Topic: Brushed metal 9.1 skin (UPDATE - 214) (Read 36377 times)

JC · « **on:** June 22, 2003, 11:52:18 am »

Designed to look familiar ...

I couldn't sleep last night, so I started work on a brushed metal style 9.1 skin. My Photoshop skills are very limited. Additionally, I don't have access to the application I am emulating, so the menus, rollover column headers, etc ... are hard for me to skin correctly.

Anyone have some screenshots of the options windows for this application they would be willing to send me?

Also, for those of you familiar with skinning, I can't seem to find the button next to the search window in the skin directory. What is it called?

Thanks!

BTW - you can see my progress (not much) right here.

escaflo · « **Reply #1 on:** June 22, 2003, 12:20:15 pm »

Looks sweet.

Will help you if I can but I have no idea about this skinning sdk thingy.

Keep it up. Hope to be able to use it soon.

DocLotus · « **Reply #2 on:** June 22, 2003, 12:34:33 pm »

Go for it

knickelfarz · « **Reply #3 on:** June 22, 2003, 01:59:09 pm »

Quote

Designed to look familiar ...

Beware of A****

Quote

Also, for those of you familiar with skinning, I can't seem to find the button next to the search window in the skin directory. What is it called?

It's the same button that is used in the "Frame" area - "Frame_Button.gif". I hope this will be changed soon because it's hard to make one button which looks good in the frame area and next to the search box...

JC · « **Reply #4 on:** June 22, 2003, 02:22:13 pm »

Quote

Beware of A****

It's the same button that is used in the "Frame" area - "Frame_Button.gif". I hope this will be changed soon because it's hard to make one button which looks good in the frame area and next to the search box...

Thanks for the helpful hints

Thanks to knickelfarz, a new version (with updated search button) can be found here.

Modified the look of the metal and skinned the main window search button.

Notes
- The fact that the sidebars stretch vertically to expand the application window create odd patterns ... I'll probably change to a solid gray on the side borders for this reason.

knickelfarz · « **Reply #5 on:** June 22, 2003, 03:17:57 pm »

Quote

...a new version (with updated search button) can be found here.

Of course I refered to the Skin SDK when I sad "It should be changed soon"- Sorry

I tried to say that it would be much better if the SDK would offer the possibility to use a different button for the search bar...

Quote

The fact that the sidebars stretch vertically to expand the application window create odd patterns ...

Use "DrawMode="REGION_E_VTILE" for the vertical borders

kiwi · « **Reply #6 on:** June 22, 2003, 03:33:49 pm »

This looks great!

JC · « **Reply #7 on:** June 22, 2003, 03:40:33 pm »

Quote

Of course I refered to the Skin SDK when I sad "It should be changed soon"- Sorry I tried to say that it would be much better if the SDK would offer the possibility to use a different button for the search bar...

Use "DrawMode="REGION_E_VTILE" for the vertical borders

I owe you thanks again ... I understood your response about the search button, but as you can see, I didn't even know which image to adjust in my first attempt. After your post, I modified the button to look "so-so" with the skin, before, it looked awful.

I agree that it would be nice if it were a seperate image. The button, which looks nice on the main page, looks out of place in the other windows.

Thanks for the VTILE setting information ... looks a million times better now!!!

JC · « **Reply #8 on:** June 22, 2003, 04:55:26 pm »

Screenshot of newest version

Big thanks to knickelfarz ... he has this skinning thing down pat. I suppose this is about as far as I want to take this skin until the changes settle down a bit.

If anyone wants it, I may post it for download tomorrow. Not sure if the JRiver guys want me to do that or not.

sraymond · « **Reply #9 on:** June 22, 2003, 06:50:30 pm »

JC,

The skin looks great... If you can make it available (even by e-mail), I'd appreciate it.

Might I suggest that you don't overlook the mini-me skin, either?

Scott-

pank2002 · « **Reply #10 on:** June 22, 2003, 08:42:21 pm »

You should base the mini-me on the LowerRight skin. Add the metal color and rating options - that would be awsome. Good work so far.

mijkuf · « **Reply #11 on:** June 22, 2003, 11:18:51 pm »

It's a mod of PixOS, correct?

JC · « **Reply #12 on:** June 23, 2003, 02:59:00 am »

Quote

It's a mod of PixOS, correct?

