phatty720
for any of you skinners out there (or just modders and resizers like me), if you haven't messed with clipmasks.. i highly suggest it. i made a pretty dope beattap on the pioneer cdj-1000 using a clipmaks. i would post it but that's pointless to post the skin if all i did is change the beattap. i'm planning on doing the 800x600 version of that skin after the denon is done.. does that sound cool?
phatty720
dave
phatty720
dave
Inviato Sat 20 Apr 02 @ 10:51 am
Tommy_2Tall
Sounds cool to me :o)
I haven't even looked into what can be achieved with clipmasks yet.. but basically it just tells the skin engine to "draw this pixel of the graphic but leave this one untouche and show the background instead"?
Seeing an example would be kinda cool too... but I agree; submitting it with just that little change would seem rather lame... I'll sure check out your next submission (I guess you'll be playing around with that feature in the next one to be released?)
I haven't even looked into what can be achieved with clipmasks yet.. but basically it just tells the skin engine to "draw this pixel of the graphic but leave this one untouche and show the background instead"?
Seeing an example would be kinda cool too... but I agree; submitting it with just that little change would seem rather lame... I'll sure check out your next submission (I guess you'll be playing around with that feature in the next one to be released?)
Inviato Sat 20 Apr 02 @ 11:56 am
i didn't understand clipmasks at first either until i started messin' around with it. actually a really good example to see it in use is in jim nordic's jn-silver. if you look at the xml file and the bitmap file you can see how it works.
i've noticed too.. like on the pioneer cdj-1000 of janosch's where i just added the clipmask, for one, i'd lose the song position being used in the inner circle on each desk if i didn't use it. a good way is to think of a donut... without a climask, the whole donut would be colored, including the hole in the middle, with the clipmask.. you can see the blank space (the hole). granted if you make the whole skin yourself you can draw everything the way you want it. but in my case i needed the clipmask. you'll see when i get the chance the resize the pioneer cdj-1000 to 800x600.
i hope this made sense? but probably not.. it's 6 a.m. and i did a good deal of drinking tonight. :)
phatty720
dave
i've noticed too.. like on the pioneer cdj-1000 of janosch's where i just added the clipmask, for one, i'd lose the song position being used in the inner circle on each desk if i didn't use it. a good way is to think of a donut... without a climask, the whole donut would be colored, including the hole in the middle, with the clipmask.. you can see the blank space (the hole). granted if you make the whole skin yourself you can draw everything the way you want it. but in my case i needed the clipmask. you'll see when i get the chance the resize the pioneer cdj-1000 to 800x600.
i hope this made sense? but probably not.. it's 6 a.m. and i did a good deal of drinking tonight. :)
phatty720
dave
Inviato Sat 20 Apr 02 @ 12:06 pm
Tommy_2Tall
Are you talking about Jim's red buttons?
Not to be rude to Jim or anything (he's a great skinner) but personally I wouldn't have used clipmasks there.. the (outer) edges around the red areas are too sharp..
It sorta sticks out... a smoothly red to gray fadeout without any clipmask would have worked better for those buttons; not coloring the whole area but just adding a shade of red just where it was needed...
However.. when phatty720 mentioned beat-taps I started to think about it and I have an idea for a beat-that that is SOOO cool.. :o)
By the way.. can two (for example: button-)elements be overlapping eachother and then be separated by a clipmask?
sort of like placing two sheets of film over eachother and punching out which areas belong to which element(/"film-layer")..
and what happens if they overlap with no clipmask? Will there be an additive blend or just rubbish(=mixed and mashed pixels)?
(That was sort of a hint towards what kinda beattap I was thinking about ;)
I'm pushing the limits as always.. as I said in a post ages ago:
I'm a man(/skinner-novice) with mindblowing plans and ideas :o)
Not to be rude to Jim or anything (he's a great skinner) but personally I wouldn't have used clipmasks there.. the (outer) edges around the red areas are too sharp..
