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swiz · 10:16 AM

This initial release is available simply as an attempt to bring the GarageBand GUI into the rest of OSX.
Variants will be included soon reflecting user feedback.

Huge thanks to Max for permissing the use of his refined Aqua elements.

Click the preview to go get it.

badidea · Mar 16, 2004, 10:27 AM

For some weird reason the link does not work (for me?)!

Going the long way over your sig does work though...

(maybe that's because I am using IE on a IZA client Windows system running on a HP visualize UNIX workstation??? - don't think so...

)

Makki · Mar 16, 2004, 10:32 AM

The url has a typo Swiz it should read as follows...

http://swizcore.com/SS/macOSX.php

Great Job Swiz i like it man

badidea · Mar 16, 2004, 10:35 AM

Originally posted by Makki:
The url has a typo Swiz it should read as follows...

http://swizcore.com/SS/macOSX.php

Great Job Swiz i like it man

Ohh, I missed that one...so the reason isn't that weird!

swiz · Mar 16, 2004, 10:40 AM

Yeah, pretty much everyone around here knows that I type faster than I really can type properly.

MacDog · Mar 16, 2004, 10:52 AM

I don't get it... it looks like a darker brushed Aqua. No wood texture?

swiz · Mar 16, 2004, 11:01 AM

Originally posted by MacDog:
I don't get it... it looks like a darker brushed Aqua. No wood texture?

The wood is going to be added at a later date when it can be applied properly. I can do it now but as it stands the wood gets overlapped by window contents and its quite nasty. Hopefully later on we can move some stuff around in the GUI and this wont be a problem. This overlapping was just too much of an aesthetic eyesore to include.

Holigen · Mar 16, 2004, 11:23 AM

Sheesh swiz, seems like youre on a theme making rampage these days...

Definitely love the Finder buttons, widgets could be a bit more refined... Other than that its great!

NetworkShadow · Mar 16, 2004, 01:58 PM

Your server down swiz?

Slayer-X · Mar 16, 2004, 02:02 PM

No sir. I don't like it. Maybe once I see the variants you mentioned It will grow on me. I just don't care for it. I do like the buttons though. I wish I coul dget my buttons to turn out that good.

eDave · Mar 16, 2004, 02:13 PM

Garage Band is a thing of beauty! All the seemingly disparate elements achieve a harmony when viewed together, I think. When SS is updated to support borders, I'm sure the addition of the wood will be the icing on the cake.

Only one problem that I've noticed: in brushed apps, some of the text is very hard to read! Inactive Safari tabs are the prime example of this. I had a couple dialog boxes affected by this as well.

But this is my new favorite theme. Thanks, Swiz, for all the hard work!

swiz · Mar 16, 2004, 03:37 PM

Originally posted by NetworkShadow:
Your server down swiz?

The site server or the one the themes are hosted from?
Shouldnt be, I'll check it out.

NetworkShadow · Mar 16, 2004, 03:59 PM

All your images were broken earlier, but now just your site isn't loading.

bluevertical · Mar 16, 2004, 04:07 PM

great theme swiz.
i have one question.. in safari the animated progress icons on the tabs are solid black. is this correct? is anyone else having this issue?
thanks for any help...
bv.

swiz · Mar 16, 2004, 04:16 PM

Originally posted by bluevertical:
great theme swiz.
i have one question.. in safari the animated progress icons on the tabs are solid black. is this correct? is anyone else having this issue?
thanks for any help...
bv.

No this actually just started with the last guiKit I exported, Im gonna export it again and see if it fixes it.

bluevertical · Mar 16, 2004, 04:17 PM

cool thanks swiz...

FB Eye · Mar 16, 2004, 04:46 PM

The theme looks like some half-assed, incomplete theme with Aqua leftovers that we often see over at resexcellence.com

Not critizing Swiz's always fabulous execution or anything, but I question the existence of such a theme. GarageBand has the most horrible UI Apple's put out in recent years. If GarageBand didn't exist and somebody would come out and release that, everybody here would be all over this person. But when it originates from Apple, we all go WOW...

Am I the only one who finds that weird

Once again, NOT critizing Swiz, he did an excellent job replicating GB's UI...

I hope Apple doesn't slap some wood paneling on the Finder in 10.4

swiz · Mar 16, 2004, 05:07 PM

Originally posted by FB Eye:
The theme looks like some half-assed, incomplete theme with Aqua leftovers that we often see over at resexcellence.com

Not critizing Swiz's always fabulous execution or anything, but I question the existence of such a theme. GarageBand has the most horrible UI Apple's put out in recent years. If GarageBand didn't exist and somebody would come out and release that, everybody here would be all over this person. But when it originates from Apple, we all go WOW...

