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We are working on finishing touches for the site design, and one of the fun parts is coming up with the design concepts for the 404 / Error / Captcha pages. We generally like to have metaphors closely tied to the site's primary area of focus.

So, what concepts or or ideas would you like to see for each of these pages related to Blender? If you have any clever ideas, we'd love for you to help us out!

Examples of custom 404/error/captchas:

Chemistry 404

Chemistry Error

Chemistry Captcha

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  • $\begingroup$ @MrZak Thanks for contributing! $\endgroup$
    – Courtny
    Jan 25, 2016 at 22:42
  • $\begingroup$ Maybe a bit unimaginative.. But for the "something bad happened" page, perhaps some kind of 3D model gone wrong could work $\endgroup$
    – gandalf3
    Jan 26, 2016 at 2:03
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    $\begingroup$ For 404, a classic "not found" situation in blender is when missing textures cause objects (or even the sky) to turn bright pink. Perhaps not the easiest color to fit into an existing colorscheme though.. :P $\endgroup$
    – gandalf3
    Jan 26, 2016 at 9:57
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    $\begingroup$ For a captcha, maybe you could have Suzanne amongst a group of humans being put under the spotlight (or otherwise being 'singled out') $\endgroup$
    – angussidney
    Jan 26, 2016 at 11:56
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    $\begingroup$ @gandalf3 How about a sad looking quadbot with some missing textures? The quadbot is a fairly iconic Blender symbol with some more complexity (and thus easier to mess around with) than Suzanne. $\endgroup$
    – PGmath
    Jan 27, 2016 at 0:35
  • $\begingroup$ @PGmath What's a quadbot..? $\endgroup$
    – gandalf3
    Jan 27, 2016 at 2:55
  • $\begingroup$ @gandalf3 Those things from Tears of Steel. See my answer. $\endgroup$
    – PGmath
    Jan 27, 2016 at 3:10
  • $\begingroup$ Looking at all the suggestions so far, my favorites are David's broken blender error, Dontwalk's "I am not a monkey" Suzanne captcha, and my (inspired by gandalf) pink Quadbot 404. $\endgroup$
    – PGmath
    Jan 29, 2016 at 4:51
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    $\begingroup$ Any updates as to what is happening with this? $\endgroup$
    – angussidney
    Mar 8, 2016 at 9:38
  • $\begingroup$ It's been a few months and nothing's been done, anything going on with this? $\endgroup$
    – PGmath
    May 20, 2016 at 20:04

4 Answers 4

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Captcha

For the Captcha page I envision a picture of Proog from elephants dream, redrawn in a style similar to world building's awesome new site design. Direct link to the poster.

Elephants dream was all inside a machine, captcha pages are meant to discern users from machines.
proog

Error

A picture of a broken blender. The glass shattered and the blade bent. (not in a box or looking like this picture)
broken blender
source

For anyone thinking that this joke is too overused, the error page is a perfect place to put it. This is the least viewed page of the three error pages; and a broken blender sure is an error.

404

perhaps a more stylized version of blender with nothing in it. (again going back to that poster) No text, no 3D view, just blender very lost. (and a real thing that happens). blender with no text in interface

Here are some good 404 pages from other network sites.
https://codereview.stackexchange.com/404
https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/404
https://travel.stackexchange.com/404
https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/404
https://workplace.stackexchange.com/404
and even
https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/404

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    $\begingroup$ I love the broken blender! $\endgroup$
    – angussidney
    Jan 28, 2016 at 5:58
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    $\begingroup$ The broken blender error is great! I don't really get the Captcha/Proog link though. I also kind of like Gandalf3's 404 suggestion better. $\endgroup$
    – PGmath
    Jan 28, 2016 at 14:23
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    $\begingroup$ I agree with @PGmath $\endgroup$
    – TARDIS Maker
    Jan 28, 2016 at 18:26
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Here are my concepts. I decided to use the Quad Bot from Tears of Steel since I think it lends itself to manipulation and interpretation than Suzanne (and it works really well with the captcha). Though it's not quite as obvious symbol of Blender as Suzanne, I personally at least see it used quite a bit in the Blender community and immediately recognize it as closely accosted with Blender.

404 not found:

Inspired by gandalf3's suggestion of using missing image textures.

enter image description here

Error:

enter image description here

I do like David's broken blender Idea a lot too. If someone can pull off a good render of it I'd go for that just as well.

Captcha:

enter image description here
I accidentally rendered this one at low-res, low samples. I'll fix that sometime.

The posing on this one could use a little work.
(I'm not too swift with armatures so if someone could give me a little guidance on how to move the feet on his rig that would be cool.)

I know the rendered Quad Bot doesn't technically fit with the minimalist flat look of the main site UI. But I think it actually looks pretty good as long as the backdrop matches the site background color, it looks like he's sitting there on the page staring at you.

The Quad Bot is licensed (CC) Blender Foundation | mango.blender.org.

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    $\begingroup$ The continuity here is brilliant. $\endgroup$
    – wchargin
    Jan 29, 2016 at 0:25
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    $\begingroup$ I kind of like the idea with the tiling, but it doesn't really fit with everything else. I do like the "I am not a monkey" though. $\endgroup$
    – TARDIS Maker
    Jan 28, 2016 at 23:31
  • $\begingroup$ I was going to suggest having the monkey scratching his chin for a 404, something akin to the thinker. Alternatively the Blender logo with the dot in the middle missing. $\endgroup$
    – Carel
    Jan 31, 2016 at 8:54
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Captcha:

The StackExchange network would like you to prove that you are not a robot. because reasons.

We'll let you continue if you can answer the following question correctly:

This site offers support for Blender. What kind of Blender?

  • A kitchen appliance designed to make delicious smoothies full of vitamin D3
  • I don't care, as long as it blends.
  • A program designed to let you create 3D models / animations

Error

Something happened. Give the site a few minutes to recover.
This is our fault not yours - try back later

404

The page you tried to connect to doesn't appear to exist any longer. If it was a question it may have been deleted by the person that posted it.

i'll add images later.

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  • $\begingroup$ Just found this now. +1 for the captcha query :) $\endgroup$
    – gandalf3
    Apr 22, 2016 at 18:16
  • $\begingroup$ Cool concept. LOL :D $\endgroup$
    – Paul Gonet
    May 2, 2016 at 18:59

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