Supacon
I was curious if any of the skinners out there use vector design software for their skinning. When I did my skin work, of course, I did everything pixel-by-pixel in photoshop, basically, but I thought that it would be slick to do it vector so that it would be fairly easy to move and resize elements to make different screen resolution versions and modifications down the road.
Has anyone tried this approach?
Has anyone tried this approach?
Inviato Sat 01 Nov 08 @ 9:37 am
Tear Em 'Up
This has been discussed by a few of the skin developers. I think, and this is pure speculation, that the expense and learning curve are a bit prohibitive at this time.
Inviato Sat 01 Nov 08 @ 10:20 am
Supacon
You mean the expense and learning curve for you (or any other skin developer) to buy the software (like CorelDRAW) and learn to use it?
Personally I already have software like that and am quite capable with it; I was a graphic designer for many years in the past. The thing that seems prohibitive to me is that I figured you'd basically have to do the same job twice - I see it as unlikely that you'd be able to take your straight vector graphic and export to a BMP and have your skin. You'd have to run it through photoshop and make some tweaks anyways.
I'd be very open to the idea of developing something of a template with lots of controls and knobs and allowing other people to use it to make their own custom skins just by moving elements around and then generating the XML, but I'm not sure who would want to use it.
Personally I already have software like that and am quite capable with it; I was a graphic designer for many years in the past. The thing that seems prohibitive to me is that I figured you'd basically have to do the same job twice - I see it as unlikely that you'd be able to take your straight vector graphic and export to a BMP and have your skin. You'd have to run it through photoshop and make some tweaks anyways.
I'd be very open to the idea of developing something of a template with lots of controls and knobs and allowing other people to use it to make their own custom skins just by moving elements around and then generating the XML, but I'm not sure who would want to use it.
Inviato Sat 01 Nov 08 @ 10:24 am
Tear Em 'Up
Supacon wrote :
You mean the expense and learning curve for you (or any other skin developer) to buy the software (like CorelDRAW) and learn to use it?
Yes, but, I am not a skinner....Format and I have had several long talks about this though..
Inviato Sat 01 Nov 08 @ 10:36 am
JeremK
If a skin was to be made in vector graphics, the XML code should be done for only one resolution, and then my Skin Resizer Tool could change the XML code to any resolution.
Inviato Sat 01 Nov 08 @ 1:45 pm
Supacon
Heeyyy... that's an interesting idea. You could specify everything in point sizes, or milimeters even, and make everything absolute.
By the way, has anyone here ever used M-Audio/Syncroscience Torq? The interface on that software is vector and scales really nicely to any resolution. That's one thing I like about the UI for that software.
It'd be neat if VirtualDJ skins could be made that way, and then you wouldnt' have to draw a graphic for anything, you could just specify a zone, it's relative coordinates, and the color of it, or something like that.
By the way, has anyone here ever used M-Audio/Syncroscience Torq? The interface on that software is vector and scales really nicely to any resolution. That's one thing I like about the UI for that software.
It'd be neat if VirtualDJ skins could be made that way, and then you wouldnt' have to draw a graphic for anything, you could just specify a zone, it's relative coordinates, and the color of it, or something like that.
Inviato Sat 01 Nov 08 @ 3:59 pm