-is look.

About the translation, it is hard indeed, a lot of the terms are not available on the tmlug glossary. The terms are not that many, so it may look as a quick task but it is not because of the terms.
What I think is needed is some leadership: someone to take ownership of the translation.
I prefer my desktop in English, but I may help a bit if someone else is taking charge.

2008-Jan-07, Mon @ 10:26

Comment from: Alex [Member]

Nicu, thanks for the detailed feedback. I know that it is not hi-tech, and that is the message I am trying to get across - "draw freely [there is no need to get a degree in graphical arts before you can do something]".

The simplicity, "un-naturalness" and the "unfinishedness" are there on purpose. The drawing follows the style of "Samurai Jack" cartoons; and I can't do much better without spending a lot of time (at this point, a minor improvement of the "output" will require a disproportionately great change at the "input").

When it comes to translations, I have the same "problem[s]"; I prefer an English GUI, and I can help here and there but I cannot lead such a project. Well, I did get the tools, I checked out the PO file from the SVN repository, so that's one step further, I also contacted the guy who is currently in charge; we'll see...

2008-Jan-10, Thu @ 10:12

Comment from: nicu buculei [Visitor] · http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/

Too bad, the voting started some time ago and your image is not included (maybe because you haven't used deviantART?)

You know, that is a public vote, so if you want a winning chance you have so use some psychology when creating an entry for the contest.

Is OK to use a simple, un-natural style, the thing is, I think, to use a consistent style. You use at least 3 different styles, and the mix look inconsistent:
- simple and stroked for the landscape
- simple and un-stroked for the moon and logo
- blurry for the clouds.

About leading a translation, is lot like I can't but I don't want. I think such a project is better lead by someone passionate about it (translation), who will use the final translation on a daily basis.
BTW, who is currently in charge ? It looks like he completely forgot about Inkscape or lost interest.

2008-Jan-10, Thu @ 11:08

Comment from: Alex [Member]

You're right, some styles are mixed, so the image is not consistent. I will take that into account next time.

Indeed, my entries are not there, and my guess is that the cause is that they were not submitted via DeviantArt (I agree that it is not their burden to take the images and upload them elsewhere; but on the other hand I am also against "polluting the web" by creating an account in order to never use it again... waste of bandwidth and CPU cycles).

The last person to commit the language file was Bogdan Oancea. If he does not respond within a few days, I will translate and commit the file myself. However, I will definitely need some external assistance, because my personal views regarding Romanian GUIs are slightly different from those of normal people. For instance, I tend to treat most words as neologisms and leave them "as is".

Also, I have a question, and I hope you can help me out :-) Why do people say "a însera" = "to select"? (I expect it to be "to paste", derived from "inserţie") My guess is that it is an error typical to folks here in Moldova (maybe they took the same "MS Office for dummies" class and "inherited" the mistake from the teacher :-) Can you shed some light on it?

2008-Jan-10, Thu @ 11:49

Comment from: nicu buculei [Visitor] · http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/

As a matter of fact, I find deviantART quite nice and I use it, my page there is http://nicubunu.deviantart.com/
And I am connected there with people from the Inkscape community and with people from Fedora community, if an useful tool if you want to share your work with people.

I never saw, and is wrong to translate "a insera" with "to select", it should be "to insert" (like SQL - "INSERT INTO") or "to paste" (BTW, I assume hte "î" in "însera" was a typo and it has nothing to do with the sunset).

2008-Jan-10, Thu @ 14:52

Comment from: Alex [Member]

I got a response from Bogdan; he is not maintaining that translation; he translates Blender, and somehow he ended up contributing to Inkscape, but that was a one-time affair :-) Like you, he is willing to review the translation, and make suggestions.

I will create a new entry dedicated to the Romanian translation, and discuss some terms, because many things are quite confusing to me at this point. There are also some "political" decisions to be made, such as "translating hotkeys".

2008-Jan-11, Fri @ 16:48

Comment from: nicu buculei [Visitor] · http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/

As I see above, you are aware about the glossary at tmlug.
A good place to talk about terms is the "diacritice" group: http://groups.google.com/group/diacritice (I am subscribed there, as are some other people involved in various FOSS translation).

I quite like Narro as a translation tool (http://lab.maimult.ro/), it allow for easy collaborative work but don't know how freeis its maintainer, Alexandru Szasz, to add another application.

Anyway, there are some terms I am not sure how are best translated, like path, where I don't think "cale" is right, so I look forward to see an open talk about this.

2008-Jan-11, Fri @ 17:37

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Inkscape 0.46 splash screen contest

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