OK, this is my first attempt at making a skin so I am sure I am going to have a few questions. It is going to be mainly black with blue buttons and outlines.
as far has buttons go i like it.
I'd be afraid to push a button that shiny; I'd get greasy fingerprints all over it. :D
Quote from: kremmit on November 11, 2007, 07:01:16 PM
I'd be afraid to push a button that shiny; I'd get greasy fingerprints all over it. :D
there's also a chance your finger could slip off its so shiny and end up pressing something else. just something for you to take into acconut when making the skin.
I like the look of the button too, do you know what software he is using to create them?
we are using paintshop pro
OK, I have most of the buttons made, now how do I make a SKIN? I am trying to use the TruBlueSkin as a template but just can't figure it out. I would like to take out the girls and make the Album Art Outline more rounded and have the blue match my buttons. Maybe even have the background all black, not sure still working on that. When I make the background should that be at the resalotion I want 1024x768?
You want the back drop images to match the skin size you are woking on.... I will try and make a manual tomorrow i only just got home from work, long story...
thanks, manual will be a lot of help, at least I hope so. try to write it for a dummy :)
any chance of adding support for .png files?
Here is the type of look I am shooting for if anyone wants to help that may be better at it then me, still learning everything. The first one is from Apples Apple TV and the 2nd one I had SHOCK_ over at BYOAC make for me for my MAME FE
OK, what button do you like better the first one I posted at the top or this one? the first one won't be that big.
I would have to say it would after be the first one the second one looks a bit flat. i like the rounded 3d look of the first.
I prefer the second one...
I also prefer the first one. Really nice! :)
The manuals on hold as i have some big skintool changes going on right now. Hoping to get a release out tonight i could do with some chat on MSN if anyone is free...
I use AIM and google talk, don't have MSN
I am about 30 minutes away from a release.
Any idea when you might have the manual released? I hope to work on the skin a lot this weekend
A vote for #2 here. That round shiny look just screams 1998 when I see it.
Quote from: kremmit on November 15, 2007, 02:13:23 AM
A vote for #2 here. That round shiny look just screams 1998 when I see it.
Grrrrrr. I might have to try and make two skins. First I have to learn how to use the skin tool.
I prefer the 1st one thats 3 votes to 2 in favour of the 1st one so i win ;)
Still tied...
Yup, gonna have to do 2 skins, Squirrel.
;D
I will as long as I can get one or two more graphics done by shock_ or someone else and of course figure out the skintool
squirrelly,
I personally like the firest one, so that might break the tie :) I can help out with the skin, I have no problem doing the skin, it's the graphics I want to start learning. If you want to send me the backgounds and the buttons, I can start working on it, just let me know the layout you are looking for.
looking at the buttons i prefer the 1st one ::)
Quote from: eist1 on November 16, 2007, 03:40:13 AM
squirrelly,
I personally like the firest one, so that might break the tie :) I can help out with the skin, I have no problem doing the skin, it's the graphics I want to start learning. If you want to send me the backgounds and the buttons, I can start working on it, just let me know the layout you are looking for.
thanks man, once I get some more of the graphics done I will let you know.
album art frame, I finally figured out how to do it :)
I say second one. Of course Im voting twice, but hey Im like that.
eist1... or anyone else that knows. I have the buttons and working on the album art frame and the background is going to be all black for now.
What other graphics do I need?
Should the background include the album art frame on it, as in already laid out?
The buttons get added in the skintool part right?
I need different sizes of the album art frame for the different pages right? So many questions.
I need suggestions, should I have the track name text just in white on the black background like the one example I posted or should I have it on a blue line or outlined in blue like the other example I posted? I will make some example this weekend but just want to get ideas.