It sorta sticks out... a smoothly red to gray fadeout without any clipmask would have worked better for those buttons; not coloring the whole area but just adding a shade of red just where it was needed...
However.. when phatty720 mentioned beat-taps I started to think about it and I have an idea for a beat-that that is SOOO cool.. :o)
By the way.. can two (for example: button-)elements be overlapping eachother and then be separated by a clipmask?
sort of like placing two sheets of film over eachother and punching out which areas belong to which element(/"film-layer")..
and what happens if they overlap with no clipmask? Will there be an additive blend or just rubbish(=mixed and mashed pixels)?
(That was sort of a hint towards what kinda beattap I was thinking about ;)
I'm pushing the limits as always.. as I said in a post ages ago:
I'm a man(/skinner-novice) with mindblowing plans and ideas :o)
Inviato Sat 20 Apr 02 @ 12:29 pm
Tommy_2Tall
Oh sorry.. hehe.. no need to refer to you as a third person.. didn't see that it was you.. hope you had a good Friday night..
I myself am struggling to be creative with a nice little headache since lunchtime ;)
I myself am struggling to be creative with a nice little headache since lunchtime ;)
Inviato Sat 20 Apr 02 @ 12:34 pm
that's an interesting question... i'm still definitely a newbie at skinning (since i haven't made my own..just modded others). i'm sure one of the real skinners on here has tried something like just to mess around. but if not.. i think that's worth somethin' checkin' out. you should just take one of the bitmap files and try that stuff out. i bet you can get some weird effects. if you try it.. let me know how it goes. i'm curious about that one.
my damn bitmap file that i was modding (pioneer) got freakin' deleted... so i lost what i did to the beattaps. i redid it tho, same scheme.. just different colors. i think the one i lost was a little cooler but the one i just did now is still solid. i think i might resize the denon and pioneer 800x600 versions in parallel now and just realease post 'em at the same time.
phatty720
dave
my damn bitmap file that i was modding (pioneer) got freakin' deleted... so i lost what i did to the beattaps. i redid it tho, same scheme.. just different colors. i think the one i lost was a little cooler but the one i just did now is still solid. i think i might resize the denon and pioneer 800x600 versions in parallel now and just realease post 'em at the same time.
phatty720
dave
Inviato Sat 20 Apr 02 @ 12:36 pm
holy crap... that last post of mine was just a grammatical mess. i gotta stop drinkin' so much.
phatty720
dave
(too lazy to log in)
phatty720
dave
(too lazy to log in)
Inviato Sat 20 Apr 02 @ 12:37 pm
Tommy_2Tall
Hahaha.. skinning when drunk? Isn't that sorta like mixing drunk?
(Generally not a good idea as the alcohol clogs your mind and stops the creative flow of thought..AND it f**ks up your judgement of what's hot'n'not as well :)
But hey.. look who's talking: Mr. "I'm 3D-modelling my first own skin with a hangover the size of Hannover" ;o)
(Generally not a good idea as the alcohol clogs your mind and stops the creative flow of thought..AND it f**ks up your judgement of what's hot'n'not as well :)
But hey.. look who's talking: Mr. "I'm 3D-modelling my first own skin with a hangover the size of Hannover" ;o)
Inviato Sat 20 Apr 02 @ 4:24 pm
Grimm
Only thing about clip-mask though, is I think they add a little more graphics for your computer to handle. So a basic, no frills skin with 0 clip mask may run fine and smooth on a 500MHz cpu (for example). But if you try to run a skin full of clip-masks for every element, that same cpu may run the graphics a little more slower or not as smooth. At least thats what I believe. ;)
Grimm
Grimm
Inviato Sun 21 Apr 02 @ 2:14 am
yeah i can see how a lot of clipmasks can slow it down. i'm only using 2 on the 800x600 version of the pioneer cd-1000. i'm fuckin' pissed cuz i accidenatally deleted the damn bitmap file so i have to do the whole process over again. i really think i have brain damage or something.
phatty720
dave
phatty720
dave
Inviato Sun 21 Apr 02 @ 2:38 am
Tommy_2Tall
Granted... clipmasks may lead to slower/erradic graphics and more pressure on the CPU but I can't resist to try my little idea out for real.. If it shows to slow down the 'puter all make an extra version of the skin with "Deluxe beattaps"..
