Please note that the skin is not complete and I am not sure when it will be completed. I am still waiting for Version 10 to come out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1PzW_u71mk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lm1J0MxPao (Music videos and admin screen)
As I had the jukebox on and the tablet on charge, I thought that I would do a quick video of what I have been working on, although it is not complete and changes still need to be made such as backgrounds, but it is a basic working jukebox at the moment.
The aim of the skin was to be used on a single monitor jukebox where the visualisation and music videos play at the top and the bottom half of the jukebox you can still use without interruptions. The button structure has been aimed at people with tree trunks for fingers, rather than small buttons that are hard to press, especially if the touch screen monitor is not the best.
Regards
Mark
Well done, looks very tidy and uncluttered.
Did you start from scratch or start with another skin and move things around and change graphics.
No I started from scratch with what I wanted from a jukebox, something easy and uncomplicated. I had to cut back on some features I am not a fan of the swipe feature. The main thing for myself was to use the search function to find tracks or a lot of times I will use the feeling lucky button and select something.
Coffee's skins are great graphically but too me they are too samey and the graphics are pretty small so unless your touch screen is perfect then pretty much on a older touch screen they can be hit or miss.
The hardest thing for me has been the backgrounds I wanted to keep the thing as uniform as possible so I have been trying with different backgrounds, but when I find one that I like, sometimes it messes something else up such as the fonts.
As soon as you change the background though, then you start wondering if the buttons are good enough, so it is always an on going battle especially with OCD I still want to finish the skin, but then I am also thinking about doing a full screen version and then hooking up my TV or a second monitor for display.
I will get back into it again but I get bored and do other things like going to the pub but that is one bad habit that needs to be cut back on. I just get bored of tagging MP3's as they take so long to do especially if you want a decent jukebox.
I am always in two minds about whether I want a MP3/Video box or just have music videos but I want to see what version 10 can do first before I finish the skin, as it might mean that I might sway either way.
Regards
Mark
I like it. I too like the simple interfaces which is why Metal is still so popular for some. A couple of suggestions:
I think your buttons are too big
There needs to be at least 12 albums per page.
I love videos playing at the top though along with the visualations.
Brad
Hi Brad,
Thanks for the feedback. I just had a look at Metal and obviously that is a full screen skin so it would be very easy to have 12 albums maybe even more on the front page if I went full sized. My basis on creating the skin was on the NSM Icon jukebox https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQwY7hWmWDw but then they use a 32 inch monitor so they have plenty of room for adverts and videos at the top. They still have six albums on view though but they have the navigation at the bottom rather than the sides.
I could resize the button graphics to make them smaller which would leave more room so might be able to fit another album or two if I re size the albums at the same time, so it might be possible to get all 12 in and still keep the visuals at the top.
The skin is designed for a 1280 x 1024 screen or something like that so space is at a bit of a premium, however it might be easier doing a full screen version with visuals going on a dual monitor.
I still need to get a decent background sorted I was doing just plain black background but too be honest I thought that it was just plain and boring so I started experimenting with different colours, different textures.
Which is where I started losing interest as it kept throwing up problems and re thinks about the skin, although I have a new problem now lol
I need to check something out so shall finish here.
Regards
Mark
That new problem is the fact i sent him the link to the V10 beta lol. 8)
Quote from: Mark Norville on July 11, 2016, 09:27:29 AM
Hi Brad,
Thanks for the feedback. I just had a look at Metal and obviously that is a full screen skin so it would be very easy to have 12 albums maybe even more on the front page if I went full sized. My basis on creating the skin was on the NSM Icon jukebox https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQwY7hWmWDw but then they use a 32 inch monitor so they have plenty of room for adverts and videos at the top. They still have six albums on view though but they have the navigation at the bottom rather than the sides.
I could resize the button graphics to make them smaller which would leave more room so might be able to fit another album or two if I re size the albums at the same time, so it might be possible to get all 12 in and still keep the visuals at the top.
The skin is designed for a 1280 x 1024 screen or something like that so space is at a bit of a premium, however it might be easier doing a full screen version with visuals going on a dual monitor.
I still need to get a decent background sorted I was doing just plain black background but too be honest I thought that it was just plain and boring so I started experimenting with different colours, different textures.
Which is where I started losing interest as it kept throwing up problems and re thinks about the skin, although I have a new problem now lol
I need to check something out so shall finish here.
Regards
Mark
I use a 19: 4:3 monitor in my juke and use the SooLoose Skin with 12 albums. With some of the features turned off it's a great fit imo but definitely could not then fit in the visualisations, that's for sure.
Keep at it as I think it shows real promise and there has always been a real scarcity of skin authors for E-Touch especially now that Coffee has moved on. I really don't like the new default skin. It's too busy and the icons are so detailed that they don't immediately denote what function they're for. I immediately switch it back to Sooloos.
A single screen with visualisations and videos would be very welcome.
Cheers,
Brad
Hi Brad,
I will keep this skin as it is a bit I do want to change it I have to find what versions I have done before as most of it was complete before. I can do a full screen version of this and have 12. However it will not have the visuals at the top.
I have tried to think outside of the box where coffee tried to think inside of the box, e.g he has tried to do skins that encompass every thing that Barry has programed but then I think it has been too much.
