[Buff]

I'd been using the genre backdrops in MQ5 for some time - which were provided by TBinfection in this post which were excellent, many thanks to him. But there were a few specific genres I needed so thought I would have a go at making my own - using TBinfection's template and photoshop instructions; again many thanks.

I also noticed that there was a bit of overlap of films between genres - which is fair enough, but I use genres as my initial way of searching for a film and have therefore always had each film only have one genre - although this has changed a little recently as I have a Best Picture Oscar genre and a Christmas genre (which overlap others). So I thought I would update each of the genres I use (24 in total) and try as much as possible to keep the overlap of films to a minimum and naturally a few newer films have also been included, since the original backdrops were done in 2010 I believe.

A lot of them might be a little personal - what I mean is what I consider to be a science-fiction movie others might consider to be horror i.e. Alien etc... The Stand Up genre has got quite a good mix of US and British stand-ups I think, but it is a little limited (as all of these backdrops are based on my own library) and the Concert genre is very much leaning towards rock music as that is what I'm in to. The Classic Horror genre is made up of mainly Hammer Horror and the old Universal films of the 30's & 40's and the Sherlock Holmes one is heavy towards the Rathbone era.

Unfortunately, I can't code, skin or help develop anything for Kodi, but hopefully somebody might like these and use them.

watch gallery

I'm also utilising Xzener's movie genre icons, so the overall look of my genre pages is something like this (using the excellent Aeon MQ5 skin);

[Dr_IT]

Hi Buff,

Nicely done, with these updated versions.
Do you maybe also offer these genres in different colors like TBinfection did?

And maybe a feature request: would be nice to have a general Movies background (so with all kind of genres in it) to use as main background for movies section. Till then (or never ) the animation will do as kids section and i will choose a genre which will come close for movies

Mark

[PatK]

I'd love to see this as a set of images that slowly animate between thumbnails as if the channels on each box were switching instead of the entire page. Some skins allow for slide show multiple images for the home page, imagine what they would like like if only some of the thumbs changed and the basic background and a few of the thumbs stayed the same.

[Gade]

Hi Buff.

Hope it's ok with you that I have submitted an image resource add-on to the official repo containing some of your images.

This way, the backgrounds will be available from within Kodi

Cheers
Gade

[Buff]

Hi Buff.

Hope it's ok with you that I have submitted an image resource add-on to the official repo containing some of your images.

This way, the backgrounds will be available from within Kodi

Cheers
Gade

Hi Gade, just replying after over 5yrs!! Sorry, I hadn't actually realised anyone had replied to this and didn't know until a week or so ago that these had been added to the official repo.

I've updated all the genres (that I use) and added a few more, so there are now 34 in total - tried not to have many replicas; I use genres to search for films, so therefore there shouldn't be any overlaps, apart from extra genres like Animation, with the Disney or Pixar genres I've done. I've added an Adventure genre (which is basically the previous Fantasy) and a Disaster genre, which may have some duplicates, but nearly all genres have a few newer (since 2016) movies to keep them updated.

Is it possible to have these all added to the official repo as a collection - mainly because I don't know how to set a genre background in Kodi; I used to know but I think things have changed since 2016!! So it would be easier to simply download it. No worries if not, I'm sure I'll work it out.

Hope these are of interest/use to some others out there.

Many thanks

watch gallery

[Gade]

Hi @Buff

Thanks a lot for reaching out.

We have 3 wall style genre fanart packs in the official repo: blue, grey and red.
Sounds really great that you have updated all the fanart backgrounds. Thanks for spending time on this.

Should we add these to the repo as a new collection?
I see that they are far darker grey as the previous ones.

Old 007 background:


New 007 background:


Also, the new ones have a .jpeg extension instead og .jpg.
Maybe it's possible to save as .jpg instead?

To set a genre fanart background in Kodi, the skin you use need to have added support.
In Rapier skin: Skin Settings > Backgrounds > Select movie / TV show genre background pack
In Estuary skin: Skin Settings > Artwork > Select genre fanart pack

Thanks again.

Cheers,
Christian

[Buff]

Hi @Gade 

Thanks for your reply - yes, I preferred the darker grey ones personally, but I've just redone all in the Light Grey, Blue and Red. The Red might not be exactly the same colour as the original ones though, but the others should be.

I've also updated the other genres that you had in the original packs (Shorts, Independents, Kids, TV etc...) so there are now 52 genres in the four colours (although some are just different names i.e. Science Fiction, Science-Fiction and Sci-Fi etc...)

Happy for you to add as a new collection or replace the previous ones - if that doesn't step on anyone's toes.

All are .jpg and are in the imgur gallery below or I can post/send you a zip file if that is easier?

Hope they are of interest and use for people out there.

watch gallery

[Gade]

Hi @Buff

Thanks so much for doing this.

If you can PM me a Wetransfer or something similar containing folders with the images, it is by far the easiest.

I think we should update the existing addons (red, grey and blue) with the new images and create an additional addon: Dark Grey.

A thing I noticed is that the reflections are more faded here. I think it's a good choice, but maybe a bit too much faded now? Something in between?
Especially in the red versions, the reflections are almost not visible.

You're right about the red versions.
Would it be possible to make the top center less bright? Then I think they will match the old ones better.

[Buff]

Hi @Gade

No problem at all, I'll PM you a link shortly.

You're right about the reflections being more faded, but I have no idea why as I'm using the same original Photoshop Action (Joeys Video Wall) that was created many years ago - the only thing that has changed (to my knowedge) is an updated version of Photoshop. I've requested access to the file again from TBinfection, just to see if anything was changed, but I don't think so.

I've tried to work out how to change the reflection transparency or opaqueness in the PS action but can't work out how to do it unfortunately - not that knowledgable with such things I'm afraid!!

If you're happy with the attached images feel free to use them/add them to the repo - I've added a Mystery genre this morning (which I had missed before).

Many thanks

[Gade]

Hi @Buff
Thanks a lot for all the great work.

I created an addon for dark grey genre fanart: https://mirrors.kodi.tv/addons/leia/reso...dark-grey/

Is it possible for you to send me the Photoshop action?
Then I'll take a look at it.

[Buff]

Hi @Gade 

Sorry I haven't replied to your PM - no problem, I'll send over the PS action link shortly. Tried again myself to figure it out or start from scratch, but beyond me I'm afraid!

I was also trying to work out how to create new genres to add to Xzener's icons - there used to be a template, but I can't find it anywhere online, you don't happen to have it do you?

Many thanks