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bigben1024 · Oct 31, 2003, 01:31 AM

I saw the preview and I must say I understand why people don't like it. It looks really cool, but you know, a lot of things look cool monochrome style. (not a bad thing, just observation)

Also, I understand why people don't want to mess with the interfaces where the tiny buttons are too close together.

I guess I would have to see the finished product, or try it for myself.

I wish I could find some material on how I can create my own gui that change those of the standard os gui.

anyone know where to learn how to create our own, or does everyone want to buy it completed?

I'm not trying to make people mad, just currious. Like I said before, that bbx stuff looks pretty cool. I just want to stretch my imagination too.

laters.

NetworkShadow · Oct 31, 2003, 01:46 AM

Have you seen BBX's other work? If you see what he can do you'll know that this theme will be really good! He also said the theme has changed a lot from that poster thing.

asleep@thewheel · Oct 31, 2003, 06:30 AM

5 pages of dung for an aqua hack that no one has seen...
pubescent teens creaming in their shorts for what?
look into yourselves and see the fool that is you!

and please quit begging!

bbxstudio · Oct 31, 2003, 09:41 AM

Everybody chill - after all, it's still just a theme

No need for anybody to be defending their enthusiasm or lack thereof... getting pumped for the unknown is part of the fun (I myself get a hell of a kick out of it) - that's one of the reasons I let the cat out of the bag and started this thread (of course, I never intended to string people along for this long, but like I said I have no choice at this point - we'll all just have to be patient)...

Hehe, I think describing an unseen theme as your drug is probably a bit extreme tho'. It's going to be a pretty highly polished package with clean futuristic lines and bold styling - but it's going to be DARK and duochromatic (black polycarbon and Xray-azure LED, that's it). There are going to be certain drawbacks with any dark theme - it may be incompatible with certain applications you find indespensible (Photoshop, Office - although I may whip up instructions on how to patch these if I figure it out myself), the contrast between the dark OS components and universally bright content it surrounds (webpages, document window contents, etc) may frazzle your Aquafied brain, the list of potential drawbacks goes on. To some degree, this theme style will also take better in WindowsXP, where control over what the end-user sees goes much deeper and 90% of applications do what the OS tells them to do (in OSX, many many elements are hard-coded by developers even though they look like they're derived from the system's appearance).

Dark themes are always an acquired taste - I'm creating this one specifically for those who appreciate dark interfaces (like myself)... if you fall into that category, you'll probably love it. If you don't dig dark themes, chances are you won't dig this one.

Lew · Oct 31, 2003, 10:00 AM

Sounds like it's going to be a nice theme to complement the styling of my Pismo

swiz · Oct 31, 2003, 01:20 PM

Originally posted by bbxstudio:
It's going to be a pretty highly polished package with clean futuristic lines and bold styling - but it's going to be DARK and duochromatic (black polycarbon and Xray-azure LED, that's it).

It is exactly that and a fabulous execution.

bbxstudio · Oct 31, 2003, 01:35 PM

Originally posted by swiz:
It is exactly that and a fabulous execution.

Sounds like Swiz has seen it

bbxstudio · Oct 31, 2003, 01:48 PM

Oh, and the new Photoshop is slick slick slick - nested layer sets are a beautiful thing

christianclark · Oct 31, 2003, 03:10 PM

Originally posted by bbxstudio:
Sounds like Swiz has seen it

That's not fair for the rest of us

Christian

slboett · Oct 31, 2003, 06:29 PM

V A P O R W A R E !!!

SB

andretan · Oct 31, 2003, 06:35 PM

Give us a preview!

RedStar · Oct 31, 2003, 06:44 PM

Originally posted by slboett:
V A P O R W A R E !!!

SB

That's a good idea...lets start shouting things so we get our way. It's a theme.
This will not cure cancer, or make our computers 10X as fast.

If you can't handle the suspense just forget about it till BBX releases it. It's like christmas...all the anticipation is the fun part.

slboett · Oct 31, 2003, 07:58 PM

Originally posted by RedStar:
That's a good idea...lets start shouting things so we get our way. It's a theme.
This will not cure cancer, or make our computers 10X as fast.

If you can't handle the suspense just forget about it till BBX releases it. It's like christmas...all the anticipation is the fun part.

Hey, brain-surgeon, follow the thread - it's a JOKE.
When we need a forum Daddy, I'm sure that the job will be posted...

