Project: Pandora (Skin Concept Idea)

[MikeBeecham]

I was thinking about starting this as a first skin...not sure how it would turn out, but I wondered whether this minimal style would be something you guys would use?

Please feel free to make any comments...

http://mbeecham.fireflyinternet.co.uk/design/pandora/pandora.png

[MikeBeecham]

hmmm...last link did not work...this should...

http://www.mbeecham.fireflyinternet.co.uk/mike/design/pandora/pandora.png

[NineT9mustang]

If your skin was a chick, it'd be Evangeline Lilly
http://feromono.com/Galerias/albums/Fotografias_Evangeline_Lilly/m005.sized.jpg

[MikeBeecham]

me likey!!!...and why not indeed!

[HarshReality]

Well, mike clearly has a knack for the graphics... now who could do the code?

[MikeBeecham]

thanks mate...it's getting late here, but I wondered whether this would make a good 'music' screen? You know, you've just chosen an album and this is what you would see...

http://mbeecham.fireflyinternet.co.uk/mike/design/pandora/pandoramusic.png

[Livin]

nice!!!

[lclagett]

Wow that second shot looked amazing. Definitely some really cool looking mock-ups. I certainly wouldn't mind helping with this skin if more help is needed.

[8BitBrad]

that would be a very nice looking skin.

[MikeBeecham]

Wow that second shot looked amazing. Definitely some really cool looking mock-ups. I certainly wouldn't mind helping with this skin if more help is needed.

Well as I am a photoshop guy, and nothing more...I am going to be needing lots of wisdom from people!....never skinned before

[MacGyver]

Hey mike, wed and thurs I should have like 8 hours each of those days to sit and do nothing but code, if you send me the artwork you used to make your mockup, I can code the home, video, music and picture screens for your skin.
They will need to be pngs and properly transparent, and big enough to have enough detail in 720p (to recreate your mockup it will have to be at 16x9).
You can email me or post them somewhere, and I'll grab them. Also let me know what font you want used if you want me to code them for you.
As well as being transparent, you should include a dim version of each of your icons, and try to keep the artwork in component parts, for instance, at the bottom of your mockup, that should be 6 separate files (left fade bar, a dim info button, a bright info button, a dim power button, a bright power button, and the right fade bar). And for the center of your mockup, the bright icon should have the white border you have around it, and the dim should not, because the reflection wouldn't be right if the white border was added separately. To give you an idea of how the graphics should be stored, I count 18 different graphic elements on your home mockup, and 7 different graphics on the music one (the background, the xbox media center fading element, the music icon, the red up arrow, the down red arrow, the white line under the music header, the red fading select box)

If you want my help let me know, but hopefully I at least gave you an idea of how the graphic elements need to be split.

[MikeBeecham]

Mac....this sounds great...do you have any sort of messenger that I can contact you with...if so please PM me your details!

I would be more than happy to meet with you on this mate

[szsori]

Mockups look incredible. I've been using mc360 for months now and this skin might actually make me change over. :)

[MikeBeecham]

wow...thanks for that sz

[HarshReality]

Mac... sizes and transparencies.... all I thought you needed was Duct Tape and that ol'Swiss Army Knife :)

Looking forward to seeing what comes of this colaberation.

[Blackbolt]

szsori, no-one can change from MC360, I've rigged everyones xbox to blow, as soon as you change skin you're all DEAD!

MUAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAH

[szsori]

lol Blackbolt. I guess I'll have to purchase another Xbox just to run this skin. :)

[MacGyver]

HarshReality, you forgot the paper-clip.
You must have seen coding I've done, it looks like it was duct-taped together, but it works, somehow. :)

[MikeBeecham]

lol....play nice now children!

[MacGyver]

Hey mike, I got bored so I threw together the video screen with non-transparent graphics I got from your mockup.

It's rough, and I didn't know what font you used, and it doesn't have all the elements, but it works like it looks.

http://a71.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/16/l_284157af3d46b60f2beda172ec3c43a6.jpg

Now if I had your font, and some transparent graphics, not ones cut and pasted in paint.exe it would look ALOT better.

[MacGyver]

If you want to play with it yourself, here ya go, it's only the video, its hacked into PM3, and you need to add the texture.xpr from PM3 to move around in the rest of the skin.
BTW, I only tested it in the Win32 engine, and it ONLY will work right in 720p right now. But it's not bad for an hours worth of work.
Pandora (super alpha) (http://www.box.net/shared/coqvxvb8j6)

[MacGyver]

Ok little note mike, it does work in 16x9, and 720p on a real xbox, but make sure your font is set to "Arial TTF"

I make you up a new one when I get the real graphics and add the database info stuff.
The home window should be fun to code with it's top sliding elements and lower selectable buttons, :P, the other music, programs and pictures should be pretty easy because I already figured out the locations and sizes of the video screen. Don't forget to think up how the other screens should look too.

