clueless...

[dimichan]

Well, I seem to have hit a roadblock - this started as an exercise in learning airbrushing this morning, I know what I want to do in general, but the background is murdering me... I'm not hung up on any of the colors or anything, the frame is more a placeholder, not sure if I want to stick with it or not, and there's still a good bit of depth to be added and smoothing to be done, I'll be carrying a kind of tangled garden effect throughout, but I'm clueless on what to do with the background, both color, and if any kind of texture or anything could work -_- So I'm hoping something will jump out at someone else - and I won't be offended at any comments, believe me, I'm hitting my head on my monitor in frustration at this point! :D

(ARGH attachment wouldn't update, see next post -_-;;;)

[dimichan]

ok, maybe this time...

[xenosomething]

:eek: i swear...ive never seen such a variation in quality...


the shapes are beautiful....really:up: id recommend a black stroke(outline) around them beacuse they look a little weird and "mixed"

the posbar and file info look so bad compared to the lovely shapes of the cbutton area.

ditch the frame also....

how about some colors beside the gold and brown?

airbrushing? im sorry but i cant tell where the airbrushing is
:weird:

keep working on this until you get it right.....i know you just started,so just take my comments lightly.:)

[J. Burnaway]

The tangled parts look really good! :up: Nice work. Like xeno said, the frame needs to go, or something needs to be done with it - I'm not full of good advice on what to do though, sorry.

[dlinkwit27]

If you want to keep the frame, try to make it at least flow with the rest of the skin. Esp the c-button area. I absolutely love that part; it looks awesome! As xeno stated, the posbar and volume are wrong. I like the colours, but I think they are too..."round"...for the rest of the skin. Too cylindracal (cylindar-like (sp sux!)).

[amp-phibian]

the c button bmp should be interesting.

i wouldn't change a whole lot other than to extend the tangle up the right side to incorporate the shufrep and monoster bmps. and to add some more growth, but not as much, to the left side.

unfortunately there are no truly straight lines in nature so posbar and scroll do look kinda outta place but with the frame they can work as a sort of horizontal support for the sides of what I see as a "vineyardish" structure.with the smaller type "wraps' as you have currently on the border stretching out over them. thus allowing a "bloom" or something in the kbs/khz area sprouting from either wraped horizontal bar.

af far as a bg think "busy". maybe just a heavily shadowed continuation of the tangle as if it is significantly recessed from the front. with vol and bal "hidden" within and keeping the border intact to help give it a "vineyard" effect and to help explain the "back" support that has the shadowed tangle on it


originally posted by xenosomething
id recommend a black stroke(outline) around them beacuse they look a little weird and "mixed"

well most shapes in nature are a little weird and mixed

[xenosomething]

Originally posted by amp-phibian
well most shapes in nature are a little weird and mixed

true but most arent totally gold either;)

[amp-phibian]

gold??? i thought it was bronze. :)

looking forward to the update dimichan

p.s
id have to say between cemetary gates , and in flames you've given me a new appreciation for well crafted picture skins

[not in santiago]

:eek: Wow! This is gorgeous! I don't see how you could be frustrated with this. The airbrushing is seamless in my humble, inexperienced, never-used-an-airbrush-before opinion. :D

I could see you going two ways with this. The first would be a woodcarving-type skin, which the colours (nice colours!) suggest. If that's the case, I would leave the background as is (an overly busy background would interfere with your beautiful vines and flowers anyway) or you could texture the background in such a way that it looks chiseled, making every inch of the skin appear as if it was carved out of a large piece of wood.

The second would place more emphasis on the botanical front, in which case you could also leave the background as is, though you might want to add more colour. Or you could give the background a faint texture of vines/leaves . . . kind of a foresty backdrop.

Like the previous suggestions, I feel the frame needs to interact more with the curvy design it contains.

:up: :up:

[dimichan]

Thanks guys - guess it was the equivalent of "writers block" :p Originally this WAS going to be tri-color, like dark gold/bronze, dark silver, and copper/rose gold, but I got carried away painting shapes hehe. I'll experiment a bit and update soon (I hope)...

and thanks amp=hibian :D

[dimichan]

ok, minor update, only parts "done" haha is the left half of the cbutton area, just painted over to do the three color effect, I'll add more shapes to the left of that area. The three flowers showing are buttons atm, back, play and load, and the others will be similar peeking out of the tangles; basically right now, three color an improvement? Any changes for that before I start repainting the rest? The frame is still completely unfixed, was kinda playing with a thought on the sides :p

oope edit - just fyi, the posbar will be changed, at least have some tendrils wrapped around it and recolored, and the top bar that seemed to be confusing is the background for the songtitle and numbers, I'll do more with the ends and the area in between there (as well as change the colors)

[dam]

Wow. It's been a long time since I've seen an artistic skin. Excellent design.

[dlinkwit27]

lol, j.k. I know ur gonan change it. I am still kinda edgy about the frame tho. It could go either way, I 'spose it depends on how the rest devlops. Be careful tho! Don't be afraid to get rid of it if it doesn't work.

[Atmo]

It might be the screenshot, but it looks like it needs to be sharper in some areas.

Other than that i like it. :up:

[xenosomething]

i dont see any reason fo you to have a frame...and the shapes at the bottom are still fantastic...the way i see it ...if you get rid of the frame(or any kind of frame) and do some work on the posbar and file info bar...this skin would be absolutely beautiful.:up:

good work! no dcl!:up::up: :up: :up: :up: :up:

[StillWater]

nice!

Yeah, can you post GIF PNG screenshots in future?* I'm sure the blurry JPG is not justice to the detail of the skin. I don't really know what to say about it at this stage, apart from that I think the white basckground and new colour scheme is working very well, and I like the way the cbuttons are sort of interwoven with the rest of the flora :) . However, I don't think I like the dark grey for them - I'm tempted to think that a less dreary and also more flower-like colour would be better.


*I know I once said that PNG screenshots were annoying because I couldn't view them easily, but I think the only people affected were Forever and me - but Forever's not here, and I have since been able to view them) ;-)

[dimichan]

Well, the white background is also temporary, right now I have a dark brownish marble background, but need the white so I can see what I'm doing while I work. The flowers, I'll probably end up alternating the copper and bronze colors for the cbuttons, and next SS will be in PNG... meanwhile, I'm off to install my new motherboard!

