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Mac Guru · Feb 14, 2003, 01:12 AM

I thought I'd spur off the Mighty Mouse fanfare and see what cool cursors people are working on.

I just finished converting a wait cursor from the old cursor apps.

Click the graphic to download.

Post your creations!

Mac Guru

OptimusG4 · Feb 14, 2003, 01:16 AM

Very nice

n8x · Feb 14, 2003, 01:47 AM

ah ok this would be a better place to put this..

(they move though, just not in the jpg)
- - - - -
http://n8x.vze.com/

bOOzo · Feb 14, 2003, 03:35 AM

I'm working on "porting" all of the wait cursors I made for Blobber/Beachball. I'm also working on a nice StarCraft cursor. I will post them as soon as they are done.

swiz · Feb 14, 2003, 09:43 AM

This is the beta set of Aqua cursors I started. The forbidden cursor is different from the others, Im curious as to whether users like the softer look of the others or the more pronounced look of the forbidden cursor. I already know I will be making too versions of the set, one in the size shown here and another set which is a bit larger. The shadows will be darker also.

dark3lf · Feb 14, 2003, 03:07 PM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by n8x:
[B]ah ok this would be a better place to put this..

(they move though, just not in the jpg)

Man these are sweet!

unlinear · Feb 14, 2003, 06:19 PM

swiz..

graphite version too, please =)

Brien · Feb 14, 2003, 06:27 PM

Originally posted by swiz:
This is the beta set of Aqua cursors I started. The forbidden cursor is different from the others, Im curious as to whether users like the softer look of the others or the more pronounced look of the forbidden cursor. I already know I will be making too versions of the set, one in the size shown here and another set which is a bit larger. The shadows will be darker also.

Firstm I think the cursors should be more blue. Second, the forbidden cursor looks crappy, IMHO. Besides that, nice set.

swiz · Feb 14, 2003, 06:59 PM

Originally posted by brien:
Firstm I think the cursors should be more blue. Second, the forbidden cursor looks crappy, IMHO. Besides that, nice set.

The forbidden crappiness, do you mean the Aqua style looks crappy or the fact that it is a widget with an X on it? More blue will do. A graphite version is definitely forthcoming also.

MacAgent · Feb 14, 2003, 07:22 PM

I made several huge-ass ones, but I only have two uploaded at the moment and I'm too frustrated to upload the others (network problems).

Actual size.

Adam Betts · Feb 15, 2003, 01:27 AM

Something simple:

dark3lf · Feb 15, 2003, 11:30 AM

Originally posted by Adam Betts:
Something simple:

Oh that's nice, post pls!

Nebagakid · Feb 15, 2003, 12:11 PM

I have made some cursor sets: the first one is

Fishes! - a set of cursors based on my Adium Fish Icon set

and

Ultimate Discs- Frisbee Discs... really big!

You all can probably guess which ones are which in the download list...

http://homepage.mac.com/nebagakid/FileSharing23.html

mrtew · Feb 15, 2003, 09:11 PM

I'll post my cursor in this thread too because I don't think anyone saw it in the other threads I posted it in. Either that or everyone that downloaded it is so fascinated with it that they are unable to post. (Or maybe everyone hates it and is too polite to say anything :-] )

Here's the full version of my StealthFighter cursor that was kindof included with the app as the 'flasher' arrow. It was called that because it has very small lights on it that you can see against dark backgrounds, but that name sucks so I changed it. I made a right handed version for freaks that prefer that over the original lefty one....

The cursor doesn't change form much because I think that's distracting. When you are over text it becomes transparent (instead of an iBeam) so you can read thru it. and for the wait cursor it pulses transparent and opaque. Try it out!

Download by clicking the pix below...

alex_kac · Feb 15, 2003, 11:11 PM

Originally posted by MacAgent:
I made several huge-ass ones, but I only have two uploaded at the moment and I'm too frustrated to upload the others (network problems).

Actual size.

Where did you get the beautful Aqua Blob? That's the ONLY thing I want changed with my cursors at this time.

Dace · Feb 16, 2003, 07:03 AM

I'm trying to create my own cursor even though I fail to understand how masks work exactly (I master them poorly) and when I drag the image onto Mighty Mouse...I don't see any cross-hair. Can anyone help me? Don't know what I did wrong.

mrtew · Feb 16, 2003, 11:01 AM

Originally posted by Dace:
I'm trying to create my own cursor even though I fail to understand how masks work exactly (I master them poorly) and when I drag the image onto Mighty Mouse...I don't see any cross-hair. Can anyone help me? Don't know what I did wrong.