[lclagett]

For some reason I am really excited to see the video selection menus, and the OSD for the visualizer/video. Certainly too much of a geek to care anymore.

[MikeBeecham]

not bad at all McGyver....the font used for the main effort was LucidaGrande. The 'xbox media center' was helvetica, and that would for part of the background image, as it will always stay in place.

Are you able to code the font to push the letters together more?

[MacGyver]

Ok mike, I did preliminary music,and pictures, and replaced the fonts,and changed the code around so that if you want to add new views it won't have to be fully re-written, but without real graphics, I can't do much more.

If the graphics you've done so far don't match the sizes of mine, that ok, as long as the aspect ratio is close I'll deal with it.

I PM'd you my email, so email me when you've got them done. :)

[Gamester17]

The 'xbox media center' was helvetica, and that would for part of the background image, as it will always stay in placeWould it not be better if it said "XBMC media center", and use the official logo fonts?, especially now that XBMC will run on Linux as well (and not just the Xbox) :;): ...you don't have to use the whole background logo, just the "XBMC" font from XBMC_official_logo_package_v1.0.zip (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/xbmc/XBMC_official_logo_package_v1.0.zip?use_mirror=dfn )


By the way, VERY NICE 'home' styling and design!!!, ...I personally do not however exacly get the association to the PDA-lookalike icon for VIDEOS (wouldn't a horisontal widesreen display be more logical?), nor do I directly get the the microphone icon usage for MUSIC (shouldn't it be a speaker or similar since most people only listen to music-files and do not sing/record anything themselves) :oo:

[MikeBeecham]

Hi Game....

1) I didi think about XBMC media center, but as XBMC stands for xbox media center, it kinda didnt make sense to me!!

2)The official logo font is Danube, and I'm not sure from a design perspective whether that would work or not?

3) PDA was a screen - will need to get that revised...but then it was only a mock-up :D Same goes for music!!!

[Gamester17]

What about it just saying "XBMC" (forget about the "media center" part)?

[MikeBeecham]

yeah, that would work mate...oh, and I'm on IRC right now :)

[MikeBeecham]

actually, I'm thinking of removing that XBMC Media Center text completely, and working the official logo into that area, but making it more greyscale with the exception of the XMBC and the stripe underneath...they would be the red is use...

Should look, how you call, PIMP!!


LOL

[MacGyver]

I'll code in whatever title you want, but the faded grey element in the middle is a graphic, and that is all mike.

Do you have any more mockups for me to code, or any of the graphic elements done?

[MikeBeecham]

Thats it for now McGyver...I'm now part of the official skinning team, so I will get to it as soon as I can.

Please dont take it the wrong way McGyver because I am happy with how yu've jumped onto this, but I have asked Chi3f to principally code the theme as and when it's comes along...but with family and teamXBMC commitments Pandora will be an "as and when I can" project

[MacGyver]

No problem, I will go back to my normal job, writing angry letters to the government. :) I was looking forward to the challenge though.

[MikeBeecham]

hey....I've no idea what is going to happen yet...we;ll have to wait and see. I want Pandora up and running so much and so quickly. I got to get the sizing convention, etc correct first

[MacGyver]

Gamester17 added me to the SVN awhile back in January, so when they've created your SVN folder just add me to it, and I'll code whatever you need.

[MikeBeecham]

ok....thanks for the offer mate :)

[Ph03n1x]

actually, I'm thinking of removing that XBMC Media Center text completely, and working the official logo into that area, but making it more greyscale with the exception of the XMBC and the stripe underneath...they would be the red is use...

Should look, how you call, PIMP!!


LOL

I've done something similar to this... psd is available here (http://files-upload.com/294102/main_logo_3D_dark.zip.html) :grin:

[MikeBeecham]

I dont have PS at work...can you drop it into a jpg and repost for me please.

[Ph03n1x]

Saved as a png to keep the transparency :)

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/1284/mainlogo3ddarkmv1.th.png (http://img513.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mainlogo3ddarkmv1.png)

[edwinmcdunlap]

So how is this skin coming along? It looks really nice!

[stanley87]

Im loving that video's menu, simple but still lots of info, it reminds me slightly of XTV - you should do the movie information the same, where it pops up under the Cover :-D

Hope progress is going well.

Cheers,
Stanley87

[MikeBeecham]

Hi Stanley...progress is slow, but progress is still progress :)

As I am new to skinning, I am learning as I go. The home page, I feel, is created and Chi3f is coding it for me as we speak. He's doing an absoltuely sterling job of working on this, despite me never having skinned before and us both being in different time zones. It's a little difficult, but we're going forward rather than backwards.

