Topic: Intention Skin Beta Realease 2! (Read 23763 times)

Mr ChriZ · « **on:** December 29, 2006, 06:14:59 pm »

Introduction
This is the 2nd Release for the intention skin.
There are now two versions.
One with a stop button, and one without. Both are included
in the Rar file. For complex reasons, they cannot currently be merged due to the way
the skin is designed, and how the skinning engine works.

Hope you enjoy it. It's 100% free =)

I'm no graphic designer, and this is my first ever skin, or graphics project really,
but it's taken me the over a year to get this far so please let me know your thoughts!

Next release hopefully will be non beta.

Screenshot
Full Screenshot available here
Full Screenshot With Stop Button available here (White water rafting is awesome!)

Things you'll need.
x Media Center 12.
Media Center 11 doesn't quite work right with it.

Download from...
The skins can be downloaded from:
without a stop button
or
with a stop button

Thanks to Marko's Hosting!

You'll need to extract it and drop it into your Media Center Megaskins folder.
Skin Dated 08/02/2007

Things I know need sorting.
x. Lots of polishing is still needed here there and everywhere, many out by 1 pixel problems.
x. Especially Tabs need sorting out.
x. The Burn CD has black on black text (Keep Poking JRiver, I can't do anything about this ;-)
x. Possibly it needs an action window back button, but I haven't found a way to get one to pop up recently... let me know.

The future
Over the next few weeks i will continue to polish it and take in peoples comments
before releasing the release version.
If you think you can do a much better job of a particular graphic, feel free to post a copy!

History
If you're really bored you can see screenshots of this skin in creation, from it's beginning
as a modification of the thunderstorm skin to it's current state here

Additional Notes:
Intention Skin was developed on my Sony 17" CRT. It's got very good contrast between shades of grey, I've noticed on some flat planels this doesn't show up so well, I may try and tailer a version specifically for these panels in the future, but not much I can do until I've got one myself.

All Graphics are Copyright, please don't use them except for personal use without prior consent, this includes porting them

Modifications for personal use are fine, please feel free to upload modificiations here, but please always keep a link
back to the original skin here.

Acknowledgments
Corel and Adobe for creating such awesome products.
Marko for some helpful advice here and there.
JRiver for such a cool skinning engine, and the free copy of MC12 for my lil projects!

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #1 on:** December 29, 2006, 08:02:50 pm »

Stunning

Marra · « **Reply #2 on:** December 29, 2006, 08:04:13 pm »

Mr Chriz,

First impressions FANTASTIC - obviously a lot has gone into this project. Out with thunderstorm in with intention.

Thanks a million - the skinning bar has been lifted yet again.

thenoob1 · « **Reply #3 on:** December 30, 2006, 05:38:44 am »

a stop button would be really cool.

LonWar · « **Reply #4 on:** December 30, 2006, 08:36:48 pm »

This is a great skin... Very beautiful!!

The only thing, is I think that the main area is a little to light for the frame of the skin.. Maybe a darker grey?

Anyway, the skin is TOP notch!

edladner · « **Reply #5 on:** December 31, 2006, 12:45:50 am »

To cut down on the brightness try a background color of #b3b5c5. It's just a humble opinion but I think it works great with your skin. BTW is the best dark skin I have seen by far.

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #6 on:** December 31, 2006, 06:17:37 am »

Weird that looks way to dark here. I think it's one of those CRT/LCD things again.
Anyhow it sounds like we need :
Dark Intentions and Light Intentions. I like that

Thanks for all the positive comments guys.

Marra · « **Reply #7 on:** December 31, 2006, 11:45:10 pm »

Some thoughts to consider

AW - Tree - main area all seem to be different
Agree with imjustagamer that main area is too light

Marra · « **Reply #8 on:** December 31, 2006, 11:55:35 pm »

Back again, posted too quick before.
The highlight when hovering over tree vs AW is different.
Also AW may look better with colour used in search bar (this looks great and easy to read).
Appears not filling screen completely (rounded edges expose background) or is this my problem only.

