[braz]

mim·ic
1. To imitate
Synonyms: resemble, look like, have the appearance of

watch gallery

Introduction

Users of this skin will quickly see the resemblance to two of my favorite skins, Aeon Nox and reFocus. Even as Mimic borrows from both of these skins, my hope is that it will develop into its own style over time. Many thanks to BigNoid for his work on Aeon Nox, on which this skin is based. I've used many of the available skins since discovering XBMC/Kodi, but always returned to one of the Nox variations for its feature set and clear navigation. Also thank you to Jeroen, creator of reFocus, whose clean design and attention to detail were an inspiration for this skin. Mimic also borrows some of the great views from reFocus such as Gallery and BigList.

Required Addons

These addons will automatically install when installing Mimic from the repository.

• script.grab.fanart
  
• script.skinshortcuts
  
• service.library.data.provider
  

Supported Addons

• Artwork Downloader
  
• Artist Slideshow
  
• TV Next Aired
  
• Global Search
  
• OpenWeatherMap Extended
  
• ExtendedInfo *thanks to Steveb
  
• cdART Manager Helix
  
• Rating Update
  
• CU LRC Lyrics
  
• RSS Editor
  

Color Themes

Color themes can be created with just a color.xml. Mimic includes the following colors: Blue, Brown, Mauve, Purple, Grey/Orange, Green/Yellow, and several variations with black backgrounds. Feel free to share if you create any additional color themes.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I activate Extended Info for movie/tv show cast members?

Press down from the selected cast member in the video info dialog. I tried making it activate Extended Info when clicking the cast thumb, but never could get the list to scroll smoothly.

Languages

Mimic is now on Transifex. Sign up to translate the skin strings into your preferred language.

https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/xbm...kin-mimic/

Download/Install

Mimic is now available in the Kodi repository. The source is available here (Helix versions located in the Helix branch): https://github.com/braz96/skin.mimic/tree/helix

If you would like to express your appreciation for this skin, please consider a donation to the XBMC Foundation. http://kodi.tv/contribute/donate/

[stueeey]

@bryanbrazil - just wanted to show my appreciation, really nice simple clean approach to this great skin - all working great.

Are you planning to add any genre views other than the list view?

fairly new to making skin changes bust fast leaning the .xml... conscious that you don't use widgets and am way off topic (so apologies)... just wondering whether different widgets can be easily be switched/added/created?

...would just really like to know if widgets from say AeonNox 4.1.9 or Aeon MQ5 can be used with this skin (really not a fan of the minimalist AeonNox widget), I have searched and searched for an answer to this question with no luck.

any assistance would be appreciated.

thanks again for mimic (nice re-name).

[braz]

@bryanbrazil - just wanted to show my appreciation, really nice simple clean approach to this great skin - all working great.

Are you planning to add any genre views other than the list view?

fairly new to making skin changes bust fast leaning the .xml... conscious that you don't use widgets and am way off topic (so apologies)... just wondering whether different widgets can be easily be switched/added/created?

...would just really like to know if widgets from say AeonNox 4.1.9 or Aeon MQ5 can be used with this skin (really not a fan of the minimalist AeonNox widget), I have searched and searched for an answer to this question with no luck.

any assistance would be appreciated.

thanks again for mimic (nice re-name).

Thanks! I removed all the icon views for non-media windows (addons, genre, playlists, library). Planning on keeping it this way, so probably just list view. I left the skin setting to set a path for genre fanart, I should take a look and see if that is still needed.

You're right, I don't use widgets. Any widget system can likely be used, it would just have to be coded. It won't be as simple as dropping in the widgets from another skin. I'll take another look at the widgets, though it's not a high priority for me.

Update: After taking another look at genre fanart, decided to remove this feature. Changes pushed to git.

[braz]

Wasn't planning on it, but ended up completely changing the widgets. Not sure if this is what you are looking for, I'm not familiar with Aeon MQ5 and haven't looked at Nox 4 in quite a while. The tradeoff of showing multiple thumbnails is there isn't enough room to show too many details like plot, etc. I also noticed that the Get More... item in the addons widgets doesn't do anything. Checked Aeon Nox 5 and it doesn't seem to do anything there either.

I also changed the weather widget so that it works just like the others. You have to press up from the main menu to activate the widgets. An indicator in the lower right is visible when a widget is available.

The new widgets are available on git. Let me know if you try it and find any issues.

