New Skin For Gmenu2x


ruckage

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Joined
Oct 15, 2006
Messages
659
Hi all.

Just uploaded my first skin for gmenu2x. You can find it here.

carbonkm2.jpg
screenshotfp9.jpg
 
Cool looks great.

How do you get transparent shadows? What program do you use?

I have always wondered how to get transparencies.
 
Thanks for the replies, glad you like it. I'll perhaps get some more icons and backgrounds made for this at some point and maybe even some different colour schemes (won't be for a while as it would be a fair ammount of work).

The skull on the first picture doesn't actually fetuare as an icon so I should perhaps add it for the next version.

Love the new avatar Purple goat. :D

DaveC posted on Feb 6 2007 at 03:47 AM said:
Cool looks great.

How do you get transparent shadows? What program do you use?

I have always wondered how to get transparencies.

It's actually fairly easy but not that easy to explain. The images gmenu2x uses are *.png and these support an alpha channel, this means each pixel of the image has a value representing it's opacity as well as it's RGB values.

I used photoshop to design these but you could just as easily use the gimp. You design your images in layers and to make the background transparent I switch off the background layer and do all the work on newly created layers above. Each layer can have it's own level of opacity. You can also adjust the opacity of brushes, use soft brushes, add gradient fills and blurs or for an even easier approach make a layer cast a drop shadow or glow using it's blending properties. You then just save the image as *.png and you have an icon with various degrees of opacity.

Sorry if that wasn't a particularly good explanation but I'd need a lot more space and time to do a full tutorial. The best way to learn is to just play around with photoshop/gimp and maybe follow a few online tutorials. It's how I learned and you'll be surprised how quickly you pick it up.
 
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ruckage posted on Feb 5 2007 at 08:07 PM said:
Hi all. Just uploaded my first skin for gmenu2x. You can find it here.

Good work, man. I like your graphics style. You and Alex are among my favorite gfx artists in the GP2X scene.

P.S.: Scene... that makes me think of my C64 days. Wouldn't it be great if we had something like that, with coding groups, demos, etc.? I mean, we've got a closed box, like the C64. We're guaranteed hardware compatibility, and firmware seems to be pretty compatible across versions. Ahhh...

chickenhead.gif
 
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Looks good. Even an "emulators" icon is included. I miss this in my current "Liquido" Skin. ^^
Haven't tested your skin yet, are there also Skins for the standard musicplayer in this style? (To fit with the Gmenu skin)
 
subcon959 posted on Feb 6 2007 at 01:58 PM said:
Very nice.. don't suppose you fancy making a matching one for the firmware too? :)

fusion_power posted on Feb 6 2007 at 03:09 PM said:
Looks good. Even an "emulators" icon is included. I miss this in my current "Liquido" Skin. ^^
Haven't tested your skin yet, are there also Skins for the standard musicplayer in this style? (To fit with the Gmenu skin)

Well to be honest I wasn't going to do a standard skin but then I realised it would be much better if things like the music player etc matched the look of gmenu2x so I've begun work on it - expect it soon. :D

saehn said:
Good work, man. I like your graphics style. You and Alex are among my favorite gfx artists in the GP2X scene.

P.S.: Scene... that makes me think of my C64 days. Wouldn't it be great if we had something like that, with coding groups, demos, etc.? I mean, we've got a closed box, like the C64. We're guaranteed hardware compatibility, and firmware seems to be pretty compatible across versions. Ahhh...

Thanks it's nice that my graphic work is appreciated. I think the gp2x scene is very similar to the good old days - reminds me of when I had my good old Amiga. (You'll be pleased to hear one of the included icons is a commodore logo B) )
 
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ruckage posted on Feb 6 2007 at 11:19 AM said:
It's actually fairly easy but not that easy to explain. The images gmenu2x uses are *.png and these support an alpha channel, this means each pixel of the image has a value representing it's opacity as well as it's RGB values.

I used photoshop to design these but you could just as easily use the gimp. You design your images in layers and to make the background transparent I switch off the background layer and do all the work on newly created layers above. Each layer can have it's own level of opacity. You can also adjust the opacity of brushes, use soft brushes, add gradient fills and blurs or for an even easier approach make a layer cast a drop shadow or glow using it's blending properties. You then just save the image as *.png and you have an icon with various degrees of opacity.

Can I convert an already completed image to an alpha image? What PS command is it? I do have photoshop but I am not that good with it. I haven't had much time to mess with all of the commands. I am mostly familiar with old school pixel art programs like d-paint and that would take alot longer to do something like that in.

I like your icons but they are like 1 pixel too high for my setup. I have more icons on screen due to the amount of stuff. The tops of the icons touch the text of the icon above.
 
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DaveC posted on Feb 6 2007 at 06:05 PM said:
Can I convert an already completed image to an alpha image? What PS command is it? I do have photoshop but I am not that good with it. I haven't had much time to mess with all of the commands. I am mostly familiar with old school pixel art programs like d-paint and that would take alot longer to do something like that in.

I like your icons but they are like 1 pixel too high for my setup. I have more icons on screen due to the amount of stuff. The tops of the icons touch the text of the icon above.

There is no command to add alpha to an image automatically - it has to be designed that way in the first place or it can be added using an alpha mask but depending on the image it could be tricky. Could you send me an example of one of the images you want to add an alpha mask to and I can try and guide you in the right direction.
 
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