I've already got 5 versions that need to be done, sixth wouldn't be that bad, especially when that one kicks ass :)
YOU'VE got braindamage?? What about me then?
This weekend I spent about 4 hours on the schematics of my skin and 11 friggin hours modeling in 3D...
..and all I got done in those 11 hours was the basic (round/square'ish) buttons and a front-plate to mount them on :o)
I realized what an utter fool I was when I had spent 3 hours on the loop/cue-buttons which will end up as 30x30 pixel graphics on the final screen :o)
But hey.. I can make KICK-ASS closeups with real-life quality textures and surfaces ;o)
I've already got 5 versions that need to be done, sixth wouldn't be that bad, especially when that one kicks ass :)
YOU'VE got braindamage?? What about me then?
This weekend I spent about 4 hours on the schematics of my skin and 11 friggin hours modeling in 3D...
..and all I got done in those 11 hours was the basic (round/square'ish) buttons and a front-plate to mount them on :o)
I realized what an utter fool I was when I had spent 3 hours on the loop/cue-buttons which will end up as 30x30 pixel graphics on the final screen :o)
But hey.. I can make KICK-ASS closeups with real-life quality textures and surfaces ;o)
Inviato Mon 22 Apr 02 @ 11:42 am
trip_likeido
Sorry, I'm lost .... what are clipmasks ?
Inviato Mon 22 Apr 02 @ 4:23 pm
Tommy_2Tall
Clipmasks are black/white images that are used as a boolean overlay to determine which pixels are part of the background and which pixels should be drawn as part of the button/element in question..
For example imagine a bright yellow background where youv'e placed a big green button... now if you for some reason want to modify that button so that the yellow is drawn on some places where the green element is currently drawn.
To do that just place a clipmap (an image-element the same size as the element to be drawn(=the button image)) over that button.
In that clipmask you draw white pixels where you want the background to show and black pixels where you want the element it self to be drawn.
So if you for example draw every other row of pixels white(/black) in the clipmask the element to be drawn would just be drawn as a separated lines where the background is shown in between.. however, using clipmasks for this seems kinda daft as the original work put into the button would have been in vain since only half of it is shown..
but this is generally the idea that got me working on the beattap I mentioned earlier :o)
For example imagine a bright yellow background where youv'e placed a big green button... now if you for some reason want to modify that button so that the yellow is drawn on some places where the green element is currently drawn.
To do that just place a clipmap (an image-element the same size as the element to be drawn(=the button image)) over that button.
In that clipmask you draw white pixels where you want the background to show and black pixels where you want the element it self to be drawn.
So if you for example draw every other row of pixels white(/black) in the clipmask the element to be drawn would just be drawn as a separated lines where the background is shown in between.. however, using clipmasks for this seems kinda daft as the original work put into the button would have been in vain since only half of it is shown..
but this is generally the idea that got me working on the beattap I mentioned earlier :o)
Inviato Mon 22 Apr 02 @ 5:22 pm
Tommy_2Tall
Hehehe.. hope that made sence?
I see now that I lost my train of thought about 3 times, the whole "background is shown as yellow pixels where you put white pixels in the clipmask of the green button"-idea fled my mind completely :o)
I see now that I lost my train of thought about 3 times, the whole "background is shown as yellow pixels where you put white pixels in the clipmask of the green button"-idea fled my mind completely :o)
Inviato Mon 22 Apr 02 @ 5:56 pm