Also I have added great menu_back image rather than MC logo you used. Willing to share if interested.
Using rating stars from Thunderstorm - original stars on my system appeared lacking.

All with good "intention" .

Thanks

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #9 on:** February 04, 2007, 06:49:31 pm »

In the end it's a matter of personal preference. I'm happy to use skins without stop buttons, but others appear to have a big problem without one.

I'm waiting for the next version of Intention. It looks like the textures on the back of the tree will make this excellent skin even better.

Randy

AoXoMoXoA · « **Reply #10 on:** February 04, 2007, 07:11:54 pm »

wOw! I love it!

Beautiful job with some really nice touches, especially the buttons.

mobyfrag · « **Reply #11 on:** February 06, 2007, 03:03:05 am »

Thank's so much ChriZ

Beautiful. Waiting next release

AoXoMoXoA · « **Reply #12 on:** February 06, 2007, 01:53:23 pm »

Quote from: Mr ChriZ on February 04, 2007, 05:22:18 pm

Working with the fantastic new ability to use textures
on the back of the Tree, I created the following tonight
(After lots and lots of playing!)
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/1134/shinyintentionski0.png
http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/5774/shinyintentions2zx1.png

Currently Panicking, because I can't find the Corel Files for the player
buttons hence, making a stop button means starting from scratch

This looks pretty sharp, will this be included in the next release?
Is this something where we can easily "drop in" a pic file to the skin folder and be all set?
And how did the background of the skin get blue?

mobyfrag · « **Reply #13 on:** February 07, 2007, 11:39:04 pm »

Quote from: Mr ChriZ on February 06, 2007, 01:55:12 pm

Yes it will, if I get time it will be out by the end of the week.
I need to make a few tweaks here and there!

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #14 on:** February 08, 2007, 04:00:13 pm »

Update now available, will post more information later, but for now I'm going to watch Telly!

LonWar · « **Reply #15 on:** February 08, 2007, 07:34:27 pm »

Quote from: Mr ChriZ on February 08, 2007, 04:00:13 pm

Update now available, will post more information later, but for now I'm going to watch Telly!

I love the side, Really cool.

Some of the text is hard to read though.
When I'm uploading my iPod under the cancel button, you can see the track count, but under that it's really hard to make out/.
Also on the AW, were it says cancel, that only shows when you hover over it.

Amazing skin!!

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #16 on:** February 08, 2007, 10:00:30 pm »

I agree with imjustagamer - Amazing skin!!

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #17 on:** February 09, 2007, 03:29:07 am »

Quote from: imjustagamer on February 08, 2007, 07:34:27 pm

When I'm uploading my iPod under the cancel button, you can see the track count, but under that it's really hard to make out/.
Also on the AW, were it says cancel, that only shows when you hover over it.

Amazing skin!!

Could you possibly screenshot these? I don't have an IPod, so I can't see what you're
refering to.
Cheers
Chris

sbsp2 · « **Reply #18 on:** February 09, 2007, 11:14:56 am »

Very Nice!!

I did tweak main.xml a bit because I prefer the Top toolbar left-justified:

sniplet:

<TOOLBARS>
...
<Entry Name="TopBar" Alignment="0" OffsetY="-5" OffsetX="20">

LonWar · « **Reply #19 on:** February 09, 2007, 12:12:24 pm »

Quote from: sbsp2 on February 09, 2007, 11:14:56 am

Very Nice!!

I did tweak main.xml a bit because I prefer the Top toolbar left-justified:

sniplet:

<TOOLBARS>
...
<Entry Name="TopBar" Alignment="0" OffsetY="-5" OffsetX="20">

amazing!!!! Thanks,

And for those like me, that Like the center toolbar..

<Entry Name="TopBar" Alignment="1" OffsetY="-5">

This will change any other skin to be in the middle.

thenoob1 · « **Reply #20 on:** February 10, 2007, 02:30:20 pm »

Yeah the skin is really good.... it is now my Favorit!