Am I the only one who finds that weird

Once again, NOT critizing Swiz, he did an excellent job replicating GB's UI...

I hope Apple doesn't slap some wood paneling on the Finder in 10.4

You are entitled to your opinion but according to my inbox your opinon must be part of the silent majority as opposed to the very vocal minority.

I dont take offense to this anyhow as I did this just for those who requested it.
Although you really should rexamine your wording becuase it does sound like an attack on my execution. Nothing of it is half assed, it is simply a brushed texture replacement, ppat replacement and push/popup button replacement to match that of GarageBand. It is then by definition complete.

Whether you like or dislike the GarageBand interface is purely subjective.

bluevertical · Mar 16, 2004, 05:16 PM

swiz. i wouldn't even respond to such nonsense. to each his own...
nice job.
peace.
bv.

FB Eye · Mar 16, 2004, 05:30 PM

Once again, I apologize Swiz if it seemed like I was attacking your execution. NOT AT ALL. I'm a huge fan of your work and your GarageBand theme is NOT half-assed...

I'm just questionning Apple's way of slapping together Aqua, Brushed, Wood and who knows what... People around here usually HATE Aqua hacks and to me GB's UI looks like one. Aqua elements seriously clash with everything else, in my humble opinion, when it's taken out of Aqua as a whole.

Sorry if my comments offended anyone, I still admire your work Swiz and will always do. I think you did a superb job, but Apple didn't...

Peace everyone, nothing personnal...

bluevertical · Mar 16, 2004, 06:31 PM

swiz. any luck with the safari issue?
just wanting to give this baby a spin...
tx.
bv.

Dace · Mar 16, 2004, 07:10 PM

I didn't like the way this theme looked in the previews. But now that i tried it...I love it!! The black brushed looks so classy. This in my opnion is a dark useable theme. Love it.

If I had to critisize anything it would be the harsh highlght at the top of windows. And I love both the brushed and LED buttons. Not sure, but how would it look if all buttons where LED?

Great work Kevin...as always.

SwarmyCurve · Mar 16, 2004, 07:22 PM

Don't listen to those angry people who shall go unnamed. Its a fantastic 1.0!

I simply had to give my Powerbook a fitting makeover.

bluevertical · Mar 16, 2004, 08:14 PM

curious.. does anyone else have a flaw in the progress tabs in safari? mine show as a solid black square. wondering if it is across all machines or just mine??

mbeauche · Mar 16, 2004, 08:22 PM

I too have a solid black box for the progress indicator in tabs in Safari.

Other than that, this is a pretty slick theme. Its a faithful port of GarageBand, but I'd like to see an artistic rendering of GarageBand, as this does seem just a little thrown together. I love the black metal, but the gray background on some aqua elements is garish, and along with a white bar at the top with the Blue apple, it doesn't quite fit. Maybe a little bit more of the bright blue(not just when clicking on widgets), and a colorized status bar, and this theme will be the most popular of all.

swiz · Mar 16, 2004, 08:27 PM

thanks for the screenie Swarmy, I love seeing the end users usage

.

blue-
I'll have the fix to the Safari issue out by morning, I have to go plow snow now, maybe the last time this year

... jk

Im headed for a 10 day Florida holiday in April, woo hoo!

bluevertical · Mar 16, 2004, 08:41 PM

cool. i was just curious if it was everyones machines... seems so.
and yeah, my partner in nyc said it was snowing there too. prob the last for sure....
it will just make you enjoy florida all the more.
cheers.
bv.

MorphOSX · Mar 16, 2004, 08:55 PM

how about a wood menu bar mod? put the wood in the menu bar.

Dave

quandarry · Mar 16, 2004, 09:16 PM

Originally posted by FB Eye:
Once again, I apologize Swiz if it seemed like I was attacking your execution. NOT AT ALL. I'm a huge fan of your work and your GarageBand theme is NOT half-assed...

I'm just questionning Apple's way of slapping together Aqua, Brushed, Wood and who knows what... People around here usually HATE Aqua hacks and to me GB's UI looks like one. Aqua elements seriously clash with everything else, in my humble opinion, when it's taken out of Aqua as a whole.

Sorry if my comments offended anyone, I still admire your work Swiz and will always do. I think you did a superb job, but Apple didn't...

