[bbxstudio]

Now that this stuff has finally been released, I thought I'd give a heads up on some (very little actually) of the stuff that's been eating up my life.

Same excuses as ever on this one - First, it's not running on a Mac, but it was created on a Mac by a Mac-based GUI artist in an attempt to bring some of that Mac polish and sensibility to the Windows space. Second, it presents a good argument as to why we need a robust iTunes Remote application (Dashboard/Konfabulator can't do this stuff). And lastly, it gives some insight into commercial (as opposed to personal) GUI work.

The workflow for this WMP stuff (generally) goes as follows:
1. initial linear development - this can go through multiple revisions
2. vector drafting - this is where I create lines in illustrator as a base for 3D operations and (eventually) screen controls, etc based on the approved linear
2. 3D modeling (I use Luxology's Modo these days)
3. Physical animation sequencing in Cinema4D - this is where I work out the tumbles, etc and the acceleration/deceleration curves
4. Surfacing - this can be the most difficult part as it often requires I dupe the sequenced file and generate unique materials for individual passes... in some cases a material will take multiple reflection or environment maps composited in post to simulate the surface I want.
5. Initial Composite - this is generally a still built in Photoshop from all the passes of a single frame with any layerFX/adjustment layer/post-processing worked out... I use this for approvals and also for a basis for building out the final composite in AfterEffects
5. 3D Rendering - spitting out numbered frames for each pass and mask
6. Postprocessing - using Photoshop Actions and batch processing to get the numbered sequences where I need them for the final AE composite
7. Building the final AfterEffects composite - I'll break things down into nested compositions so I can go back and play with LED sequencing for instance. At this stage I'm basically building out an animated Photoshop composite based on what I come up with at stage 5.
8. Final Optimized Build - using ImageReady and Photoshop to assemble rendered AfterEffects sequences with control states etc into a master PSD file which goes into coding (along with instructions from myself as to how things should work etc)... some of these files get very complex into the thousands of numbered/labeled layers with subsets listed within subsets - mindnumbing really.

This is actually a massive simplification of the process... I'm leaving out tons of the in-between stuff (and tricks of course) but you get the idea. The entire process can take as little as 2 weeks and as many as 8.


#1 Bit of GUI Madness™ is the Official Batman Returns WMP skin:

• Linear Stage: this is the initial draft submitted to Warner Bros.


• Initial Composite: this is the first render showing surfaces and post FX (which may change before final art).



• Wings Explained: an attempt to show how the wings operate... this also gives me a chance to show the model from different angles



• Final Startup, Open/Close Animation: download this to the desktop, open it in Quicktime and (if possible) turn on 'Play All Frames' and 'Loop Back and Forth' options...

Final Batman Begins Sequence

• Final WMP Promo: this is with everything together including the secondary windows (the Promo was created by J. Schader at The Skins Factory)





#2 Bit of GUI Madness™ is Alienware™ Invader:

• Initial Tests on early model: these are really early surfacing tests - love the toaster metal, but it wouldn't be practical for secondary windows, etc.



• Final Artwork @ 200% + different angles : sometimes I build everything at double size - tends to kill me when I get dozens of blended layers across 600+ frames in AfterEffects though



• Final Startup Animation: almost 600 frames long - much more impressive at 200% but that size is unplayable on most machines. Download this to the desktop, open it in Quicktime and (if possible) turn on 'Play All Frames'...

Final Alienware™ Invader Startup Sequence

Sorry for being such a bandwitdth hog, but I thought this might be interesting to some Cheers!

PS. If you have a PC and want to see this and other cool stuff actually working, go to:
The Skins Factory

[eyevaan]

Thank-you for letting us glimpse into your creative process. This is GUI at a whole nother level. Excellent work.

[natey]

nice. but...

WTB our old bbx to make gui for mac. PST.

[Randman]

Beautiful work. Just too bad it's on the dark side.

[vip]

that's awesome bbx! thanks for sharing with us

[MetalSnake]

I don´t like Batman and Alienware but those designs are just amazing!
But wouldn´t be those long start sequence be annoying if you see them all day?

[bbxstudio]

Originally Posted by MetalSnake

I don´t like Batman and Alienware but those designs are just amazing!
But wouldn´t be those long start sequence be annoying if you see them all day?

