Skinning tutorials for Kodi?
#1
Hi!
I'm looking for some tutorials to learn skinning for Kodi.
Is there something like that? I didn't find any thread about that.
Thanks
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#2
The pinned thread on this page?

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=159476
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#3
I'd like something more detailed...
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#4
lol
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#5
Something funny?
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#6
yup, if you think our skinning manual isn't detailed enough, i find that quite hilarious :-)
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#7
Skinning Manuals are great for those that are technically minded or who can code already. Some people are designers who have skin ideas but can't put them into practice.

Maybe if you didn't change the skinning engine every new version people might be able to make a visual skin creator/skin editor.

Every new version the pool of skins gets fewer and fewer because skin creators are too busy to update them.
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#8
Yes, let's stop progressing because some people don't want to invest the time necessary to develop a skin and expect everything to be point and click.

I started years ago and my coding knowledge was limited to just some HTML and CSS. I was a designer first and invested many many hours in learning to code the skin. If you don't have the time or motivation to do the same, team up with a coder to bring your ideas to life. It's just total nonsense to say the skinning manual is for people who can code already. The articles in there range from total beginner stuff to more advanced stuff. But you can't expect a skinning engine as flexible and advanced as Kodi's to be like Photoshop.

Also, I think there are more skins around than ever but ok.
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#9
Being new to kodi, i have to agree on this. I expected a smooth running mediacenter with a database to dig up cool info about artists whilst sipping on a beverage but ended up with a new not so wife approved hobby ot seems. Most of the time spend with google. Had to dig into python and json for even basic operations. Had to give up on lots of ideas because either the skinning engine isnt on par with what can be expected or the information needed is unavailable. My advice: stick with a skin you like or be prepared for a tour de force. ;-)
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#10
That's uncalled for, the manual provides a means to get into skinning. Nobody is trying to make things harder when creating a skin, look through the changes for Jarvis and you will see many XML files were removed therefore making it easier to submit a completed skin.

This is an open source community, why not contribute by starting a project to create a visual editor/creator and sharing it with others if that is what you feel is holding back a flurry of new skins.
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#11
one reason for changing the skinning engine is it's often needed in order to add new features to kodi.
also we've made several changes lately to simplify things in order to make it easier (less work) for skinners to create a skin.
third and final reason is, those changes are requested by our current skinners themselves.

it's not like we're trying to bully skinners to make it as difficult as possible for them.
most of the time it's even the other way around, it's us skinners telling the kodi devs
they can't do things a certain way as that would cause too much skin breakage.

as for the number of skins, we're a couple of months away from final Jarvis release
and we already have 9 jarvis compatible skins. that's quite a record you know.

if you check the stats, there's certainly not a decline in the number of skins for kodi.
here's an overview of the available repo skins for past versions of kodi:
dharma - 19 skins
eden - 16 skins
frodo - 21 skins
gotham - 26 skins
isengard - 32 skins
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#12
(2015-11-09, 02:20)ronie Wrote: yup, if you think our skinning manual isn't detailed enough, i find that quite hilarious :-)

I'm pretty sure that the skinning manual is very clear and easy to understand for a 6 years hardcore skinner, but for a beginner, it's another business!

I'm reading for a few days the doc - which is split between unlinked wiki pages and threads on this forum - and I think there's absolutely no guideline. On the pinned thread, beginners are broadly invited to play with Notepad++ and Confluence files, just before talking about submitting process... The wiki is a little bit more clear about files and folders naming and functionnalities but the only tutorial I found on this site is a very basic keymap. The rest is a bunch of "how to edit", not a word about creation.

That's why I'm asking something more detailed and more guided, not a set of descriptions scattered here and there. Sorry for those who wrote it, I know it's a lot of work and I thank them for all they did, but I think, as Toben said, that skinning is much like a "tour de force". I'm not surprised that it takes from 6 months to 1 year to do something mostly if the answer a beginner had when he asked for help from experienced skinners is a "lol" Angry
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#13
The best tutorial is to spend time reviewing existing skins and start by modifying one of them. My guess is that is how all of the "hardcore skinners" got started.
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#14
(2015-11-11, 16:03)ShoRyuKen Wrote:
(2015-11-09, 02:20)ronie Wrote: yup, if you think our skinning manual isn't detailed enough, i find that quite hilarious :-)

I'm pretty sure that the skinning manual is very clear and easy to understand for a 6 years hardcore skinner, but for a beginner, it's another business!

