Opinions Wanted!

[Phoenixx]

Finally managed to finish (well, almost) a project of mine, namely my 1st from-scratch BSPlayer skin.

The goal was to make a skin that is well readable at high screen resolutions, which in this case means 1600x1200 and higher.

Heres what ive got so far, (50-60 hours, all images hand-made, tons of layers), now i would like to hear a few opinions.

Is it O.K. that way?

Comments and critics welcome.

[bob]

Looks pretty nice, but can you enhance the whole player in Photoshop for more of a 3-D look or are there restrictions. For example, something more 3-D looking like the bottom of this Jukebox skin.

[Phoenixx]

Thanks Bob.

I can do anything because anything you see on that screenshot is really an extra layer, down to the little glyphs on the buttons. (Which were quite time consuming to make, btw., pixel by pixel.)

But im not sure what part you are referring to. What exactly should be more 3d? The base? The base top? The base bottom?

[bob]

Originally Posted by Phoenixx

But im not sure what part you are referring to. What exactly should be more 3d? The base? The base top? The base bottom?

The whole thing.... Look at this one for example. I tried to upload the psp file so you could see that I just selected a rectangle and played with it and then I duplicated the layer for each button, about 10 minutes of playing around with buttons on the right, but the file limit for psd is 19.6 kb which means you can't upload that file type in this forum. Here is a jpg.

[Phoenixx]

Ah,...O.K.,...i see what youre getting at.

Buttons of that kind would probably look perfect with another sort of skin, but in this case it would kind of interfere with the concept, which is to emulate a HiFi device.

I definitely do agree that the buttons could need a little more depth though. In fact i already planned on doing this but then i put it off because the buttons also have a mouse-over and pushed-down state, (3 images per control/button), and since that looks rather perfect the way it currently is im not sure if it would be really worth it to go to all the trouble yet another time. The actual making of the buttons would not even be the problem here mind you, it could probably be done in a minute solely by altering the blending properties of the buttons base-layer. (Which, luckily, is seperate from the glyphs.) The time consuming part is the making and then saving of the different states, because i have to save 3 different images for each button, (normal, mouse-over, pushed-down), with the mouse-over ones needing to be darkened and the glyphs moved down one nudge for the pushed-down ones in order to get the proper pushed-down effect when the button gets pressed. After all i dont want the buttons to look cheap, which means all that action is unfortunately inevitable.

But i will think about it again, thanks for the input. Do you have BSPlayer installed? If so i could send you a .bsz so you could check out the thing in action and see what i mean regarding the pushed-down effect, which in fact does look rather 3D already.

[bob]

Originally Posted by Phoenixx

Do you have BSPlayer installed?

I never even heard of it before. I like Winamp and I don't really watch video's on my pc.

I know what you mean about the buttons looking more 3_D when pushed as that is what you can do with that Jukebox that I used as an example in my first post.

Your creation looks like it was created by a mechanical engineer, whereas mine would look a little more artsy. It's just a matter of taste.

[Phoenixx]

Originally Posted by bob

Your creation looks like it was created by a mechanical engineer

I take that as a compliment, really, i do, because i have spent so much time and effort to achieve a pixel-perfect symmetry, even related to asymmetric parts of the base, that in fact it took up a major part of the whole creation process. The spacing of the buttons for example, (volume +/- excluded), the distance of the innermost buttons relative to the inner border, the upper right buttons relative to the vertical position of the right center buttons, the trackbar, the display, the text and icons within the display, the volume-meter, all carefully put at just the right pixel position to achieve 100% symmetry wherever possible. Of course this meant redoing a lot of things until i finally had it that way, but then im simply the kind of guy that cannot relax until he knows that this object is definitely not a pixelrow off. I think the only thing on the entire base thats not perfectly aligned relative to some other object(s) is the BSPlayer logo, but i kind of like it at that position so i think i will make an exception there. With so much order a little bit of chaos cant really hurt, can it?



As for BSPlayer, if you want to check the skin out without having to install anything just send me an email address and i send you a folder. The player is set up to use the config that is stored within the folder, which means you just start the player and thats that.

(Think of it as a 'mobile' version, one that you could put on an USB stick. All BSPlayers have the option to store the config within the player dir, so its not something i patched together or anything. I always set it up like that so i dont have to reinstall and re-setup everything anytime i reinstall the OS.)

As a bonus youd of course be getting THE best media player in the world. Yep, and you can even use WinAMP plugins with it,...

[Phoenixx]

Almost 140 views and only one person replied?

Hmmm.

That must mean one of two things:

Either it looks so crap that it left everyone in a state of shock

or

It looks so unbelievably fantastic that it left everyone speechless


I wonder which one it was?


Seriously though, when i said opinions wanted i didnt expect an in-depth field study on aestetics and ergonomics in multi media player design, a simple "I like it" or "Not my cup of tea" would have been sufficient, i swear,...

[Ike Savage]

Originally Posted by Phoenixx

Almost 140 views and only one person replied?

Hmmm.