You can kill it by clicking within the skin bounds at any time. They also have reversible iris functions (generally a subset of the startup sequence) that allow the user to 'close up' the player - serves zero purpose but it makes for good eye candy Great for amazing family/friends/co-workers I guess.

[kwyjiboy]

This probably belongs in a more appropriate forum, like... Neowin.

[bbxstudio]

Originally Posted by kwyjiboy

This probably belongs in a more appropriate forum, like... Neowin.

Sorry - didn't catch your badge number, officer. Nothing spoils a good thread like self-appointed forum police

[G0Ducks]

sheesh... indeed.
Thanks BBX for the insight. I love seeing those technical style drawings.
Keep up the good work. And, you should TOTALLY go for the aqua redesign for apple. Anything is better than what it is now (Please... no flames... Im entitled just like any other man to his opinion.)

R

[cube3]

hows the new addition bbx, you managed to get some sleep yet?

[ArcticBear]

This is actually a massive simplification of the process...

LOL! and true!

That's just breathtaking. I've always admired your work. Thanks for this post.


BBX, I'm wondering... what do you think of the Mac Finder/GUI in its current incarnation? What things, visually, do you think should be done to it?

[Mike S.]

Now that I have a darkside box... why do you/the company you work for use Windowblinds for your themes rather than Visual Styles? Just to add those funky launch media player buttons to toolbars? Are the themes available in Visual Style format? Just wondering... I'm going to go looking for that Media Player skin now ;-)

[Apfhex]

Man... of course, those are awesome designs and I'm sure they're sweet in action, but, I have an intense dislike for WMP's skinned mode, and the flashier the skin the worse the usability (IMHO).

Now, if someone were to start making HARDWARE media/music player remotes that looked anything like this...... HELL YEAH!

[aristotles]

Originally Posted by bbxstudio

Sorry - didn't catch your badge number, officer. Nothing spoils a good thread like self-appointed forum police

The guy has a point. What you showed us, while impressive, is completely irrelevant to most of us and to this forum.

The thread comes across to me as "bragging". Do you see the rest of us come in here and brag about the stuff we do at work? No, of course not nor could we without possibly violating confidentiality rules. This thread may be GUI related but it is not mac related and therefor quite off topic.

If you want to announce a released or about to be released "mac" theme, go ahead.

Have a nice day.

[G0Ducks]

dude... BBX is known in these forums as a theme god... He has been on hiatus for quite a while and has done his fans a favor in showing what he does, how making themes can become a REAL job, and is a total inspiration to many of us here.

As for bragging... Dude.. have you seen the billion pages of screenshots? As for breaking work rules... this is HIS prerogative.
As for being on topic... See sentence #1. BBX is synonymous with mac themes. Anyone that would argue this should look at a lot of themes and see where its granpappy is...

As for your last comment... If you want to be a forum cop... go ahead. But please keep your nitpickery away from a generally positive environment.

Have a great day.

R

[aristotles]

Originally Posted by G0Ducks

dude... BBX is known in these forums as a theme god... He has been on hiatus for quite a while and has done his fans a favor in showing what he does, how making themes can become a REAL job, and is a total inspiration to many of us here.

As for bragging... Dude.. have you seen the billion pages of screenshots? As for breaking work rules... this is HIS prerogative.
As for being on topic... See sentence #1. BBX is synonymous with mac themes. Anyone that would argue this should look at a lot of themes and see where its granpappy is...

As for your last comment... If you want to be a forum cop... go ahead. But please keep your nitpickery away from a generally positive environment.

Have a great day.

R

Your nose is a shade of brown. Why is that?

I am not alone with my sentiment. His work looks nice but it is off topic and he is violating screenshot size rules for the forum. I don't care if he is King Tut. It was incredibly rule and arrogant of him to start this off-topic thread.

See this thread on mac themes for reference.
http://www.macthemesforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=1576

Since I've apparently upset one of his biggest fans again on macnn, I shall keep my comments to the macthemes forums on this matter.