I'm reading for a few days the doc - which is split between unlinked wiki pages and threads on this forum - and I think there's absolutely no guideline. On the pinned thread, beginners are broadly invited to play with Notepad++ and Confluence files, just before talking about submitting process... The wiki is a little bit more clear about files and folders naming and functionnalities but the only tutorial I found on this site is a very basic keymap. The rest is a bunch of "how to edit", not a word about creation.

That's why I'm asking something more detailed and more guided, not a set of descriptions scattered here and there. Sorry for those who wrote it, I know it's a lot of work and I thank them for all they did, but I think, as Toben said, that skinning is much like a "tour de force". I'm not surprised that it takes from 6 months to 1 year to do something mostly if the answer a beginner had when he asked for help from experienced skinners is a "lol" Angry

I would say I started my first skin a little more than one year now and took me a week to achieve quick mods of conq, 1 month to get the basics and about 2 more to start using more advanced features. I started from scratch without any coding skills and learned everything by my own with help from people there. And still on it but almost done.

I agree anyone wants to start skinning can be a bit lost and ... right ... it's complex and somehow a challenge. But it's doable. Now I got the code and still use the wiki everyday, I can say it's pretty well done. As an old active skinner for other softwares years ago and skin creators user (not coder), I also was a bit frustrated there was not such a tool to edit mine and I understand you can also be.

BUT ... now I know how the skinning engine works, how it evolves, how the awesome KODI team reactivity is for all skinners requests ... I see no decent way to provide a 'WYSIWYG tool' without rebuilding the whole skinning engine or slowing down the development of the KODI main program and / or skinning engine for it to be compatible with MANY new features developped for users / skinners to get / build always better skins / KODI experience. Moreover, even if a skinning engine refactor was / (is ?) discussed, this could sign the end of all great existing skins easier to upgrade than to rebuild.

I understand Ronie's "LOL" like a "How do you want us to provide you something better since we already tried to give the best" ... and they did.
There's a gap between what you would like (as I did, I admit) to start and what can be provided.
All skinners started from there with more or less coding skills, it's just how much you want to invest in it ... Wink
[Skin] KOver - V1.1.0 Stable (Repo version)
[WIP] ReKOver - Skinning tool project

If I've been helpful or you like my work, hit "THANK USER" button ;) ...
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#15
(2015-11-11, 17:47)Jayz2K Wrote: I would say I started my first skin a little more than one year now and took me a week to achieve quick mods of conq, 1 month to get the basics and about 2 more to start using more advanced features. I started from scratch without any coding skills and learned everything by my own with help from people there. And still on it but almost done.

I agree anyone wants to start skinning can be a bit lost and ... right ... it's complex and somehow a challenge. But it's doable. Now I got the code and still use the wiki everyday, I can say it's pretty well done. As an old active skinner for other softwares years ago and skin creators user (not coder), I also was a bit frustrated there was not such a tool to edit mine and I understand you can also be.

BUT ... now I know how the skinning engine works, how it evolves, how the awesome KODI team reactivity is for all skinners requests ... I see no decent way to provide a 'WYSIWYG tool' without rebuilding the whole skinning engine or slowing down the development of the KODI main program and / or skinning engine for it to be compatible with MANY new features developped for users / skinners to get / build always better skins / KODI experience. Moreover, even if a skinning engine refactor was / (is ?) discussed, this could sign the end of all great existing skins easier to upgrade than to rebuild.

I understand Ronie's "LOL" like a "How do you want us to provide you something better since we already tried to give the best" ... and they did.
There's a gap between what you would like (as I did, I admit) to start and what can be provided.
All skinners started from there with more or less coding skills, it's just how much you want to invest in it ... Wink

You don't understand : I don't want a WYSIWYG tool, I'm just asking for a true tutorial : a set of wiki pages or youtube videos showing how to create a simple skin or at least parts of skin, something like that. It's really more difficult for a beginner to start on any scripting/programing thing by playing on the code of someone else...
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Skinning tutorials for Kodi?0