[FireHawK129]

Originally posted by ¤db¤

*I know I once said that PNG screenshots were annoying because I couldn't view them easily, but I think the only people affected were Forever and me - but Forever's not here, and I have since been able to view them) ;-) [/B]

when I try to view a PNG I'm prompted to d/l the file. Because I use a slow connection, I would rather not need to do this to view the screen shots. I am not familiar with the type of file, but I would consider it "not being able to view them easily." What was your solution to the problem; might I apply it to mine? I've tried to right click and just open the file, but it still wants me to save it to disk. Will explorer not open it; do I not have a proper graphics program to open it, etc.

Also, I have almost no graphics experience at all, and to this point, have only MS-Paint on this PC. I have access to old versions of Abode Photoshop 3.05, and Print Shop Deluxe from about as long ago. I also have a copy of Corel Photopaint 9 and the Corel Draw 9 Graphics suite. Without overwhelming myself with software, which should I get my feet wet with? I don't notice many people mentioning using Corel, so if I needed help with the software end, then would it be better to use the old Photoshop. On the other hand, should I just start with the ability to do everything, so that when I learn how, I have what I need? (or once you begin learning to use graphics software, some of it is relatively the same from brand to brand)
Nudge me in the correct direction...:)

fhk

[dam]

Let's no hijack dimichan's thread now. You shouldve posted a new therad.

[StillWater]

Originally posted by FireHawK129
What was your solution to the problem; might I apply it to mine? I've tried to right click and just open the file, but it still wants me to save it to disk. Will explorer not open it; do I not have a proper graphics program to open it, etc.Get IrfanView. It's a small but excellent picture viewer. And it's worth it, because PNGs are the best quality pic files, apart form BMPs (which are huge). I believe the problem is that you need Quicktime or some sort of Quicktime plugin to mekt ehm open automatically.

[FireHawK129]

Originally posted by dam
Let's no hijack dimichan's thread now. You shouldve posted a new therad.
good point dam.
my apologies dimichan, no offense was of course intended. my mouse was quicker than my mind. :eek:

FHK

[dimichan]

update - with background, still not done main lol... but maybe getting there? Thinking I'm gonna animate tendrils coming out of the cracks for the vol and bal, and in the viz area... anyways without further ado... tri color almost fully implemented now...

EDIT - it's not quite this dark in PS :\

EDIT2 - let's try the jpg after all, png was SEVERAL shades darker...

[dam]

I really like the way this turning out. Looks much better with the extra colors.
I think the cbuttons need more contrast.

[dimichan]

LOL thanks, even the jpg is a couple shades darker than held up to the psd, but it's pretty close, and then I think I'm going to be (gulp) ready to start cutting and integrating the deep areas/animations... I can't believe I've been working on this biatch for 6 hours today already... it better be worth it! Anyway, next update!

EDIT - yeah, I know the top vine cluster will have the song title running through it, but streams don't use the song title bar so, going to see what it looks like this way and I can always edit it if it's awful :p

[xenosomething]

super ultra terrific!:up: :)

this is really gorgeous...i really hope for this skins sake that you do something with that frame, cause its really hurting the style of it


besides the frame,the only problem i see is the "clutteredness" of it,but the shapes are so nice that it really doesnt look too bad

:sniff sniff:

i dont smell any of what i dont like :D ;) :p :up:

[Reanimation]

Very nice! like the airbrushing. be nice to see this as a WSZ file huh? :p

[dimichan]

it looked awful without any type of frame, everything just looked stuck on, so suggestions are welcome... *sobs* As soon as I figure that I can try to piece together the main bmps at least, I haven't even painted the other components yet, though I have a good idea of what I want to do with them. I thought the same about it being "cluttered", but the "tangled" look was part of what I was aiming for as well, so hopefully it'll still be viable :p

Two things I could use a hand with here... common abbreviations/symbols for the PL stacks?

And trying to think of a name, a name... something to do with metal and botanical or something... I dunno :\

[dimichan]

ok... better or worse as far as the "frame" goes?

[dlinkwit27]

I like the new frame better.

[xenosomething]

i dont mean to be a pain in the ass,but i still dont like the frame

can you post how it would look without one?

this skin has alot of potential...and i wouldnt want you to deny me of a good skin ;) :up:

[dimichan]

ok, I had to merge layers and extend the pieces, so this is a rush/quickie idea, but to me it looks kinda flat and unfinished this way, I dunno... but anyway, no frame/border...

[xenosomething]

hmm not too bad...

you could give it a 1 pix black border(my fav recomendation;) )

then add some more plants/shapes in the open areas

but i dont want you to listen to me if you feel you want the border.

[dimichan]

well, what I might do is add some "cracks" to the border and roughen it a bit, I want the tendrils to appear like they're growing out of the "layers", and pull a couple of the small tendrils down over the bottom border.

It's funny, cause this didn't start out as a moody skin, but it's headed that way :p

[dimichan]

ok, I attacked it :p think it helps make it less an obvious "border" and more part of the pic... man this is WORK LOL!!!

[StillWater]

looks good. Though - and this is more down to personal aesthetic preference more than anything else - I still don't like the dark grey so much, and I'm missing the white.
I like what you've put leaves over the 'skinnable' parts of the text and numbers bar. It disguises the rigidity of the WA2 skin system, and that's very important for an 'organic' skin like this. As I said, the grey makes the skin more dreary than I feel it wants to be, but apart from that it's good :)

[dimichan]

If I ever get this done (about 30 hours and counting, ugh) I'll make a lighter version for ya :p

Yeah, I know, it kind of took on a life of it's own, now it's beginning to resemble the inside of a dungeon O_o LOL

[not in santiago]

This is just a quick, half-baked thought, but have you tried upping the saturation on your three colours just a bit? That might make things a little less dreary. There seems to be a lot of grey in those colours (particularly the gold), and when they're placed against that grey background, they sort of blend into it.

Perhaps if you just concentrated on the colours of the flowers/Cbuttons. You could make them brighter, more saturated or even change their colour. Just something to differentiate your botannical elements from the marble.