new album frame
squirrelly,
For the Now Playing Screen and the Track Listing backgorunds, you shoud put the Album Frame on them where you want to have the album art. You do the fitting of the image with the Album Frame in the skin tool. So how it looks on the background image will be how it looks in the skin, you may need different sized Album Frames for each background, depending on how you want it to look. And yes the buttons get added in the skin individually. As for the Tracklisting page, to make it touchscreen friendly, I like to make the Tracklistings look like buttons, so all you need to do is create long rectangles on the background image (next to the Album Frame) and you need to know how many tracks you want per page, beacuse that's how many rectangles you'll need to put on the background image. Just make sure you know where the buttons for More Up and Down will go. Here is how I did it on the small touchscreen skin I did (which I had 9 songs per page, so I added 9 rectangles) On yours just the blue outline with the black would make a nice rectangle or a blue with white lettering:
(http://www.category5prod.com/images/HTPC4.jpg)
Let me know if you need anymore info, should turn out nice, you'll have to let me know how you're doing the graphics, I need to start working on that. Thanks.
thanks, I hope to have most of it done by next weekend. I am now using photoshop to do the graphics. I friend of my wife I just learned is a graphic designer. So he is helping me. When he sends me the files I look to see how he made them, that is the best way for me to learn. I will probably be working on two skins so I hope you can do both. One will have the first button I posted and the second will probably have a modified version of the second button. Also if someone would want the blue glow in another color that is easy to change.
OK, I think I have most of the graphics done. I have one last request for you all. I am still going to make two skins or have Eist1 make them for me. One is going to use the blue button the other will use one of these, what one do you like better?
Also for the box surrounding the track name text what one do you think will be better?
I am leaning toward the first one for both
squirrelly,
Just an FYI about the buttons. Make sure that the background of the button is a different color than the button itself. Like with the buttons you have posted, the background (behind the button, the square area) is black, and the center of the button is also black. For the transparency to work in the skin tool, it uses the pixel in the top left corner to know what color to make transparent, so the way it is now the backgound will be transparent, but also the black in the center. You can make it any color, bright green or any color not being used.
Well, I just relized I uploaded the photoshop files so you may not be able to see them. I will change this when I get home.
Eist..... Does it have to be this way?? What if I don't use transparency in the tool, or do you have to? I have found that transparency doesn't always look right as in it can look pixelated. like this
Yes, the background of the button needs to be a different color than the button itself. The skin tool can't use .gif transparent images, it does it's own transparency using the first pixel color in the top left corner of the image, then makes everything in the button image transparent that is that color. Let me know if you need anymore info.
grrr..... I wish I knew this before :( This is just for the buttons that all usually on the left hand side correct? The main album page or anything else doesn't have to be like this right?
Thanks, I have more work to do now
Here is the main page, it's not done yet. What do you think? Might have to make the album info a little smaller to have room at the bottom
It looks really nice, when you get the Player Buttons, Volume, Page Forward and Back and Jump to Letter buttons done, you might want to copy them onto the background to get a feel of how the page will look when it's done. Nice job...
I assume you are going to put a scroll bar down that right hand side. That layout looks very simular to the TOUCHTUNES one which is not a bad thing at all. ;)
I was thinking the same thing, but buttons could be used on the right hand side, that's why I was asking what the final page will look like. That would just be a little more work for squirrelly if he needs to make a scroll bar background with all of the little letters....
Quote from: Barcrest on November 21, 2007, 05:12:09 PM
I assume you are going to put a scroll bar down that right hand side. That layout looks very simular to the TOUCHTUNES one which is not a bad thing at all. ;)
That's the look I am goin for or something very similar.
I am going to try to have one with the letters and one without.
Barecrest, are you going to try to make an option for smooth scrolling?? If not I won't make one without letters.
No just make one with letters...
It would look pretty nice if he could, I think nobody else does it because it's a pain in the A$* to make all te small letters :)
I am going to try my best, I want it done right.
Eist1....try this button and see how it looks.
It still shows some of the yellow around the edges, I think it is because of the shading of the black at the edges, it is mixing with the yellow creating a little different color, which will not become transparent because it does not match the yellow in the upper left pixel. The outside edges need to be very "sharp" the sharper the better, since it needs a cutoff area between colors. If you can get rid of the black shading on the edges, that should work, the black shading really isn't needed since it will be on a black background anyway. Check your messages, I sent you a pic and a link. Thanks
Edit: After messing with the background, for this particular skin the black background should be fine, as the background image is black, so the button should blend in. It's late but I'll verify it tomorrow. It might still be good to get the yellow background working, as then those buttons could be used with any color background without issues.
You should make the background colour... In this case the yellow the same colour as the background image. That way if some of it isn't removed by the transparancy it will still match up nicely.