[G0Ducks]

Sheesh. Can nobody admire a persons proven line of work outright and not be called a brown-noser? Get what ever it is you need to get to understand what appreciation is you cynical nag.
If you don't like the thread... post somewhere else. If you don't like the size of the images, click that little "Report Abuse" link in his title area (or what ever it is called...)
I'm sure that there are a some people out there that are "mad" at BBX for not releasing his theme (IMO proof of his craft)...But I for one, appreciate his contributions to our community, mac theme or no. All things are a potential inspiration to the mac theme environment... I think it would be completely appropriate if someone were to show off any kind of imagery related to GUI modding as long as it is some kind of inspiration... which, aside from very few themes recently released, have been GUITweaks as of late...
Face it. We as a community need people with skill and inspiring energy like BBX. People who make negative and excluding comments with intent to scare said type of people away should stay VERY far away from the mac theme community... Here or at Macthemes... Bugger off mate... find somewhere else to chip.

R

[TheIceMan]

I agree with aristotles on this. While I have nothing personal against bbx, if this had been anyone else, they would have gotten REAMED by now. Yes, Billy Bart does great work and yes he released some OS9 themes. But unless I'm mistaken, this is a Mac GUI forum for Mac OSX (unless we're still trying to soup up OS9). Billy has not released GUI-related things for Mac OSX. He has instead posted large graphics of what he has done for another platform. I'm not a Windows basher, but again if this had been anyone else they would have been flogged and hung already.

[G0Ducks]

Exactly...
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php...02-07-12&res=l

[wingchuner]

ok..so it looks really good..but what the HELL is the point of posting something made for windows in a mac forum???...all we see are these cool designs but never anything for a mac.

[G0Ducks]

So it's windows... My point is that this guy is a great influence on mac themers. You can't deny that there are windows themes that haven't been ported to mac... If not, I know I've seen crooning at themes that are windows that people wished were ported.

If you want, YOU could take a crack at making a theme or two for mac. Heck you could even base your design off of one of the above designs! I don't know... I guess I wouldn't be so tired of the stagnant theme situation we find our selves in if there weren't so much griping. Maybe it is time we open up to all GUI influences. Mac... Windows...heck, even my toyota has some great things about it that would make a great theme So, when we harp on someone that obviously has theme ability, has made themes before (and helped port his theme to OS X), out-right pixel pushing ability (to say the least!)... why oh freaking WHY would we as a community want a person like that to go away??? Because that is exactly is what is going to happen if people keep pushing talented people like that, especially when themes are still on a freebee basis.


R

[MacMan4000]

What a bunch of nay-sayers. I think its awesome. Sure, its a windows thingy in a mac forum, but
this is the GUI forum... and it is GUI! Astonishingly beautiful GUI too.

As for the "his images r teh big!" argument, if you read the rules you would know that massive
images are perfectly legal if the title says something to warn you. That is exactly the title has
"Warning: bandwidth heavy" in it.

Some of you people take the internet waaaay to seriously.

BBX, you should make a iTunes widget!

[Kevin]

BBX should make SOMETHING for OS X.

ANYTHING.

I DARE YA

WITH TEH DOUBLE DOGS.

[sweetymac]

i agree with macman I think you should make an itunes widget "pretty in pink" would be a great theme i'd use it a lot hehe, nice job btw!

[Recto Bold]

This is a tough one for me. I am always blown away by William's stuff; It's just so close to what I really want my Mac to look like. He hits the nail on the head as square as possible for me every damn time - Pushes all the right buttons more than any other interface designr ever did. I agree that Jobs could just do us all a favour and give the guy a job at Apple working on Aqua. I don't hate it the way everyone else seems to, but it could use some of William's attention to detail and thinking.

The problem is the one which has been the same for a while now, and that is that nothing new is coming out from BBX for the Mac, despite whatever has been promised. I won't go into the whole argument as it has been done to death, but while I love to see his work and would never turn down the chance to see what he's been up to, it makes me all the more frustrated that it looks like I'll never see this on my Macintosh because the guy obviously has to earn a living and he's not going to do that making Mac themes (although I'd pay handsomely for it, frankly). I feel like someone who hasn't eaten for weeks starring through a bulletproof glass window at a table full of food. Current Mac theming seems to have stopped at a certain level - Perhaps limited by what Shape Shifter can do? I do recall some guys saying that once SS allowed some more advanced stuff they would be able to really push the boundaries. I don't know, but I'm just a humble end user and all I know is that while I love Powder, Milk and Siro, they seem to have hit a ceiling. Maybe when (if ever) Omega appears I'll have my view altered, but for now thanks to BBX for posting this stuff. It's a privilege to see inside the creative process and the stuff is simply beautiful. I wish I had a 10th of his talent.

