Preview of my new skin

[Alienchild]

Hi all!

I just downloaded and tested gbpvr yesterday, and found it to be a fantastic piece of software. Being a programmer myself I can appreciate the hard work that's behind a program like this, and the fact that it is free is absolutely amazing. As a thank you, I thought it contribute to the community by creating a skin (since my programming skills couldn't be of much use in this field), having played around in photoshop for quite a few years. The design is aimed for 1920x1080, although I have yet to actually input those variables in any XML file (I guess I'll find out as I go). Below are a couple of screenshots of the work I've done thus far. Hopefully you can provide me with some constructive criticism, so that I can improve it before it's released.

NB: On the second image, I've yet to move the buttons in the downright corner





Oh, and if anyone can provide me with a tip on how to change the background image when I move into a menu, that would be great!

[Fatman_do]

As a thank you, I thought it contribute to the community by creating a skin (since my programming skills couldn't be of much use in this field), having played around in photoshop for quite a few years. The design is aimed for 1920x1080, although I have yet to actually input those variables in any XML file (I guess I'll find out as I go).

Oh, and if anyone can provide me with a tip on how to change the background image when I move into a menu, that would be great!

The background image does not change from screen-to-screen or moving to-and-from a list. There is no mechanism to do so.

Good looking work.

[drugstore_cowboy]

Looks really, really good !!

One might consider adding this to the Community Skin 3 lineup once it is completed?

[Alienchild]

Fatman_do: That's a shame really

drugstore_cowboy: Thank you, and sure I can add it wherever when I'm done. I'll supply the photoshop file(s) as well, so others can modify and make their own version.

Back from easter vacation, sorry for the late reply. I've been playing around again, and wasn't very pleased with the design of the earlier one. I've made one design now with three variations, but I am still fiddling around with placements and color. I do have a couple of questions though;

* When you open up for instance Video Library, there is a transparent rectangle behind the different objects in the lists (turning green when you select something); is it possible to set their alpha level? I can't seem to find that anywhere.

* I can't seem to figure out where I set the pixel size of my background image. Right now I can see it being stretched. The tags I've modified to get the image up in the first place is in the baseskin.xml file, and is as follows;
<CompositeImage name="ScreenBackground" size="100,100">
<DrawImage filename="background.jpg" loc="0,0" size="100,100"/>
</CompositeImage>

Here's a preview of my new skin(s), hope you like it

[Ted the Penguin]

you can set the transparency of rendered objects, however you will have to modify images yourself. I forget how though... its been a while since I have had time to play with my skin

as for the pixel size of the background, that isnt how things work anymore, everything is done as a % of the screen, however you can force preservation of the aspect ratio (once again I forget how...)

you could probably find the answers with a forum search

[Fatman_do]

* When you open up for instance Video Library, there is a transparent rectangle behind the different objects in the lists (turning green when you select something); is it possible to set their alpha level? I can't seem to find that anywhere.

You will find this controlled in the baseskin.xml file.

You will see at the bottom of the file, various lines like this..

Code:

<DrawRoundedRect loc="0.5,0.5" size="99,98" fillColor="ListNormal" borderColor="Transparent" radius="1" borderWidth="0"/>

These are xml codes and the colors are defined in the top portion of the file.

Code:

<NamedColor name="ListNormal" color="#15FFFFFF"/>
<NamedColor name="ListSelected" color="#4500FF00"/>
<NamedColor name="ListSelectedInactive" color="#2500FF00"/>

* I can't seem to figure out where I set the pixel size of my background image. Right now I can see it being stretched. The tags I've modified to get the image up in the first place is in the baseskin.xml file, and is as follows;
<CompositeImage name="ScreenBackground" size="100,100">
<DrawImage filename="background.jpg" loc="0,0" size="100,100"/>
</CompositeImage>

There no longer is a size declaration for the background size. It will pull in background.jpg from the menu folder. The screen will be drawn at the display resolution. The size values you see are based on %. size="x%,y%" of screen, then nested sizes are % of the parent.

I don't want this to sound like I a hawking the community skin, but it was designed with graphics users in mind. You may want to download it and look at it. You can replace whatever images in the \_CoreImages folder you want and have instant results. Then, tweaking the xml will be easier.

Just a suggestion.

I also started a CommunitySkin skinning thread in the documentation forum. Even if you don't start with that skin, it may answer some of your questions.

[ajst2duk]

Just want to chip in to say how cool this looks - I like the passion going on with this software

[Alienchild]

thanks alot Fatman, I will poke the community skin a bit and see what results I get. I've also got to learn to read documentation , so I'll take the long road of reading through your tutorials.

[Fatman_do]

You can probably skim through most of it.

[nbarsley]

I wish I was artistic.