So the background is gong to be black on the skin so the button background should be black also right? Thats how I had it before, oh well.
Why can't the skin tool support transparent .gif That would make things much easier.
Easier for you, a ton harder for me...
fair enough, you are the programer. I kinda figured it wasn't that easy but thought I would ask
The main page is almost done, need to decide on the arrows yet and make a few more buttons. I am also going to make the round buttons on the left oval like the ones on the bottom and see how that looks. The reason is I should be able to fit more buttons on the left side then.
Opinions, suggestions and comments are always welcomed.
Eist1 will be doing the skin tool part once I have all the graphics and pages done.
Ok it needs to say select a song rather than artists. You can't have transparancy on the vlume slider you have shown, i think it would look better without the text saying volume IHMO. Aside from that the skin looks awsome and a good replacment for an older skin ;)
OK I will make the changes, but I really like the volume button but since transparency won't work no big deal. Why doesn't transparency work if the image is saved that way?
Made the changes that Barcrest suggested and I changed the buttons to oval any other ones I need?
What do you like better, round or oval?
I kind of like the round, but you get room for more buttons with the oval...
Round look better but they take up more space. Maybe you could make them smaller and round, or just make the main ones round and then have a few smaller oval buttons at the bottom for the features least used.
History, Options, Carousel come to mind as not really needing buttons displayed all the time.
You can also get more space by moving the buttons up to the top. Having a large round button for albums at the top would look quite cool as that is the most used button to get back to the main screen.
Would be cool if the buttons were more grphical like the touchtunes ones rather than just having test on them too if that's possible like how the tunes central button is.
Also the text select a song shouldn't be underlined and should be centered above the covers...
See my attached MOCK UP made from your 2 images.. I think that looks spot on.
I will see what I can do. I was going to try to use the freebox logo Woody made and have that at the top also. That's why Select a Song was not centered. I will post another one in a few minutes when I redo the button for about the 6th time :)
I like this one the best. I made the round buttons smaller and the album frames larger.
looking good maybe change top songs to top 10 songs and change genere button. other than that a skin i would use. keep up the good work. :)
Minor spelling fix:
Genre = G E N R E - Not GenEre
Now that the background text is gone, maybe the volume slider needs some kind of label or icon so users know what it does?
thanks I fixed it, my spelling sucks. Surprised that is the only one.
here is the main screen, I added the volume label back in, just looks better to me. I also attached some other pages I am working on, let me know what you think and be honest you won't hurt my feelings. This is my first attempt at this. It is a combination of Woodys TruBlue and another skin I like.
more
last ones
I don't like that now playing screen. Personally i think it needs to be like the other skin. I suppose once you make the images availble people can tweak the skin to how they would like it.
Getting down to the small stuff now...
On the album selection screen, the Play/Pause and FF/RW buttons are awfully close to the bottom, on screens with less than perfect alignment, they might get cut off a bit. Looks like you could even up the spacing between the Jump-To-Letter slider, Volume slider, and those buttons and get them moved up a hair.
The text for "Top 10" and "Dance To This Beat" don't match the lettering style of the rest of the skin.
What, exactly, is "Dance To This Beat", anyway?
OK made some minor changes. ON the main screen I made the font more rounded, probably can't tell. On the track page I added some buttons, one has small letters (Add Album). What do you prefer?
Dance to this beat is from a song by Panic at the Disco
New buttons are good, I use those all the time.
I prefer the all-caps button text.
..and I think I liked the old font more than the rounded one.
I changed the font to be more rounded since I think it looks better with the buttons being round.
thanks
Quote from: Barcrest on November 25, 2007, 06:53:00 PM
I don't like that now playing screen. Personally i think it needs to be like the other skin. I suppose once you make the images availble people can tweak the skin to how they would like it.
I changed it but did not upload it yet. what do you think of the others?
top 10
They are looking pretty good, i need to go to bed LOL.
two more updated, I really need to go back and delete some of the old ones
OK I added a outer bezel, what one do you guys like?
Barecrest, feel free to delete some of the older posts if you want.
skins looking really good i prefer the bottom one. but they both look fine to me.