But the only thing which nerves a little bit is the black color letters disap..
Mr Chriz can you change the color or is it a problem from J River?

I know you mentioned it in your post.... but isn´t there any possibility for changing the color from black to white in the skin .xml?

t.n.1

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #21 on:** February 10, 2007, 02:33:18 pm »

Quote from: thenoob1 on February 10, 2007, 02:30:20 pm

Yeah the skin is really good.... it is now my Favorit!

Thanks!

If you're refering to this
http://img322.imageshack.us/img322/5373/actioncurrentyz9.png

Then I've made another plea to JRiver to sort it out today,
since there is nothing I can currently do about it.
The colour comes from the List colour which needs to be black...
The post was made in the Beta forum, possibly I should have made it in
the MC forum... hopefully it will just be sorted soon!

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #22 on:** February 10, 2007, 02:49:04 pm »

DatDude dunno where your comment just disappeared to,
but the Back Colour I sort of made a compromise on, many people were
complaining the old colour was too bright. This is a toned down version.
If you find a colour you feel works better please post it =)

Ideally I'd like to texture behind it, maybe in MC13!

datdude · « **Reply #23 on:** February 10, 2007, 10:44:39 pm »

Sorry about that. I felt like I was bagging on your skin, and I didn't want to do that. I do like it except for the background color which I probably will change in the xml file. Do you know of a good way to get the hex numbers for different colors?

cheers

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #24 on:** February 11, 2007, 03:50:08 am »

lol no worrys man, I know it's far from perfect, but it's good to get
peoples opinions to know what to centre on next!

I use photoshop to get my hex values, if you don't have that
then I'm not sure... you can download a free trial though I think.
I think Irfan view may tell you also...

Failing that I just found this which works all though
not so easy...
http://www.perlscriptsjavascripts.com/js/cp_outer.html

thenoob1 · « **Reply #25 on:** February 11, 2007, 04:01:45 pm »

Chriz I found out that the letters in my old orange skin were white (also in "close disc")

Screenshot:

Skin download:

uppit.com/OV421

Maybe it helps....or You can help me

jkrzok · « **Reply #26 on:** February 11, 2007, 09:32:10 pm »

Quote from: datdude on February 10, 2007, 10:44:39 pm

Do you know of a good way to get the hex numbers for different colors?

I'm not a skinner or anything, but if all you want is a way to find hex values, I like Switch, available at http://neovolve.com/archive/2002/08/06/Switch-_2D00_-1.7.0.aspx.

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #27 on:** February 12, 2007, 03:36:49 am »

Quote from: thenoob1 on February 11, 2007, 04:01:45 pm

Chriz I found out that the letters in my old orange skin were white (also in "close disc")

I didn't realise you were Cascius!
Anyhow... Thanks but that doesn't help, the reason they are white is because
you've used white on the lists, I need to use black on my lists, so it doesn't work.

thenoob1 · « **Reply #28 on:** February 12, 2007, 07:06:26 am »

No.

I'm not Cascius ...."my old skin" so the skin I used.

But where can I change the letters from black into white.... would look cool anyway.

tn1

prod · « **Reply #29 on:** February 26, 2007, 10:18:22 am »

Fantastic skin .... love it to bits - MC never looked so pretty, much appreciated!

rjm · « **Reply #30 on:** February 26, 2007, 01:17:37 pm »

Wow! Absolutley beautiful.

rjm · « **Reply #31 on:** February 26, 2007, 02:31:56 pm »

Quote

Quote from: imjustagamer on February 08, 2007, 05:34:27 PM
When I'm uploading my iPod under the cancel button, you can see the track count, but under that it's really hard to make out/.
Also on the AW, were it says cancel, that only shows when you hover over it.

Amazing skin!!

