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Brien · Dec 1, 2003, 09:25 PM

i have an idea that will invovlve all the GUI artists here... here's the premise:

we all work together to create a theme, for example. max posts a mockup, mrtew tweaks it, i add some elements, people makes comments, etc....

Any interest?

Fluid · Dec 1, 2003, 09:32 PM

Sounds good. Sounds like how Powermetal was created. I'm in.

TheDisaster · Dec 1, 2003, 09:43 PM

I was thinking about finishing off one of my mockups and seeing if a 'open-source' theme would take off. If a project like this works out I would love to see it be a continuing ritual here.

CarbonG4 · Dec 1, 2003, 09:47 PM

Not a bad idea, I'd at least be interested in seeing how well a collaborative effort works. I've got tons of theme mockups and ideas that I've kicked around but simply do not have the time to develop.

//Carbon

Fluid · Dec 1, 2003, 09:50 PM

<cough> Meteora </cough>

:: Fluid ::

CarbonG4 · Dec 1, 2003, 09:51 PM

Originally posted by Fluid:
<cough> Meteora </cough>

NetworkShadow · Dec 1, 2003, 09:52 PM

I'd be in on the ideas part, I'm low on time for actual design.

G0Ducks · Dec 1, 2003, 10:05 PM

Originally posted by NetworkShadow:
I'd be in on the ideas part, I'm low on time for actual design.

I would be interested in the tweaking phase

This should be fun!

TC*

Ryan

Mike S. · Dec 1, 2003, 10:27 PM

Design by committee?

That can't be good.

Mozilla was designed by committee, it's big, fat and bloated with unnecessary UI and menu options.

Firebird was designed "behind closed doors" by a couple of people with a purpose, it's much nicer.

NetworkShadow · Dec 1, 2003, 10:41 PM

We'll only know if it works until we try.

mrtew · Dec 1, 2003, 11:10 PM

I'm up for some tweaking! Who wants to start!

phillryu · Dec 1, 2003, 11:32 PM

Suggestion: A Slime theme. Use SS's features to the max! Imagine aqua, corrupted by toxic waste, with noxiously bright green slimewith widgets slowly bubbling out of the thick mess, and bits dripping off the menubar!

NetworkShadow · Dec 1, 2003, 11:44 PM

Originally posted by phillryu:
Suggestion: A Slime theme. Use SS's features to the max! Imagine aqua, corrupted by toxic waste, with noxiously bright green slimewith widgets slowly bubbling out of the thick mess, and bits dripping off the menubar!

Not a bad idea, maybe even have some transparency in the active titlebar?

A few ideas of my own:

- I had an idea for a theme made of ice/frost a light blue and white theme. It might be hard to capture that ice look in the small space Aqua gives you to work with, but it might be an interesting challenge.

- A Matrix sentinel theme, dark steel look with red glowing eye like widgets. The scroll bar based on their tentacles with glowing red in-between segments of metal.

- A minimalist white and black theme based on Zion control in the Matrix Reloaded

- A dark blueish grey unfinished steel look, maybe based on a warn sward or steel weapon with runes for widgets. A LOTR or Warcraft based theme maybe?

phillryu · Dec 1, 2003, 11:49 PM

I think 2 and 4 could look cool, but the Zion thing would not look great with all the buttons and icons in Aqua, since they will just make the simple look cheap IMO.

I'll help you get to 1000 posts if you want

NetworkShadow · Dec 2, 2003, 12:35 AM

Originally posted by phillryu:
I think 2 and 4 could look cool, but the Zion thing would not look great with all the buttons and icons in Aqua, since they will just make the simple look cheap IMO.

I'll help you get to 1000 posts if you want

lol getting close to the big 1K.

Ya we'd have to do a full gui kit with icons and everything if we did a zion control theme. But then again it's a group project and with more man power so it wouldn't be that hard to do a full kit.

Hi I'm Mike · Dec 2, 2003, 01:17 AM

Sure, I'm at 6 themes i wanna bring out, might as well add another.

1c3 · Dec 2, 2003, 11:06 AM

Sounds nice

I am actually doing my first theme right now (but that is a secret).

NetworkShadow · Dec 2, 2003, 11:16 AM

I think there are going to be a lot of new themes out in the next few months.

FB Eye · Dec 2, 2003, 12:47 PM

To add a twist to this thread, maybe we should have a theme idea mockup contest.

Talented/creative people who lack the technical abilities to put together themes could submit their theme design to this forum. The best design would then be assembled by a volunteer themer with lots of free time on his hands (if such a person exists

)

I recall that a few themes available now started as mockups who evolved into reality with a good dosage of constructive criticism. Who knows, we might get a killer theme at the end of this contest...

dws · Dec 2, 2003, 01:14 PM

Originally posted by FB Eye:
Talented/creative people who lack the technical abilities to put together themes could submit their theme design to this forum. The best design would then be assembled by a volunteer themer with lots of free time on his hands (if such a person exists )

One possible problem with this excellent idea is that if a person doesn't have the technical abilities to put together a theme, then they probably don't know what constraints are placed on taking a concept and making it into a theme (that actually works with all applications). I can easily foresee a situation where non-themers agree on some killer concept; only to have the themers complain that it simply isn't possible to implement. The whole situation could devolve into a slugfest; where the designers accuse the implementors that they aren't trying hard enough and the theme creators argue that the designers aren't being realistic.