Yes.

retrospek · « **Reply #13 on:** June 23, 2003, 03:43:42 am »

So can you upload it for us PLEASE

idznak · « **Reply #14 on:** June 23, 2003, 04:36:10 am »

where can i download this skin...?
have u also a similarlooking hairstyle skin?

nila · « **Reply #15 on:** June 23, 2003, 05:13:06 am »

Looks darn good.
Reminded me of iTunes - who's going to make the iTunes clone skin?

JC · « **Reply #16 on:** June 23, 2003, 07:32:35 am »

Quote

So can you upload it for us PLEASE

I'll upload it to my site this afternoon unless I hear complaints from JRiver. I'll post a link to the skin in this thread.

Please be aware that it's only the Mega-Me main interface that is skinned. I don't have access to the "real deal", so getting images for the option windows and such is not possible for me now. If anyone has some screenshots they could donate, I would be appreciative.

Also, I don't want to spend too much time on it considering the SDK is likely to change in the near future. Just the main interface (which is what I use) and the other elements will come into play eventually.

Nila,
This skin should be pretty close (aside from the seperator bars and the list shading).

JC · « **Reply #17 on:** June 23, 2003, 03:56:14 pm »

Click here for a picture of the current version.

I've tested it with tonights 204 build and haven't encountered any errors yet ... of course, YMMV.

If you want to download it, you can find it here. Comments are welcome ...

Due to the universal usage of some colors and buttons, the options windows look rather weird. I'll probably wait to see if any elements will be split apart before uploading an updated version. I'll spend more time trying to tweak the colors, as they look rather weird right now in some cases.

Have fun, and I recommend switching to a "standard" skin when you install any future beta builds as this version may not play "nice".

ashawley · « **Reply #18 on:** June 23, 2003, 05:15:52 pm »

JC, looks absolutely amazing. Just what I was looking for!

Keep up the good work and if you need somewhere to host it going forward, just PM me. I'd be happy to do it.

Adam

kiwi · « **Reply #19 on:** June 23, 2003, 06:39:11 pm »

Looks amazing. I'll let you know if I have any problems.

One comment would be that the minimize/restore/close buttons would be really cool if they were translucent grey, and then changed to the colors only on mouse over.

-kiwi

sraymond · « **Reply #20 on:** June 23, 2003, 09:30:35 pm »

JC,

Thanks again for the skin... while it's missing a few items, I still think it's the best out there!

A few comments, for what little they might be worth:

- The Menu_Back is a little light for my taste... especially considering that there isn't a frame around it. I replaced it with:

- The blue scroll bar seems out of place.
- The center lighting on the MainFrame_TopBorder seems a little strong.

Again, a great skin! I'm sure there are a lot of people that appreciate your work - I hope MC will include it in the distribution.

I'm eagerly awaiting the Mini-Me!

Scott-

Empyrean · « **Reply #21 on:** June 24, 2003, 06:47:51 am »

The skin looks great! I would like to see the blue scroll bars removed and replaced with something more suiting for the theme (even though it would deviate from the iTunes actual look). I like the above background image for the drop-downs as well. Thanks again!

// AJ

LonWar · « **Reply #22 on:** June 24, 2003, 06:55:52 am »

Quote:
My Photoshop skills are very limited

Man if this is what you make when your skills are limited, I would love to see what you could come up with when you play around a bit more.

The skin is GREAT!!

Thanks,

Kurt Young · « **Reply #23 on:** June 24, 2003, 07:11:08 am »

I love it!

It looks like iTunes but it does SOOOOOO much more than iTunes could ever dream of doing!

Eat yer hearts out, Mac users. Woot!

Please keep us updated when this'n goes "official" and when there's a matching mini-me. Gots ta have the matching mini-me! Nice work, JC!

JC · « **Reply #24 on:** June 24, 2003, 07:28:39 am »

Thanks for the nice responses everyone.

I tried a light gradient with an outline for the menu background initially, but changed it to something more Mac OSX style ... unfortunately, since I have to tile the background with the pattern, I can't have an outline (and no drop shadows like with the Mac). Unless knickelfarz has another trick up his sleeve, I'll probably deviate from the current background to a light gradient with a dark outline.