RB

[fg]

So I assume that everybody that think it was OK for him to post these images here would be ok if people started to post images of their graphical work. Even if it has nothing to do with Mac GUI?

This post would be more suited for a 3d forum or some graphical forum. Sorry to say, but it has nothing to do in this forum. And as many others said, the picture sizes are a pain in the ass.

[TheIceMan]

G0Ducks: I wonder if one of the Mac themers went over to the Windows forum and showed all the great designs and GUI goodies BUT that these things would only be available on the Mac. I would think that those Windows users would react the same way. Again, the argument here is not that Billy B. is not talented, on the contrary. What I'm saying is that that he's showing work which cannot be used on this platform. Envious, you bet. Elitist, hardly.

[TheSpaz]

Maybe William is promoting Windows and the PC platform to us Mac users.

Maybe he's trying to say "Here's what you're missing!"

The grass is always greener on the other side... I bet Windows users wish they had some of the Mac stuff.

Theming is like gaming. It's better on Windows. Windows is more customizable than the Mac and William probably can't make his themes come true on the Mac platform cause of all the restrictions to size, color and other stupid OS X restrictions.

[natey]

Make something we can use, kthxbye.

(forum etiquette 101: the big pics are a pain, use thumbnails)

[bbxstudio]

#1, nobody should be whining about pic size here - I followed the rules and posted a bandwidth warning... don't have the patience/capacity/bandwidth? Then don't click, it's easy.

#2, I missed the part in the forum rules where it stated that screenshots should be of stuff running on the Mac desktop only. In any case, if you read the introductory text, you'll understand why I felt it might be potentially relevant/appreciated/inspirational to share this stuff here - if you disagree, that's fine by me... hopefully enough members see the value in it to make it worthwhile. It's not bragging by any means - I merely assumed that the inner-workings/techniques/workflows of the commercial vs. non-commercial GUI world would be of interest in a forum dedicated to GUI appreciation. The fact that the final product is 'functional' in Windows only is really irrelevant - we could have this sort of thing on our beloved platform if we had the means to deliver it (a point I've argued with Jason Harris for instance many times)... what I'd really like to see is a robust (as opposed to 'lite' like Konfabulato or Dashboard) skinnable iTunes remote utility capable of displaying this kind of horsepower on the desktop... a major motivation for me with this stuff is to demonstrate the possibilities and provide a nudge to the individual(s) capable of making this happen and user demand - I'd be the first to whip up some crazy-ass freeform skins for it (I'd love to use my own stuff in my own OS - I only fire up Windows to look at this stuff running and make sure it's working as envisioned... and to play games like Half-Life 2).

FWIW, this isn't the first such post I've made here - and the general response so far has been one of appreciation from most members... I also consider myself a Mac/OSX GUI artist, after all this is the only platform I use to create this stuff. Consider also that HERE is the only place where I reveal this neat behind-the-scenes stuff - I'm sharing this with my fellow Mac heads, not the Windows crowd at forums like Wincustomize or Neowin,

Should I stop?

[sweetymac]

bbx I don't think you should stop, nobody closed your thread so you must not be doing anything wrong. I knew there would be lots of pics, it was a big warning in your title, but I still had to click And like you said yourself you love mac - so its not like you are here to promote windows, and even if you were I doubt people would throw out their macs and run to windws. The fact is most people don't only use macs for customizing options but it is for FUNCTIONALITY purposes too so I don't think bbx is trying to make any of you switch to windows. He gave a long explanation at the start of why he was posting it. I am new to the forums but have heard bbx themes things for os x. But we all have to work and make money too....just like a lot of you probably have to go to work and use windows pcs- does not make any of you less of mac fans. bbx, any topic that has some component of windows discussed on these forums will be met with some forms of hostility, this is just how it is. I personally did not feel you were bragging about anything, or trying to convert users to go to windows. Either way I do appreciate what you do, because I was a windows user for years and know that it will be fun for users to use something like that...and like you said you wish you could do it for mac too! so you have good intentions. Nobody is forcing anyone to read this thread, if you don''t like it don't read it, i'm not sure why it bothers all ofo you that it is here, because perhaps some people find it interesting and will be inspired by it and aim to make it come true for mac. I just never understand why people get so worked up about why a thread is here, if it was so bad wouldnt the moderater take it off? Also if you think bbx is bad for posting it report him instead of leaving 25 comments saying the same thing over and over. I'm sorry if i''m being harsh but sometimes I think if they d idnt remove the post after so many days nothing must be wrong with posting it, correct me if i'm wrong.