Peace everyone, nothing personnal...

how can you judge an app [garageband] by a theme that looks nothing

like garageband but may have been inspired by it and uses some widgets from it.

as a theme it's ok but i wouldn't judge beyond that.

go ask people who use and love garageband.

zachs · Mar 16, 2004, 11:43 PM

I'm waiting for the variations...right now it's too inconsistant. (I know how that's how the app is, but I don't like it there either

)

But nonetheless, great start! Hopefully it's gonna get even better.

mbeauche · Mar 16, 2004, 11:47 PM

if this had an itunes skin with it, a bit more of the bright blue, and a consistent menu coloration, i'd never need another theme for the rest of my life

bluevertical · Mar 17, 2004, 03:05 PM

swiz.... any news on the gb safari fix? i'm using this puppy and liking it but the safari tab anomaly is bugin me...

thanks!
bv.

swiz · Mar 17, 2004, 04:39 PM

Originally posted by bluevertical:
swiz.... any news on the gb safari fix? i'm using this puppy and liking it but the safari tab anomaly is bugin me...

thanks!
bv.

smeg an I are tracking it down right now.

bluevertical · Mar 17, 2004, 04:42 PM

groovy.... gracias!

mbeauche · Mar 17, 2004, 05:21 PM

bug(I think): the text for the title of a tab in Safari which is deselected is a gray that is unviewable on top of the black metal...once you select it or hold the cursor over it to select it, it becomes readable, but otherwise its too dark

zachs · Mar 17, 2004, 05:22 PM

Yea, the tabs are hard to distinguish from one another. Plus, like mbeauche said, the dark text is hard to read on the inactive tabs.

Other than that, great job.

swiz · Mar 17, 2004, 06:43 PM

Ive fixed both of those now too. Smeg and I took a good two hours figuring out the previous thing, man was that ever a bitch. Just a little longer and it will be available.

bluevertical · Mar 17, 2004, 06:47 PM

AWESOME!!!

swiz · Mar 17, 2004, 07:17 PM

The fix is now available. Grab it at the same URL.

zachs · Mar 17, 2004, 07:28 PM

Originally posted by swiz:
The fix is now available. Grab it at the same URL.

Thanks! Much better!

bluevertical · Mar 17, 2004, 07:30 PM

thanks for your hard work swiz.... lookin good!

bv.

Twister · Mar 17, 2004, 07:32 PM

My 2 cents. I'm not a fan of the left over aqua stuff either.

Maybe some smooth aqua would be cooler? I don't know. I just feel it looks 1/2 finished.

bluevertical · Mar 17, 2004, 07:37 PM

you guys really need to read previous posts where swiz had said repeatedly that this first release is simply a derivative of the actual garageband app and is not taking any artistic liberty in changing the aqua elements.... that will follow in another release in which i am quite confident swiz with execute to perfection.
thanks for the hard work swiz and the early release.
peace.
bv.

bluevertical · Mar 17, 2004, 08:13 PM

maybe we can all put our heads together and think of a good, constructive way to present 'ideas' for swiz to have at his disposal.... giving him a clean slate to use as a source of feedback.

by this i mean, with the understanding that this first release is simply a 'pure' garageband rendition and that the second, as swiz has said, will be the real, artistic GB mod.

maybe a new thread or just a further discussion in this thread itself....

any thoughts?

swiz · Mar 17, 2004, 08:27 PM

I could whip up a forum at my site which would be meant to be used solely as user suggestions for my stuff. I like that idea, suggestions all in one place for me, public too so i dont get too many duplicate suggestions.

bluevertical · Mar 17, 2004, 08:31 PM

exactly what i was thinking swiz! would love that. a really focused place for constructive ideas and suggestions.
let it rip!
peace.
bv.

bluevertical · Mar 17, 2004, 08:33 PM

alos swiz... here's a quick snap of your garageband in action....

http://www.blueverticalstudio.com/desktops/bvs01.jpg

enjoy!

bv.

Holigen · Mar 17, 2004, 08:35 PM

BV, your conversation with yourself is scintillating...

No, but really, that sounds like a good idea.

swiz · Mar 17, 2004, 08:37 PM

For the next release(s) I will make up some nice desktops to go with it. Obviously right now I am on a whirlwind execution string, I have to make the best of the time that Im not busy, which is about three more weeks.

bluevertical · Mar 17, 2004, 08:39 PM

lol.... yeah a rather freeform thinking out-loud i guess.... but with great results so mission accomplished.
bv.