SB

milhouse · Oct 31, 2003, 07:58 PM

Originally posted by slboett:
V A P O R W A R E !!!

SB

mrtew · Oct 31, 2003, 09:08 PM

Originally posted by slboett:
V A P O R W A R E !!!

How can you say that??? BBX delivered on the last theme he promised for all those months didn't me? :-]

slboett · Oct 31, 2003, 09:10 PM

Can you dorks at least read ALL of the posts as to get the "drift" of what's going on - IT'S A JOKE.
I've been messin' with him to get it finished...jeez.

SB

NetworkShadow · Oct 31, 2003, 09:45 PM

I can't use themes that are too light anymore... SS power metal (panther) is close to my limit for brightness.

Wow you guys are acting like little kids now.

mrtew · Oct 31, 2003, 09:47 PM

Originally posted by slboett:
Can you dorks at least read ALL of the posts as to get the "drift" of what's going on - IT'S A JOKE.
I've been messin' with him to get it finished...jeez.

No, YOU'RE the dork! WE'RE the one's that have been messing with him to get it finished!

Mike S. · Oct 31, 2003, 10:24 PM

Originally posted by bbxstudio:
Dark themes are always an acquired taste - I'm creating this one specifically for those who appreciate dark interfaces (like myself)... if you fall into that category, you'll probably love it. If you don't dig dark themes, chances are you won't dig this one.

Going off topic a bit here, what category will the ever changing and perpetually delayed Mirai fall into? Dark, Light or more Neutral?

eFX · Oct 31, 2003, 10:26 PM

Originally posted by christianclark:
Many people have said that they would pick BBX Platimum over BBX Mercury, some people don't like BBX Mercury. I haven't used BBX Platimum before so I don't know the difference.

Christian

BBX Platimum is a very slick looking style round glassy style its really sweet especially the scrollbars have you seen it?

sorry but have to link this pic

/me drools

That is one mighty fine looking poster wish i had full size for my room, i trully love colour of the globe it reminds me of gun metal grey of some sort and cyan highlights ohhhh F U T U R I S T I C baby it trully is!

As Bill says Black trully is beautiful

ill bet it lights up your room at night

Japanese text gives it such a nice touch are those fonts? or just english translated into japanese in Photoshop...

love to see what music player you created for OMEGA when time comes, as for example BBX Platinum MPEG and Mercury Audion Players are absoloutely pure class.

OMEGA is absoloutely smokin man!

eFX · Oct 31, 2003, 10:30 PM

Originally posted by Mike S.:
Going off topic a bit here, what category will the ever changing and perpetually delayed Mirai fall into? Dark, Light or more Neutral?

iirc when i last seen his small Teaser preview Mirai was quite similar to Mercury but rather polished looking Alloy steel of some sort or pewter metal maybe the proper word?

bbxstudio · Oct 31, 2003, 11:04 PM

Originally posted by Mike S.:
Going off topic a bit here, what category will the ever changing and perpetually delayed Mirai fall into? Dark, Light or more Neutral?

Mirai is only perpetually delayed because it's perpetually changing - it will be the better for it in the end (if that ever comes). It'll be on the light side of neutral. I'm more worried about getting this one out, though.

bbxstudio · Nov 1, 2003, 12:31 AM

Originally posted by eFX:
Japanese text gives it such a nice touch are those fonts? or just english translated into japanese in Photoshop...

It translates like so - the characters in the orb say kuroiteku (koo-roh-ee-teh-koo), meaning 'blacktech' - those are a custom katakana font I made myself. The text under Black is Beautiful is a direct translation into the Japanese pulled from an online translator and rendered in the default Safari Japanese font. So is the line of text within the rectangle on the lower left of the logotype assembly - it reads 'Futuristic Black Technology'. The 2 characters to the lower right of the text block say 'Kuro', which means black and is the Japanese name for the kit (Omega is greek so there's no Japanese translation).

love to see what music player you created for OMEGA when time comes, as for example BBX Platinum MPEG and Mercury Audion Players are absoloutely pure class.

Yeah they were fun - I'm still torn between a full-blown Audion skin or a slick Konfabulator iTunes remote... right now I'm leaning towards the latter (everybody uses iTunes these days and Audion hasn't seen an update in ages)... the big problem being that I know how to build an audion skin - no idea how to build a Konfab widget (I'll have to recruit somebody). I so wish iTunes supported skinnable remotes.