Designers don't like to have to think in terms of 1 pixel dimensions. Themers have to!

WICKEDfour · 05:17 PM

Ooh. I like this idea.

I was looking at the Power Metal thread a while back and I remember thinking "Wow, that's awesome that a bunch of different people are making this theme." I think it's worth a try. However, it should stay somewhat organized.

I like the slime idea. I was thinking about that yesterday: "What if Aluminum Alloy wasn't so durable and broke open?"

I think that doing a group effort would be even better in some cases, especially when you have someone who is good with ThemePark, someone who is good at making icons, etc. I'd be able to help some...I'm pretty good with the aqua look and making stuff look kind of cool for the most part

.

1c3 · Dec 2, 2003, 02:24 PM

Maybe somewhat like this. http://www.deviantart.com/view/2442362/ but more "dripping"

rhythmicmoose · Dec 2, 2003, 03:28 PM

I'd like to get in on some idea-making too. Sign me up.

My dream theme: a glossy silver something like Carbon's Silvia mockup, with light-up highlighting like Shinobi (start with light pale blue lights and add other color themes), and engraved window widgets like BBX Mercury.

What else can we do with menus? Are rounded edges and blank separators (so menu items look like separate floating buttons) out of the question? Rounded corners I'd like; not too sure about the button idea, but would be cool to try.

FB Eye · Dec 2, 2003, 03:43 PM

dws, you are are absolutely right that non-themers don't know all the limitations of OS X theming.

But since it would be a collective effort, themers would step in when needed and say "that's not possible". The designs would then evolve and mature nicely...

Things don't HAVE to turn into slugfest (like too many topics on this forum) if people respect each other and understand that saying "not my cup of tea" is a perfectly good alternative to saying "this thing is uglier than a dead fish, you suck"...

A mature, collective effort... Now wouldn't that be nice?

NetworkShadow · Dec 2, 2003, 04:49 PM

Originally posted by FB Eye:
dws, you are are absolutely right that non-themers don't know all the limitations of OS X theming.

Well Hi I'm Mike and I did darkglass, (I did the design and he did the actual themeing) with a certain amount of success for our first theme together. We also plan on working on more in the future.

I say let the designers make some mockups and the people who know what can and can't be done will give the designers feedback on it.

Also as long as we are doing a group theme project I say we do the full interface kit with icons and desktops too.

Brien · Dec 2, 2003, 05:24 PM

A dsign that went nowhere....

so I'll post it here...

cloudaj · Dec 2, 2003, 06:17 PM

Originally posted by phillryu:
Suggestion: A Slime theme. Use SS's features to the max! Imagine aqua, corrupted by toxic waste, with noxiously bright green slimewith widgets slowly bubbling out of the thick mess, and bits dripping off the menubar!

hmm...sounds like the official theme of poisoned

solidfox · Dec 2, 2003, 06:45 PM

Just have to say...I liked the ice idea...

Noone else?

NetworkShadow · Dec 2, 2003, 11:48 PM

Originally posted by solidfox:
Just have to say...I liked the ice idea...

Noone else?

I'd be for it is someone thinks they could pull off a nice mockup. I may pop in with one of my own, but I'm not going to commit to that right now with hew busy I've been.

Sage · Dec 3, 2003, 12:31 AM

Originally posted by dws:
One possible problem with this excellent idea is that if a person doesn't have the technical abilities to put together a theme, then they probably don't know what constraints are placed on taking a concept and making it into a theme

Well, in that case, a contest for people who know how to make a theme (and know the constraints), but only have time to build a mockup? That's kind of my situation... I have plenty of good ideas rolling around in my head, and I've been through ThemePark many times to tweak some of my favorite themes, but I just don't have the time to make a full-fledged theme from scratch.

Actually, come to think of it, that's probably what brien was saying in his first post anyway, so I'll shut up.

BTW, I really like rythmicmoose's idea:

My dream theme: a glossy silver something like Carbon's Silvia mockup, with light-up highlighting like Shinobi (start with light pale blue lights and add other color themes), and engraved window widgets like BBX Mercury.

What else can we do with menus? Are rounded edges and blank separators (so menu items look like separate floating buttons) out of the question? Rounded corners I'd like; not too sure about the button idea, but would be cool to try.

NetworkShadow · Dec 3, 2003, 12:35 AM

A simple chrome theme might indeed be cool.