This is looking great so far, dimichan. I'll comment in more detail when I find the time. (Or time finds me. I think we're on separate buses at the moment.)

[dlinkwit27]

Originally posted by not in santiago
This is just a quick, half-baked thought, but have you tried upping the saturation on your three colours just a bit? That might make things a little less dreary. There seems to be a lot of grey in those colours (particularly the gold), and when they're placed against that grey background, they sort of blend into it.

Perhaps if you just concentrated on the colours of the flowers/Cbuttons. You could make them brighter, more saturated or even change their colour. Just something to differentiate your botannical elements from the marble.

This is looking great so far, dimichan. I'll comment in more detail when I find the time. (Or time finds me. I think we're on separate buses at the moment.)

Great suggestion! :up: Thats what I was thinking, but I just couldn't put it into words! I hope he does that!

[garetjax]

/me perks...and watches the progression...Can't comment to much on it yet...still to me far away off to give 'decent' critism...Currently I am liking more than I dislike. I agree w/ the the grey throwing it to a dreary path.

-jax

[dimichan]

ok, brightened the colors a little, and think these are showing a touch darker still as well, but this is with it brightened a bit...

[xenosomething]

i feel like im repeating myself...but ill say it anyway.

shapes=beautiful dark stuff=bad



im confident that the end results of the skin will be good:up:

[dam]

The brighter the better. Looks good. I dont think it should be any brighter. I like the dark moody feel of the main so far.

[amp-phibian]

oh thats getting pretty

looks kinda like a detail oriented black hills gold pendant
being unearthed

"yeah we dont put no work into our pendants, we just dig 'em up like that"

[dimichan]

LOL thanks ^_^ I HAD part of the eq painted and... uhhh... made an oops called computer said bye bye and I hadn't been doing regular saves >_< so there went about 4 hours of work. Oh well. about back to that point, think I've got the "framing" mapped out for everything, now... question (and I know I'll probably have to try it more than one way...) the only thing I can think of for the playlist is to have it black, if the border is "cracked" (and yeah, I know what a pain THAT is going to be with the repeating areas), it's either that or color match and make it plain, I'll probably try both, but figured I'd see if anyone had any input first... after I get the eq mapped out (I know what I want to do, it's just a real pain in the @ss to actually create it) things should start to speed up a BIT since most of the detail in the playlist and MB will have to be done right in the individual files.

And anyone got symbols which are commonly recognized for the PL stacks as opposed to text? I'd like to save space there if I could for what I want to do...

Thanks!!!

[not in santiago]

Although the ss looks better brighter, I've attached a gif to show you what I mean by more saturation. (It's easy to do because you don't have to isolate the colours to saturate them. You can saturate grey all you want and it's still going to be grey. ;) ) Of course, if you don't like it, you don't have to go that route, but I think it looks a bit better. Brightening the bitmap will only make it look whiter.

As for your questions:

- the only suggestion I can think of for a title is "Persephone". I was just thinking of your blend of flowers and stone, living and inanimate and it made me think of that particular Greek legend. Just a thought.

I honestly can't make a good suggestion for your playlist because I think I need to see the EQ first. It's hard to envision without seeing your design elaborated on vertically. Maybe you could make a gradual progression down the skin from plant life being contained inside stone to the stone being completely overrun by plantlife. Or perhaps move from stone/metal at the top to actual living vegetation at the bottom. That's probably nowhere near your thought process at this time. What can I say? I like making complicated suggestions that would require years of work. :blah: :D

As for playstack symbols, I really don't know what other people use (I've always used text, but I think I want to expand my horizons a bit too). I've noticed that the Wingdings font has a few icons you could use (1 = folder, 2 = file, = = floppy disk, etc.), but not enough to do every stack.

Can't wait to see the eq & pl! :up:

P.S. - You need to be a little more paranoid and/or obsessive-compulsive! Save! Save, save, save! It only takes a second to hit ctrl+S! :p :D

[Jellby]

Originally posted by dimichan
And anyone got symbols which are commonly recognized for the PL stacks as opposed to text? I'd like to save space there if I could for what I want to do...

Have you checked my Golden Ring skin? I used symbols there, some ideas for you.

[dimichan]

Thanks - I couldn't remember offhand WHICH skins used symbols, and I have a considerable (like over 100) amount in my collection, and *cough* was too lazy to start paging through all of them to find which used what :p

I did up the saturation a bit on the gold and the lighter copper areas, and the cbuttons, but not on the larger copper areas since it seemed to take on a more "artificial" appearance which I was trying to avoid.

I'm currently working on "sinking" the eq bars into the "stone" and let me tell you, that is one MAJOR pain in the rump.

[xenosomething]

so,whats going on with this skin?

[dimichan]

well, I've had the flu, so haven't done a lot, started roughing in the equalizer plantlife, and have an idea for the animation on that, no shadows or anything on the plants that are in place, and it's still a bit bare, but this is currently where I'm at...

[dimichan]

and remembering to attach the ss would have been a bright idea -_-;;;

[StillWater]

Coming along very nicely. I really like the texture in the PL, which is a shame, since it won't be there, although you could seamlessly put it into the Mbinner, which I hope you do.
I think this has been said before, but I feel that a lot of it, espeically the 'flora' parts, could use with one click on the sharpen tool. The laser-straight poles in the EQ, compared to the organic rest, stand out like tits on a bull, IMO. They don't look bad like that, but the clash is certainly there. Can I come up with a better idea, you ask? No. :D

///I'm just looking at it now again, and I think that those cbuttons wil be really hard to operate, since they are so interwoven with the background. Can I........No. ;)

[dimichan]

hehe - yeah, the cbuttons are going to be a bit hard initially, though I'll make sure there's some kind of cool animation to them, this is one that ease/functionality is going to suffer a bit in favor of not having anything interrupt the "theme" though I "might" be able to think of something... same with the shuf/rep, mono/ster and eq/pl indicators... though the volume and balance won't be so bad.