The masks work just like with themes... whatever is black is transparent, white is opaque, and grey is translucent. You can copy and paste them into the boxes below the big window from photoshop or whatever. As far as the crosshairs not being there, I've seen that bug before too, I think if you quit sysprefs and start it up again it may be there. It seems to come from pasting a drastically larger cursor image in the box than what was there before. You could try importing a big cursor like the big gears one and then pasting yours in. (I am the master of the bug workaround after using the buggiest program in the world for 4 years at work - Alias/Wavefront autostudio).

swiz · Feb 16, 2003, 12:23 PM

Originally posted by mrtew:
The masks work just like with themes... whatever is black is transparent, white is opaque, and grey is translucent. You can copy and paste them into the boxes below the big window from photoshop or whatever. As far as the crosshairs not being there, I've seen that bug before too, I think if you quit sysprefs and start it up again it may be there. It seems to come from pasting a drastically larger cursor image in the box than what was there before. You could try importing a big cursor like the big gears one and then pasting yours in. (I am the master of the bug workaround after using the buggiest program in the world for 4 years at work - Alias/Wavefront autostudio).

The masking is a bit different than themes in that you dont have to premultiply them.

mrtew · Feb 16, 2003, 12:52 PM

Originally posted by swiz:
The masking is a bit different than themes in that you dont have to premultiply them.

I've never been able to understand what premultiplying even is, but I don't think I've done it when I made my themes, and they worked fine. I made a mask for the stuff in the theme the same way I made my cursor and my icons... creating a black mask for the shape. What the heck is premultiplying?

awaspaas · Feb 16, 2003, 01:20 PM

Originally posted by alex_kac:
Where did you get the beautful Aqua Blob? That's the ONLY thing I want changed with my cursors at this time.

Me too! Has anybody re-created the ACTUAL aqua blob that was in the Jag betas? With *all* the frames and the right shadow?

bOOzo · Feb 16, 2003, 01:52 PM

Originally posted by awaspaas:
Me too! Has anybody re-created the ACTUAL aqua blob that was in the Jag betas? With *all* the frames and the right shadow?

I have. But unfortunately it does not look as good because Mighty Mouse uses the mask different.

Jan Van Boghout · Feb 16, 2003, 02:03 PM

My wait cursor for those that are interested:

Just drag this pic to the Mighty Mouse pane to use it

Synotic · Feb 16, 2003, 03:17 PM

Originally posted by bOOzo:
I have. But unfortunately it does not look as good because Mighty Mouse uses the mask different.

Can you post the frames a TIFF so I can mess around with them?

bOOzo · Feb 16, 2003, 04:13 PM

Here it is:

This is the exact same graphics as in the jaguar betas, but as I said, the mask looks bad in Mighty Mouse. If you are able to fix it, please post it and tell me how you did it.

smeger · Feb 16, 2003, 04:29 PM

The easiest way to handle masks in Mighty Mouse is to not worry about them. Create your image in Photoshop so that it has a transparent background and then save it as a TIFF with transparency. Drag your TIFF onto the frame you wish to replace. Voila.

The aqua blob that comes with Mighty Mouse is the original Aqua blob, but as noted before, it has the problem that all of the cursors that have been sucked out of the OS have - it's already been premultiplied and MM premultiplies it again when it applies it. It needs to be unpremultiplied. I'll work on this today.

For those who are curious, here's the deal with premultiplying: Let's say you've got a four-channel image that you're attempting to composite on top of an existing image (this is the case when you draw a cursor). The source image has Red, Green, Blue and Alpha channels - Alpha specifies the amount of transparency as a real value between 0 and 1. The destination image (the background) has Red, Green and Blue channels.

I'll denote these seven channels as

Rs - Red Source
Gs - Green Source
Bs - Blue Source
A - Alpha Source
Rd - Red Destination
Gd - Green Destination
Bd - Blue Destination

The final channels (after compositing) are denoted by:

Rf - Red Final
Gf - Green Final, or GirlFriend
Bf - Blue Final

The equations that relate all of these and that are used to determine the final appearance are:

Code:
Rf = A * Rs   +   (1 - A) * Rd
Gf = A * Gs   +   (1 - A) * Gd
Bf = A * Bs   +   (1 - A) * Bd

If you look at these, you'll notice that there's an operation that doesn't depend on the destination image - the multiplication between Alpha and the source channel. Since this needs to be done every time you composite the image, and it doesn't depend on the compositing circumstances, you can save a little bit of CPU time by doing it in advance - premultiplying.