I tried to make the gridlines in the list blue tinted like iTunes (and to match the scrollbars), but the color MC9 uses is derived from the color of the separator bars. So, to get blue gridlines in the list, I had to have blue seperator bars, which looks awful

I may change the buttons to clear (to match the play/pause/ffw/back buttons) and rollover to blue ... then I could change the scrollbars to clear also. This will, of course, have to wait until tonight as I'm at work right now.

I may try a mini-me skin after the GUI changes settle down ... probably won't be for a while though. Much more involved, but if anyone has some interesting ideas, I would appreciate them. Insomniacs have to have something to kill the evenings

Empyrean · « **Reply #25 on:** June 24, 2003, 07:20:57 pm »

I just noticed that some of the buttons in the plug-in manager are blank. You might want to check that out.

iCamp · « **Reply #26 on:** June 24, 2003, 07:56:40 pm »

Wow...that is so awesome!
Count my vote for a Mini-me skin!! MC is in bad need of a good mini-me skin.

Empyrean · « **Reply #27 on:** June 25, 2003, 07:58:38 pm »

I already have an iTunes mini-me skin. I think it was a WinAmp skin.

JC · « **Reply #28 on:** June 25, 2003, 08:18:17 pm »

I actually revamped the skin with a few tweaks. When I finish polishing, it should look much better as Adam (from ipodlounge.com) turned me on to an excellent OSX visual style for XP.

Since I can see the windows in action, it helped me a lot in getting the right look for the dialog boxes and such.

Additionally, pestering knickelfarz has been helpful (for me, not him)

I should have something released by the weekend. Although the icons can be changed now, I probably won't change those ... not enough creativity, I suppose

kiwi · « **Reply #29 on:** June 26, 2003, 03:27:39 am »

could you pass on the name or location of that visual style for XP? I'd be interested in seeing how it works.

Just wish I had extra money to pony up and get a G5! Too bad it would be pretty much for playing with... can't to development on it, or play games, so it's very hard to justify. But I'd still like one...

At least I can run the VS and pretend (be a poser

).

OT: Does anyone know how to get the scroll bars in Pheonix/Firebird to not be twice as wide when using Visual Styles?

kiwi

JC · « **Reply #30 on:** June 26, 2003, 04:25:22 am »

Quote

could you pass on the name or location of that visual style for XP? I'd be interested in seeing how it works.

This thread at ipodlounge.com has the information near the bottom. Adam posted a link.

kiwi · « **Reply #31 on:** June 26, 2003, 06:04:11 am »

I personally really like the way the scroll bar and min/max/restore/close icons look in the Graphite mode of that theme. It's much more subtle. Just as a thought for future updates.

kiwi

danstigator · « **Reply #32 on:** June 26, 2003, 11:42:36 am »

How do you install this skin? I went to the skin manager and hit browse. Then I selected the zip file with the itunes skin. MC9 said it installed OK but when I selected the skin, it crashed with only half of the screen showing and no tabs visible to change it back. I ended up having to reinstall. What did I do wrong? ? This is a really cool looking skin and I would love to be able to use it.

Dan Da Man · « **Reply #33 on:** June 26, 2003, 12:51:41 pm »

Quote

How do you install this skin?

What I did was use WinZip to unzip it to the Skins folder, and the folder info in WinZip put it all in Skins/iTunes. Then I opened MC9 and it had it listed in Mega-Me Skins.

I liked it, but it still needs a bit of work to get rid of the PixOS parts (like the Properties dialog box).

Dan "da Man"

JC · « **Reply #34 on:** June 26, 2003, 01:21:10 pm »

Quote

How do you install this skin? I went to the skin manager and hit browse. Then I selected the zip file with the itunes skin. MC9 said it installed OK but when I selected the skin, it crashed with only half of the screen showing and no tabs visible to change it back. I ended up having to reinstall. What did I do wrong? ? This is a really cool looking skin and I would love to be able to use it.

danstigator
Sorry for the confusion ... I don't know how to create an "install" for the skin (anyone care to help me out?), so what Dan said is correct, just take the iTunes folder in the zip file and put it into your MegaSkins directory.

Dan da Man
I've removed most of the remnants in the current version which I hope to post this weekend. Still a few things to rectify (like the progress bar, radio buttons, etc ...).

JC · « **Reply #35 on:** June 26, 2003, 04:44:40 pm »

New Screenshot of the modified skin.

