Virtual Guitar Builder Project Underway...

[frown]

Co-incidentally to Warmoth adding their new 'Picture It' Tool on their Shop In Stock bodies, I'd already started developing my idea for a simple virtual guitar builder inspired by the Custom Builder, and a line drawing of a Strat I saw online. Being that I am a web designer / front end developer] and in need of a new project to amuse myself, ideally one that was functional and useful to at least myself, I came up with the idea of setting myself a challenge that would also result in a utility of use to others!

The first draft is online:

https://frown.online/virtual-guitar-builder/ - erratic DNS issues with .online TLD, if not loading, try:

https://luminancedesign.co.uk/dev/virtual-guitar-builder/ - temp alternative to above primary location

Limited options as yet ["Booooo" I hear you say!  :laughing7:] to just a Strat, as I have so much to do [now I have it working - colour options, SVG artwork for component options, images for wood / pickguards etc are still to come], but you'll get the idea of what I'm working towards. Once this is completed, I have more plans for more models, configuration saving / spec list generation etc...

Then, maybe I'll take some suggestions and requests - to help others render their dream guitar!  ???  :icon_scratch:

For the web savvy; being a CSS nut, I set myself a challenge of building it purely in HTML and CSS with SVG and some images for the visual - no scripts, databases, image stacking [although logically that would be simple as anything to do, just bonkers intensive - both on image processing in creation and loading / rendering], with the addition of also making it mobile friendly with some RWD.

Once complete [or certainly more comprehensive in feature set], I'll then look at adding additional models and at that point I plan to massively reduce the markup by using JS / JSON dynamically, rather than the somewhat laborious linear method used so far [having proven my idea worked]!

I've not got round to testing on loads of devices yet, so support may be patchy for now - I intend to address this as I progress!

Depending on how this tool grows / develops, I may need some  :help: - should discover how much fairly soon!

Anyway, hope you like my efforts so far and here's wishing everyone a happy new year for 2017!  :icon_thumright:

Preview:

 

[Logrinn]

Very impressive! I like :icon_thumright: ccasion14:

 

[rgand]

Well, that's fun to fiddle with. Looking good.

 

[BigSteve22]

Very cool, Brother! The frown.online link works nicely on my laptop here in the US. I especially like that you did it in good old fashioned HTML with CSS. (I wrote the code for my first web site using just HTML4 and Notepad.) Impressive work! Looking forward to watching it progress.
:icon_thumright:

 

[Axkoa]

That's really awesome! The frown link works great for me.

 

[frown]

Glad it's working for you guys! I'll mirror updates to both while I figure out what's going on and I'll keep adding more options as fast as I can!

Really makes me wanna build a load more guitars - my poor wallet!  :laughing7:

 

[Cagey]

Seems to be working here (Firefox on Linux). Pretty nifty!

 

[frown]

Think I've discovered the issue at my end, so I can see my own site on my iMac now - bizarrely my iPhone was working!  :icon_scratch:

Will be back on it later today - taking a morning off from computer as there's guitars to be played!  :laughing7:

If anyone wants to make suggestions [bearing in mind it's still early days and there's lots to still come], please let me know as I've got a 'To Do' list already, which I'll append with any feedback received and will get to addressing issues / concerns / fixes as I go along.  :icon_thumright:

 

[stratamania]

Good work, it shows a lot of promise.

I am in the US at the moment and the .online could not be found and gave a DNS error. So it might just be it needs a while to propagate across the DNS hierarchy of the internet.

 

[frown]

Good work, it shows a lot of promise.

I am in the US at the moment and the .online could not be found and gave a DNS error. So it might just be it needs a while to propagate across the DNS hierarchy of the internet.

Thanks Stratamania,

It appears the .online TLD is flakey in various locations. It still causes time outs and 'Server not found' errors intermittently here, however it's good to have a confirmation which also points to the same cause...

Hoping to get some more content / options in there in the next few days - other activities are a priority unfortunately!  :doh:

 

[stratamania]

Your welcome sir...

 

[ghotiphry]

You guys.  You're just so darn polite.  :toothy12:  I like it here.

I think it's a nice exercise, Frown, but it doesn't really stand up to actual images.

Not knowing if it's a proper way of doing things, but I've envisioned a method of scraping the Warmoth website for available item images, i.e. necks and bodies, and having all that at your fingertips to be able to apply hardware, pickguards, etc in different configurations.  I'm kinda also wondering if AA has something like that in mind for his new website.

 

[frown]

I think it's a nice exercise, Frown, but it doesn't really stand up to actual images.

Agreed.  :icon_thumright:

I have plans to include some images for materials that are best not done with vector graphics [woods / pickguards], which will improve things, but it's really intended as a quick draft tool to visualize and stimulate potential build ideas, as opposed to ordering a real product ala Warmoths tool.

Besides, I can only look at photos of real figured wood for so long...  :laughing7:

 

[frown]

Been a while I know, but I realised I hadn't mentioned https://frownonline.co.uk/virtual-guitar-builder/ was tweaked slightly [ages ago now], to include some wood imagery to improve the visual 'reality' of the preview rendering a tad.

Hoping to do some more work on it over Xmas this year - there's a lot I have in mind [and remaining on my original ToDo list] so we'll see if it happens or not.

Either way I'm hoping to do a new build soon, this time a bass, which got me thinking of adding basses to the builder one day...

 

[rgand]

The wood imagery does help. Nice work, there.

 

[Logrinn]

Sweet!
And all those future options are looking really cool (I'll be using this a lot when the Jaguar option is online) Woohoo! ccasion14:

 

[frown]

Thanks guys!  :icon_thumright:

Sadly, I can't put a timeframe on when the next update will be ready, but needless to say I'll let you guys know when it is!

 

[Cagey]

Looks good! The logic seems to be more or less working, so now it's going to be time-consuming detail...

 

[frown]

Looks good! The logic seems to be more or less working, so now it's going to be time-consuming detail...

Thanks and indeed. I plan to redraw the SVG's in Sketch, so I can add in new hardware in situ, and optimise it a lot more if I can. I'm also going to rework some logic, as it's a bit sluggish with loads of images / layers already and when there's much more to come...

I hope the lefties have noticed the addition of the flip option?  :icon_biggrin:

 

[stratamania]

Good to see the progress and hear more is planned. I do use it from time to time so had noticed some changes had happened. Well done.