Yeah, even the earliest pieces I did aren't as sharp in general as the later ones, like the "branch" over the songbar is sharper than the backgroundy horn things -_- but separate layers, will sharpen...

and the PL... toyiung with 2 ideas, either putting it on black and having the shadow drop away into the black, OR having it go onto a non-testured color matched BG... so opinions?

mbinner will be integrated as seamlessly as I can manage ^_^

And ANY ideas for the min/shade buttons?

[StillWater]

Originally posted by dimichan
mbinner will be integrated as seamlessly as I can manage ^_^

And ANY ideas for the min/shade buttons? If you can't get the MBinner to be perfectly seamless, let me know, because I'm pretty sure I could get it looking just like it does in the screenshot.

\//\X : See how at the top left of the skin - near the mainmenu button - a gold coloured horn thing is eating its way out of the grey stone? Well, you could have 3 such things on the top right of the skin for the \//\X buttons. Only they wouldn't come out as far as this one does - they would just 'peek' out of the stone. The \/ one would come through the stone and point downwards, and the /\ one would come out and point upwards......

As for the PL, I think both ideas could have their merits, so I'm not sure.

[dimichan]

hmm, and now bugging for another opinion... played a bit with the background color balances, trying to get a BIT more contrast, and most are worse, but this maybe kinda an underwater cavy kinda appearance, better or worse? (yeah, I know it's a little darker)

(edit - sharpened up the shapes a bit, need to touch up a few areas, and eq has no shadows or anything yet just fyi :p)

(edit #2 - thanks! if it gives me any trouble I'll come screaming for help - assuming I get that far lol)

[StillWater]

It looks a lot better like this, I think. I think the background really needed some colour, because the grey was very lacking in warmth (which the flowers etc. have), yet too bright to be dark and sombre. And, as you say, it helps give a contrast to everything.
However, having said that, you've got very differing colours now, and the green contrasts very highly against the purple/maroon bars. This will sound really bad, and I don't mean it to, but the colours now remind me a little of one of those black & white films that has been artificially coloured. I might consider toning down the colour of the bars.
Hey, are you making a winter skin, dimichan? Cemetary Gates, as well as this, makes me hope you do...

/edit: about 50 typos.

[dimichan]

Oh dear... purple/maroon? Those bars are like, a copper pipe color on my monitor, like a pink to maroon/dark brown... uhhh... uh oh?

and yeah, I'm going to try a winter skin, discarded a few thoughts already, got a few more to try :p

[StillWater]

Don't fret - I couldn't think of the right word to describe that colour - copper is it :D

[dam]

I really like the way this skin is turning out.
IMHO the copper gradient ruins the rest of the skin. I think you should try a stone texture instead, one that is different from the bg.

[dimichan]

For the equalizer bars you mean?
Or for the text areas as well?

[FooMonkey]

reminds me of Forevevevevevevever's The Entity/Enigma (I think that's what they're called, anyway...)
which is good, because the red one of those is my favorite skin not made by me:)

for the pl...here's another suggestion--if you're not going to put any colorful stuff in it like in the other windows, maybe a maroon or orange area with a dropshadow?
or a colormatched bg with a dropshadow would look nice
or a black area with a dropshadow

I will probably download this and use it just long enough for me to play with all the animations...I wouldn't use it though, because it would be very difficult to use...
you should take that as a compliment since I rarely download other peoples' skins:)

:up::up:

[skinme!]

Originally posted by FooMonkey
you should take that as a compliment since I rarely download other peoples' skins:)
Do you *download* your own?

[dimichan]

Ok, got the main working, all skinned except winshade, clutterbar buttons, and win/min/close buttons. I can tell already I'll get crap for fuctionality on this one...

The vol and bal vines "grow" and the cubttons "light", the shuf/rep and pl/eq buttons are just orbs at the moment, and the small copper leafy thingy is the stereo indicator, with an alternate for the mono...

[StillWater]

Originally posted by dimichan
I can tell already I'll get crap for fuctionality on this one...if that's worrying you, you can always colour coordinate the active/inactive flowers/vines. For example, the flowers/vines which do things (the cbuttons, the ones in the volume balance, etc.) can be gold, while the ones that don't do anything and are just a part of the background can be maroon/copper and grey)...that sort of thing.

[Jellby]

I bet you already know this, but the upper part of the numbers' background doesn't match the main.

[dimichan]

Yep, I had to play with it a bit to get legible numbers, I don't know if that's a final or not, I might change the unmbers again

[dam]

I see youre still using those copper eq bars, rather unusual for the queen of eq bar animation ;).

[dimichan]

Hehe - animations on eq bars will follow, as soon as I work out which way I want to go with them, I'd hate to let you down! Haven't put in any of the animations or buttons on the eq yet, it was just bugging me to only have the main layout filled in after looking at it all day!

And it's really not worrying me too much, ALL the flowers are buttons (cbuttons) on the main, as are all the little orbs; except for having to know the button order since they're not labelled it's not TOO bad :p And if I didn't know the order by now after skinning, I'd have to give myself another award :D If I can think of a way to make a labelled version that won't clutter it even more and destroy the appearance, I'll make a second main like that.

[FooMonkey]

Originally posted by skinme!

Do you *download* your own?
yes

[simon snowflake]

I cant believe i havn't seen this yet.
This is beatifull :up:

[dimichan]

Thanks! ^_^

Main is complete, eq and pl only basic mapping done, and I'm going to try to get the *&%^%! background in the text to match, cause it's driving me nuts. I've tried black, and almost every variant on copper, and neon green would work but... hahaha yeah, so any suggestions for what might actually both be visible and not look like crap are welcome!

And I'm really not sure what I'm going to do as of yet about playlist stacks, though I was pretty happy with the way convinced the border to blend in the playlist. Ditto the minibrowser - currently clueless :p

[dimichan]

changed the numbers and text, and got most of the eq animation done... so updating :p

[razmansix]

yep! this looks great! *thumbs up*

[dam]

The queen of eq animation indeed :).

If the vol and bal animations work like I think they work I'll be bold enough to say that youre the queen of animation! :)

[dimichan]

If I can get the PL stacks worked out, I *should* have this finished today ^_^; I'm just finishing the lil close/shade buttons on the equalizer now, have the equalizer winshade, PL stacks, and MB, mikro, mbinner, and cursors remaining.