Uploading all those images and with everyone viewing them we will soon be out of bandwidth, can you not upload them to flickr or something and just link them?
ok, I will upload them to someplace else. Can you delete any of these or do I need to do it? Luckily its near the end of the month
also Eist just told me that the main page won't work with the skin tool. I guess I have to many sections over lapping, grrrr.
I have uploaded them to Flickr, that's what I will do from now on. This should be the link. Between these two what one looks better? I like the second one myself and I might put the Playing now box at the top. Not sure if the layout will work but I think it will.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theseashore/
The only issue i see is that the player would need to be moved over to the lefthand side as where it is right now it couldn't be made to show up. You need to start the top of the album covers bellow the now playing image to get that to fit on. I made the now playin image small instead. I have tested the rest and made a rough skin from your image and it all works.
OK, I have uploaded two more, these were redone by eist and says this is the only way it can really work. Let me know what you think, I like the second one best (top). Also let me know if you like the frames with the shiny bevel around them.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theseashore/
Please post comments here.
You could put the player bottom left and the now playing screen top right.
I like that even better. I will do this when I get home from work around 9:30PM eastern time
That should work, but the Album Frames will need to be made skinnier for the Volume/Player Controls to fit on the lower left, under the buttons. But looks like it's getting there, keep up the good work squirrelly.
Updated, click the link above and let me know what you think.
OK I uploaded another one, I changed the buttons to look more like the album frames. I think it added depth and I like it, what do you guys think?
looks good i like the middle pic the best. keep up the good work.
OK I think I finally have the layout correct, thanks Eist. I also think I am going to have all the buttons like the Albums, Top 10 and Karaoke.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theseashore/
uploaded 5 pages, main one I think is finally done
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theseashore/
just wondering, is anyone planing on using this skin when it's done besides me?
Probably not on my 8" screen, those album covers would look like postage stamps! :D
But it's a likely candidate when I finally get the 19-incher built into something.
i'll certanly give it a try. may tweek it here and there to suit my needs but yes bring it on.
tweaking is always good
I'd be interested in it. I think it looks pretty cool.
I really like the way it looks. I'll be using it so hurry up and get it done......lol :D
I hope to have most of it done this weekend. eist already has the main page done or will tonight.
Hi!
I will use it on my commercial juke, if it's okay for you?
It would however be fantastic if it was possible to translate the text to norwegian, as the juke are going to be placed in a norwegian pub.. I have no graphic skills at all, is this much work?
best regards,
Twarr
OK, I have uploaded an actual screenshot of the skin, thanks Eist. I need to change the volume button and clean up the slider button.
I think I have about 5 more pages to make, hope to have most of these done this weekend.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theseashore/
Here are some more screen shots. I think this is all of them, if I am missing any let me know. Also not sure if these a final yet or not.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theseashore/
Looking at the screenshot (http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2078146187&size=o), I see:
-Square boxes around the round buttons;
-Similar boxes around the Fwd/Back buttons;
-Background on the volume slider needs fixing;
-Scrollbar button has issues;
-The top and bottom of the oval buttons are cut off;
-The spacing between columns of album covers is not consistent (larger space between columns 1&2 than between 2&3 or 3&4)
Only the column spacing issue is present in the image at: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2070534816&size=o
...do the other issues show when the program is running, or only when you take a screenshot?
You might want to make the text say GENRES/ARISISTS rather than just GENRES. It's looking pretty sweet now dude.
Quote from: kremmit on December 03, 2007, 03:16:27 AM
Looking at the screenshot (http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2078146187&size=o), I see:
-Square boxes around the round buttons;
-Similar boxes around the Fwd/Back buttons;
-Background on the volume slider needs fixing;
-Scrollbar button has issues;
-The top and bottom of the oval buttons are cut off;
-The spacing between columns of album covers is not consistent (larger space between columns 1&2 than between 2&3 or 3&4)
Only the column spacing issue is present in the image at: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2070534816&size=o
...do the other issues show when the program is running, or only when you take a screenshot?
I will fix the spacing and try to fix the oval buttons. I was told that the square outline you see there is nothing you can do about that. I am aware of the volume and slider issue and I think I have that fixed already.
