A Pink Floyd & Syd Barret Skin

wallstreetwalker · Post by **wallstreetwalker** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 11:20 am

i would like to make a Pink Floyd & Syd Barret skin,

i've got "the wall"- fonts from http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/ptr/pflo ... r/wall.zip

as well as very cool icons from
http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/ptr/pflo ... /floyd.hqx
from this amazing floyd site http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/ptr/pfloyd/index.html

Can i use these fonts(not everyone will have them installed) and icons (hqx file)

I 've never made a skin before, so i read the txt help file, but it's really complicated.
- I tried downloading a player skin from winamp, but it drectly asks to install ??, how can i edit it??
-Is it possible to have a folder with all bitmaps, edit all of them and putting it together into a skin, instead of using the program suggested in the txt help, i want to edit almost everything
-what about copyrights?

-it says borders will decrease performance ??, what does this mean?

OR
-is there a step by step tutorial ...

trixmoto · Post by **trixmoto** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 11:38 am

When you download a winamp skin (.wsz) you need to rename it to .zip and extract the archive. However, you'll be missing a valuable file called "Theme.mskn" which is the MM skin. You can however start with the default in MM\Skins\. Then download Theme Editor (it's in the tools section on my website) and you're ready to go.

Copyright is only really a problem with images if you are making money from it. Otherwise it's just free advertising for them so why do they care!?!

You have transparent parts on images so different bits on your skins overlap nicely. If you make these huge then the file sizes are very large when they don't need to be. This is what is meant by borders.

Creating a skin is all about trial and error. Have a play, and let me know if you need any more tips.

wallstreetwalker · Post by **wallstreetwalker** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 11:46 am

The problem is when i go e.g. to
http://classic.winamp.com/skins/details.php?id=146634 and click on download a pop-up screen appears and asks if i want to install,
i searched my pc to see if it downloaded to a temporary folder or something, but found nothing, so i can't even get the file on my pc.

trixmoto wrote: Copyright is only really a problem with images if you are making money from it. Otherwise it's just free advertising for them so why do they care!?!

ok, nobody knows who i am anyway ( or so i hope )

EDIT: i can extract the things from the blue monkey skin

trixmoto · Post by **trixmoto** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 3:26 pm

Instead of left-clicking on the link, right-click and select "save target as..." - this should allow you to save the file on your computer.

wallstreetwalker · Post by **wallstreetwalker** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 4:33 pm

ofcourse

it's a lot of work, making a skin

trixmoto · Post by **trixmoto** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 4:49 pm

Yeah, it takes a while. Especially the first one. But when you get the perfect skin, working exactly the way you want, it's brilliant! And with MM always improving, once you've got the perfect skin, you can use it forever!

rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:33 pm

when you install a skin from the winamp site it sends the skin to the winamp skins folder.

so find the folder for winamp you have the exe in and just go to the skins folder in there and cut the wsz file from there and paste it in to the skins folder in monkey's folder.

also you can try making a new text file in the monkeys folder.

then renaming it to winamp.exe it will be just a plain empty file but the plug ins and skins will find it there and let you install in to the monkey's folders then.

or just right click and save target as like trixmoto already said.

it is hard to make the skins i made several of them but the icons are still getting lighter and lighter each time i make a skin.

it is making me work harder at trying to keep them the normal color this time, and making me take longer to make a skin for monkey. but i hope to get this one done shortly? with my luck though it will be after new years when i get it finished?

Morten · Post by **Morten** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 3:22 am

I agree with you trixmoto. I am quite satisfied with my skin too. The only who doesn't work is the player, but I have been told that this will be improved and totally replaced in 2.6.

Love skinning...

wallstreetwalker · Post by **wallstreetwalker** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 4:14 pm

look, i already managed to change the player's fonts,
(i did this in the font.ini , can i also change the fonts of playlists, tree, ... ?) the ini file looks like

[PlayerTitleFont]
Name=Floydian
Size=8
Color=00000000

[PlayerCaptionFont]
Name=MS Shell Dlg 2
Style=1
Size=8
Color=00000000
OffsetX=5
OffsetY=3

minor problem: this font doesn't has all characters, so some are rectangles.
I'll be very busy the next 2 months, so this skin, will be something for the new year, i might experiment a little more for relaxation though

:

question: What is the coolest thing you have ever done with MM and skins.
(and how) ?

trixmoto · Post by **trixmoto** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:43 am

That fonts.ini is only really for the player. The MM fonts can be changed in Theme.mskn using Theme Editor.

You could also download a font editor (I use Softy) to add the characters which are missing. Then you could include this font (although people would have to install it themselves manually) with the skin.

Well I'm very proud of my Brushed Monkey skin, which is now shipped with MM2.5. I did it with a lot of trial and error, lots of patience, and about 4 different photo editors (why does each one have a different set of tools!?)

wallstreetwalker · Post by **wallstreetwalker** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 11:59 am

hey, i found the fonts thing.

I tried making a nice background, but it is very difficult to use pictures, as people have to be able to resize things and so on.

So i decided to start with a very simple MM, a MS DOS look,

now i found out, i can make the sdb_background_list file as small as i want (it just has to be black), but i was wondering when using no pictures is there another way to change background.

Other question, where can i change the colour of the blue rectangle when selecting a song in this list ?

thanks alot

what i've got is (not much):

@Trixmoto PS: the brushed steel skin is really nice,
(though the linux-like close,minimize buttons are a bit strange on my windows machine

)

trixmoto · Post by **trixmoto** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 1:02 pm

In the fonts.ini file there are two colours (only in recent versions, like my most recent Brushed Monkey), odd and even. Can't remember the exact names. If you set both of these to black then you won't need any background images!

The blue background on select is covered by an image called "menu2" - if you extract all the images, change this one, and then replace it, it will fix itself. Can't remember where in the theme this image is actually used though.

Nice simple idea though, should look good!

wallstreetwalker · Post by **wallstreetwalker** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 1:18 pm

ok thanks:

*i think i extracted all blue monkey images, but there isn't one called menu2.

*i must have an old brushed steel

trixmoto · Post by **trixmoto** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:34 am

The latest version can be found here: http://trix.dork.com/mm/skins.php

The complete filename (if you extract the .mskn from Brushed Monkey) is "menu2.bmp.png". The top half is unselected and the bottom half is selected.

And in the theme file it is "Objects, ListBox, ItemAdv". "Bitmap" should point to the top and "ActiveBitmap" should point to the bottom.

Hope this helps!

wallstreetwalker · Post by **wallstreetwalker** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:10 am

ok thanks, i was using the blue monkey mskn

i now have this, but the colors stay the same, any idea?
[TrackList]
OddColor=FFFFFFFFF
EvenColor=FFFFFFFFF

[NPList]
OddColor=FFFFFFFFF
EvenColor=FFFFFFFFF

Edit i also tried #000000 and 0X0000000, nothing happens