[dam]

How do you skin so fast?

:insert jealous smiley here:

[simon snowflake]

dam, dont feel sorry for yourself, instaed feel sorry for us both.

[dimichan]

Well, for this one, I've had the base skeleton in progress for... over a month -_-;;; but after that, LOTS of caffiene, and an "interrupt me and DIE" approach are useful :p Usually have at least 3 projects in various states of completion, when I hit a roadblock on one I generally think of something that would work on another; right now, buttons for the WA3 winter skin are kicking my umm, butt. So I went back to this one for a while :D When I finally get inspiration for areas that I was clueless on, it's not uncommon for me to spend 8+ hours straight or until my eyes start crossing skinning! *goes off to do the MB while waiting for inspiration for PL stacks*

[Namelessv1]

Kick ass. :up:

[StillWater]

I think that the copper EQ bars should be thinner so that the vines can slightly stick out on the sides - do you know what I mean?

[dimichan]

next update, still stuck on stack ideas >_< And except for those, and the "extras" (mikro, inner, cursors) I'm done, so this is annoying :p Might add a little decor in the stretchy area of the MB, but that'll be after I figure out what the heck to do for stacks...

edit - yeah db, I know what you mean, I kept the animation layer separate just in case I had the patience to redo the bars themselves, if I can ever figure these stacks out I may well do just that ^_~

[Tac-Man II]

maybe you could have those curly vines "grow" into the stacks. Possibly you could have flowers at each button, which bloom at the mouse over stage. just an idea.

Finish this, its tasty!

[dimichan]

Done all except the extras (cursors, MBinner, mikro) now - YAY!!! I'll zip and upload in the next 5 mins or so in case anyone feels like bug testing - oh, and I'm going to replace the shuf/rep orbs with flowers since I made all the other controls that way to help with the lack of labelling, for consistency's sake (and cause those were just placeholders anyways :p)

Ok, apart from the AVS and those, (forgot the AVS, d'oh) if anyone wants to see the beta, it's at http://www.tempmusic.homestead.com/files/betafloral.zip

[razmansix]

hummin' *Welcome to the jungle*...;)

All the 'buttons' are a bit hard to make out...but thats the nature of this skin.

it's well executed - cool eq bars and vol. Very artistic! :)

[dimichan]

and I'm done except a buddy is coding the winampmb.txt for me since the pic needs scroll bars. Cursors are relatively plain, just simple silver, mainly because I figured the colors would get lost in the skin.

Yeah, except for the stacks, which I managed to label clearly in the pressed state, this would be a bit of a problem for a beginner, I expect I'll lose points for that, but oh well, win some, lose some :p

And thanks, I should be publishing this within about an hour tops - at least this initial version; I'm anticipating the "Awful!" from our viral compadre already :p

Thanks! ^_^

[dimichan]

Uploaded at 1001 and devart and queued at winamp :D now that was a real skinning frenzy there for me, time to give photoshop a brief rest and catch up with everyone else now!

[Mr Jones]

The copy at 1001 has no posbar.bmp in it, at least the one I downloaded five minutes ago didn't..


PM sent as well...

[dimichan]

GAAAH!!! Thanks and fixed. Not quite sure HOW that happened but it's fixed now.

[dam]

Dled + reviewed.

[dimichan]

Thanks!!! ^_^ apparently there were too many working parts for our viral friend :p

[Jellby]

Jellby: You lucky, lucky bastard.
dimichan: What?
Jellby: Proper little CeO_Virus' pet, aren't we?
dimichan: What do you mean?
Jellby: You must have slipped him a few dollars, eh?
dimichan: Slipped him a few dollars? You saw him trash my skin!
Jellby: Ohh! What wouldn't I give to have my skins trashed! I sometimes lie awake at night dreaming of having my skins trashed.
dimichan: Well, it's not exactly friendly, is it? He told I neglected the buttons!
Jellby: Neglected the buttons! Ooh oooh oh oh. My idea of heaven is to be told that I neglected the buttons... just for a few times. He must think the sun shines out o' your arse, gal.
dimichan: Oh, lay off me. I've been put down!
Jellby: You've been put down?! I've been thrice! He only read the description yesterday! And he didn't even give a reason!!!!

Now, guess the movie ;)

[dimichan]

*falls to floor laughing* Oh man... well, he's good for one thing, and that's a running humor section, just as well we don't take him seriously :p :D

The movie... uhhh... *scratches head* I'm not good with movies... but that sounds like an MST3K skit!

[dimichan]

PS... can someone refresh my memory on file reduction in imageready??? I wanted to make pic in sig my avatar, but it's about 1/3 too big at the moment and the steps I went through last time just reduced it from 50k to 31... thanks!

PPS speaking of file reduction... apart from decreaser, which will help me little to none this time since I can't use it on the eq... *cough* yeah, I still don't know how to reduce my file sizes without losing quality :o

[not in santiago]

*Reporting from a marathon work session, winampless, and eyes propped open with toothpicks*

I wish I could download this right now. It looks great! All the buttons are integrated smoothly, and I love how you changed the bg from grey to green. :up: :up:

And I like the title too! :p :D


(And apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?)

:D :D :D

[dimichan]

Was wondering where you'd gotten to! And thanks for the title suggestion as well, it seemed more appropriate the more I went on :D

[not in santiago]

You're welcome . . . I'm glad you used it! :D

I know, I know, I haven't been around a lot. I wish I could have helped out in the latter stages, but I've been busier than usual as of late. Hopefully I can plague this board with greater regularity in January. Until then, I'll be rushing about like mad, traveling and doing snow dances in between. :)

[StillWater]

Originally posted by dimichan
PPS speaking of file reduction... apart from decreaser, which will help me little to none this time since I can't use it on the eq... *cough* yeah, I still don't know how to reduce my file sizes without losing quality :o there's a whole section on it in my tips & tricks tute. If you think of something else, tell me so I can add to it. :)Originally posted by dimichan
*falls to floor laughing* Oh man... well, he's good for one thing, and that's a running humor section, just as well we don't take him seriously
It doesn't speak very well of my gender that, although Ceo's gender has (as far as I know) never actually been revealed explicitly, none of us have a shadow of a doubt that someone that stupid could be anything but male :weird:

[dimichan]

I know, I know, I haven't been around a lot. I wish I could have helped out in the latter stages, but I've been busier than usual as of late. Hopefully I can plague this board with greater regularity in January. Until then, I'll be rushing about like mad, traveling and doing snow dances in between.