Once the skin is almost ready for release, if you fire me a copy over i'll see if i can maybe sort out any issues you guys are stuck with. The box around the buttons should only appear when you click them so it's not a huge issue. Altering the back colour to match the backgound (BLACK) may help. You might want to update it tonight once i make a release to add skinning to the 2 buttons on the genre screen.
Barry,
I have made the fore and background colors Black and there are still dark gray boxes around the buttons. This is the active part of the button, so unfortunately with the black background, the lines are much more noticable, I have noticed these on other skins too, but with some of the backgrounds that are lighter, the boxes aren't too notcable. Let me know if there is another trick to hide those lines. Thanks
If you can send it over to me i'll take a look tonight after i make the release.
Barry,
I just sent it off to you. Thanks
YGM
I am going to work on it more tonight. I should have a new slider button soon and I am going to make the oval buttons at the bottom a little smaller so they are not cut off. I hope barry can fix the square outlines or tell me what needs done.
Eist....I should be able to send you a lot more files tonight to play with. I am going to let you tell me what else I need to make and let you work on the button layout for the other pages. I redid the queue layout to look more like another skin. I hope to have a graphic of a shadow dancer to fill in some empty space soon also.
Yes i think it needs images of people like the other skin. Shadow dancer images would fit the skin nicely i think. I need eist to resent the skin because hotmail blocked it.
Barry, I resent it...
I actually liked the way it didn't have a bunch of crap thrown in just to fill space. Keep it clean, keep the focus on the music, specifically the album covers/tracklists.
2¢
Quote from: kremmit on December 04, 2007, 02:59:28 AM
I actually liked the way it didn't have a bunch of crap thrown in just to fill space. Keep it clean, keep the focus on the music, specifically the album covers/tracklists.
2¢
Not sure how this is going to look but I can always send you the blank images for you to replace if I do use them
Cool. ;)
I like the clean look the best...
Maybe put some alternate background artwork that everyone could change how they like it with the skintool...
Props to you for putting so much effort into a new look!
good news, Eist figured out the issue with the square outline and has fixed it. I have more work to do but I hope to have most of it done by this weekend. there is a lot more involved than I thought but I am having fun and learning a lot. I do not know a lot about photoshop.
Ok, i don't have to look at the outline then. I have only just downloaded the file he sent me due to me not getting home until 10:00pm last night. That has saved me a job just wish i had read this sooner. :tommy
almost done, and check this out
[attachment deleted by admin due to disc space requirements]
Looking good, don't forget there is a skintool/app update planned for tonight that adds a few buttons. Basically a back/cancel button on the decades chart selection screen and the search type selection screen. As well as the buttons to choose the filter type GENRE/ARTISTS/YEARS. I will try and get this out tonight so you can get the skin complete.
If all goes well and I fix the buttons, should be done this weekend
eist is working on the final skin, should be very soon
Well tonights release adds support to get the decades year screen skinned. So at least you can get that one done... I spent ages tonight working on that and it should have been a simple fix. Anyway i also noticed a pretty major bug with the random play by genres if you were using an LED sign in the last V3 build so i fixed that too.
well, if I need to change anything and he lets me know tonight before 12 I can fix it.
Barry, did you get my PM I sent you?? I am having a party in about two weeks and would like to have this done to give it a good test.
I think i replied didn't i? I thought it did.
Barry, you should be getting the skin either today or tomorrow. We just have to make one minor change.
Excellent.
Barry,
I just sent the skin files to your Yahoo account....
Feel free to post it when you get a chance.
Eist, did you send both?
When i get home from work i'll get them uploaded. I had popped out for a few jars last night LOL.
Ok feedback time....
The more arrows either side of the slider are reversed? These need to be swapped around. The decades year screen needs to be skinned. you should be able to skin this screen, please tell me what problems you are having and i'll get right on it tonight.
Once you have the skin fixed up i'll upload it.
To everyone else, this is as good if not better than the one that we had to pull. I don't care much for the shadow dancers edition as they look like an after thought but the original is awsome. What would be good is a version in some other colours like grey with a red glow? Or just black with different glow colours.
Eist, Squirrel and the BYOAC guy squirrel got to do the graphics, a big thanks.
Not sure what arrows you mean but I will look into it. the decades screen skining is up to eist, I am sure he will let me know what needs done.