Could you possibly screenshot these? I don't have an IPod, so I can't see what you're
refering to.
Cheers
Chris

I noticed this also. Did you receive the screenshot? If not, let me know and I will send one.

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #32 on:** February 26, 2007, 03:03:17 pm »

Thanks for the comments, yeh feel free to post a screenshot.
I'm on the road a lot at the moment so not going to get much chance to look at it till the weekend at
best however.

rjm · « **Reply #33 on:** February 26, 2007, 04:08:43 pm »

See the two faint lines below "1069 Files Total".

Your skin is just amazing. I have never seen a skin in any product that I have liked more.

Well done!

Shelly · « **Reply #34 on:** February 27, 2007, 07:40:02 pm »

OMG - this skin is gorgeous! I added color in a purple shade and made the contrast fairly high and it's really a knock out combination. This is the first skin that I can actually say that I love the way MC looks. Thanks so very much for your efforts!

rjm · « **Reply #35 on:** February 28, 2007, 12:04:52 am »

I have a 24" LCD display. I noticed one horizontal discontinuity in the background vignette in the tree pane.

As per the following you may already be aware of the issue. If you are not aware, let me know and I will post a screen shot.

Quote

Intention Skin was developed on my Sony 17" CRT. It's got very good contrast between shades of grey, I've noticed on some flat planels this doesn't show up so well, I may try and tailer a version specifically for these panels in the future, but not much I can do until I've got one myself.

In fact, you can see it in your original screen shot at the top of this thread. The discontinuity is about 1/4" up from the bottom.

Please excuse my lack of artistic taste if this is an intentional design feature.

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #36 on:** March 01, 2007, 12:20:04 am »

Mr ChriZ,

Any suggestions on a Track Info skin that works well with your Intention skin? I've been using All I Need, which works well for lyrics.

Randy

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #37 on:** March 01, 2007, 08:44:33 am »

Quote from: RJM on February 26, 2007, 04:08:43 pm

See the two faint lines below "1069 Files Total".

Your skin is just amazing. I have never seen a skin in any product that I have liked more.

Well done!

Cheers, I've not seen that before. I will look in to it

Quote from: RJM on February 26, 2007, 04:08:43 pm

As per the following you may already be aware of the issue. If you are not aware, let me know and I will post a screen shot.

In fact, you can see it in your original screen shot at the top of this thread. The discontinuity is about 1/4" up from the bottom.

Not 100% certain what you're refering to here.
There's 3 Light stripes coming down. Two of them merge slightly at the top. Initially it was a mistake,
but I came to like it that way, however if people dislike it I can move them slightly further apart.

Regardless I'm thinking of having another go at the background, I think I can do better.
I've just taken ownership of a brand new vista PC. It was the Vista Backgrounds
which I originally based my design off of, however I've had a look at a few other designs
recently and am thinking of playing around a bit more... may come to nothing however!

On the same front I'm also going to try replacing the standard icons for Audio/Video and Images.
I think they look dated compared to Vista's shiny 32 Bit Icons.
I don't know whether MC supports this however.

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #38 on:** March 01, 2007, 08:45:16 am »

Quote from: Shelly on February 27, 2007, 07:40:02 pm

OMG - this skin is gorgeous! I added color in a purple shade and made the contrast fairly high and it's really a knock out combination. This is the first skin that I can actually say that I love the way MC looks. Thanks so very much for your efforts!

Thanks for your comments (And anyone elses I've missed!

)

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #39 on:** March 01, 2007, 08:48:04 am »

Quote from: Magic_Randy on March 01, 2007, 12:20:04 am

Mr ChriZ,

Any suggestions on a Track Info skin that works well with your Intention skin? I've been using All I Need, which works well for lyrics.

Randy

I haven't been using Track Info much, so no idea to be honest.
HTML is something I've always been incredibly bad at so It's not on my todo list at the moment
either I'm afraid. After Release of this skin, Next stop will probably be a Theatre View Skin.

