Blue Devil Skin RELEASED - Page 55

wfs1 · 12-12-2006, 07:48 AM

@John,

They look great!

The blue may be too dark when you see the other two. It doesn't seem to have the depth.

How about Digital Copper or Copperhead Digital and Atlantic Teal, for skin names??

On the Clock, maybe a dark neutral background or a chrome bezel?

PontiacGA · 12-12-2006, 08:18 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by JohnWPB

Woah! I am sorry! I totally missed your question / problem on the previous page. I am glad you did get it working. What was the problem in case I hear of this happening again.

Again, sorry for the oversight, and welcome to the forums!!!

Thats ok and thanks for the welcome.

I firgured I'd work it out eventually. I just had to let my virus program let a few of the RR files through the firewall and everything worked.

BTW, love those transparent backgrounds!! I'll be looking for a redish orange type for my Pontiac.

JohnWPB · 12-12-2006, 08:21 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by wfs1

@John,

They look great!

The blue may be too dark when you see the other two. It doesn't seem to have the depth.

How about Digital Copper or Copperhead Digital and Atlantic Teal, for skin names??

On the Clock, maybe a dark neutral background or a chrome bezel?

Thanks for the input. Yea, I am headed in that exact direction with the clock. I just havent had a change yet to work on it.... actually, I am putting it off, as I HATE working in Flash! I know nothing about it, and it takes me 10x longer to do something than someone that actually knoew what they were doing

As for the skin names, I am just gonna stick with "Chameleon", as it brings multiple colors to mind. I will release the first color, and then work on other major colors. If anyone wants to tackle any other specific or custom colors, I will be releasing the PSD's. Hopefully if someone takes the time to change the colors, they can get it to me, and I will put it with the rest of them.

Changing the colors is pretty easy, but there are 3 different states of the skins, "On", "Off", and "Down" that have to be saved individually. The "On" images with mute indicators, repeat indicators ect. The Down state with "Highlighted" buttons and so forth. In all currently there are about 50 skins, and then have to be saved as the 3 states, coming to around 150 or so total images.

afterdigital · 12-12-2006, 08:22 AM

I'm crying right now...but don't worry....they're good tears.....

afterdigital · 12-12-2006, 08:25 AM

digital copper got a nice ring to it - WFS1

JohnWPB · 12-12-2006, 08:25 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by afterdigital

I'm crying right now...but don't worry....they're good tears.....

I am too, but they are NOT necessarily good tears! I have around 50 images to recreate here.... Its definitely gonna take some time! All of the text on the buttons, icons and other stuff in the skin has that "light blue cast" to them, so they ahve to all be done over again, as well as all the buttons ect.

I have started, and have the menu's, Settings, and GPS screens done so far.....

JohnWPB · 12-12-2006, 08:26 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by afterdigital

digital copper got a nice ring to it - WFS1

I would have most certainly thought you would have liked "Digital Orange" better

Or, as SangreDeThor called it "Electric Tangerine"

afterdigital · 12-12-2006, 08:31 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by JohnWPB

I am too, but they are NOT necessarily good tears! I have around 50 images to recreate here.... Its definitely gonna take some time! All of the text on the buttons, icons and other stuff in the skin has that "light blue cast" to them, so they ahve to all be done over again, as well as all the buttons ect.

I have started, and have the menu's, Settings, and GPS screens done so far.....

OK People, this is not a mandated memo to anyone in particular. We all have been working hard with John in getting Blue Devil Skin rolling for quite sometime. It has metamorphed and continuous be one of the best skins around. Let's take care of the man who's contributing to our rides by contributing back.

Here's looking at you kid.....

jeffreyd_tx · 12-12-2006, 08:35 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by JohnWPB

I am too, but they are NOT necessarily good tears! I have around 50 images to recreate here.... Its definitely gonna take some time! All of the text on the buttons, icons and other stuff in the skin has that "light blue cast" to them, so they ahve to all be done over again, as well as all the buttons ect.

I have started, and have the menu's, Settings, and GPS screens done so far.....

Time for you to dig into photoshop a little bit.

Go to your effect options screen and do a color overlay when you want to adjust colors. That is the quick and dirty and most of the time will produce the outcome you are looking for. I was working on a day/night skin package for awhile and when I want to create the opposite skin, I would just overlay the opposite color that was required. Worked great! PM or IM me if you need help.

turbocad6 · 12-12-2006, 10:02 AM

....either that, or I like doing batches... just record the action it takes to correct it on one screen, then don't save it on that screen, but save it as an action... then you can run this action as a batch on the whole folder.... I've done many different color variations of different skins with this technique... you'd be surprised... play with this... you'll love it... I can change a whole skin from red to blue let's say... in like 5 minutes.... many screens no problem... blacks can be troublesome cause adjusting the hue doesn't work... but there are even ways to work around that.... I love photoshop

sometimes, after doing the batch, you may have to go in & fix any odd looking things, but still this is MUCH less work... play with selective colors too, to just change what you want without altering other colors in a multi colored skin...

