This is a question for the skinning community. First of all, I think as a collective you guys have put out a fair number of cool skins over the years and i'm happy to see things being continued with the imminent release of MM4. So thanks!
Now this is my 'issue': There are a number of skins that I would love to use because they look great but they don't have the artwork of the currently playing track embedded in the player. This is a must-have for me personally, which means I cannot use those skins.
I have two questions really:
1) Why do a lot of skins (small majority I'm guessing?) lack this? Do skinners have a reason to opt out on this function? For all I know, I may be the only one wanting this.
2) Is it easy or hard to edit a skin to put the artwork into the player? As a clarification, I have never tried skinning myself and i'm certainly not a programmer, but I can learn to understand how things like that work, provided I have a decent tutorial. So if someone tells me "read this and that, then grab a skin and test it out and you'll be able to do that in an hour or two" I will probably try it out sometime. If on the other hand this requires to learn everything there is about skinning, having to rewrite most of an existing skin, and put a huge amount of time into it, I might decide that it's not worth it.
Finally, I'd like to know what other users prefer and why, artwork in player or not?
Thnx!
Artwork of Now Playing track embedded in player
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Re: Artwork of Now Playing track embedded in player
Two reasons really....firstly, a lack of space in the payer skin. People seem to want smaller players (especially with netbooks, etc.) so space is at a premium...secondly, you have the ability to show the artwork panel in the main library panes and this can be switched between 'now playing' and 'selected' with a right-mouse click. Then there's the artwork displayed in MonkeyRok if you use that. Could possibly be a question of how many images do you really want showing?1) Why do a lot of skins (small majority I'm guessing?) lack this? Do skinners have a reason to opt out on this function? For all I know, I may be the only one wanting this.
It's not that difficult to add/include artwork into a player skin per se, however, you may have to move many other elements around to make space to put it. That's where it could get complicated.2) Is it easy or hard to edit a skin to put the artwork into the player?
Whether you're successful or cock it up, it's well worth the time to have ago (IMO). Have a look at "Fast Newbie's Skinning Walkthrough for MM 3" here: http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.p ... h_for_MM_3 and a more definition oriented guide "How to skin MediaMonkey v3.0 and higher" here: http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.p ... and_higher.but I can learn to understand how things like that work, provided I have a decent tutorial. So if someone tells me "read this and that, then grab a skin and test it out and you'll be able to do that in an hour or two" I will probably try it out sometime.
Alternatively....if there's a skin you particularly like that doesn't have artwork in the player, why not contact the skin author and ask them if there's any chance they could modify the player as a one-off for you. You never know your luck.....
Hope this helps
Lifetime Gold since 2004...the Monkey just gets better and better.
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Skins: NouveauDark : Trilia : eiBox : Nbeat : IceBlue/IceGrey : Diastrom : Magneto : iPhonish : Ultra : Desire & Desired : Aracebo : Abrax : miniMus : Quatx : ND3 : Omia : Origin.X : Track 7 / 8 / 9 : Xpres: OSW8: Enviro1, Enviro2, Enviro3: Electra
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Skins: NouveauDark : Trilia : eiBox : Nbeat : IceBlue/IceGrey : Diastrom : Magneto : iPhonish : Ultra : Desire & Desired : Aracebo : Abrax : miniMus : Quatx : ND3 : Omia : Origin.X : Track 7 / 8 / 9 : Xpres: OSW8: Enviro1, Enviro2, Enviro3: Electra
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Re: Artwork of Now Playing track embedded in player
Coach, thank you for your reply.
Some remarks..
As for showing the artwork in the main window; I use that to show the selected track permanently, whereas I use the player to show the now playing track. that way I have all the visual info I need all the time and never have to switch. Imo, that's the best possible setup.
(too bad the MM4 artwork & detail panel is screwing things up by displaying tabs currently, but that's another issue)
Also, my screen is not big enough for MonkeyRok unfortunately. It's a great script, but it takes too much space.
As for asking the skin author; sure, I could do that and I'm not above it or anything but I prefer to see if I can fix things myself before I ask for help, hence this thread.
Thanks for the pointers on how to skin.
Just one question, would it be possible to embed the selected track's artwork into a player? If so, would it be possible to add both selected and now playing?
Some remarks..
As for showing the artwork in the main window; I use that to show the selected track permanently, whereas I use the player to show the now playing track. that way I have all the visual info I need all the time and never have to switch. Imo, that's the best possible setup.
(too bad the MM4 artwork & detail panel is screwing things up by displaying tabs currently, but that's another issue)
Also, my screen is not big enough for MonkeyRok unfortunately. It's a great script, but it takes too much space.
As for asking the skin author; sure, I could do that and I'm not above it or anything but I prefer to see if I can fix things myself before I ask for help, hence this thread.
Thanks for the pointers on how to skin.
Just one question, would it be possible to embed the selected track's artwork into a player? If so, would it be possible to add both selected and now playing?
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Re: Artwork of Now Playing track embedded in player
No, the art in player can only show now playing art.Onweerwolf wrote:Just one question, would it be possible to embed the selected track's artwork into a player? If so, would it be possible to add both selected and now playing?
MediaMonkey user since 2006
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Re: Artwork of Now Playing track embedded in player
Ok, thnx!
Too bad, no workaround for the tabs problem then. I guess I have no choice but to wait for MM 4.1 before I migrate.
Too bad, no workaround for the tabs problem then. I guess I have no choice but to wait for MM 4.1 before I migrate.
Re: Artwork of Now Playing track embedded in player
Greetings
well CoachUK piont you to the right things,
The only way to show AArt for us skinners , is in the player,
and it can be a bit difficult because of the player background and other elements you have to move ,
but technically not so difficult
I also don't like the Tabs from the Art view,
I think the best would be to ask one of the Script wizards
to create a simple dockable panel that just shows AArt with a hideable panel caption.
well CoachUK piont you to the right things,
The only way to show AArt for us skinners , is in the player,
and it can be a bit difficult because of the player background and other elements you have to move ,
but technically not so difficult
I also don't like the Tabs from the Art view,
I think the best would be to ask one of the Script wizards
to create a simple dockable panel that just shows AArt with a hideable panel caption.
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- Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 5:32 pm
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Re: Artwork of Now Playing track embedded in player
Right, but from what I've gathered in Mantis, the option to hide the tabs in the art & details panel is planned for MM 4.1, so i'm not asking a scripter to do something that will eventually be solved anyway. They are busy enough as it is.DreadM wrote:I also don't like the Tabs from the Art view,
I think the best would be to ask one of the Script wizards
to create a simple dockable panel that just shows AArt with a hideable panel caption.