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #40 on:** March 01, 2007, 10:05:33 am »

Quote from: Mr ChriZ on March 01, 2007, 08:48:04 am

I haven't been using Track Info much, so no idea to be honest.
HTML is something I've always been incredibly bad at so It's not on my todo list at the moment
either I'm afraid. After Release of this skin, Next stop will probably be a Theatre View Skin.

Thanks...

If I find something, I'll post it on this thread.

rjm · « **Reply #41 on:** March 01, 2007, 10:39:49 am »

Quote from: Mr ChriZ on March 01, 2007, 08:44:33 am

Cheers, I've not seen that before. I will look in to it

Not 100% certain what you're refering to here.
There's 3 Light stripes coming down. Two of them merge slightly at the top. Initially it was a mistake,
but I came to like it that way, however if people dislike it I can move them slightly further apart.

Regardless I'm thinking of having another go at the background, I think I can do better.
I've just taken ownership of a brand new vista PC. It was the Vista Backgrounds
which I originally based my design off of, however I've had a look at a few other designs
recently and am thinking of playing around a bit more... may come to nothing however!

On the same front I'm also going to try replacing the standard icons for Audio/Video and Images.
I think they look dated compared to Vista's shiny 32 Bit Icons.
I don't know whether MC supports this however.

I am not referring to the 3 vertical stripes. I quite like them as is.

I am referring to discontinuity in the color of the background (and the vertical stripes). It shows up as a horizontal line that makes a sharp upward turn near the left border. Here is a screenshot with the pane made very wide to help you see it. The discontinuity is centered vertically in my screen shot.

P.S. I agree the audio/images/video icons look dated.

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #42 on:** March 01, 2007, 11:09:08 am »

lol

that was a reflection style thing. It is intentional, but
all comments are useful, to guage what I should focus on next anyhow!

I may change it for a curvey reflection in the next iteration.
I was just bored of everything being curvey however!

rjm · « **Reply #43 on:** March 01, 2007, 11:17:44 am »

I personally think it would look better with a smooth background. To my eyes, it looks like a design bug.

Feel free to ignore my comments. I have no artistic design skills

.

JONCAT · « **Reply #44 on:** March 10, 2007, 09:39:51 pm »

Which part of the xml do we edit to make the background a bit darker. I tried pluggin in some of the values mentioned above and observed no change. KILLER skin, just need a darker background. Thanks!!!!

DC

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #45 on:** March 11, 2007, 08:38:28 am »

<LIST>
<Colors Text="000000" Back="A6B6CD" SelectedText="FFFFFF" SelectedBack="758AA7" Current="000000" />

Have fun

I'm really busy at the mo and not had time to get back to this recently.

johnnyboy · « **Reply #46 on:** March 29, 2007, 02:28:27 am »

AWESOME skin.

Only complaint I have at all about it is the highlighted items in the panes - they have curved edges and it just doesn't look right as they are fitting between two walls. I think it'd look alot sharper if these smoothly went flat and flush at the end against the sides of the panes.

thenoob1 · « **Reply #47 on:** April 09, 2007, 10:32:08 am »

I've changed a color value. So you can read the text at Burn Disc clearly because the text is now red.

Mr. ChriZ can you look at the main.xml.

You can download here:

uppit.com/1C8TY

tn1

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #48 on:** April 09, 2007, 12:50:00 pm »

Quote from: thenoob1 on April 09, 2007, 10:32:08 am

I've changed a color value. So you can read the text at Burn Disc clearly because the text is now red.

Mr. ChriZ can you look at the main.xml.

You can download here:

uppit.com/1C8TY

tn1

Intruiging. Does it change the colour of text any where else?
Cheers Tn1.

thenoob1 · « **Reply #49 on:** April 09, 2007, 03:01:27 pm »

Yes, like in the info texts, etc... but I find the color looks good everywhere. I haven't found a place where you find the color ugly, can't read the text, etc.

tn1

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Author Topic: Intention Skin Beta Realease 2! (Read 23763 times)

JONCAT