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Skin Tool - Album Cover Locations

Started by berrywell, August 09, 2016, 07:17:15 AM

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berrywell

Sorry guys, yet another newbie skin tool question...

The covers file in the skin tool, I'm trying to place exactly (to the pixel) where I want the album covers, title and artists tags. I've taken the time to design the cover skin in my paint program; the trouble is the skin tool doesn't seem to allow me to use the "Individual Button Settings" for 'Top' & 'Left'  to refine the exact location.

I've been nosing around the .ini files and noticed the .cov file appears to have the co-ordinates in there. Is this the only realistic way I can alter the location of the album covers etc to the exact pixel? If so, what are the "Album Frames" that are listed in the file? I've worked out what the "Album Covers",  "Album Title" & "Artist Title" are.

I assume everything else towards the bottom of that file are related to font size, colour, background colour etc.

Mark Norville

Ini files are usually difficult to work out, and only a few people can actually read them properly. I cannot so I do everything by eye which does take a lot longer. You can design the page so that you have marks for what you need.

The album cover you need to import into that field, and that takes a bit of playing around with, but you need to copy all to combo as well, it is literally faster just to design the pages in a graphics program, the only downside to that is then the skin is set in stone then.

I am going out today, so I might not be here until later, the best tip that I can give regarding the ini file is, if you set the cover files font to say EXPLOSION font for example, the ini file will say somewhere EXPLOSION rather than arial for example.

It will help you find things in the ini file as if every thing is the same font then you don't have much chance of finding things.

Regards

Mark
I am now retired from the jukebox scene. I still visit from time to time and will help if I can, but apart from that. I am no longer a slave to downloading and tagging.

Barcrest

The album frames are an animated gif you can have per album, they tend not to be used anymore and are a legacy thing. They didn't prove to work very well if you have too many on the album cover screen. There was a halloween skin that had dripping blood on some album covers using the frames. I can take a look why manually putting the positions in the top and left are not working and fix them for the next beta.
Keep on Rocking in the Free World \m/ ;D\m/



Jukebox Stats...

berrywell

Once again, thank you both for your replies.

Quote from: Barcrest on August 09, 2016, 08:23:05 AM
The album frames are an animated gif you can have per album, they tend not to be used anymore and are a legacy thing. They didn't prove to work very well if you have too many on the album cover screen. There was a halloween skin that had dripping blood on some album covers using the frames. I can take a look why manually putting the positions in the top and left are not working and fix them for the next beta.

Barry, If you can't get the positions working, it doesn't matter too much, I'm happy to alter the .cov & .ini files, providing I can work out what is what & if i can't I shall grace these forums   ;)  I use Notepad++ to search those files and I usually can find what I need to alter. I asked just to make sure I hadn't missed something obvious.

It's interesting to know what the "Album Frame" feature is, I assume this is still working in the current jukebox version? It might be an interesting feature for a Christmas theme in the future but for the time being, I'm plodding along OK with my existing skin.

Quote from: Mark Norville on August 09, 2016, 07:38:10 AM
The album cover you need to import into that field, and that takes a bit of playing around with, but you need to copy all to combo as well, it is literally faster just to design the pages in a graphics program, the only downside to that is then the skin is set in stone then.

This is why I'd prefer to work with the pixels positions, 'drag n drop' is great to get things nearly correct but I find it frustrating when I just can't get it to match the others, especially after I've just got used to the Snap To Grid feature in my paint program.

Quote from: Mark Norville on August 09, 2016, 07:38:10 AM
I am going out today, so I might not be here until later, the best tip that I can give regarding the ini file is, if you set the cover files font to say EXPLOSION font for example, the ini file will say somewhere EXPLOSION rather than arial for example.

It will help you find things in the ini file as if every thing is the same font then you don't have much chance of finding things.

That's a great tip Mark, I never thought of doing that, it will help using the Notepad++ search, thank you  :)

Mark Norville

Although I am semi drunkish, however you mention a Christmas theme, it has already been done. However no offence to Coffee but it is a skin that is based on the same theme, with just graphics swapped out.

You can easily create 100 or a million skins, within two seconds if you swap the background around and keep the same format.

I am not a skinner or a graphical person however I have created two skins that are totally different bar the visuals at the top, what coffee has done has created a page using photoshop or whatever, created a transparent background and then placed the skin on top and then can swap backgrounds, or changed the colours of the graphics he has originally done.

You honestly cannot skin for everyone, you need to skin for you, Coffee has tried to skin for everyone at full screen which is a bit easier as you have more room.

As I have said for a long while, Barry has over complicated the program. If you are a home user or even commercial, you can strip the ratings, you can strip playlists, and a few other options.

I have been in the pub all day it does not have rating, it does not have playlists, it does not have this or that. You need a easy search function, easy navigation, something easy and basic.

The graphics are the key thing, I have done two skins now and I am not happy I want my killer skin, where the graphics fall into place, where the ease falls into place.

Do not over complicate things and create a skin for every thing, if the commercial users want a skin, let them pay for it and have it for commercial purposes. If you want a skin, then do it for yourself.

Think outside of the box, do something different, learn from previous skins and look at commercial jukeboxes in the pubs, do you use karaoke? No so why skin for it?

Do you see commercial jukeboxes with a to z across the top. no not any more, do you see genre down the side any more? No. Think outside of the box, it can be done. The skin tool does a lot more than people think that it can. Barry has done a good job on the skin tool he really has, however you do not have to think inside of the box looking at other skins.

Regards

Mark
I am now retired from the jukebox scene. I still visit from time to time and will help if I can, but apart from that. I am no longer a slave to downloading and tagging.

Barcrest

There is a snap to grid feature in the skintool, you specify a value so 5 pixels and then click snap to grid and it will line them up for you.
Keep on Rocking in the Free World \m/ ;D\m/



Jukebox Stats...

Barcrest

Latest beta should fix the top and left boxes on the album screen, let me know if you find anything else.
Keep on Rocking in the Free World \m/ ;D\m/



Jukebox Stats...

berrywell

Quote from: Barcrest on August 09, 2016, 05:28:11 PM
There is a snap to grid feature in the skintool, you specify a value so 5 pixels and then click snap to grid and it will line them up for you.

Ahh right, I hadn't noticed this, I will try it out later. Thank you.


Quote from: Mark Norville on August 09, 2016, 04:45:46 PM
Although I am semi drunkish, however you mention a Christmas theme, it has already been done. However no offence to Coffee but it is a skin that is based on the same theme, with just graphics swapped out......

(snip....)

...........Barry has done a good job on the skin tool he really has, however you do not have to think inside of the box looking at other skins.

Regards

Mark

Mark,
Thanks for your input, it's always nice to get other peoples ideas & thoughts about a skin design (I am being sincere just in case someone interprets that as sarcasm - easily done in text). At the moment, I'm just finding my way around the skin tool whilst creating my first skin, I am skinning for all the features, not because I need them but because I just want to know how the skin tool works.

I am spotting things as I go along and making note of these but I am continuing with my existing skin idea, I will then hopefully use these ideas for a new skin at a later date.

Barcrest

Hopefully we will see a new skin at some point, since coffee left we have only had my resizing of his skin for tablets so it's been about a year or more lol.
Keep on Rocking in the Free World \m/ ;D\m/



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