On the Windows side, I'll probably be doing a full-blown WMP9 skin to the funkified degree that I build my commercial skins. For those who wonder what I've been doing for the past 2 years, here's a sample of the kind of commercial WMP9 work I do:

And for those who haven't seen my black technology stuff before, here's something I did for the launch of Xbox:

The black technology in Omega isn't as convoluted and it's a different material, but you get the idea - it'll be a cool theme-o

bbxstudio · Nov 1, 2003, 12:38 AM

Originally posted by eFX:
iirc when i last seen his small Teaser preview Mirai was quite similar to Mercury but rather polished looking Alloy steel of some sort or pewter metal maybe the proper word?

That was an old old version - Mirai is more like injected aircraft aluminum mica these days.

Mike S. · Nov 1, 2003, 12:48 AM

Holy crap! That's a detailed metal render!

Will your themes have that level of texture detail or does X just not support anything like that?

Damn.

NetworkShadow · 01:54 AM

Originally posted by bbxstudio:
Yeah they were fun - I'm still torn between a full-blown Audion skin or a slick Konfabulator iTunes remote... right now I'm leaning towards the latter (everybody uses iTunes these days and Audion hasn't seen an update in ages)... the big problem being that I know how to build an audion skin - no idea how to build a Konfab widget (I'll have to recruit somebody). I so wish iTunes supported skinnable remotes.

Well Sofa: http://sofa.ouvaton.org/ is a somewhat skinnable remote for iTunes... I don't know how skinnable it is though. But a Konfab widget would be good too, I'd have to register konfab if you did make a killer remote.

"Holy crap! That's a detailed metal render!"

Ya that stuff is why I look up to BBX as a role-model designer. (I'm in college for graphic design). I really hope to be that skilled in Photoshop eventually. One of my best works I did for my basic Photoshop final < this is a very scaled down version.

bbxstudio · 02:37 AM

This is a newer teaser showing the revised surfacing, new Xray LED illumination and a few generic icons.

[[ edit - I'm noticing that the colors are off a bit... using the new PhotoshopCS and it seems to be shifting colors and contrast somewhat no matter what format I export in (?) - this is close (on my screen) anyways.]]

If anybody's upset about the loss of the cyan green - true, it's a beautiful color that has more immediate impact in the poster... but try using it for extended periods and it becomes overpowering and kind of Disney-esque - it also goes into a forest-green shade when faded into darkness (puke).

mrtew · Nov 1, 2003, 02:49 AM

Looks HOT. I like that color of LED much better than the bright cyan! Nice job. I can't wait to see the theme. Why don't you get off the freaking forum and get to work! :-]

Mike S. · Nov 1, 2003, 04:22 AM

I like the new color though on my screen it's got a hint of light purple in it. It's a nice shade though and I agree that it's far less "in your face" than the green.

It seems to me that the black surfaces have more shine or polish where as before I noticed a bit of a texture to it. The new surface kind of reminds me of KITT from Knight Rider or, as you once said, Darth Vader's helmet.

I like it.

andretan · Nov 1, 2003, 04:31 AM

But. Bright cyan would have fitted the more "futuristic" theme of Omega IMHO

Cerbero · Nov 1, 2003, 07:35 AM

Wow, that's just beautiful. I like the blue much more than the cyan/green. As have been said, the latter would probably get intrusive after a while.
The new black parts look amazing aswell. Very much like Darth Vader's helmet indeed.
This is gonna be great. Can't wait

phillryu · Nov 1, 2003, 08:26 AM

BBX, this theme looks soo good but I hope your steam lasts through to what's it called... BBX: Utopia! For my ibook

And I thought this was slightly related..

Bow to my Adium forums avatar!

eFX · Nov 1, 2003, 01:27 PM

dam look at the detail on those folders!

If those are what the icons look like im gonna wet my pants

The led colour is really smooth, looks even more futuristic i reckon

NetworkShadow · Nov 1, 2003, 01:31 PM

WOW that's just the kind of icons I've been wanting as long as there have been dark themes on OS X!

NetworkShadow · 02:41 PM

Well I just had to put it on my desktop so a made a desktop sized version of it.
BBX hope you don't mind me messing with your pixels, I think I did an ok job though from the jpg... I'm sure you could also place the original with a black background for that poster look too.

