Thanks for the encouraging feedback, bigfoot and treeform. I didn’t mention it in my first post but the first mockup is indeed meant for the front page. Here’s a tiny iteration of the design, using the alternate logo and with the blue colour changed. Also some minor tweaks just to make the page look better.
Looks kewl, but I think the panda is still too cute. Maybe something like a hat or sunglasses (like the current), and the tooth a bit bigger 
Wow great work! Could you try to do the documentation page?
i implemented some of it here:
istrolid.com/p/panda3d/html/
ZeroByte, i made the panels green and tried to prototype a better doc page. I would like if you gave me the file in some loss less compressed format like png or photoshop.
I have not tested the site in IE… I will do when i add more stuff to it.
Nice treeform! I’ll send the image files along as soon as I make some minor tweaks that the page needs now, looking at the prototype. Might also want to put in the drop down menus so the look can be tested out too. Also what kind of functionality would you put in the doc pages? I could try to make a UI mockup for you.
How about making an alternate stylesheet that stretches the page across the whole screenwidth? It could be easily done and in any case you’d need the elements in place to make the clickable links to the Carnegie Mellon ETC logo and the home link for the Panda3D header.
Any comments Josh?
I started to design the page is stretchable… but I found no easy way to make the columns correct without javascript wizardry. Also thinking about it the doc pages would stretch and make the text too long and harder to read so i went after single width layout 1024px and i think i like it better that way.
I dont think it should have drop downs. Many people have posted for their removal. All so i am neutral to drop downs i can see how they cause pain in some cases.
I also would like josh input.
I think the main problem people were having with the dropdown menu was their inability to use it with tabbed browsers. Modern CSS driven methods like the suckerfish dropdown solves this quite neatly in a semantic manner to boot.
As for the full width layout, here’s A List Apart article that shows how it can be done. A minor niggle at the present HTML, could you make the endcaps for the sidenav background images on the h2 and the left/right div’s instead of using empty div’s? I’m a bit of a HTML nazi myself, sorry.
I did not think of using padding to align both sides that is cool. I will try the resize able layout next.
I also don’t like the empty div solution. But i think putting into an unrelated element like h2 (which would not be there in some cases like if there is a row of images and no text) what would you suggest for the bottom? I know one of the image could be made to be the background of the pane but i kinda wanted them to be the same.
There could be links placed at the bottom of the left navbar that are consistently placed in pages. One that would be useful would be a link to the RSS feeds. By default it would link to the front page news feed but in the doc pages, they could link to comments if that gets implemented. The right navbar is a bit trickier since rather iffy what goes there, could change from page to page. I think placing the top cap image on the first h2 header is pretty consistent though, there always has to be a description header on the side navs.
Next iteration:
Looks nice. Only change that “C” into “C++”, and make the panda look a bit less cute. “cute” usually won’t be put on the same page as “powerful” by many users.
Actually the bc.uberm00.net/misc/study1-5/landingpage.png one (the first of the last two) looks really great. 
But yea. The panda needs to be bigger (like in img217.imageshack.us/img217/7224 … ingtw9.jpg) and more evul’ish. 
Something like Roar! TIS IS PANDAAA___THREEEEE___DIIIIII
[size=59]hmmm… I guess I got carried away a bit…[/size]
Maybe the Pandas claws can be seen byond the Panda3D text and the grinning Panda’s head above it? (means the Panda behind the text either at the beginning or at the end of the text?)
Hmmm… I wouldn’t change much else. I just wonder why there are two places for screenshots.
Regards, Bigfoot29
I made the 3 column layout, i still dont know if its much better then the fixed one
istrolid.com/p/panda3d/html/index2.html
vs
istrolid.com/p/panda3d/html/index.html
thoughts?
Zero, i think the panda needs to be more angular. How far did my inspirations take you? I now have the PHP source for the this site and would like to finalize on the layout fast, but then there is so much work to get the site ready its all layed out in tables - after i fix that chaining layouts should be easy
There’s a reason newspapers put text into narrow columns. They’ve measured how difficult it is to read text, and it gets harder as the columns get wider - the eye tends to slip from one line of text to the next, and get lost.
PS. That panda is frickin weird. It looks like happy tree friends.
Maybe thats the reason why I like it. 
Dunno. It doesn’t look as “professional” as the current Panda. But it looks - well - easier. Its cute, you can make friendship with it and still, it can show teeth once its challenged (means it can do the job and not frighten away).
treeform: I love non-fixed websites. But this one looks weird in your first example. As Josh stated, the columns are too far away from each other. You really need to “split” your eyes when you want to do a “first scan for impressions” of the website. If you want to go that way, you need to scale the text, images and what not too to keep a real good reading experience.
(However, I still like the other Zerobyte-layout better.)
Regards, Bigfoot29
Looks good!
I agree that the panda may be a bit too weird. As a logo of a software package I think you want to show as “general” an image as possible. So make the panda like Tux: a fat, resting panda with a big grin Wait… that’s what I am seeing at the top of this site right now…
For the logo i still think that my and bigfoot angular panda looks better thent he curved one :
It shows more teeth and play.
I am also not very fond the variable length layout I made. Any suggestions on how to fix it? I think maybe we should just go with the fixed width.
yess i agree there should be much more examples like for toontown i have only seen 1 pic and it suckes and i REALLY like toontown. 