[esXXI]

Originally Posted by bbxstudio

#1

Well, you did follow the rules by warning folk, but such bit images in-line make trying to read lengthy posts really annoying.

Originally Posted by bbxstudio

#2

I'm not sure what you mean by a "lite" iTunes remote for Dashboard. I'm pretty sure that you could create a widget that allows people to drag and drop a bunch of songs as a playlist, re-arrange them, shuffle, loop, etc, etc and allow you to do your animations.

Originally Posted by bbxstudio

Should I stop?

Nope, I for one enjoy just seeing the animations.

[aristotles]

I think those of us who are not your biggest fans have been more than polite with this thread.

You have serious talent but maybe you should look into other markets like DVD interfaces, advertising, Movie Intro sequences etc... rather than GUIs. I certainly would not want to sit through half a minute of intro each time I opened my media player. I certainly hope you do not apply for a job at Apple because they generally like to go by the KISS principle which seems to be the antithesis of the work you've shown us.

Mac users are generally more impressed with usable themes and usable interfaces. Those glitzy/shiny things may go over really well for a small niche of windows GUI modding fanboys but not around here.

@TheSpaz: I am a switcher that spent a great deal of time modding my GUI at sites like Wincustomize and Aquasoft back in the day but none of that gaudy, over the top GUI crap appeals to me anymore. I guess you could say that I outgrew it and learned about UI usability working as a web designer and from using usable mac software at home.

All that glitz is there to distract the user from the lack of usability and interoperability of WMP and windows in general. Using a mac made me realize that all those skins and what not did nothing to improve the interface. To me the "UI" in GUI is more important now.

Have a nice day everyone.

PS. The grass is greener on windows because it's astro turf.

[Hi I'm Mike]

dont stop buddy

[Kevin]

It sounds like there are alot of jealous people in here.

[Rosyna]

Gah. The Invader theme is freakin 66.7megs in size! (and requires an email address to be put in...)

Also, the Invader skin in use really, really belittles the beauty of the thing. There's no transparency in WiMP so all the edges appear jaggy. Sigh.

[demograph68]

Awesome **** Will! I know you said you had problems with OS X theme customization but have you considered doing something simple like a just icons or a widget? (I remember seeing a folder icon you did for Omega. Really slick!)

[demograph68]

Originally Posted by Kevin

It sounds like there are a lot of jealous people in here.

Add me to that list.

[arcticmac]

Originally Posted by bbxstudio

First, it's not running on a Mac, but it was created on a Mac by a Mac-based GUI artist in an attempt to bring some of that Mac polish and sensibility to the dark side. Second, it presents a good argument as to why we need a robust iTunes Remote application (Dashboard/Konfabulator can't do this stuff).

iTunes remote??? you mean like iHam on iRye?

[aristotles]

Yeah Dashboard is really limited... oh wait... it supports the Unity plugin not to mention flash and any other Safari compatible plugin in existence.

You can't compare Konfabulator and Dashboard really. If anything, Dashboard is more like Desktop X except it leverages browser technology.

[cube3]

This community is so self defeating, you spend so much time heckling themers that you eventually chase us away, then bitch like 13 year olds because there are not enough themes. It's quite easy, if you have nothing good to say, then don't say anything. Constructive criticism is good, but most of this rubbish is just bitter forum bile. The guy can't post anything without a thousand gimps getting on his back.

FYI this thread is also about inspiration, and there is hardly a single old time themer that hasn't been inspired by BBX's stuff. These images and this process inspires me to make themes, then your ffing bitching stabs that desire right in the eye.

