2008-01-11, 02:03
Hello all,
I've been lurking around here for a while, and recently posting a few questions here and there. I recently started working on my own skin, and I wanted to share some of that design work with you all.
Before I post some images though, let me talk about a few things. I am building this skin for two main reasons. 1) To learn the XBMC skinning engine, and 2) For use here within our household.
It is important to understand that this is being built first and foremost for use here, in my house, and therefore will have certain design decisions based on that. The main one being that this skin is currently only designed for 4:3 standard TV because that is all we have in the house. That said however, once it starts to mature I will be releasing it for anyone else who wants to play with it.
I also should say up front that this skin's design has been heavily influenced by both Xephyr and Fluid.
The goal of this design was to put the media first, and have the UI take as far back a seat as possible while still being functional.
What you see here is all concept work done in Photoshop, although some of this is functional on my test Xbox.
So without further ado...
HOME SCREEN
I absolutely love the Xephyr backpacks, and the Home Screen was designed to make use of that media.
TV SHOWS - TITLE LISTING
This is the view you will see when browsing through TV show TITLES using the Video Library. Everything about this skin is currently designed for library use since that is what we use here.
You will immediately note the lack of pretty much anything except the media content. You don't see it in this shot, but you will in a later one, but there is essentially a hidden menu. Again, the media is the focus of this skin and the UI should be as minimal as possible. It shows itself when needed, then promptly goes away when not. In this view, and all of the library views, pressing the LEFT ARROW will bring up the UI controls for the library. again it isn't visible here but you will see it in a moment.
I'm still not happy with the frame around the selected show, despite having reworked it about 5 times now. Any suggestions on that would be welcome.
TV SHOWS - EPISODE LISTING
Once you have drilled down to the episode list for a TV Show, this is what you will see. Pretty self explanatory. The WATCHED banner of course is only visible on episodes that have been watched. If unwatched, it goes away.
TV SHOWS - EPISODE LISTING 2
Here you can see the hidden menu accessible by pressing LEFT, as well as how it looks for an UNWATCHED episode.
The HOME screen and 90% of the TV SHOW TITLE listing has been completed in the Xbox, and i've taken a break from coding it to work on the rest of the concept work.
I've been lurking around here for a while, and recently posting a few questions here and there. I recently started working on my own skin, and I wanted to share some of that design work with you all.
Before I post some images though, let me talk about a few things. I am building this skin for two main reasons. 1) To learn the XBMC skinning engine, and 2) For use here within our household.
It is important to understand that this is being built first and foremost for use here, in my house, and therefore will have certain design decisions based on that. The main one being that this skin is currently only designed for 4:3 standard TV because that is all we have in the house. That said however, once it starts to mature I will be releasing it for anyone else who wants to play with it.
I also should say up front that this skin's design has been heavily influenced by both Xephyr and Fluid.
The goal of this design was to put the media first, and have the UI take as far back a seat as possible while still being functional.
What you see here is all concept work done in Photoshop, although some of this is functional on my test Xbox.
So without further ado...
HOME SCREEN
I absolutely love the Xephyr backpacks, and the Home Screen was designed to make use of that media.
TV SHOWS - TITLE LISTING
This is the view you will see when browsing through TV show TITLES using the Video Library. Everything about this skin is currently designed for library use since that is what we use here.
You will immediately note the lack of pretty much anything except the media content. You don't see it in this shot, but you will in a later one, but there is essentially a hidden menu. Again, the media is the focus of this skin and the UI should be as minimal as possible. It shows itself when needed, then promptly goes away when not. In this view, and all of the library views, pressing the LEFT ARROW will bring up the UI controls for the library. again it isn't visible here but you will see it in a moment.
I'm still not happy with the frame around the selected show, despite having reworked it about 5 times now. Any suggestions on that would be welcome.
TV SHOWS - EPISODE LISTING
Once you have drilled down to the episode list for a TV Show, this is what you will see. Pretty self explanatory. The WATCHED banner of course is only visible on episodes that have been watched. If unwatched, it goes away.
TV SHOWS - EPISODE LISTING 2
Here you can see the hidden menu accessible by pressing LEFT, as well as how it looks for an UNWATCHED episode.
The HOME screen and 90% of the TV SHOW TITLE listing has been completed in the Xbox, and i've taken a break from coding it to work on the rest of the concept work.