Well it's good to see ya back! :D

there's a whole section on it in my tips & tricks tute. If you think of something else, tell me so I can add to it.

I didn't even think to check that, and that's AFTER I read the whole thing the other day, spark of brilliance that I am :o

It doesn't speak very well of my gender that, although Ceo's gender has (as far as I know) never actually been revealed explicitly, none of us have a shadow of a doubt that someone that stupid could be anything but male

Look at it this way - he sure makes the rest of you guys look good! :D He still thinks I'M a guy too apparently, btw :p

[Ch33zels]

until very recently i still thought you were a guy :p:D


great skin btw, love the flowers :D

[xenosomething]

Originally posted by dimichan
He still thinks I'M a guy too apparently, btw :p

i didnt know!!...

cough,cough.....ahem.

:D

[Jellby]

Originally posted by ¤db¤
It doesn't speak very well of my gender that, although Ceo's gender has (as far as I know) never actually been revealed explicitly, none of us have a shadow of a doubt that someone that stupid could be anything but male :weird:

It doesn't speak very well of the other gender either, a gender that can fall in love with people like that :D
By the way, I'm thinking he's black too. His last reply was "are you a racist?", when I was asking him to give the reasons why he doesn't like a skin... :confused:

P.S. Sorry for the off-topic. Great skin this one :)
P.P.S. Erm... I hope nobody misunderstands me, the colour of his skin has nothing to do with his stupidity.

[StillWater]

Originally posted by Jellby
By the way, I'm thinking he's black too. His last reply was "are you a racist?", when I was asking him to give the reasons why he doesn't like a skin... :confused:Yeah, I saw that, though I had no idea where the "are you a racist?" thing came from. Incidentally, I think it's funny that he, on the one hand, is so ridiculously patriotic, and goes on and on about how USA is the best country in the world! USA! USA! USA! wooo-hooo! We R the Best! etc. etc., and on the other hand, represents his nation by being so dumb, rude, crass, thoughtless and slow. (If he was Polish, I would be geniunely embarassed). If I was small-minded, he would so diminish my opinions about Americans. Most nations seem to be if not indifferent, then contemptful of Poles, but Ceo would almost make me feel flattered that it's the Americans who tell the most Polack jokes, if you know what I mean.......thankfully, I'm not small-minded, and there's an abundance of intelligent and civilised Americans in the skininng community to totally outwieigh Ceo's example, but Ceo's not doing his beloved "Best country in the World" any favours...

[dimichan]

That reminds me of a friend of mine who went to Germany for three years with her husband, who was in the army... When one of her parent's German friends asked her how she was doing learning the language, her response was basically "if they want to talk to me, they can speak English" That seemed to typify the "ugly American" egotistical attitude. I expect someone coming here long term or permanently to learn my language or at least make the effort, I'd expect the same of myself going to theirs, for me it's that simple. It's a simple courtesy and respect thing. And one of my pet peeves :p

[dam]

A recent surey showed that 30% + Americans couldnt locate countries that figure almost daily in the news like Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iraq, Israel.
25%+ Americans couldnt locate Mexico, Canada, France on a map.
13% Americans couldnt locate the US on a map :igor:.
Ceo must have contributed to that survey.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Americans and I hate making generalisations, I just hate the "US is the world" type of people. It only takes a few people to spoil a country's name.

I dont think languages are a problem. I hate learning new languages, but that's cos I live in a country that unoficially has more than a thousand languages. So anyone who wants to have an intelligent convesation with me has to do it in English. Having said that I do make an effort to speak the local language and as a result I now speak 7 languages. :)

[FooMonkey]

you can't trust surveys...
people that do surveys such as the one you cited purposefully seek out people that look like idiots...kinda like Jay Leno's candid interview surveys (for those of you who don't know, he goes around crowded places asking the dumbest people he can find "What is condensation?" or similar questions and everyone at home and in the audience laughs when they say "When you take a cold shower" or a similar response.)
not saying that the people that do these surveys are evil whatever, it's just people have a natural tendancy to, in a random survey sitiation, select people who look as though they would answer in the surveyors favor.

if you wanted a fair survey, you would have to survey all Americans, which is quite near impossible

[dimichan]

Originally posted by dam
I dont think languages are a problem. I hate learning new languages, but that's cos I live in a country that unoficially has more than a thousand languages. So anyone who wants to have an intelligent convesation with me has to do it in English. Having said that I do make an effort to speak the local language and as a result I now speak 7 languages. :)

My point exactly, you made the effort, which is courteous :p Unlike her "I'm better than you, use my language" attitude, which annoyed me :p

[dam]

I agree, survey are quite often stupid but I can speak from personal experience. I did spend a year in the U.S and it wasnt a good experience. Some annoying questions I was asked :
Do they have cars in India? me : No we still use carts. :igor:
Why don't you wear a turban? me : I dont know any person who does.
Why dont't you speak in that weird accent shown on TV? me: Um its TV
Do you know yoga? me:????????????
Do you worship cows? me: yea and I have an idol of George Bush sitting right next to it :rolleyes:

And a lot of silly questions on similar lines. All those questions were from Ceo type people.

dimichan : Hmmm youre right.

[xenosomething]

Originally posted by dam
13% Americans couldnt locate the US on a map :igor:.

are you gonna believe that 28,874,287 americans dont know where america is?

america is a dumbass...but i'm pretty sure we know where we are.;)

[Jellby]

Have they carried out the same surveys in other countries? I guess a similar percentage of Spaniards don't know where Spain/Afghanistan/France/Ireland is, and similarly with other countries.

[dam]

LOL. Just proves how useless surveys are. I dont think America is dumbass but like I said, it just takes a few people make or break the opinion of a person.

[StillWater]

You're right about surveys being biased, but that doesn't apply to random telephone surveys which is the most common way of conducting them.

