Xion Audio Player

Turbine Beta

Post your latest skin designs and receive feedback before you release

Postby Crotale » June 8th, 2008, 7:05 am

Here is the first beta release version of my latest skin, Turbine. Feedback on layout and user-friendliness is appreciated. Thanks.

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Image

Download - http://www.acliffhanger.com/downloads/turbine.xsf
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Postby logokas » June 8th, 2008, 7:21 am

I'm not an very big fan on circle-like designs on a media player, because they generally rob away from the room that's necessary for song titles and artists, seeing as font bending isn't implemented yet.

This particular design stands out from the others for not lacking detail. I'm not going to test it live, but the image serves as a pretty good showcaser.
I shoot and ask questions later.

Take no offense of it.
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Postby Crotale » June 8th, 2008, 7:48 am

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not a big fan of these types either, but there is a plethora of rectangular or quasi-rectangular skins. I thought I'd be a bit different for effect. I tried to use the available space as best I can, but may have to move some functions more outboard.
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Postby UnseenRage » June 8th, 2008, 9:02 am

I like the style. It is a good looking skin.
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Postby logokas » June 8th, 2008, 9:16 am

Actually there's one blob type that i like better then most.

It's those that use space OUTSIDE the circle, too. Like an extended titlescroller that goes out of it's limits, or controls that exist outside of it. Those are okay. Big and bulky, but okay.
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Postby Crotale » June 8th, 2008, 10:01 am

Somehow, I get that you're chastising me for not using the outer areas. I thought about it long and hard, and decided against it. My original design did make use of the blades, but after some rough drafts, I scrapped that idea. I also scrapped the idea to make the blades animate in and out and rotate. I may give that another shot, but for now I wanted to keep the filesize down.

I had several ideas for the outer blades, but decided to go with the current design as it is much cleaner than the others I tried. I still have the idea to add a popout visualization screen and some other little trinkets, but I am taking this one step at a time.
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Postby logokas » June 8th, 2008, 10:53 am

No no, don't fret, i wasn't blamming your idea. I just gave a piece of mind, or perhaps something to spark an idea.

That idea with the animated blades sounds interesting by the way.
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Postby ForceField » June 8th, 2008, 3:23 pm

Kick Ass Skin. Great Design :D

Yep,Try to add some animation for the blades.After all the name of the skin is Turbine... :wink:
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Postby Crotale » June 9th, 2008, 4:58 am

Thanks ForceField. I got an animation going, but could not get the load interface button to toggle between skins for the animation to go on and off. Got it working now. Funny, I didn't do anything deifferent other than rename one file.

http://www.acliffhanger.com/downloads/turbinebeta2.xsf
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Postby WinstonGFX » June 9th, 2008, 11:33 am

Looks cool, but something funky is going on, the texture on the blade seems to jump at the bottom point. Also, I think you need a snap rectangle, you can see why if you click and hold on the base of the skin for like a second or more, it will jump a bit if you are kind of close to the edge of the screen. Also, the blur on the turbine spikes seems unnecessary to me. Add hover effects to the nav buttons.
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Postby Crotale » June 9th, 2008, 12:10 pm

I can fix the texture issue. I just noticed it myself, although I thought I had corrected it before. I will post the "non" blurred file in a day or two. I felt the unblurred looked to clean, but will post both for reference.

I'm not sure what you mean by a snap rectangle. Can you explain?

I originally planned to put in hover buttons, but wasn't sure if they were necessary. I'll give it a go.

Thanks for the feedback.
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Postby WinstonGFX » June 9th, 2008, 2:19 pm

OK, so when you have a skin close to the edge of the screen, it will "snap" to the edge automatically. For most skins, the default works fine. But, since your skin's dimensions change as the animation occurs, the vertical and horizontal dimensions fluctuate, making your skin snap to the edge at different distances from the edge of the screen depending upon where in the animation the skin is. What you should do is use Xion's snaprectangle layer name command on a layer that is as big as your entire PSD canvas. It will make the snapping consistent no matter where in the animation it is. If you need clarification, happy to help more.
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Postby Crotale » June 10th, 2008, 1:54 pm

Winston, I replaced the blurred blades with unblurred ones. I also installed the hovers. The weird texture issue is gone as well. But, for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to use the snaprectangle function. Please help?

http://www.acliffhanger.com/downloads/turbinebeta2.xsf
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Postby SLoB » June 10th, 2008, 6:07 pm

Custom Snapping rectangle 1.0.82
Allows you to specify a snapping rectangle for snapping the edges of the interface window to the screen. This can be useful if you've used a shadow and would prefer Xion to snap on another part, other than an overhanging shadow.


basically create a layer call it snaprectangle
create a square/rectangle shape big enuff to cover the area you want for your skin and fill it with white and voila
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Postby WinstonGFX » June 10th, 2008, 8:55 pm

Yup, SLoB said it right. I like it better without the blur. Add moveable to the blades.
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