SLIM JIM SKIN-worklog

eric_barcus · 06-01-2008, 02:34 AM

hey, ive started my first skin ideas and i figured id make a work log for how a skin is "born"

The reason im making this skin is to try to keep it as simple as possible and slim, while staying attractive (despite the "current" M$ paint version) i design "work flow efficient" programs for Verizon (not wireless sorry no discounts

) and i want to bring that to my car

all feed back is welcome of course i play on having a bit done by next week ill try to post as many updates as possible with a real "step by step" for my "methods"

MAJOR THANKS TO THE PEOPLE WHO DEVELOPED THE SKIN EDITOR

first step, go get the files from the above sticky "how to skin tutorial"
then draw what you want your skin to look like (i wont scan my prelem drawing)
Take this drawing and map it out in paint program to play with dementions and better organize ideas mine looks like this

Make the test menu_on menu_empty menu_off menu_down files according to the tutorial above, i just copied this file four times and changed the look with a little "spray paint can" and "color filling paint bucket" to simulate the changing of the buttons

then i copied the BMV2 folder renamed it "beef" and placed my 4 files in here so that the defualt menu would be my pictures

NEXT download the skin editor
open it twice ONCE with the ACTUAL BMV2 skin (to see original pictures)
AND AGAIN with the skin you named "beef"
start resizing the Buttons and get it the way you like

then start doing the actual graphics (current stage for me)

tundra2000 · 06-01-2008, 06:10 PM

ummm... this is a good start, but i highly highly reccommend diving into photoshop immediately.

my reasons:
-youre gonna have to use it eventually, unless youre nuts good with MSpaint.
-its much much easier to draw things out, even things like what you have above.
-even just the basics of photoshop are enough to get you by.
-layers allow you to move buttons around! very nice if you dont want to redraw a whole section of stuff...
-photoshop allows you to save in transparency (.png files) if youre into that and want changeable backgrounds.

>>thats really it for now, im sure theres more reasons, but again, very good start on a better tutorial- im just trying to help and save time as a long time skinner....

eric_barcus · 06-01-2008, 06:18 PM

ohh i know, i was already in photoshop when i posted that pic... it was jsut part of planning and i thought it would be "

- funny " if people thought i was going to make a paint skin... maybe i should i can do amazing things in pain when i try haha ill make a paint version too.. its been decited as of this moment lol :hippy:

eric_barcus · 06-02-2008, 01:14 AM

Got some stuff out in photoshop today at work but like none of it, after a long night of thinking im ready for a long night of photoshop...let the tunes play on, and keep me awake

monkeyracer · 06-02-2008, 01:32 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by tundra2000

-youre gonna have to use it eventually, unless youre nuts good with MSpaint.

like this guy:

How to paint the MONA LISA with MS PAINT

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I was thinking the whole time I was reading the post "he's trying to show the process of how he's thinking of laying everything out. Some people scan in pen and paper sketches, some people throw some MS Paint stuff up." I had a feeling he knew photoshop, because, not that it can't be done, but making an entire skin in MSP would be damn crazy.

eric_barcus · 06-02-2008, 02:48 AM

ive seen that mona lisa before and ive seen the guy who does cars...
im going to have to make an mspaint skin arent i... some ones got to do it
it should look like a 5yr old made it thou... i swear ill do it all primary colors too, maybe someone will use it for the backseat "kids" car pc

monkeyracer · 06-02-2008, 08:57 AM

I was already thinking of doing one in paint. hell, I did this in MS Paint:

Ok, I started in photoshop, but had to finish in paint to keep it 8 bit. Basically I had to go over almost every pixel to make sure it was one of the 16 colors I needed to use.

I think we should make one, and I agree that it should look blatently obvious that it was done in MS Paint. But what would be better than just doing it to do it would be to make it actually work well.

monkeyracer · 06-02-2008, 10:02 AM

I took a few minutes to throw something together (No colors, yet) something like this and even more is possible if I took the time to actually do it.

eric_barcus · 06-02-2008, 11:52 AM

haha awesome... i love how we are all thinking about mspaint skins nice one too monkey racer, maybe i should put the slim jim on hold (while im "aquireing" photoshop) and work on the ms paint one cause photoshop elements (first time ive ever had to use this piece of crap) just doesnt cut it

hey quick question for you guys, havent even looked in the forums yet, but i was wondering, when you "mouse over" a button and it changes to the _on position why is it that when you "mouse off" a button it dosent always go back to that off position?
figured id ask a noob question

eric_barcus · 06-02-2008, 12:08 PM

To make this a true work log i should show off some of the $hitty photoshop ideas that i am playing with

First idea menu_on

Second idea

i got both of them done yesterday im going to polish the second one today and get it working smoother, i like that color skeam a bit more too, but since i jsut found my photoshop disc ill prob do another one more close to my ORIGINAL paint one

monkeyracer · 06-02-2008, 12:46 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by eric_barcus

hey quick question for you guys, havent even looked in the forums yet, but i was wondering, when you "mouse over" a button and it changes to the _on position why is it that when you "mouse off" a button it dosent always go back to that off position?
figured id ask a noob question

The mouse over thing is really pretty useless for a touchscreen, unless you use navigation buttons to move through the screen, it came from media car, and wasn't important enough to change.

I like the first "concept" a lot better. The oval buttons are just weird, and not in that "it's supposed to be" kinda way.

I'm still using PS6 and I tried CS3 but I've used 6 for so long, it's not really worth the money for the upgrade.

eric_barcus · 06-02-2008, 12:57 PM

withteh first skin i didnt make the round buttons (i guess i could) bt they came from a freeware site, ive got ps7 installed now on my xp virtual machine (i recently purchased a mac) so ill be able to work more on better looking buttons, what im going to try to do today is going to get one solid gray "curved bar" like in the MS paint preview then make "aqua" buttons sitting in the bar...

the mouse over thing is the menu_down sooo what your saying is no one really uses them any more? and its faster (duh) and easier (duh) to duplicate menu_off as menu_down?

monkeyracer · 06-02-2008, 04:00 PM

I've only got two images per screen;
_Off and _Down. _Down lets you know when you have clicked the button, and that is still used. _On is used for indicator support, but all my IND's are labels, and set with the BYIND command.

eric_barcus · 06-02-2008, 04:06 PM

well now i know ive got alot of reading to do... anywhere i should start thats not in the skin command.txt file

monkeyracer · 06-02-2008, 06:03 PM

I started by reverse engineering other skins. I opened the BMV2 and a few other skins in the editor and kind of learned a little that way. My first skin was the "Triton" skin with different images and the buttons moved around. My newest skin "mAv1c" is a totally different animal.

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