That must mean one of two things:

Either it looks so crap that it left everyone in a state of shock

or

It looks so unbelievably fantastic that it left everyone speechless


I wonder which one it was?

i think you can count two of those views from me. i was just curious what you were up to these days. but skins and themes for PC apps have almost zero interest for me. (no offense)

[yogiholzer]

Same here.

[Phoenixx]

No offense taken.

But you must know if you like the design or not?

Is it something you would use or would you prefer something different?

Thats what i was trying to find out, you know, whether or not it hits the taste of the 'masses',...

[Ike Savage]

well you know i'm a nature boy, so the tech themes leave me cold.

what i would like best would be prolly be foliage, animals, vines, flowers, birds, fruit...

[Phoenixx]

Thanks nic.

A perfect answer in two sentences.

[yogiholzer]

Clean and technical, but somehow lifeless.

I generally don't use skins and I actually don't use bsplayer, but I think it isn't that bad anyway. I think I could/would give it a try, if I would be interested more.

[Phoenixx]

Thank you too, Yogiholzer.

[ruby651]

I'm kinda with Nic on my choice of skins, straying away from the more tech ones for the goofier "Mario 3" themed ones. But I must admit, the setup looks impressive. I like the way that it appears to be a standalone unit, very self-explanatory buttons and the digital readout really looks cool! My question is, what are you doing watching a season 2 ep of TNG? Everyone knows the series doesn't really start until Season 3.

[Phoenixx]

Thanks for your comment, much appreciated.

As for TNG, im always watching the entire series, 1st season to last season. Just like the others, im always watching TOS -> TNG -> DS9 -> VOY and then im starting over again. Thats 596 episodes total, (including a few merged 2-part episodes), which means there is always a reasonable amount of time between watching a particular episode again. Im doing it like this for years already,...

[ruby651]

Originally Posted by Phoenixx

Thanks for your comment, much appreciated.

As for TNG, im always watching the entire series, 1st season to last season. Just like the others, im always watching TOS -> TNG -> DS9 -> VOY and then im starting over again. Thats 596 episodes total, (including a few merged 2-part episodes), which means there is always a reasonable amount of time between watching a particular episode again. Im doing it like this for years already,...

Impressive collection! Although, I'm a bit surprised that you don't have ENT listed on there. I actually gave up on Enterprise midway through its 2nd season on-air, but downloaded the complete series a couple months ago. It certainly isn't my favorite, but it had some decent shows in seasons 3 and 4.

[m4paws]

Guilty as charged of reading and not commenting, sorry. I do like it, though I'll admit I'd likely never use it. Mostly that's because I prefer using skins in a minimized/compact mode rather than a full mode like that.

Yogi's response seems about right to me though, it's clean and well designed, but not all that interesting. "Interesting" and still functional is difficult to achieve in a media player skin I think, but I'll attach my favorite that does both well IMO. It's a WinAMP skin called Nucleo AlienMind.

[Phoenixx]

I made it so 'generic' on purpose, so it doesnt become too taste-dependent.

Just like your normal mainstream HiFi standalone unit - Tape, Tuner, DAT, MD, DVD, etcetera.

So if thats how it comes across then i have achieved exactly what i wanted.


P.S.: I have used the Alien Mind WindowBlinds Skin for years, (together with the CopperDeck Icons, which are almost identical to the AlienMind Icons), only recolored from orange to blue. IMO still one of the best WB Skins out there, although, the quality of current releases is increasing a good deal lately,...

[m4paws]

Originally Posted by Phoenixx

I made it so 'generic' on purpose, so it doesnt become too taste-dependent.

Just like your normal mainstream HiFi standalone unit - Tape, Tuner, DAT, MD, DVD, etcetera.

So if thats how it comes across then i have achieved exactly what i wanted.

Mission accomplished.

[m4paws]

Enterprise was mostly garbage until season 3, probably what killed it. Season 3 was much better, but due to the season-long story arc it made it even harder for it to attract new viewers. Season 4 was where it finally got pretty good. I'd say my favorite episode was the two part episode "Affliction / Divergence" where they explain why the original series Klingons look so different than the Klingons in all of the newer series - very creative... Alas, season 4 was too little, too late.

[Ike Savage]

what, you guys are watching TAS too? D:

[ruby651]

Originally Posted by m4paws

Enterprise was mostly garbage until season 3, probably what killed it. Season 3 was much better, but due to the season-long story arc it made it even harder for it to attract new viewers. Season 4 was where it finally got pretty good. I'd say my favorite episode was the two part episode "Affliction / Divergence" where they explain why the original series Klingons look so different than the Klingons in all of the newer series - very creative... Alas, season 4 was too little, too late.

Yep, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. The creators were pretty much sure that season 4 would be the last, and they threw in everything but the kitchen sink. One of my favorites was the "Mirror, Mirror" alternate-universe two-parter... mostly because it didn't have that horrible theme song at the beginning.

@Nic... I may be a geek, but I'm a geek who has limits! (that is a Vulcan salute, isn't it?"

[Godkillah]

No matter how much I'd love to i cannot deny that it is looking good
well done on it!