Kodi Community Forum

// updated 29.07

+ 3 possible Dark *bzzzfree Themes
+ modified Power-Menu (expanded edition)

I can tell you do something involving design for a living. This is really, really good.

Nice.

Great stuff. I'd say the first and third dark mockups are spot on. The second looks a little too dark... almost like an overlay is active.

Keep up the excellent work.

Nice work!

You have a really good eye for design! Love the skin concept and your covers are excellent.

I've been quietly hoping a chosen one would arise to drag the XBMC interface kicking and screaming into the current century. While there are plenty of solid skins out there, nothing really captures that professional sheen of high end consumer products. This is hands down the sexiest concept I've seen on this graveyard of broken dreams and unrealised potential, I just hope it's not buried and forgotten.

I wish you luck on your journey Vaneska, for it will be arduous and full of terrors.

(2013-08-01, 04:35)Jimmeh Wrote: [ -> ]I've been quietly hoping a chosen one would arise to drag the XBMC interface kicking and screaming into the current century. While there are plenty of solid skins out there, nothing really captures that professional sheen of high end consumer products. This is hands down the sexiest concept I've seen on this graveyard of broken dreams and unrealised potential, I just hope it's not buried and forgotten.

I wish you luck on your journey Vaneska, for it will be arduous and full of terrors.

I disagree, and by that statement think you have not really looked around here much. There are many "professional" quality skins. There are amazingly skilled skinners and graphic designers in this community. More so than ANY other home theater app I've ever seen or used... and I have seen and used most, both free and paid apps.

As for Cycle - There is very little is shown so far. Far to little to know if there is anything that will be revolutionary or ground breaking. The few screen concepts look nice but again, there are VERY few elements on display right now, I don't see anything different.

... This is not a negative in any way. Most skins are basically the same layout, menus, navigation, etc with the tastes of each skinner injected - and this is goodness. But there are VERY few skins that are much of a departure from the norm when you look at the core - navigation, layout, etc. Some of the newer skins with "squares" all over the place do navigate differently, but I'm not a fan of those myself.

(2013-08-01, 07:54)Livin Wrote: [ -> ]

(2013-08-01, 04:35)Jimmeh Wrote: [ -> ]I've been quietly hoping a chosen one would arise to drag the XBMC interface kicking and screaming into the current century. While there are plenty of solid skins out there, nothing really captures that professional sheen of high end consumer products. This is hands down the sexiest concept I've seen on this graveyard of broken dreams and unrealised potential, I just hope it's not buried and forgotten.

I wish you luck on your journey Vaneska, for it will be arduous and full of terrors.

I disagree, and by that statement think you have not really looked around here much. There are many "professional" quality skins. There are amazingly skilled skinners and graphic designers in this community. More so than ANY other home theater app I've ever seen or used... and I have seen and used most, both free and paid apps.

As for Cycle - There is very little is shown so far. Far to little to know if there is anything that will be revolutionary or ground breaking. The few screen concepts look nice but again, there are VERY few elements on display right now, I don't see anything different.

... This is not a negative in any way. Most skins are basically the same layout, menus, navigation, etc with the tastes of each skinner injected - and this is goodness. But there are VERY few skins that are much of a departure from the norm when you look at the core - navigation, layout, etc. Some of the newer skins with "squares" all over the place do navigate differently, but I'm not a fan of those myself.

I agree, while its a really nice concept its not the holy grail. Although aesthetically it may be more on point than a lot of current projects you shouldn't be alluded by the 'professional sheen'. IMO... This concept has flaws like any other...

• The main theme is too bright for LED & Plasma, while even on a regular LCD display white fonts are very hard to read.
  
• The font sizes on the info screen and poster view are too small for a 10-foot interface, they're about 22 pt while the minimal font size should be 28 pt.
  
• I would also question the font choice, granted Sans-serif should always suffice but does it track well on a TV at a modest distance? Is it versatile enough for international users (Unicode)? Can you legally distribute it?
  
• Also while the main menu is my favorite it doesn't look very modular in terms of customization, would users have to make their own icons for personal menu items?
  

Overall I like the direction of the concept and I hope it's potential is realised while improvements are made for the end-user.

I was embellishing for dramatic effect of course, and you make valid points. I was really just commenting on all the slightly different variations of "squares", and the sheer volume of concepts on here that are never realised. On the contrary to what Livin said, I read most of what pops up here, and while there are a few promising ideas the time and complexity of skinning keep the mortality rate high.

Of everything I've used and seen so far, this Cycle concept tickles my left brain the most. I'm sure it won't bring us world peace, but it's a step in the right direction.

Well, i for one would be a happy old fart if this concept became reality! This and Arctic would be my main skins for sure.

wow!!!
your posters are effin' sick!!!

i could stare at them for 90 minutes and forget to play the movie.

(2013-08-01, 17:20)Jimmeh Wrote: [ -> ]**snip** the time and complexity of skinning keep the mortality rate high **snip**

Whilst there are perhaps a lot of options in the skinning engine that make it a little daunting to the first time skinner, anyone with basic programming skills should be able to pick it up. In fact, I would say it is actually the simplicitiy of the skinning engine that really adds to the time element of skinning that causes most projects to die. For instance, the lack of classes makes what should be a quick process very time consuming -- e.g. if I want my submenu items to be customisable then I have to code every single one individually rather than simply creating a submenu class that I can send a few properties to create each submenu object. There are includes which help with some of the static properties, but a lot of the time it is object specific properties that are desired. When it's done for the love of free software, time is the real killer.

To OP: are you planning on adding to your album as you make new posters... art is wonderful and would be a awesome if you opened a thread to keep making covers

New Minimal-Posters will be postet on http://foursqr.tumblr.com, i will also add new Posters to the Album. But don't expect any new Posters soon, my free time is very limited atm