So, let's denote our premultiplied channels by:

Rs' = Premultiplied Red Source
Gs' = Premultiplied Green Source
Bs' = Premultiplied Blue Source

The premultiplication equations are

Code:
Rs' = A * Rs
Gs' = A * Gs
Bs' = A * Bs

and the new compositing equations are

Code:
Rf = Rs'   +   (1 - A) * Rd
Gf = Gs'   +   (1 - A) * Gd
Bf = Bs'   +   (1 - A) * Bd

The problem with the Mighty Mouse cursors that originally came from the operating system is that when I slurped them out of the OS, they'd already been premultiplied. When you reapply them with Mighty Mouse, they are premultiplied again, resulting in a double-premultiplication.

Anyway, to conclude, the intent was that Mighty Mouse users don't need to worry about premultiplication, or even know or care what it is. I'll fix this issue, and in the meantime, post some default cursors that aren't premultiplied.

So, if you didn't understand the math lesson, don't worry about it - you can still enjoy your yummy, juicy, delicious cursors!

mrfrost · Feb 16, 2003, 04:33 PM

Originally posted by Jan Van Boghout:
My wait cursor for those that are interested:

*snip*

Just drag this pic to the Mighty Mouse pane to use it

best one yet ! Thx

gdiddy · Feb 16, 2003, 05:25 PM

Here's one based on the OSX installer progress blobs:

Progress

Why can't I place a preview image in this post? Anyone?

swiz · Feb 17, 2003, 11:14 AM

Originally posted by mrtew:
I've never been able to understand what premultiplying even is, but I don't think I've done it when I made my themes, and they worked fine. I made a mask for the stuff in the theme the same way I made my cursor and my icons... creating a black mask for the shape. What the heck is premultiplying?

Read my first post in this thread, if you follow it exactly, youll see what premultiplying is. If you miss any of the steps though you'll be totally bunked.
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...ht=premultiply

bOOzo · Feb 17, 2003, 12:27 PM

swiz - is there any way to reverse the premultiply process? Since MM premultiplies a already premultiplied cursor they look bad.

Also - is there a quick way to make a gif animation of a MM cursor? I have a bunch now and it would be convinient if it was possible to make previews in a easy way.

swiz · Feb 17, 2003, 12:43 PM

Originally posted by bOOzo:
swiz - is there any way to reverse the premultiply process? Since MM premultiplies a already premultiplied cursor they look bad.

Also - is there a quick way to make a gif animation of a MM cursor? I have a bunch now and it would be convinient if it was possible to make previews in a easy way.

Unfortunately I dont know of any method for reversing the premultiplication. If there is a method of doing so maybe Synotic could shed some light.

The quickest way I could think of for making the cursor animation previews would be to use this little app, http://www.macupdate.com/download.ph...osx.sit?id=235

darkcore · Feb 17, 2003, 03:45 PM

In this thread, http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...0&pagenumber=2
, Phoenix mentions a program he wrote called Premultiplier that he said can both premultiply or unpremultiply an image.

http://users.wpi.edu/~phoenix/software/premult.sit

Synotic · Feb 17, 2003, 05:44 PM

You just predivide

edit: make that postdivide

smeger · Feb 17, 2003, 06:09 PM

Quick update - the premultiplying issue is fixed for next release, so don't work too hard on an interim solution.

Basically, I'd read Apple's documentation wrong and thought that Cocoa never used premultiplied images, when the case was actually that Cocoa [/b]always[/b] uses premultiplied images. ThemePark also had this problem, and is also fixed.

Dace · Feb 18, 2003, 03:03 AM

Ok, here are previews of two cursors I'm creating. I'll release them asap, just want some feedback first. What I should change...where I should go with the idea, etc...

APM (Apple Pro mouse)

This cursor is right handed. Might make a white version. What do you think of the red highlight? For the wait cursor, I might make the Apple glow/pulsate.

Puck

This cursor is both left and right handed. Will make other colour variations. For the wait cursor, it'll spin.

Also, I might release a Logitech optical red mouse...since that's the mouse I use

.

blikum · Feb 18, 2003, 12:51 PM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dace:
[B]Ok, here are previews of two cursors I'm creating. I'll release them asap, just want some feedback first. What I should change...where I should go with the idea, etc...

This cursor is right handed. Might make a white version. What do you think of the red highlight? For the wait cursor, I might make the Apple glow/pulsate.

This cursor is both left and right handed. Will make other colour variations. For the wait cursor, it'll spin.

Way Cool! I think pulsating is a great idea! Definitely a white version! Can't wait for the finished product.

Adam Betts · Feb 18, 2003, 12:53 PM

Originally posted by Dace:
Ok, here are previews of two cursors I'm creating. I'll release them asap, just want some feedback first. What I should change...where I should go with the idea, etc...

APM (Apple Pro mouse)

This cursor is right handed. Might make a white version. What do you think of the red highlight? For the wait cursor, I might make the Apple glow/pulsate.