MorphOSX · Dec 3, 2003, 08:20 PM

Just a couple of thoughts:

- A terminal-esque theme? Take aqua, recolor it and add a few widget styles to it...

- A newer version of NeXT? the idea being, take the NeXT/OpenStep look/feel and update it with sorta aqua-esque widgets, etc.

- Something that sort of looks more like a stylized terminal?

Just thinking

Dave

phillryu · Dec 3, 2003, 08:56 PM

The Ice idea I think may work, but it has to be pulled off very very carefully. I think this is an idea that could be cheapened very very easily (think bright sky blue, etc.), but could also end up looking really slick.

Slick? I'm thinking a chiseled ice cube. Does SS allow titlebars and such to have transparency?

NetworkShadow · Dec 3, 2003, 11:22 PM

MorphOSX: We'd better stick to something original. An Aqua MOD is something one person can do.

We should but this man power to use and make a killer different theme.
I'm not sure how much transparency can be done for title-bars, but I think I've seen it done a few times before.

1c3 · Dec 4, 2003, 10:41 AM

Hmm...

I was thinking of doing a port of the "Insignia" theme for windows. (I have asked the author and hes says that he likes the idea)

But I will probably never finish it.

Screenie: http://www.deviantart.com/view/2743359/

drnkn_stylz · Dec 4, 2003, 06:19 PM

Hmm...

I was thinking of doing a port of the "Insignia" theme for windows. (I have asked the author and hes says that he likes the idea)

But I will probably never finish it.

Screenie: http://www.deviantart.com/view/2743359/

Yes I LOVE that! Wow a nice XP theme.

solidfox · Dec 4, 2003, 07:16 PM

Originally posted by phillryu:
The Ice idea I think may work, but it has to be pulled off very very carefully. I think this is an idea that could be cheapened very very easily (think bright sky blue, etc.), but could also end up looking really slick.

Slick? I'm thinking a chiseled ice cube. Does SS allow titlebars and such to have transparency?

It has always been possible to make titlebars transparent...but that's about all you can make transparent with the desktop as background, that and the menus...

Just wish someone'd come up with a nice ice mockup...I couldn't do it...

TheDisaster · Dec 4, 2003, 10:20 PM

Here's one I worked on a while ago but gave up on when I didn't know what direction it was going in.

I started feeling like I didn't know where I was taking it, and I kinda liked the widgets but didn't know if they matched. Instead of fixing them I gave up on it. I also didn't feel like it was as 'crisp' as I had wanted.

MorphOSX · Dec 4, 2003, 10:30 PM

NetworkShadow: Very true. I was mentioning some thoughts that popped into my head s'all.

That windows theme seems cool...I like to browse through www.themexp.org for inspiration.

Dave

G0Ducks · Dec 5, 2003, 02:32 AM

Hehe, there is always the Amile theme

(greens, reds, stones for buttons...)
R

TheDisaster · Dec 6, 2003, 09:35 AM

Brien, any progress on the mock up idea you asked me about?

NetworkShadow · 06:34 PM

Ok since nobody seems to be getting any interesting ideas... Here's a mockup I've been working briefly on. It's based on the Halo armor.
I don't think I'd be releasing it on my own, but if everyone likes it ok and nobody wants to do it for the group project then maybe I will.

� The Android Workshop
PeeCee users better not use the idea without my permission!

I still need to work on the buttons and stuff, but I was able to match the color and metal look quite well.

MorphOSX · Dec 6, 2003, 06:41 PM

I love it, NS!

Lemme know if I can do anything to help.

Dave

NetworkShadow · Dec 6, 2003, 07:09 PM

Originally posted by MorphOSX:
I love it, NS!

Lemme know if I can do anything to help.

Dave

Well if ot goes over good I'll keep working on it.

rhythmicmoose · Dec 6, 2003, 07:51 PM

Awesome, NetworkShadow. Think you can have it done by the 11th?

MorphOSX · Dec 6, 2003, 08:10 PM

I can help put things together if you like. I'd love to help get it made.

Dave

NetworkShadow · Dec 6, 2003, 09:24 PM

Ok I'll try to finish the mockup and we'll see about putting it together after that. I'll also post progress on the mockup for feedback.

NetworkShadow · Dec 6, 2003, 11:15 PM

Ya you got me going on this mockup. I spent a few more minutes on it and came-up with this:

I was thinking the Shinobi looking glowing buttons. The 2nd title bar would be the inactive state.
The overlapping tabs I thought would be cool, but if it's not doable (I suspect not) I'll can that.
I'll get to the scroll bars and the other elements in the next few days I think. Any feedback at this point might be nice, but remember I'm trying to stay kinda true to the Master Chief's armor design.

RydDragyn · Dec 6, 2003, 11:35 PM

kick ass NS!!

I would love to see that become a reality!'

You've got my support.

MorphOSX · Dec 7, 2003, 12:22 AM

I'm already drooling

Dave