Changes
- Updated maximize, minimize, close buttons on the main window
- Changed scrollbars to a more accurate color
- Updated buttons and dialog boxes to be more usable
- Added border around all menus
- Utilized transparency around the status and search windows for better blending into the main window
- Added checkbox visuals
- Change theme name to "Brushed Metal"

If you want to, you can download it here.

To install, move the iTune2 folder inside the zip file (and all files inside) into your Media Center/MegaSkins folder. Activate the skin by enabling "Brushed Metal" from the skin manager.

Enjoy ... and if anyone knows how to make an installable skin, I would be appreciative.

LonWar · « **Reply #36 on:** June 26, 2003, 04:47:14 pm »

I have winzip at work, so if you like I can get you a exe for it tommorrow.

JC · « **Reply #37 on:** June 26, 2003, 04:52:57 pm »

Quote

I have winzip at work, so if you like I can get you a exe for it tommorrow.

Thanks, but I was really trying to figure out how to make an installable iTune.mjp file. This appears to be the standard installation extension for Media Center, but I don't know how to wrap up my skin into an installable package.

ashawley · « **Reply #38 on:** June 26, 2003, 06:58:14 pm »

Nice job JC! Like the fix for the minimize/maximize buttons. Now it matches the visual style!

Like yer album art.

Adam

nila · « **Reply #39 on:** June 26, 2003, 11:59:58 pm »

JC
to make the files u want do this:

Create a text file
Put this inside of it:

[Package]

Name=iPodSkin
Action=INSTALLSKIN
Url=http://www.musicex.com/mediajukebox/mj_data/skins/iPodSkin.zip

That should do it for u

Obviously just replace the name and url with whatever is appropriate.

JC · « **Reply #40 on:** June 27, 2003, 03:26:08 am »

Thank you Nila! I'm on my way to work now, but I'll try that.

danstigator · « **Reply #41 on:** June 27, 2003, 05:26:54 am »

"What I did was use WinZip to unzip it to the Skins folder, and the folder info in WinZip put it all in Skins/iTunes. Then I opened MC9 and it had it listed in Mega-Me Skins."

Thanks for the response!

OK so I tried unzipping the itunes2 folder to my desktop and then using Windows explorer to drag it to the Mega-me folder. The itunes folder shows up in the Mega-me folder in explorer, but when I go to the skins manager, it is not available to select as a skin. I also tried unzipping the itunes zip file directly to the Mega-me folder, but to no avail. What am I missing? ?

LonWar · « **Reply #42 on:** June 27, 2003, 05:31:27 am »

It doesn't show up as Itunes...
Do you have one that says brushed metal?

Bartabedian · « **Reply #43 on:** June 27, 2003, 06:44:59 am »

Yea, that was a little confusing for me too...the itunes2 folder will show up as "Brushed Metal" in the skin select area.

Nice work, even through the early stages, very nice skin.

JC · « **Reply #44 on:** June 27, 2003, 06:53:48 am »

Quote

It doesn't show up as Itunes...

Sorry for the confusion ... figured the name was a bit too close ... I suppose I should've renamed the folder also.

danstigator · « **Reply #45 on:** June 27, 2003, 07:17:22 am »

After I put the itunes folder in the Mega-me skins folder, nothing new appeared in the skins manager. Only the default skins (Green Eyes, PixOs, Tekno, and Z) are present. Any other ideas?

danstigator · « **Reply #46 on:** June 27, 2003, 07:19:23 am »

BTW, my version of MC is 9.0.180. Could this be the problem? If so, where can I download the newest version?

ashawley · « **Reply #47 on:** June 27, 2003, 07:43:37 am »

danstigator:

I believe this skin will only work w/the new 9.1 beta.

If you're interested in using a beta you can, the link to it is at the top of this board.

I could be wrong about it not working w/9.0.180, but I know it works w/the 9.1 beta.

ADam

kiwi · « **Reply #48 on:** June 27, 2003, 08:05:03 am »

Look in the first thread in the forum... it's the 9.1.x beta thread.

danstigator · « **Reply #49 on:** June 27, 2003, 08:13:38 am »

I downloaded the 9.1x version and it worked like a charm. Thanks to all!!! The skin looks great!

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Author Topic: Brushed metal 9.1 skin (UPDATE - 214) (Read 36377 times)

sraymond

mijkuf

nila

sraymond

nila