"Database" for user-made billboard artwork

Currently saving up for a new computer so I can play again. But I have started to work on signs for an interactive story Madagascar/ African islands habitat idea I wanted to do called the Ballad of the Baobabs and logos for all my franchise zoos. I’ll post the slides for the story/ ballad on here when I get back on my laptop.

PS: really hope we get Fossa soon cause I need them for my story!
 
For those making aquariums using the custom billboards, a little tip. Place a conservation board behind your screen and guests will actually look at them so it looks as if they watch the fishies. They do watch just the screens too but to have them watch more often those conservation boards help.

looking at aquarium.JPG
 
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I'll definitely post a collection when I can. Currently I've given up because the colors I'm using when making the signs are for some unholy reason not the colors that are showing up in game. Made two signs with the exact same color (just a generic modern theme; but I plan on branching out into more region themes as well); one appears super washed out in-game, the other appears really dark in-game. At first I thought the washed out one was using a lit screen (that'd make sense) but nope... even after double and triple checking that I'm using identical screens they're different shades, and neither are the actual shade I used. Can't be a lighting issue either since even placed on top of each other (90% overlapping) they're completely different shades.

I made them in GIMP, used color picker to double check I used the exact same color; exported them to the exact same file type (JPG) using the exact same export settings. Opened with the default Windows image software they look identical (I mean they have different text and pictures but background color is identical); in game they aren't even close to being the same color. It can't be something I did or my computer since they both look right outside the game; so it must be some sort of bug and it's driving me nuts.

I intend to resume work on them tomorrow. Here's a link to a dropbox (files too large to post); let me know if people are interested in an entire set of these signs. When I'm done I'll also probably post the set to reddit, and organize into more folders when I have more files (Theme, videos, etc.)

They look great, hope you make them for every animal in the game and future dlc.
 
@Bearcat9948 I considered as a late April Fool's to make a binturong sign with the old binturong model; but I'm not that cruel. Here's the glorious bearcat. I want you to know the binturong gave me hell, another animal that doesn't exist online with a transparent background. I had to use an in-game photo and carefully cut around the fur in a lot of places. I really hope you like it. Also check out the top right corner :)

Here is a version I imported into paint (please use the version that will be in the dropbox; it'll be higher quality, this was resized so I could actually post it).
Binturong.png


Also I was thinking with your collection you could ask people to just post to Dropbox/Onedrive/CloudShare/etc.. Give a brief description of what animals are covered, a sample of the work (maybe 2 or 3 signs), and then the link to the file sharing site where individuals can get the entire set? Dropbox is really easy to use and it's completely free, so I do suggest it.
 
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@Atiggerx33 If enough people get behind that idea I'm cool with it, but for now I'm just going to keep doing it how I have been. Love the bearcat sign btw, thanks for the shoutout haha!

I updated two collections this morning, and I anticipate updating at least one more today as well, that being the animal infographics by violetdragons. That will probably be all for today though. Thanks to all the creators so far for helping make this work!
 
@Atiggerx33 If enough people get behind that idea I'm cool with it, but for now I'm just going to keep doing it how I have been. Love the bearcat sign btw, thanks for the shoutout haha!

I updated two collections this morning, and I anticipate updating at least one more today as well, that being the animal infographics by violetdragons. That will probably be all for today though. Thanks to all the creators so far for helping make this work!

Your determined complaining may be directly responsible for our now-awesome binturong; you led the brigade against the awful model to demand it be fixed. It definitely wasn't going to ever be placed in my zoos with the way it looked before.

My only thought with using a filesharing site is that to post here image size needs to be reduced, which does reduce quality. I make all my wide signs at 1824x1024 so that it looks awesome even on a 32m screen; the forums here don't allow for posting of images of such size. Posting to filesharing would help preserve quality, especially important in the larger signs.
 
Ok so I completed a few more. Just finished Bonobo. I'm 16/103 animals in.

Once I've finished the main signs, I'll be working on more cutesy style designs for the fun facts like more intended for kids. Each animal will have 5 cuter little "fun facts" signs, and if I can maybe a sign showing their prints. For the prints sign, I'm going to try to set it up that if used on a 1m (wish we had that one without screen edges) the prints are roughly actual size.
 
