Trying out some ufopaedia styling

[RSSwizard]

This is a mockup but im thinking it looks pretty okay, maybe some 8bit pixeling and it could look really good... so whats the verdict?

[R1dO]

Wow this looks nice. I definitely like how you manage to keep the 'dark' background for the item-images in style with the rest.

It gives the impression of a paedia suitable for industrial era meets scifi kinda organization.

If I would be going on some nitpicking spree the following points would emerge:

• If the dark shadow-like lines on the background image surrounding the (metallic?) overlay are there to simulate 3d effect, some interesting engineering challenge has been created (assuming the overlay is supposed to be in a single plane). Part of the overlay is above the background (top left) while part is below (bottom right).
  
• It might be my screen or the color combination, but the blue text has a slight blurriness appearance. This might become troublesome for people using scalers (x2, x4, SAI, etc), did you check the image under such a condition?
  
• Did you introduce the bright bottom part as a way to bring attention to the description? There is some uncomfortable feeling with it under that assumption, although i cannot indicate exactly what or why 
  

Keep up the good modding work

[RSSwizard]

Thanks, I just noticed that I have always hated UFO defense for not much more reasons than the ufopaedia being so bland (the TFTD one was addictive eye candy to look at back in 1996). I wanted to change that after noticing that it can be done.  And I just saw the Xeno Operations mod and the ufopaedia for it looks even better than this one, though in a different style of course.

* the shadow lines are sorta non-directional to indicate depth rather than light sourcing but I could fix that a little, reducing the shadowing on the lower right so that its just a line or so.

* the text blurring isnt intended, this is a mockup which means I literally took a screencap of the laser pistol entry from online (it was pixelated, no filters) and copied it right onto my ufopaedia background. Though I imagine ingame it would appear just about the same since those elements were from the screencap.

* since the text doesnt have a shadow under it I wanted to make sure that the background wasnt going to seem bland in respect to the text, I wanted the text to "pop" more yet not take attention off of either one. I realized with this style of ufopaedia entry the main stuff people look at is located in the upper portions of the image while the bottom portion usually has the description text.

... and I also noticed an interesting effect by placing that gradient there, it gives an ominous look as if staring at the side of a borg cube at an angle, the texture seeming to fade into darkness farther away as if simulating some great distance (similar to some effects I remember from 80s movies including v'ger and the crevasse indiana jones had to cross in the holy grail movie).

Im not sure if thats what seems disturbing, or you meant that it seemed annoying. I could make the gradient seem more gradual rather than abruptly shifting near the bottom.

Im thinking for doing any 8bit pixel refining I will make the metal industrial parts seem a little flatter and less textured, or making the texturing less complicated and alternating just two colors or so.

btw anyone who wants to use any of my work can, they can credit me or not I dont care, im not likely going to be making anything big in the end

[Dioxine]

Looks fine, but not for this game. You'd need dirty and grimey weapons to go with it, fallout style Now it looks like from another world than this sleek and clean laser pistol

[R1dO]

It is always good to have multiple styles of GUI's to choose from ... now people can start thinking about making smudgy weapons for fallout style mods

* the shadow lines are sorta non-directional to indicate depth rather than light sourcing but I could fix that a little, reducing the shadowing on the lower right so that its just a line or so.

I'm not saying you should, it could just as well be some sort of cultural bias. I just need to remind myself that the ufopeadia-codex is edge-lit from all sides when looking at your current mock up.
Just for reference my cultural 3D training assumes shadowing like the picture below (e.g. the same as the yellow buttons in your mock up).

* the text blurring isnt intended, this is a mockup which means I literally took a screencap of the laser pistol entry from online (it was pixelated, no filters) and copied it right onto my ufopaedia background. Though I imagine ingame it would appear just about the same since those elements were from the screencap.

The source being a screencap could indeed be the reason that it looks blurry. Just consider the point as a reminder to test it on those scalers to be prepared for questions if it indeed suffers from scaling blurriness.

* since the text doesnt have a shadow under it I wanted to make sure that the background wasnt going to seem bland in respect to the text, I wanted the text to "pop" more yet not take attention off of either one. I realized with this style of ufopaedia entry the main stuff people look at is located in the upper portions of the image while the bottom portion usually has the description text.

... and I also noticed an interesting effect by placing that gradient there, it gives an ominous look as if staring at the side of a borg cube at an angle, the texture seeming to fade into darkness farther away as if simulating some great distance (similar to some effects I remember from 80s movies including v'ger and the crevasse indiana jones had to cross in the holy grail movie).

Im not sure if thats what seems disturbing, or you meant that it seemed annoying. I could make the gradient seem more gradual rather than abruptly shifting near the bottom.

First of all, i don't think it is annoying nor too abrupt. It does a good job in compartmentalizing information topics.
Perhaps it is the brightness that attracts my eyes, and therefore I'm directed at looking to the description first while i normally look at that part last.

-- edit, because i can only inline images using 2-part posting (without storing them external) ---

[The_Funktasm]

Nice. Though it fits a style more edgy or gritty than clean and technical. Dioxine said Fallout, but I think it could work in a more typical XCom setting so long as it was more technically or human tech oriented than alien derived tech oriented. I dunno. It looks pretty good in any case, but in a more rough "resistance/rebel" style than normal XCOM stuff.

It'd fit well in a mod where XCOM is a bit more fringe and less overtly supported than by the usual COFN. Meaning they're funded like existing governments would fund terror groups. Like completely secret and deniable.

Or more in line with what Dioxine said, a post apocalypse mod, like maybe X-Mutants versus the Alien Defacto Government. I dunno. In any case it looks good but the setting is the only issue. Aside from that it's great for conveying an alternate setting.

[clownagent]

This is a mockup but im thinking it looks pretty okay, maybe some 8bit pixeling and it could look really good... so whats the verdict?

I think the mockup looks not bad.

Could you upload the graphics without the writing?