[bbxstudio]

Originally Posted by aristotles

Yeah Dashboard is really limited... oh wait... it blah blah blah

I'm talking about a dedicated iTunes front end remote with robust animation/compositing capabilities, dedicated keyboard commands and (perhaps most importantly) a good framework and utility for building out the remotes - I may be wrong, but I don't think Dashboard is great at handling fast speed animations with full alpha-blending over the desktop... it also (without 3rd party hacks) requires use within the darkened (and often cluttered) Dashboard environment. I'd like to see remotes floating above the desktop in their own layer with their own dedicated capabilities. This would also make possible a cross-platform environment, wherein the same remotes could be used on both Macs and Windows machines - after all, Mac and Windows iTunes apps are essentially the same from a functionality/interface perspective.

[bbxstudio]

Originally Posted by esXXI

Well, you did follow the rules by warning folk, but such bit images in-line make trying to read lengthy posts really annoying.

Yeah I agree whole-heartedly, the horizontal scrolling is driving me insane reading it on the powerbook (was on the 30" Cinema Display when I posted) - next time I'll make sure the images are no wider than 1024 I think. Sorry 'bout that...

[bbxstudio]

Originally Posted by aristotles

Mac users are generally more impressed with usable themes and usable interfaces. Those glitzy/shiny things may go over really well for a small niche of windows GUI modding fanboys but not around here.

re: Mac vs. PC tastes and flash vs. usability - I hardly need a lecture on the subject, I'm far from stupid/blind/wet-behind-the-ears... I've been tinkering around with the Mac GUI-wise for many years now. My personal tastes and WIP themes for OSX are a far cry from what I show here obviously... the whole point of these WMP skins is to generate buzz and downloads for our target audience, which they do quite well. Windows audiences (and more importantly) Windows-based companies are used to seeing a certain spin on things we're long since beyond on the Mac... I personally much prefer the Mac's minimalist approach, but it's not as entrenched in Windows yet.

[dggraphics]

William, love your stuff man. Your 3D work is excellent. I love the texture on the Alienware controller, beautiful. Thank you for sharing it with us.

[bbxstudio]

Originally Posted by dggraphics

William, love your stuff man. Your 3D work is excellent. I love the texture on the Alienware controller, beautiful. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Thanks for the props - I'm much happier with hand-rendered (in Photoshop) quality, but then the animations are only possible with 3D... this is why I end up doing multiple rendering/texture/environment/lighting passes and a ton of post-processing.

[Fonzie]

I'm not going to rerail this thread...but, how about showing us something that we can actually use on our *Mac's* instead of this nonsense It's good to see that you're still working hard but I for one can't really use it. I do have a PC but that's not really my point.. Thanks for showing us what you have been up to though. It looks good.
I bet that you can do amazing things with Dashboard widgets if you start looking into it. Just look at how the Black 'n' Blue widget looks. Small, effective and yet beautiful without so much fuss.

[Hi I'm Mike]

Originally Posted by Fonzie

I'm not going to rerail this thread...but, how about showing us something that we can actually use on our *Mac's* instead of this nonsense It's good to see that you're still working hard but I for one can't really use it. I do have a PC but that's not really my point.. Thanks for showing us what you have been up to though. It looks good.
I bet that you can do amazing things with Dashboard widgets if you start looking into it. Just look at how the Black 'n' Blue widget looks. Small, effective and yet beautiful without so much fuss.

wow ignorance is no fun, it makes you look dumb because everything you have typed out has been said and discussed....read threads next time

[aristotles]

Originally Posted by Hi I'm Mike

wow ignorance is no fun, it makes you look dumb because everything you have typed out has been said and discussed....read threads next time

Mike, just because you are BBX's fanboi, that is no excuse to start insulting other members and suggesting they are lacking in intelligence because they are not slobbering over his work like you are.

If you love this glitzy crap so much, switch to windows. As others have pointed out, these skins do not look as great as the previews do as WMP lacks real alpha channel support. The animations in "real life" are heavily aliased.

@cube3: We do not generally insult themers who actually actively contribute to the community.

He has done squat on OS X since those icons he did four years ago and the promise of Omega?

You will get flamed here if you come in here talking about windows themes you are creating after promising to create a theme and not delivering after two or more years.

How can we chase away someone that left a long time ago of their own accord? He is a "windows" themer.

Don't forget guys that we often use the "pulled a BBX" phrase around here when the development of a theme goes south.

Translation: BBX is synonymous with failure or giving up in the mac theming world.

PS. Someone delete those damn pictures. They are screwing up the formatting of the page.