People to thank,
Eist1 for his help in the whole skining process, I have no idea how to do that.
Shock_ from BYOAC, he made a skin for me to use with MALA and that is who gave me the idea.
My friend Greg who did the buttons, arrows, slider and shadow dancers. He made them and I modified them, without him it wouldn't have been possible. Yes the shadow dancers were an after thought but I wanted something there, that's why we made to different version based on the comments here.
Everyone else that made comments and helped that I forgot, thanks
Barecrest!!!!!!! without your time and dedication to FreeBox non of this would have been possible. It took me about 3 to 4 weeks off and on to make this skin, I can't amagine how much time you have spent on FreeBox.
Thank you all very much!
P.S. there will be more skins in the near furture and I can change the colors on this one. Just give me two that you want, maybe have a poll?? It's easy to do just very time consuming.
Well i would like to see one with a grey background and a red glow.... ;D
See attached image, i think the small now playing image should look like this. I made this by altering your skin backdrop in M$ Paint (The only image software i use LOL) and moving stuff around in the skintool. The arrows that are back to front are the ones above and bellow the slider in this image. They page the wrong way, just switch the images around and move the buttons around and it will be fixed.
You also need to use a different NO COVER FOUND image, maybe the one out of the black FINK skin?
[attachment deleted by admin due to disc space requirements]
I will try and make the now playing screen like that, I do like it. The decades screen I will work on tonigiht also, should be able to get that done. The no cover found, I will let that up to you, I just had that and used it, use whatever you want.
The other colors, do you want one with
"gray background/red glow" or
"gray background/blue glow" or
"black background/red glow"
not sure what you want. Changing the background requires a little more work but should be doable.
All 3 oth those colour schemse sound cool, i'll see what you can come up with. I have uploaded the modded skin if you want to just use the back ground on that.
Lookin' mighty fine, Squirrel! +fu!
edit
Hey, I notice the "Genres" button now mentions Genre and Artist. I know that's an upcoming feature in the beta Barry's got going, but it's not in the v.3 release.
Will there be a v.3 version of this skin, or at least an alternate button without the "Artist" that can be swapped in?
I think I have it, if not let me know. I can make the button but you have to do the whole skin thing, I have no clue how to do that.
If anyone wants the photoshop files to modify I can email them to you or if anyone wants to take one the fun of changing the colors. ;D
I have the skin completed other than looks like there is still a small issue with the Decades Years in the skinning tool. In the skin tool all of the year buttons show fine all with a black background, but when running the Freebox app, and going into Decades Years there is a small dot in the top left corner of each button, which means the black background is not working. Hopefully Barry can look at it.
I am working on a version of the Black and Blue Skin to work with V3, but there looks like there is a problem with the V3 skintool, as I have created the Decades screen in the V3 skintool save it and go into Freebox and the Decades is the default. It looks like the skintool is using decades2.ini and saving it as that, while Freebox V3 app is using decades.ini. And also the same issue with Genre, it has the beta buttons in it. Barry may have put a beta skintool into the V3 folder. Hopefully he can look at that too.
The skintool is the same for both versions and the skin will load in both versions. The decades screen may not load in V3 i will look at that tonight and impliment it if it's missing. I am hoping to get that skintool complete by the end of the week. I think the only screen missing that can't be skinned is the decades months screen. Are there any other screens missing?
Barry,
Can you also look at the Genre screen? With the changes that have been made in that screen between the beta and V3 there are some differences. The decades screen looks like it is using two different decadess.ini (beta uses decades2.ini) files. You can try the Black and Blue Skin in V3 and you'll see what I mean. Also, just shot you an email with a screenshot of the beta decades.
V3 isn't loading the the decadesyear file and any othe rchanges i mae to V4 so i will look at this when i am next in and not out drunk, like i a now
When is this going to be release bitches!!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D :chad :chad :chad
We're waiting for Barry to sober up to get the skintools fixed so it can be completed.... ;D Hopefully by this weekend.
Quote from: eist1 on December 14, 2007, 07:07:34 AM
We're waiting for Barry to sober up
Oh. It will be awhile then ;D
It will be today... ;D
Barry just posted this in the Skin Release forum. Post any comments or bugs there please.