New Community Skin>?>? (3 Viewers)

[dubstar]

I am able to create new art work using 3D modelling software and various rendering packages, and finished in photoshop!!

What I would like is;

1. A list of all the Art Work Needed to Create a Skin (Main Logos)
2. A theme or style to start with
3. Animation sugestions
4. someone to compile all the artwork and create the actual useable skin.

With reference to the animations maybe this is a good starting point for me to 'trial run' my skills. The animations can be anything as the ability to manipulate the 'Model' is unlimited!!

Any sugestions or requests welcome. and if anyone would like to join me on making a new skin I think it could be great community project!!

 

[infinite.loop]

What I would like is;

1. A list of all the Art Work Needed to Create a Skin (Main Logos)
2. A theme or style to start with

have a look at blue2 which is part of MediaPortal 0.2.2.0

3. Animation sugestions

before that, you should have a look @ the animations in blue2 (how they are done)

any gallery/forum on the web which shows artwork you have done?

 

[CHli]

the blue2's photoshop's files are in the SVN repository but not in the main branch.

 

[dubstar]

before that, you should have a look @ the animations in blue2 (how they are done)

any gallery/forum on the web which shows artwork you have done?

I have played arround with the animations in media portal before I understand how they work with the numerous .jpegs / .PNGs, I'm not too hot with the xml stuff though!! I can edit other peoples work but thats it!!

I don't have any art work as such because thats not what I do, I am an engineer by trade but the programs that I use are really powerful 3D CAD packages and I can Draw and render almost any 3D shape / object with great accuracy and style, its also possible to create and render 3D lettering ( A 3D MP Logo?)

I understand how long it takes to produce enough artwork just for one animation and I understand that its the reason people don't take it on!!

The stuff I can do will be very different to the MePo stuff by Glen as I think he uses 3D studio max ( and he is highly skilled) But at the end of the day it is always nice to have another skin option, and If I start to make some art work and no one likes them or wants to use them then there is no love lost!!

To be honest I just want to give something back to the media portal community!!

Regards Dan

 

[infinite.loop]

the blue2's photoshop's files are in the SVN repository but not in the main branch.

https://mediaportal.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mediaportal/trunk/mediaportal_gfx

but not all psd's in there

 

[mikael]

Great idea dubstar! Media Portal needs more skins, currently I can count the functionally ones on my right hand...

Would be nice to see some ideas or mockups of your new 3D skin!

 

[SpiffBB]

Go for it! 3D and animations would be nice. If you want some inspiration for a skin search this forum for the Vista and 3DMP skin. Many liked them but none are available/up to date. As for the animations look on youtube for a Vista demo both regarding the clean interface with only blue and white and the many animations (however as I understand it not all of them are posible to make right now of technical reasons). So for example what about a skin with a glowing background like MCE 2005 but with a "cleaner" interface with just white (and blue) as contrast with fantastic 3D animations?!

Regards
Oscar

 

[dubstar]

I've just noticed another thread in this forum called Community skin. Is this an active thread?

What I will do is first of all:

I will make some unrendered lettering in a few different styles for the Media Portal logo then we can pick the best.

once a 'style' is decided I will concentrate on the Media portal Logo Animation and get it done and if people like it I can continue on to create other logos.

My idea for the logo;

Im thinking of a fruit machine style logo with the lettering spining into the MP logo however this will take many .jpgs and time.

If any one has any new style ideas that they would like to offer up please feel free as most of the current skins are based on the Bluetwo skin.

I have attached a screen shot of a horizontal Skin that is offered in GBPVR I like this skin and it would be a fresh change for Media Portal.

Let me know what you all think

Regards Dubstar.

 

[mikael]

Must the skin have a blue bg? It would be awesome if you tried with another color... maybe green... or black?

Could you test if you can make a 3D-like animated home menu as in Apple FrontRow (but much cooler of course). I think it's possible with Conditional Visibility, Animations and animated png images.... maybe you need some imagination too

 

[dubstar]

Must the skin have a blue bg? maybe green... or black?

Could you test if you can make a 3D-like animated home menu as in Apple FrontRow (but much cooler of course).

.... maybe you need some imagination too

Mikael,

I definately WON'T be using blue as the background as it seems to be the default colour for skins, and i fancy creating somthing a bit more fresh.

With reference to the apple frontrow theme, A few people have already recreated the style, new face for MP by Harley, and the spinsafe skin.

I have attached a few screen shots of skins that I altered a couple of months back.

the logo in the first picture was animated to fade in and out, and it had a really nice look and real to it.

The Second is an actual skin i used for a few week until it became out dated, I was going for a OS X Tiger style!! However like i say i fancy making something more original and fresh for Media Portal, but thats not so easy with so many skins existing already, and like you say it needs a little imagination and a lot of work!!

Ideally someone else would write the code and I would just supply the media. However I should be able to organise some code if i used blue 2 as a base and built from there its just that i don't understand it that well!!