That's very nice. It wouldn't make sense if you add both shadow and optical red light together. Better choose one of them. The white border could be slightly transparent.

I'd love to try it out

Bubba Jones · Feb 18, 2003, 03:35 PM

Originally posted by Dace:
Ok, here are previews of two cursors I'm creating. I'll release them asap, just want some feedback first. What I should change...where I should go with the idea, etc...

APM (Apple Pro mouse)

This cursor is right handed. Might make a white version. What do you think of the red highlight? For the wait cursor, I might make the Apple glow/pulsate.

Puck

This cursor is both left and right handed. Will make other colour variations. For the wait cursor, it'll spin.

Also, I might release a Logitech optical red mouse...since that's the mouse I use .

Apple pro mouse is very nice. not sure if i second what was said about choosing either drop shadow or red throb, but it is definitley a good point. my suggestion tho' is to probably stick with the red optic glow and have extend out to where the cord is and and have it make a red pointer. the sniped cord just isn't right. kill it!

Glennfield · Feb 19, 2003, 09:45 AM

Originally posted by Dace:
Ok, here are previews of two cursors I'm creating. ...

Nice images, but where's the "hot spot" for the cursor? I suppose with the APM it could be the tip of the cut off mouse cable, but with the Puck, I have no idea what part of it I would click with.

Mediaman_12 · Feb 19, 2003, 12:38 PM

This thread is a temple of taste and decency compaired to the Mighty Mouse section at resexcellence ugh some of theose creations are ugly, imagine looking at them all day.

TeknoTurd · Feb 19, 2003, 10:07 PM

Wow, MightyMouse is such a step up from BeachBall, although that program was awesome back in the day as well. One thing that I miss from the earlier days was the Graphite spinning ball that beachball provided us with, now i have neither the knowhow nor the talent, but if someone needed an idea of something to realease, something as simple as just the graphite spinning ball would please many people

keep up the good work guys, the cursors are awesome

Dace · Feb 19, 2003, 11:53 PM

Originally posted by Glennfield:
Nice images, but where's the "hot spot" for the cursor? I suppose with the APM it could be the tip of the cut off mouse cable, but with the Puck, I have no idea what part of it I would click with.

I figured since the actual puck mouse was so popular for being confusing, I thought I'd make the cursor just as confusing. The hot spot is in the center

It's not hard to use, just a bit confusing since everyone is use to having a tip as the hot spot.

bOOzo · Feb 20, 2003, 02:51 PM

I have now converted 7 of my wait cursors to MightyMouse. Get them here!

swiz · Feb 20, 2003, 04:58 PM

Originally posted by bOOzo:
I have now converted 7 of my wait cursors to MightyMouse. Get them here!

The new site design is nice Max

smeger · Feb 20, 2003, 06:08 PM

Originally posted by bOOzo:
I have now converted 7 of my wait cursors to MightyMouse. Get them here!

Heh - crazy. I was just using those last night to test the premultiplication fixes in my development version of Mighty Mouse. I didn't know they were yours - very nice!

The "Spinning Radiation" cursor in the MM release is my bad copy of your nice one, done because I liked it and didn't know who'd done the original.

TeknoTurd · Feb 20, 2003, 06:39 PM

awesome job max, those are some sharp lookin icons.

bOOzo · Feb 21, 2003, 03:46 AM

Originally posted by smeger:
Heh - crazy. I was just using those last night to test the premultiplication fixes in my development version of Mighty Mouse. I didn't know they were yours - very nice!

The "Spinning Radiation" cursor in the MM release is my bad copy of your nice one, done because I liked it and didn't know who'd done the original.

Yeah, they are mine. I had access to the beta of Jaguar so I extracted them

Swiz - glad you like the design, I wasn't so sure it would look good.

mrbiiggy2 · Feb 21, 2003, 03:50 AM

Originally posted by bOOzo:
I have now converted 7 of my wait cursors to MightyMouse. Get them here!

What about your XP Cursor that I could never get to work with Beachball? You made that, correct?

How about cursor makeovers for your themes also... ie milk

bOOzo · Feb 21, 2003, 03:55 AM

Originally posted by mrbiiggy2:
What about your XP Cursor that I could never get to work with Beachball? You made that, correct?

How about cursor makeovers for your themes also... ie milk

Yeah I have a XP cursors too, as I wrote "More cursors to come..."
I also have a StarCraft cursor in the works.
Yeah theme cursors might be cool, I'll think about that too.

Lew · 06:31 PM

Just made my first set

The blue section in the middle is 50% transparent. Works quite nicely compared to the standard black Mac cursor. Get it here

joecel · Feb 22, 2003, 02:25 AM

Bravo GFive!! I am using your super classy crusor set right now. Keep up the good work.