It seems like I really went missing in action - life is quite the show. Either way, I have just found out that a new Tumblr update on NPF photosets has broken my script by adding extra wrappers for each column. Can’t say I will fix it as soon as possible but I do wanna fix it - it kind of means a lot to me that my codes remain functional through the tests of time. I do have to say I’m only touching it next week at the very least. Hopefully I will also answer the questions on my askbox, even if those people have probably given up on an answer...
On a positive note, Tumblr added a localized string for submitted posts some time ago!!!! And they updated the web mobile post editor(yes I refuse to use apps if there is a web version)!! So here’s to the good stuff :D
Code Blogs | Auto-Scroll Nav Bar and Parallax Website
Code Blogs | Auto-Scroll Nav Bar and Parallax Website
Auto-Scroll Nav Bar: Auto-Scroll The ‘Auto-Scroll’ animation is a simple function where the navbar immediately scrolls up when you gently scroll down, hiding itself so that you browse the entire site without the navbar in the way. It is a very simple and cool function to have when trying to create a good cross platform Website. Here is the final product for now. Auto-Scroll Nav Bar: Messing…
you could definitely say that what follows next is a quarentine diary of sorts, but i’m writing it up here because it relates to theme making in some ways; additionally, i just want to write something positive in the middle of this!
stay safe, of course - if your finantial conditions, likely because of the government of your country and/or your employer being criminals, aren’t good enough for you to stop working, i can’t say i’m exactly praying for you because i don’t have that practice, but i do hope you’ll be fine. this moment shows us how capitalists are willing to treat the working class. mandatory class struggle aside:
for starters shout out to tumblr because i love the new dashboard ok. i’m using the cybernetic palette and i really wish it was available on the app too. of course, my love of it isn’t related to the colors alone - i always thought the dashboard looked a bit messy in structure, so building it again from zero was a fantastic decision. love that i can see the words for image or avatar while the images are loading as well; they really took care of accessibility here, which was already an ongoing process with stuff like page order or focus, etc.
i just wanted to write that shoutout because i’ve seen a lot of people complain about it - mostly because xkit stopped working - while ignoring that the folks at xkit did explain how they’re helping the tumblr developers directly, and in turn their work at rewriting xkit would be even smoother. i don’t think people actually give tumblr developers credit where is due, and i’ve been fascinated with their work ever since i found out about official blogs such as @javascript or @engineering. it also clarified a few problems i’ve had when dealing with the mechanics of reblogs, even if some bits of it still drive me nuts! in a sense, thinking about theme making for tumblr has become more gratifying when you get to understand just what you’re doing. anyway, moving on.
i haven’t really done a lot of “theme making” for the past weeks - i did do a bunch of bug fixes to the npf photosets plugin, but nothing related to designing or creating and so on. it doesn’t mean that creating was completely lost to me, though i did channel it to something entirely different: movie reviews.
yeah. that sounds pretentious, i know.
i’m not a big fan of cash grab movies(read: pretty much most of recent disney work, and anything that feels similarly souless), but i never found the strength to watch the ones that are new and more popular around here; namely, stuff from a24. which is not to say those are bad! i’ve watched my share and they are really good - i’m absolutely enamored with the vvitch, for example. however, i’ve realized that i want to discover new worlds, and not all of them too serious neither constantly bombarding my tumblr dashboard or twitter timeline. people have been doing movies for such a long time and i keep wondering, how many incredible gems i’m missing on solely because i can’t be bothered to look back?
thanks to that, i’m watching movies i never thought i would watch. and more importantly, i’m writing about them - about the things that make them this single, incredible work. much like being in a show’s fandom, i guess, and writing such long metas on it, except i get to write shorter essays because i’m not getting an entire season, ahaha. i had never watched an art film up until now, i think, and although it wasn’t my favorite format from this first experience, it was nice and i’m actually willing to try it again.
one great takeaway from this experience, besides how awesome film-making is, relates to my creations here. a fascinating thing about movies is when their envisioners work to have this coherent, complete piece of work filled with all it needs to be solid, instead of letting these loose threads. this is not in a plot sense strictly, but for so many aspects like choosing to add something to costume, set, or prop design; the choice of a weird but so incredibly telling original score; a photography that goes beyond having a pretty centralized shot and adds weight to every shot... wow, that stuff is unreal, and it is so full of purpose!
this feeling of completeness is one i think i have been working on gradually, but still could do better. i have this terrible process in which i barely have a full sketch for a theme - i just think that i want this one thing and build the whole theme around that detail live on the code instead of actually planning it. i believe that, likely because of this, it feels like my themes are just this tiny design in the middle of a blank website. Chamamento, SETE and Ágora feel like outliers in that sense, even though the process was still chaotic, solely because at one point i actually sat myself down and i said “i want this”.
hopefully, i can take this knowledge with me on the next themes coming around! i don’t know when they will come, but i do have an idea for post styling and another one for a “complete” layout - i’ll try not to merge those in my weird process so it’s not too much information, though. there’s one theme in the works for a while too, which is based on the one i mentioned working on as i first mentioned Temporal, but it’s been reworked into an entirely different beast which i’m quite happy with; mostly because there is no pixel based post size! in fact, i’m considering not having typical post sizes for all next themes, choosing a more typical blog approach. it sounds weird but so far it looks really cool, although probably not as much if you’re doing graphics with set sizes... well, graphic makers were never my demographic to begin with.
and well, on an entirely different note: i keep forgetting that when you have a theme uploaded to tumblr, you can check active installs. actually seeing people using your themes, when before the only way you could see it was by hoping whoever reblogged or liked it had in fact installed it, is so exciting!!! it actually confirms that the people using my themes, or at least using Temporal, are often just your average blogger sharing memes, fanart and talking about the latest podcast - you know the one. it’s a pleasure to be making themes for y’all!
stay safe everyone, not only for yourselves but for others around you, as this corona virus situation unfolds. also, support those who will be economically affected by social isolation - musicians who rely on touring come to mind.
surprise, i’ll be putting a new theme out very soon! it’s actually ready and i’m just waiting for it to be approved by theme garden!!! can’t wait for this to get to your hands after how long it’s been cooking up.
think i should give a heads up since i have two themes under development right now!! one is depeche mode inspired(so expect something like the previous violator inspired ones, haven’t dropped that idea yet) and another one doesn’t have an artist/album/song pinpointed yet but has a pretty unique post styling for my standards(though with a lot of care to keep it user friendly, i expect). i’m very excited for both of these to be out since i feel like they contain some of the best ideas i had so far, combined with the fact npf support has been achieved with berenice; i hope to have these hit theme garden as well finally! everything is taking it’s time because i’m caught up with college things or different hobbies but it’s going well!
BIG NEWS!! npf photosets is soon to get the most amazing update ever. not only it will also be useable for legacy type photosets but i also managed to implement a lightbox correctly to both photoset formats!!! woohooooo!!!!
i don’t know if this is relevant to anyone else but as of now, 16/07/2018, i’m absolutely sure Tumblr’s video format only allows videos to be 540px tall, and at the same time the actual iframe will stick to the original video size. that means that if you want to avoid weird margins under vertical videos, you have to ensure the iframe’s max-height is 540px. since the video is never allowed to take its full size thanks to height limitation, it would also explain why vertical videos always have black borders on their sides.