JohnWPB · 12-12-2006, 10:07 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by afterdigital

OK People, this is not a mandated memo to anyone in particular. We all have been working hard with John in getting Blue Devil Skin rolling for quite sometime. It has metamorphed and continuous be one of the best skins around. Let's take care of the man who's contributing to our rides by contributing back.

Here's looking at you kid.....

Hehehe Thanks man... It started out as just something fun for myself, and it just kept growing and growing into something more as time goes on. Time is the key here, I do not even want to calculate the literally hundred hours + I have spent on this thing! I am a bit of a perfectionist though, and I guess thats what keeps me plugging away at it

Quote: Originally Posted by jeffreyd_tx

Time for you to dig into photoshop a little bit.

Go to your effect options screen and do a color overlay when you want to adjust colors. That is the quick and dirty and most of the time will produce the outcome you are looking for. I was working on a day/night skin package for awhile and when I want to create the opposite skin, I would just overlay the opposite color that was required. Worked great! PM or IM me if you need help.

Thanks, but the transparency has taken care of 100% of the work in regards to changing the colors. I have 3 background color layers I am using for testing, and to change the color of the skin, I simply "unhide" the background color I want.

What is taking the time, is the original skin is not transparent in the slightest. It is taking time to do the screens again with the transparent buttons, text box areas ect. When that is all done, then it still necessary to manually hide/unhide any indicators that are on each screen and save that as a jpg for Road Runner.

I could have done a color overlay as you mentioned, but that will just change the current colors of the skin. It will not allow for transparency, and thus being able to use any color, pattern, picture or whatever you want as the background of the skin, such as brushed steel, Carbon Fiber or whatever other effect would be wanted.

When the PSD's are all completed, to change the skin color, texture ect, all that will have to be done, is to unhide the color of the background you want (or create a new one) and simply save it as a jpg.

jeffreyd_tx · 12-12-2006, 10:12 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by JohnWPB

Thanks, but the transparency has taken care of 100% of the work in regards to changing the colors. I have 3 background color layers, and to change the color of the skin, I simply "unhide" the background color I want.

What is taking the time, is the original skin is not transparent in the slightest. It is taking time to do the screens again with the transparent buttons, text box areas ect. When that is all done, then it still necessary to hide/unhide the On button state, off button state and whatever indicators are on each screen and save that as a jpg for Road Runner.

I could have done a color overlay as you mentioned, but that will just change the current colors of the skin. It will not allow for transparency, and thus being able to use any color, pattern, picture or whatever you want as the background of the skin, such as brushed steel, Carbon Fiber or whatever other effect would be wanted.

When the PSD's are all completed, to change the skin color, texture ect, all that will have to be done, is to unhide the color of the background you want (or create a new one) and simply save it as a jpg.

Oh, you had mentioned that you have to update all of your text since they had a blue shade to them. The color overlay option would be a quick update for someone who wanted to quickly change the color (for rasterized text) and apply it to their skin.

JohnWPB · 12-12-2006, 10:27 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by jeffreyd_tx

Oh, you had mentioned that you have to update all of your text since they had a blue shade to them. The color overlay option would be a quick update for someone who wanted to quickly change the color (for rasterized text) and apply it to their skin.

Ahhhhh now I see where the confusion was coning into play

Yea, not only the text color, but the drop shadow I used on the text did not work well with the new look. Also while I am doing this, I am cleaning up the icons a bit, and also using a different font to make it a little clearer in the process.

I am actually using actions to create the new buttons with one click, something else I have learned in the past couple days hehe.

The transparency is the key I am looking for here. Changing out the colors has never been much of a problem with an existing skin for me, but this is a whole new creature now.

Here is an example of what I mean with the transparency. Once the PSD's are created again, the transparency will allow effects such as the following example:

This is kinda sorta like brushed blue aluminum. I did that in less than a minute, just as an example:

This was done simply by putting that texturized image in the background of the skin. Once the texture was created it was a matter of like 2 seconds to copy it over, and save it as a jpg.

Here is another example, just a car wallpaper I grabbed from a Google search, no coincidence on the car, I am having serious thoughts on making the Solstice my next car

turbocad6 · 12-12-2006, 11:44 AM

yeah, but now I have a question... are you planning on making the skin transparent & having it call the background, like kpjuk's skin & having it so anyone can change the background just by droping it in... or just doing your transparencies in the psd's & saving regular jpg's to build each skin with a different background? I initially assumed you ment like kpjuk's skin, but I'm not to sure now...

jeffreyd_tx · 12-12-2006, 11:49 AM

Damn I love the way that looks!

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