But anyway, stupid people or not, I would bet that it would be almost absolutely impossible to conduct a survey here in Australia and find that 13% can't locate Australia on a map or 25% can't locate New Zealand - no matter how stupid the people you sought out were. As long as these people had a Primary (Elementary) level of eductation, there's just no way they could not point out Aust. or NZ on the map. And that's not because Americans are stupider, but because the American culture is much more hermetic and 'self-sufficient' so to speak - so that people who never learnt where Mexico was, even if they are only slack-jawed yokels, can actually exist. The culture is so hermetic, that (if my facts are correct) 25% of Congress have never even been outside the US or Canada.

Anyway, it's not just slack-jawed yokels: My step-brother, who lives in Sweden, went to England, and met an American girl there who had come to live in England for a while. He asked her if she could find Sweden on a map of Europe, she couldn't, so - ok, could she find France? - no, she couldn't, despite the fact that she was going there soon. ok - then, could she at least find England? - she had big trouble finding it, despite now living there. So, ok, could she identify any European countries? Well, she knew Italy was shaped like a boot...
The thing is, this wasn't a coal miner, this was an intelligent girl who was mid-way through a college degree. He'd had a very intelligent conversation with her earlier (about American issues).


dimichan: yeah, that kind of attitude is sadly the stereotype. Here, opnions about America and Americans vary, from the very negative to the very positive. But as for American tourists - almost everyone (even people who like Americans and even people who don't like to generalise) has the same image in their mind: that of the loud, rude, obnoxious, and annoying couple that is more likely to eat hot dogs and burgers and other garbage throughout their entire stay than sample some of the local food (and Melbourne has more restaurants per capita than any other city in the world - so there's loads to choose from) - again, a case of a few bad apples spoiling it for everyone....

[not in santiago]

One of the funniest pieces of television I've ever seen was a short segment that used to run on the Canadian news satire show This Hour Has 22 Minutes. It was called "Talking To Americans" and it was a very simple concept. Host Rick Mercer would travel across the States and ask Americans questions like:

"Do you think Canada should legalize insulin (or VCRs or daily newspapers)?"

"Do you think Canada should have a navy despite the fact it's landlocked?"

"Are you in favour of the Toronto polar bear slaughter?"

Americans are always happy to chip in and give their two cents worth. It's incredibly funny. As the series progressed, Rick Mercer thought he'd be a bit more fair and set his sights higher. He began visiting university campuses, among them, Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Berkeley.

An exerpt:

Professor at Columbia University (while signing a petition asking the same): I demand the government of Canada discourage the tradition of placing senior citizens on ice floes, leaving them to perish.

Mercer: How long have you been teaching here?

Professor: Nine years... History.


A few other coups:
- getting the Governor of Arkansas to congratulate Canada on preserving its National Igloo

- getting the Governor of Iowa to congratulate Canada on switching from the 20 hour clock over to "American Time".

- (perhaps the most famous one of all) getting George W. Bush to thank "Prime Minister Jean Poutine" for supporting his presidential bid. (FYI, poutine is a snack consisting of french fries, cheese and gravy and Canada's PM is actually Jean Chretien.)

I, of course, don't think Americans are stupid. I do believe there's a lot of miseducation and a profound lack of international coverage when it comes to news reporting & the media. I don't think most Canadians expect Americans to know tons about their northern neighbour. Still, it hurts just a bit to hear people on the street saying they're in favour of bombing Lucien Bouchard, or the mall of West Edmonton, or Saskatchewan.

I think this is my roundabout way of saying to dam, "You think that's bad . . . ?"

P.S. - Here's (http://www.angelfire.com/celeb/rickmercer/elmstreet.html) an article about Talking To Americans written by Rick Mercer

P.P.S. - I think my frustration lies not with Americans, but with America, i.e., all the institutions and politics.

[dam]

Originally posted by not in santiago

I think this is my roundabout way of saying to dam, "You think that's bad . . . ?"

At least they havent called you a terrorist.... yet. :D

[Jellby]

Originally posted by ¤db¤
But anyway, stupid people or not, I would bet that it would be almost absolutely impossible to conduct a survey here in Australia and find that 13% can't locate Australia on a map or 25% can't locate New Zealand - no matter how stupid the people you sought out were.

I guess that's mainly because people recognize its silhouette, since it's an island and easy to locate. I could find Australia in a map earlier than Mexico, Argentina, Mongolia or Poland. Your other reasons are true, but this is a factor.

And... may I ask not not say "America" when you mean just a part of it? There are many countries in America, there are some other countries in North America, there are even more "United States" in America and in North America! When are they going to find a name for their country? :D

[xenosomething]

http://www.watchingyou.com/stupidamericans.html

i did a google search for "stupid american tourists"

[StillWater]

hehe, an ex-girlfriend of mine went to the States when she was a kid. Admittedly, her American classmates were only 10 - but she had no trouble convincing them that they drove to America from Australia over the Trans-Atlantic Highway, that her teenage brothers wrestled Crocodiles before school daily, and - of course - that they rode kangaroos to school. :D

NIS: that's beautiful! :blah:

Jellby: But they are Americans - there's nothing else to call them. You can call the country USA, but you can't really call the inhabitants anything other than Americans - that word is just another thing that the Americans didn't own but claimed for their own anyway, like Budweiser Beer or apple pie :D It's like people from Holland can only really be nowadays reffered to as "Dutch" - all because Americans confused Dutch Settlers with Germans ("Deutsch") many years ago.

OK, fun was had, but I think I've bagged Americans enough :D I trust everyone understands that I was bagging ignorant Americans like Ceo, not intelligent and at least somewhat educated ones like most of you guys seem to be...

