Skin Ideas

[xoas]

I am writing to start a thread for folks who have ideas about skins but who (like myself) lack the time and know-how to act on our ideas to make our ideas more accessible to those folks who have the know-how to work on skins who may be on the look-out for new ideas. This should not be understood as some kind of custom order form. Hopefully, folks who add ideas to this thread will do so with the understanding that what seems like a great idea may not be a very feasible idea. Also, that what is important is to spur creative growth which may, in the hands of a skin designer, take off into areas not contemplated in the original idea.
I'll lay out my first idea in my next post on this thread, for reasons of clarity.
Best wishes,
xoas

[xoas]

So here goes:
I imagine a skin in which the initial screen would be the on-screen control and which would then expand outwards so that the main skin would use the scope or waveform displays radiating outward complementing the main skin as a visual.
Proposal 1: Buddha theme-The initial on-screen control is similar to the mini-control for GoldenAmp with a slide-out display for track information. The on-screen control has access to a volume control and to opening up the EQ. The on-screen control is either aged gold or jade. The EQ screen opens directly below the on-screen control (which remains fixed throughout the various manifestations of this screen). The EQ sliders appear to be tongues of flame. The Main screen opens directly over the on-screen control (which is now acting as a pedestal for the main screen). It is a buddha statue done in the same old burnished gold or antique jade as the pedestal. From behind the Buddha (if you select visualizations) you have the scope or waveform diplays which appear to be radiating either from or around the Buddha like energy fields. Although it would be more fun to see the on-screen control be the first screen displayed, that is not really an esential element.
Proposal 2: Sun theme-The main screen is a stylized Sun with a face. The lips create the slider for track progress. One eyebrow is the slider for volume, the other for balance (or maybe the eyes double as knobs). Again visualizations appear to be generated like rays from the Sun or as an energy field around the Sun. The EQ screen might resemble a some type of astrological chart or star map. The on-screen control might be a smaller moon or a comet. Or the onscreen control might simply be a smaller version of the main skin. Again, to support the effect of transparent rays or energy fields there may need to be a physical frame around the whole thing but you could get creative enough for this to be not fully obvious.
Just some ideas. I'd be glad to discuss these more or to hear about your ideas.
Best wishes,
xoas

[Narler]

Howdy,

Those ideas sound pretty good. I did one skin similar to your sun one but using earth instead (it was called orbit) and there were 4 satellites on the earth, which would "communicate" expand to other screens. I wasn't really happy with the skin, but then again it was made feb'02.

I'm looking towards doing more non square skins now, even though the edges look a bit crappy, the ability to use abstract shapes i think gives depth and another level of character to a skin. (ala billet alloy, i don't think i used a single straight line on that one, oh yea i did, for the top of the remote and sides of the tray control :

A good place to start to make an abstract skin, would be to just start messing around in a picture editor and come up with a base background, like flames, water, ripple etc.

IDEA 01..A ripple skin would look nice, such as a drop of water landing on a pool of water and each ripple created by the drop could be configured as a function for dap. Although being locked into using square/rectangle shaped buttons for dap certainly limits some functionality in that respect.

IDEA 02..What about a Mt Rushmore style, where each face can be used to access different DAP features, which can appear on the rest of the rock wall. (like they have been chipped out/carved aswell)

IDEA 03..Another thought, would be have a satellite view of a town/city and then each skin/window could be of a different view (ie zoom in or zoom out) Topographical Zoom Download this avi I created for a simple example of what I mean (about 1.2mb) I have another example that's 18mb and higher detail so let me know if anyone is interested in that. (oh you will require Div-x atleast version 5.00 installed to view the avi file).

IDEA 04..What about a BRICK wall?.. each brick can be assigned a task/function, and in that brick wall you could have a nice/realistic looking window (colonial style maybe with panes) and all info could be displayed on that where required. the on the latch for the window you could have it open the window, and showing a nice interior (or exterior view) depending on if you're perspective is from inside or outside.

Hopefully that helps.