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Hello everyone! I had this idea today when browsing through the "Custom Billboard Resources" thread. The premise is this: on this first post of this thread, I will have spoilers which are named after artwork collections created by all of you. The spoiler will contain the name of the collection along with the theme. So for instance, you might find one spoiler for a collection called "Madagascar by @Danny_zoo ". You could also have "Berlin Zoo by @Swjosdotschka ". I thought this would be an easy way for people to share artwork that they've created, but don't mind other people using it. This way we'll also make sure that if you're an artist, you will have credit for what you've made. You don't have to put a watermark on your artwork since I'll make sure you are named in the title of each collection, but if you'd like to that's not a problem either! So, here are the rules:

  • I'll only take work submitted to me by DM on the forums
  • I'll only take work if it's something that you have created yourself. No submitting artwork from others
  • I'm not going to create collections for fair-use or non copyright art, but you can link it in a separate post if you'd like
  • I will do my best to update this post at least once a week
  • I won't make a "collection" unless you can provide at least 3 things to include in it, just to cut down on having a huge number. For the same reason, I'm not going to make a "Cheetah collection", "Rhino collection" and "Lemur collection" for one user, they would all just go into "Standalone Animals by ...." if that makes sense. Otherwise, if you'd like certain things to be grouped together, just let me know.

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That is really the best thing ever. I really love all the Animal Infographics by nomashawn. Just wow 😍
 
That is really the best thing ever. I really love all the Animal Infographics by nomashawn. Just wow 😍
I like the work by nomashawn too! It's inspired me to make the 'fun facts' boards more artistic when I finally get around to them; something more stylized and fun. I feel like in most zoos the really descriptive boards are generally more straightforward, but then they have a bunch of smaller ones that are more artsy and fun.

I'm taking the day off from sign creation but I'll be back at it on Monday.
 
I'm using the newest version of Photoshop but I'm sure CS2 still has this option. Under Edit -----> Color Settings------> this will bring up a menu. Under Working Spaces----> RGB there is a drop down menu where sRGB IEC61966-2.1 should be one of the options. This will make anything new you work on automatically be in the correct color profile.

For anything that you have already worked on there should be under Edit------>Convert to Profile------>then you should be able again to choose sRGB IEC61966-2.1 and boom your file is converted. I hope this helped somewhat!
I've tried both Photoshop and GIMP and they are still washed out. In Photoshop, if I go to convert the color profile, it already shows that:

1617501079554.png


Any idea what I'm doing wrong? This is the infographic I was working on:

Pollinators.jpg
 
In the main post the ones from AtiggerX are not working, the images are broken en the links to dropdown are broken
I think it should be fixed now. I have updated all collections through what I have been sent over the weekend. Some collections are now complete. I have also added Google Drive and Dropbox links to the collections that have one. If any creators wish to follow this pattern, that is welcomed. Thank you all!
 
These are all so pretty! Thanks to everyone who is sharing and letting others use them. It's especially useful for people like me who are bad BAD at making graphics. I really appreciate it. ❤️

EDIT: Oh and thanks to Bearcat for compiling them all into one thread!
 
I'm having the same color issues with my signs as well, even after looking at planet coaster tutorials on color settings etc (use sRGB IEC61966-2.1 for your color settings) they are still going from beautiful crisp color:

View attachment 216312

to really washed out in game:
View attachment 216316

Could just be how to game deals with color not sure. Turning up the contrast and saturation makes them much more readable in game but wish we didn't have to do that.
Export the .JPEG file and open the .JPEG file in Paint 3D, export now in 2D .PNG. And everything would be right.
 
So I haven't updated in a while. I'm redoing my signs with all ingame screenshots as opposed to taking photos from online. I want to be 100% sure that there is never an issue with them having copyright issues; and I want them to all be consistent in their appearance. It's going to take me longer; but I'd rather everything look good and consistent rather than mixing PZ models with IRL images of animals.

Edit: So sorry to anyone who was hoping they'd be done soon. I'm just gonna update when they're all finished. Every animal will be shown in profile (because that's how they're depicted on most zoo signs. I was all struggling to find some animals in creative commons; like different tiger species, bonobos (so many chimps; but like no good bonobo options!), etc. So yeah, now they'll all be done using in-game screen shots. They'll still have the transparent backgrounds like my original set had; which is why it's taking me longer. I have to carefully cut around every single animal to try to get it as perfect as possible So they look good; furry animals take longer since it's more difficult to cut around the fur.
 
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