I am not a graphic person or really a skinner, but Barry has done a fooking good job of making this so easy to skin that my ideas will hopefully be taken up by a graphic person.
I want to do a skin next that is based on genre on the left hand side. The thing is that you cannot please all the people all the time. I know you are commercial or think that you are, Saturday and I am half cut, but I know my skin is not good enough for commercial I have to tighten up the graphics more but for a Saturday afternoon hell it is bloody good.
I honestly would love to create a skin that really looks the business but you do need to lose some of the features e.g apart from home use I cannot see the use of playlists.
I honestly love eTouch though and what Barry has done from 9.06 when I think I brought it Barry fixed so many bugs, this is an unsung program. I think this program was what made me want a touch screen monitor.
Time to put more tunes on, a shower and then more beers it will be Saturday night soon lol
Regards
Mark
well done mark very cool looking skin nice modern look
I'm at the moment struggling with coffees portrait skin on my vertical system setup but seems to buggy
would this be worth a try on a 32 monitor or could it be modified maybe
I just done another video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OlYnnVnBMQ skip to around 55 seconds mark I done some buttons on one skin I was working on, then I changed how I wanted to do things, but it shows a bit more of what I was doing. I just need to stop drinking and going to the pub and finish things really, but I do not like this one as the album covers are two far to the left rather than having the bigger buttons which spreads it across the screen and makes it look more uniform.
I haven't got access to the skins, not until I upgrade so I cannot say to be honest. I have seen some of the skins but most are private access. A lot of the functions can be kicked off such as do you really need the volume controls on say black n blue? If you are at home then you are not far from an amp, if you are using a pub then they have access behind the bar, you do not want someone changing the volume all of the time. I got rid of those. I honestly hate trying to modifying skins I found it harder than actually starting from scratch.
I know from coffees skin, he actually goes into the XML files and adjusts that as trying to do it using skin tool is a pain, the easiest way is using something like photoshop and doing backgrounds manually but then you cannot adjust them for different monitors.
The skin tool x y z function does not work that well which is the only downside to skin tool, the buttons that I created was just easy buttons from http://dabuttonfactory.com/ but then I done the play track music video using gimp as I wanted something different but something quick and easy at the same time.
I have done most of it, but I have about five different directories where I was trying to adjust things. I just tried to load up another skin I was working on, it is same fashion but I did not like it so I stopped doing this one, as it was not square in the middle, the albums was too far to the left.
Anyway shall finish here as I am half cut lol
Regards
Mark
What visualisation you using in WMP Mark.
I just have it on random and everything is ticked so it shows the lot. I only have a free version if you see what I mean ;) Someone put it on the torrents as they were pee'd off about them starting to charge a yearly subscription. I personally prefer the bars myself.
whatever you do dude keep the viz at the top really looks cool
baz give this man full accesses we need someone with this type of imaginations and skills
Hey Mark, did you ever finish this skin ? and are you going to release it mate, deffo like the look of it :beer
Hi Bondy,
No not finished yet I still have the original files hanging around somewhere, but I keep swapping my computers around. I have my OCD moments, and at the moment, the computer that I brought for the jukebox, is now my office computer. The home cinema computer is now my jukebox computer, the arcade computer is now my home cinema computer.
I still have to build one more computer when I have the money to do so, and that can go in the cabinet and then all my computers are sorted. I bought a graphics card for my arcade cabinet, but sadly I had pulled out one of the graphics card slots, and if I put it in the other slot, it covers up the SATA connections, which means I can only use one hard drive.
So all my PCs are in a state of bad repair at the moment, I will not be doing nothing now until 2017 I just want to get Christmas out of the way first and then I can start a fresh. Although I do have my eye on one ebay auction ending tonight, but money is low and I only have one more pay day before Christmas and got to buy food and all that unhealthy junk.
Regards
Mark
Just looked at the videos you posted in July mark, excellent work, I cant wait for this to be released, will it work on V10?
Yep was designed on version 10. I will have to look at the video to see which skin it is. I will be back in the zone in the new year.
This one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1PzW_u71mk
Personally I think its worthy of a permanent fixture to etouch, will you be making a 1024x768 copy?
To be honest I have not thought about doing different resolutions on this skin. At the moment though I still have a lot of rebuilding work to do. This skin was designed for my cabinet, but since then I have purchased a 32 inch monitor. So that became my priority. I still have to strip one computer, and build a new one with parts that I have left over.
As at the moment apart from this computer, all the others are not connected at the moment, I do not even have my home cinema system set up, so all my sound is just coming out of the TV.
I will pull my head from my backside come the new year, or hopefully at least.
Regards
Mark
Do you have this skin available for download?
No, not currently I still need to finish off the skin at some point. It will have a graphics update at some point. I am still finishing off another skin for my 32 inch vertical.
Well, it looks very detailed. I like how you integrated the visual animation into the play background. Is it a specific program that works with etouch or can I use my G-Force spectrum analyzer program? It does have a standalone feature.
I am 99% sure, that as long as it can be used for windows media player, it will show on etouch. However, if it does not work on WMP, then it will not work on eTouch, as eTouch uses that filter.
Regards
Mark