Download:
1280x1024
1024x768

edit: links fixed

microrario · Nov 1, 2003, 02:33 PM

Originally posted by NetworkShadow:

1280x1024
1024x768

Good job, except you linked it to your own HD. lol

NetworkShadow · Nov 1, 2003, 02:42 PM

Originally posted by microrario:
Good job, except you linked it to your own HD. lol

lol no clue how that happened. They are fixed now.

christianclark · Nov 1, 2003, 04:34 PM

Originally posted by bbxstudio:

This is a newer teaser showing the revised surfacing, new Xray LED illumination and a few generic icons.

All I can sayc isc "SWEET"

Christian

bbxstudio · Nov 1, 2003, 04:36 PM

Originally posted by eFX:
dam look at the detail on those folders! If those are what the icons look like im gonna wet my pants

Those are the actual icons, only slightly reduced (and of course the real icons don't reflect at the bottom). They're true 3D with custom environment maps, so when we get more into animated capabilities with icons down the road, they'll be animatable as well.

christianclark · Nov 1, 2003, 04:39 PM

Originally posted by NetworkShadow:
Well I just had to put it on my desktop so a made a desktop sized version of it.

Thanks dude!

Now I may make your wallpaper into "aboutbox", "bootx" and "bootpanel" too. All I need now is the theme.

Christian

bbxstudio · Nov 1, 2003, 04:40 PM

Originally posted by Mike S.:
I like the new color though on my screen it's got a hint of light purple in it.

There is a hint of purple in the LEDs - it's supposed to be dangerous and blacklite/ultraviolet/Xray-like. Believe me, I've gone through every color imaginable - this is the one that adapts the best to animated LED fades and is least intrusive played out across the system.

Apfhex · Nov 1, 2003, 05:31 PM

The updated teaser looks great. I'm unsure about the purple coloring but I'm sure it's for the better, and that it will look great with the theme. I can't wait to try it out.

eFX · Nov 1, 2003, 08:23 PM

BBX now i can see how you spend 6 months to two years or whatever on GUI design, the high attention to detail is well its like real life objects.

I noticed another WMP9 skin you make, was so wicked, your stuff reminds me of The Matrix

A full screen media player!

Looks like a giant Sentinel

Full Size

Author: The Skins Factory This is actually one of my desktops in party mode using a skin we created called Darkling. I use it on the computer to my right to listen to music while i'm working on this one.

The way party mode works is, it uses fullscreen windows media player skins and locks it down so no one can access your other computer files. So my whole desktop is nothing but this skin. I love this thing.

Graphics were done by B. Bart with coding by roman.

Originally posted by bbxstudio:
On the Windows side, I'll probably be doing a full-blown WMP9 skin to the funkified degree that I build my commercial skins.

Do you mean your making a WMP for Omega or were you refering to the T3 design?

NetworkShadow · Nov 1, 2003, 08:46 PM

I'd never in my life use a full screen media player unless it was that cool and was always on the desktop picture level so I could still use finder and the desktop etc.

Ya when is Apple going to have reflecting icons? That would be really cool and I doubt would be that hard to do.

I don't think you could pick a better color, it's just going to be too cool!

Glad you like the desktop christianclark.

Comrade · Nov 1, 2003, 11:41 PM

Looks so much better without that overpowering cyan. More subtle, accessible, sexy. Can't wait to use it. I haven't deviated from my typical Jaguar gui but I may for this.

OwlBoy · Nov 1, 2003, 11:42 PM

When I first saw those icons I said aloud: "Holy ****!"

Looking good!

-Owl

scaught · Nov 2, 2003, 01:42 PM

i am very excited about this theme.

codywalton · Nov 2, 2003, 02:35 PM

Can we get an update on % complete and an ETA of this masterpiece?

fireside · Nov 2, 2003, 02:46 PM

i really hate to say this, but that teaser just doesnt look up to your standards bbx. not the icons, heaven no, those are awesome, but the logo thing. it looks too... 2D compared to your other works. like that awesome T3 skin.

drnkn_stylz · Nov 2, 2003, 02:51 PM

I don't think anyone noticed, but I think that the Snow.E icons will look amazing with Omega! I like the icons in the new poster too, but I pick apart even the greatest of kits.