[stueeey]

@bryanbrazil - thank you so much, wasn't expecting you to change the widget ! this new widget is brilliant 10x better than the AeonNox widget... in my opinion a widget should be a visual 'quick' reference to see whats new & in progress and this ticks all the boxes. The only thing I would be interested to know is if I can 'select to play or choose' to bring up the window info screen?

works real nice with up motion to activate and the opacity on the unselected is a nice touch. all in all Love iT ! the widget indicator on the right is a little to disguised in my honest opinion, flicking through the menu's your eye is on the middle menu, just an idea... wondered whether a small up arrow could appear out the top of the central selected menu to indicate a widget is available.

this is the only skin I have found to date that enables truly big beautiful views for a big screen TV. I can only assume that most skinners are probably designing on a screen up close... when in reality most people view Kodi from a big TV set back on a sofa (thats my setup anyhow) mimic works real nice mostly due to the 3x bottom menus, most skins try to cram in 5 or 7 menus at anyone time.

only downside is that this skin keeps getting better ! and the tweaks I make I have to keep re-doing ! lol

I've not checked the weather widget as I just don't use the weather section, sorry.

thanks for all your tremendous hard work !

[KrakenT3ch]

Great work on this skin Top job.

[braz]

The only thing I would be interested to know is if I can 'select to play or choose' to bring up the window info screen?

the widget indicator on the right is a little to disguised in my honest opinion, flicking through the menu's your eye is on the middle menu, just an idea... wondered whether a small up arrow could appear out the top of the central selected menu to indicate a widget is available.

Thanks, glad you like it! I wouldn't know how to code the option to play or show info. Have other skins implemented something like that? I'm thinking it might not be possible.

I like the "up" indicator on the right, will likely leave it there. If you'd like it to show up better, you can adjust the values in lines 10 and 11 of IncludesHomeRecentlyAdded.xml. I have it set at just 30% opacity, you could increase those values. You could also remove the colordiffuse tag, making the image white.

---

Great work on this skin Top job.

Thanks, appreciate it!

[Ned Scott]

I love this. Big, easy to read, and really fantastic use of space. Some of my favorite parts of reFocused blended wonderfully with aspects of Nox. Very nice.

[RavenNL]

Tried it out for a few minutes and looks promising. However (and I dont want to step on your toes) I personally find the main menu a bit boring. I'm a fanart guy so i configurred the main menu that it should show me fanarts of the movies/tv/music etc which works fine. But unfortunately it is not really good visible if you know what I mean (too much blue overlay) and in my opinion it looks a bit boring because every section almost looks the same.

I perfectly understand what you are trying to do but for me it isn't working.


Also I do think that the fixed list option is broke because it wasn't working for me.

Anyway keep up the good work

[spinmaster]

Looks great, very nice skin!

[pagali]

Also I do think that the fixed list option is broke because it wasn't working for me

I just encountered the same problem with the fixed list option. You're right, it doesn't work.

The Main Menu background images are faded out more than I like also. I imagine it would be hard to make that configurable, but... it sure would be nice.

Overall, though, great strides with this skin for Helix!

[braz]

Also I do think that the fixed list option is broke because it wasn't working for me

I just encountered the same problem with the fixed list option. You're right, it doesn't work.

The Main Menu background images are faded out more than I like also. I imagine it would be hard to make that configurable, but... it sure would be nice.

Overall, though, great strides with this skin for Helix!

Fixed horizontal list setting is working here for the main menu and showcase, poster, logo views. Doesn't make much sense for the main menu though since it's only 3 items (focused item only moves for first and last items). Just realized its not configured for other horizontal views like Gallery and Panel, may try to add it for them. Widgets are wraplist only for now.

Where exactly are you seeing it not working?

Home screen fanart will stay as-is. I prefer it over putting shadows behind nowplaying, widgets, and date/weather on the home screen.

Thanks for trying it out!

[baruchin]

How about hardware resources? Is it a heavy load for low resources HTPCs (Raspi, android boxes, etc)?

[sattekop]

Can I try it on Gotham?

[braz]

How about hardware resources? Is it a heavy load for low resources HTPCs (Raspi, android boxes, etc)?

It's based on Aeon Nox 5 and I've taken out quite a bit, particularly textures. But also added new views. I haven't tested it on an rpi or android device, I'm curious to hear what you think.

Can I try it on Gotham?

Sorry, Helix only.