I'll keep you posted.

[wreezig]

This and Vision are the only ones I need and look forward to seeing a stable final version of.
I especially like the album view with the track listing, although I understand if it poses some problems in 4:3 format.

[wreezig]

How's it going?
Any updates on the progress?

[MikeBeecham]

yeah....the home page is pretty much done at the moment (may need slight tweaking) and we are now onto the Music Page.

I think you'll find it a little different from what you're used to, but hopefully it's going to look nice. A slight difference from the mock-ups, but not too much.

[jazzen]

GREAT!!

looking forward to this one :)

[MikeBeecham]

Hi guys...

Just to let you know that Pandora IS being worked on right now. We've had a slump recently what with holidays, real life stuff, etc...but now we're back on track.

Get excited!

This skin has some pretty exciting animation work in it, and there is more planned as we go along. Hopefully a beta will be ready at some stage soon.

Thanks...the skin is not dead, as some people may have thought (or if you care at all!!)

[MikeBeecham]

OK....the skin is continuing to be coded, and I have taken it upon myself to create a complete icon set from scratch for the skin.

I've attached a screenshot that shows a small sample of what I have been working on(and will continue to add to them over the coming weeks).

Enjoy!

http://mbeecham.fireflyinternet.co.uk/mike/design/Pandora/screeny.png

[MajorTom]

Looking good so far dude..... Any chance your skin will support 4:3 or is going to HD only (as so many of the new skins are)? Either way nice work!

[MikeBeecham]

Should have full support (I would hope), from 4x3 all the way up to 720

[MajorTom]

Looking good so far dude..... Any chance your skin will support 4:3 or is going to HD only (as so many of the new skins are)? Either way nice work!

Wow my typing just gets better! is it going to be HD only?.... it should have read.

[MikeBeecham]

I replied :D

[MajorTom]

I replied :D

so you did.... good stuff :)

[MacGyver]

Wow Mike, I thought the other graphics you created looked good, but those great. :)
Nice to see you guys working on it again. Pandora should look great, any teaser screen shots yet?

[MikeBeecham]

not as yet mcgyver...this is all with the coder at the moment

[christo182]

loving those icons you've created for the skin, can't wait to see some more of this in the future!

[NotShorty]

I want this skin so bad it's making my head hurt. Keep up the good work!

[HarshReality]

Strongly looking forward to a release of this.. I like the red tones but an equal blue tone would also be impressive

[wreezig]

Looks good, but I have some suggestions for the icons. First, the music icon looks better if it's something that actually looks like something "music-wise". Like headphones or such. That ipod-thingy could be anything.

And the pictures icon looks like a camcorder, so it's not as clear at a quick look if it's pictures or movies. An old fashioned camera?

Just some personal thoughts.

[Jensy]

GREAT looking skin, can't wait! :D

[MikeBeecham]

Looks good, but I have some suggestions for the icons. First, the music icon looks better if it's something that actually looks like something "music-wise". Like headphones or such. That ipod-thingy could be anything.

And the pictures icon looks like a camcorder, so it's not as clear at a quick look if it's pictures or movies. An old fashioned camera?

Just some personal thoughts.

Good thoughts. However, it's not an ipod..it's a Zune player which, being Microsoft, we thought was quite apt. I really dont want to go down the line of headphones, etc as they are all over-used and a bit cliche'd.

My mistake on the screeny...as I posted up the video camera for pictures. I actually did a digital camera icon, and forgot to post that one up. I did icons for both TV Shows and Videos / movies...that was the icon!

Doh!

[HarshReality]

Projections on release exposure?

[MikeBeecham]

nope..I know you've got the "skins never get released" bit between your teeth lately, but unfortunately I dont have an eta. It will get finished when the coder finishes it.

If I was a skinner complete, then I would give you an ETA, knowing that I would be coding and designing. However, I am designing the skin, and someone else is coding. I have made it crystal clear that I dont want Pandora getting in the way of Real Life stuff, and that they keep me informed of where we are with it every few days.

I can tell you that pretty much all graphics are done for it now, and the basics are being put in place. The home screen is all but done, and a new media view has been implemented (and works). We are continuing to work on it as we go.

[lost1]

great looking skin!!!:grin::grin:

Im really loving that music view...thats just sweeet...any chance of a beta coming out soon?(or is one already out?)

[ProfXavier]

so.. any news on that one? :X

[quake101]

It's sad to see a project/skin like this go dead. :(

[digitalhigh]

And here I was like "WTF did this come from?".

[kizer]

Yeah it was looking kinda cool. Simple and very clean.

[Bigfoot87]

I still should love to see this skin come to life. :)

[Leetmu]

Same here, those screens look amazing