[FooMonkey]

I thinks it not more that Americans are generally less intelligent than other people, I think it's just when you meet someone of normal intelligence, they don't really stand out to you, but when you meet someone stupid (or even hear about them) it does stand out and you remember it. So you forget you ever saw an intelligent American and think all Americans you've ever know are stupid.

originally posted by db
hehe, an ex-girlfriend of mine went to the States when she was a kid. Admittedly, her American classmates were only 10 - but she had no trouble convincing them that they drove to America from Australia over the Trans-Atlantic Highway, that her teenage brothers wrestled Crocodiles before school daily, and - of course - that they rode kangaroos to school.
yeah, but don't 10 year-old kids of most countris also believe in a figure similar to Santa Claus who brings them presents, or stuffs candy in their shoes, etc...? all 10 year-olds will believe anything...not just American 10 year-olds;)

[StillWater]

Originally posted by FooMonkey
I thinks it not more that Americans are generally less intelligent than other people, I think it's just when you meet someone of normal intelligence, they don't really stand out to you, but when you meet someone stupid (or even hear about them) it does stand out and you remember it. So you forget you ever saw an intelligent American and think all Americans you've ever know are stupid. You've got a point that the stupid ones make a more lasting impression. But no one is saying that America has a larger proportion of stupid people, just that your culture is much more hermetic than those other many other countries. There are many reasons for this (many of them good things): US is large, it's powerful, it's geographically secluded, it's largely self-sufficient, it hasn't been involved in numerous military and cultural conflicts with adjacent neighbours, it excels at many of the sciences and arts, it creates loads of its own books, movies, TV programmes, its favourite forms of sport are forms invented in the USA (except Basketball), it speaks the International language of English, it has many immigrant groups, but they assimilate fairly easily...you don't need to know as much about the outside world as most other people do.

The average European (city-dwelling, at least), on the other hand, comes from a country with several immediate neighbours, with strong cultural and historic ties with a dozen more (often including non-European countries); she probably speaks 2 or more languages, her favourite form of sport is probably one which is very international, unlike NBL, NHL, NFL, or the so-called 'World Series' baseball; she probably watches mode foreign films than the average American, she's most likely travelled to different countries many times, and to many different countries, possibly even on a regular basis, she has a sound understanding of how the cultural, artistic, and scientific circles in her country are closely intertwined with those from other countries. When she goes into the centre of her city, she is surrounded by this. Depending on where she lives, she will see how her city has changed, and is constantly changing through outside influences; If she's in Portugal, she could see Moorish and Roman buildings, if she's in Czech Rep, Baroque and Rococo, if she's in Poland, Teutonic Gothic and Russian, if she's in Hungary, Ottoman Turkish...she even sees it in people's faces, Mongolian Tartar features in Polish faces, Slavic ones in German faces, Turkish ones in Italian and Greek faces, Spanish ones in Welsh and Irish faces, Nordic ones in English faces, etc. etc.

In short, she's surrounded by other nations wherever she looks. Americans aren't surrounded by other nations like this (you have many immigrants, but most of these are assimilated or assimilating 'new Americans' which is somewhat different). They produce so much of their own culture that, comparitively speaking, very little of other cultures seeps in. Americans aren't stupid, and Americans still have access to much knowledge of other cultures and nations, but they need to make more of a concerted effort than others to get this knowledge, I guess. Dammit, got carried away again when I should have been doing something more productive :/

[dimichan]

Very true, many people I've known have never been to even many other STATES, let alone countries. My parents were both Scottish, and I was born in Canada; I have relatives in Scotland, England, and Belgium and have travelled a good bit with my family growing up, actually lived in both Scotland and England and attended a year or so of school there, and I'm very much the exception and not the rule. One of two things seems to tend to happen when people immigrate here recently, either they assimilate almost seamlessly, or form little closed communities, neither of which really has much effect on the neighbor next door so to speak. And most people here have no intention of leaving their little world and don't really make the effort to understand or know much about other cultures, customs, and languages. I like to cook and experiment with foreign dishes, plus I'm an avid reader, to me differences are more points of interest than points of separation, but like I said, I find myself in the minority sad to say.

[StillWater]

yeah, it's strange...the way immigrants assimilate in the US is different to how they assimilate here, and I don't really know why. We don't really have ghettos, and not even many 'precincts' to speak of - people assimilate here much more readily it seems. This is not necessarily a good thing. I mean, ghettos are bad, but total assimilation is also bad - but I like to think that most cultures that come into Melbourne bring something to Melbourne culture, rather than just being swallowed up by it whole. There are 60,000 or so Poles in Melbourne, but a great many of them assimilate seamlessly, and many Poles here unfortunately lose their language even after the first generation. This is much different to the Polish situation in places like Toronto or Chicago, where the Polish communities are much stronger and more centralised (though albeit much bigger). Poles assimilate easily partly because they look similar to Anglo-Saxons, I guess, but many Asians ("Asians" as a general term here means East Asians, not people from the subcontinent, as it does in the UK) here assimilate very readily too. The only immigrants who don't assimilate much are the Africans, but that's probably largely due to their relatively recent arrival (principally from Somalia and Eritrea). I guess, the strange thing here is that if any group can be said to keep most to itself, it's the Anglo-Saxons, though mainly those from the richer, more conservative, and more traditionally Anglo-Saxon suburbs. Everyone else kind of mixes every which way. Regardless of nationality, almost everyone has friends or at least aquaintances who are Greek or Italian, everyone knows a Croat or a Serb, everyone knows Asians, Turks....The only ethnic group which really hasn't assimilated, and possibly never will, are the Aborigenes, ironically, since they've been here the longest. In the city, apart from very few exceptions, Aborigenes exist only in low fringes of society. We treat them like shit, we had a policy of removing their infants permanently from their families for "bettering" in the 20th century. We only stopped the "White Australia" policy and gave them the vote in the 70s; still, no one really trusts them or treats them without prejudice, whether or not they would admit it. Our Prime Minister won't officially say "Sorry" for past crimes against them, presumably because he had nothing to do with it personally (though he's quite happy to officially commend acts of Australian War Heroes around the same time - though he had nothing to do with it personally). But we get Cathy Freeman to light the Olympic torch during the Sydney Olympics to pretend to everyone (and ourselves) that everything's hunky-dory. Cathy Freeman is one of the few Aborigenes many Australians have ever seen on TV (to paraphrase a saying: when they drink, they're black, when they win medals, they're Australian). The New Zealanders on the other hand have got a much more admirable relationship with the Maoris, mainly because the Maoris are damn big and were damn fierce warriors, and gave the Anglo-Saxons a solid beating. It's a shame that you need to give people a solid beatingto get treated without excessive contempt and neglect...:mad: