New Touchjams skin "little black box" available NOW!

[mike boss]

I posted some images in another thread, but it isn't specific to the skin.
Thought I would create my own thread to showcase the skin.
Its JUST ABOUT done......it will be on the site shortly.

This is V1 (still a work in progress).

V2 - need to change the fonts and perhaps tweak the font colors.
Ive removed the white light effect on the bottom in V2 - its much cleaner.

[mike boss]

Sample 2

[mike boss]

More samples

[mike boss]

I've made little changes today and overall I'm happy with the final product.
I'll be sending this off ASAP so it can be hosted on the Touch Jams site.
I'll do a version 2.0 with more modifications in the weeks to come.

I plan on doing all new genre images, playing with the fonts, and really changing things as I see them.
I may do some other skins in the future.

[egosbar]

i like it mate , looking forward to putting it up and through its paces nice work

[mike boss]

Thanks !
It's been sent off so I expect it to available soon.

[mike boss]

I'm trying to use a batch invert action in Photoshop to see how this skin would look inverted.
I know some of the elements would need to be retooled, which is fine.
However the batch action is not working for me.

EDIT - I resolved my batch problem.
However its wife time now, so perhaps the newest version of the skin will be done this week.

[mike boss]

Skin is available online @ the Touch Jams site.
Any feedback is welcome.

Thanks all

[egosbar]

hey mike , good skin , im working on tweaking it too my taste , adding some on and off buttons , ill post a few pics when im finished see if u like it , i like the backround , is there a way to get rid of the white on the home page between the albums i cant seem to do that

[mike boss]

Glad you like it !
I think it's a not bad skin and I'm sure I'll create more (in time...when I have time!).
For now however I am happy with this and was happy to send it off to Touch Jams.
I actually think it's one of the better skins on the site (with all due respect to the other skins).

I look forward to checking out the changes you make, I'm sure it will look great.

With respects to the white between albums, I think I know which image that is (you'd need to look in the skin folder itself). I think it can easily be changed to black. I'm not sure if I'll be going home tonight, if I do while I listen to my podcast (The Art Of Wrestling with Colt Cabana...I'm a wrestling nerd) I'll see if I can make the change.

[egosbar]

its definitely the best skin on there at the moment

i did figure out how to change the white around the album , i like it black with light grey writing but thats just a personal taste everyone will be different

im actually working on some buttons now and i have a few photoshoppers having a go as well , im getting close

im going to tone down some of the colors soon , just getting a feel for what looks good , so the green is button on and they look like they light up , ive asked bob if he can add button on too the play pause buttons etc , then i can have them grey and turn on color when pushed so only one is on at a time like an old stereo

weird one of the images is crystal clear when opened up and one is fuzzy , they were both screen shots at same pixels , anyway you get the idea

[egosbar]

its definitely the best skin on there at the moment

i did figure out how to change the white around the album , i like it black with light grey writing but thats just a personal taste everyone will be different

im actually working on some buttons now and i have a few photoshoppers having a go as well , im getting close

im going to tone down some of the colors soon just getting a feel for what looks good , so the green is button on and they look like they light up , ive asked bob if he can add button on too the play pause buttons etc , they i can have them grey and turn on color when pushed so only one is on at a time

message me your email ill zip up the folder and you can see where im heading with the buttons on and off

[mike boss]

vibefx@gmail.com

I look forward to taking a look.

[mike boss]

So looking at what you've done I can say I like the buttons.
However I don't like green, I like the idea of red. Red and black is such a classic theme. (That is simply personal taste).
I don't however like that you used the old logo, simply doesn't go IMHO.

[egosbar]

i might actually use red but red does signify off where green is on but ill have a look  , its very simple to change the hue color , ive actually just made a pretty good button looks pretty good i think if you open up the image , looks even better on a full screen , although they look better with only one word ill play around with renaming them later so recently added might just become "new" etc

i can easily put back the old logo , just mucking around

hey do you know about the shortcut to skinning , dam ive skinned a few now and always went back through the control panel and found the name of the title etc i wanted to move , if you dont , go to control panely system keyboard mapping and add a control , i use f12 for control skin properties , this allows you too hover over the bit you want too change and hit f11 and bingo the skin editor pops up on the correct space , what a time saver

[mike boss]

I do agree with RED as OFF, GREEN as ON... However taking my skin for example where everything is BLACK and WHITE and an active button is only signified with an outline I think RED would look good. I think a user would be easily able to identify the function especially when all other buttons are not colored. (if that makes sense)

I was indeed aware of the shortcut, but if you can believe it I simply opened EVERY image and Photoshop and redid it, and I was in the end happy with the result. Going in later and them opening images of the same pixel size so I could save time. Once all done I made tweaks.
I'd need to play more with the edit function graphically, I played around with it to edit text.

PS - liking the latest sample you posted, buttons look good.

Sunday I pick up a 27" touch screen monitor ....can't wait to bang this project out.

[egosbar]

i done it all on my laptop , just transferred to my jukebox and it looks awesome , the buttons im really happy with

if you dont mind id like to email it to bob too put up on his site as a second version that way it cant be lost , so much work actually went into it but the new shortcut to skinning helps so much , i can now skin on the run if i see something wrong

[egosbar]

hey mike ive added all the screen shots to a photoshop forum i use a lot , it has all the screenshots let me know your thoughts , be good if bob makes the play pause buttons etc have an on off feature

im looking at raising the buttons so it looks a little 3d like a sort of 3d strip where the buttons are if you know what i mean

http://www.photoshopgurus.com/forum/general-photoshop-board/46954-jukebox-skin-ideas-suggestions-please.html#post1533654375

[egosbar]

mike im looking as the above post suggests to make the buttons raised on a rectangle bar

what backround do i need to change so i can do this , at the moment ive simply colored about an inch strip on left and top the whole way to find out what i need to draw and what image needs replacing , i cant get the silver strip to show up so i can get started on it

can you tell me which one i need to change please , heres what im talking about but obviously ill make the silver bits look realistic and raised

[mike boss]

I'll need to look and play around to figure this out for you (if I can).
It was a crazy weekend...I'll see if I can find some time today.
I'm going to look @ the Photoshop forum now.

Thanks

[egosbar]

how did you go mike , did you get a chance to figure it out , heres a very rough mock up , obviously it will look a lot better then this as basically i just have too add the silver strip to whatever black backround is defaulted and the buttons would perfectly go over the top

but it will give you and idea of what direction im thinking , what do you think

id also be looking at one across the top and possibly even the a-z buttons , with a good maybe gold metal plaque touchjams logo

[egosbar]

all good mate it was under new songs backround

now my bloody problem is the png images out of photoshop that ive deleted the backround so only the button should come up , im getting a black square

im not sold on it yet ill know more when i get the buttons of the backround black square

[mike boss]

I'll upload the PSD of the logo, that will also be of some help to you.

[mike boss]

When I created the skin I just went into the folder and created my work overtop the existing contents. Required me to have some vision of how the skin would look when done.
Elements like the Touch Jams logo I had to take a screen shot of the juke (in use), then open in Photoshop. I placed the logo overtop the logo, then cut the image to size to include the background image. This is why the logo lines up with the existing background.

For you to get the silver buttons to display correct you might need to do the same. Open the juke, take a snap shot, then redo the buttons to included the background. This will make them blend as desired.

Hope that makes sense.

[egosbar]

i think i know what you mean , correct me if im wrong , then they wouldnt be active too change colors when pressed from off too on??

[egosbar]

i think i know what you mean , correct me if im wrong , then they wouldnt be active too change colors when pressed from off too on??

i have the skin in my dropbox do you want a copy to have a look at ?

[egosbar]

i think i know what you mean , correct me if im wrong , then they wouldnt be active too change colors when pressed from off too on??

the way ive been skinning is by using photoshop , open the actual file you want to change from the skin folder , make the changes and save as png back to the skin folder highlite the exact file you want too change and click ok , just need too shut down touchjams and restart for the change to take effect if you know what i mean , so the logo would be very easy and save back , so in my case for the buttons was too open any one make one new button and keep saving over the original files , no need to change names once you click on a file it does it for you , got to be careful to make sure you saving over the file you intend to change though , is this what you mean you have been doing , in the case of the logo change wouldnt it end up in the same spot anyway once you open it from the skin file as long as you dont change the size?

[mike boss]

I won't be home for the next few days so I won't be able to look at your skin.
I'll try to better explain what I mean.

With Touch Jams your buttons are really rectangles. They look rounded, but the image itself is a rectangle. I don't think it supports transparency...but you can ask to be sure.

So you have your background, then everything else gets built on top.
You try (as best you can) to blend the background with the rest of the items.

So say my background is black and I want a blue circle to appear. The background of the blue cirlce must be black in order to blend.

So now if we take your background you have a metal texture in the background. You'd need to make sure wherever that metal shows is actually included in your button image.
I'm sure you can do the 2 versions, both ON and OFF, but whatever part of the background you would see has to be included in the image.

If I were home I could try to post an example...but I think it's more clear now ?

[egosbar]

yep think im getting you here , copy a screen shot of the backround with buttons and the rectangle showing , put a image of the backround on top, lower the opacity and mask out the black to reveal the silver , if im right the only problem then would be you couldnt move the buttons if you wanted too

is this what you mean mate , im not sure i even like the silver yet but like learning photoshop so i want to finish what i started lol , maybe ill just put a thin silver border around the backround image

thanks for your answers mike

[mike boss]

I'd like to make some changes to my skin...when I have time.
Time is the hard thing to find these days!!!!!! (new baby girl born on July 17th).
For now I llike the way it looks and I hope to know in about a week or two how it will look on a HP 27" Touch Screen.

At that point I'll change fonts, colors, whatever I dont like.
One thing I wanted to do was change the home  button to have a HOUSE image.
www.dafont.com has a PS3 style font (off memory) and one of the icons I guess is for something to do with "home." I'd like to add that image.

[mike boss]

I'm still trying to find the balance of life as a father and "me" time.
Things as of late have been.....busy....to say the least.

Sadly my chance @ a 27" HP Touch Smart PC fell apart when my aunt would not help in picking up the PC.
It was 90 minutes from home (3 hr round trip)...3 hours I don't have as a new dad.
The good thing was my aunt lived in the town where the PC was.
She however had her reservations about getting it and didn't.
Locally I've looked near daily for a HP Touch Smart as I think it kinda makes sense for this project.
People expect far to much in resale for these. None the less the quest continues.

As far as the software goes I'm still liking it. I'm working on tagging my music so it displays how I like.
I have not however gone back to this skin. I'm happy with how it looks & feels.........so I guess that means my drive is doesn't exist.

None the less if any tweaks/progress have been made I'd love to see.

Thanks

[egosbar]

i made tweaks too the font on all screens , im not sure if ive sent it too you but i think they look pretty good , easy too read and just black and white is easy on the eye

not sure if you have the latest one , ill message you my drop box its in there