One of the new features in Fusion / Studio 7 is the ability to "skin" the app to change the appearance.

Coolness I hear you say, but how do we do that?

Well first backup the file "skin.bmp" in the Fusion/Studio 7 directory so that you can undo your changes, then you can modify skin.bmp, restart mixmeister and see what a mess you've made...

On the off chance you have graphics skillz, or luck into something that you think looks pretty cool why not share it with the community in this thread*?



*currently you will need to host/link to it but I'm hoping to sort out a way to accept skin.bmp uploads shortly to make it easier to share.

Monk, any hope of some SIMPLE examples, perhaps using something common like MS-Paint, or Paint Shop Pro ??

I've got no graphical talent, and I really need to be hand-held through this process.

I'm curious as to how an application that has a dynamic section of the application interface (the timeline), I'm curious as to how the application pulls the information from a bitmap to apply the proper colors to the actual live application.

if your asking how the skin works the BMP does not act alone. There usually is a XML(code) file that tell the software what to display and what actions to take place and where.
here's an example:
<button track"1" type="play" (tells the action)
<pos x="273" y="6"/> tell the software of the location where the action will take place)
<size width="129" height="7"/> (size of the button/action)
<down x="428" y="768"/> (to display a different graphic to indicate the button is on use)
</visual>
**the numbers indicate the location the graphic is found on the bitmap for a visual command
also will tell the software where an action will happen. Think of it like playing battleship

In this case there is no XML describing where the buttons are. That information is hard coded into the application.

The skin works three different ways:

1) For simple items with a color or gradient, the application essentially "eye droppers" the skin.bmp file. For each thing, like the text in the library or the color of the grid, there is a magic pixel that dictates the color for that item throughout the application. Change the color of the relevant item in the skin.bmp file and the application will use that. You can use MS Paint for this purpose.

2) For buttons, the application uses the multiple states contained in the skin*.bmp files. To modify the buttons, you'll need to tweak all of the skin*.bmp files, which reflect the normal, hover, depressed, disabled, and active states.

3) For the knobs, there is a special bitmap with every single position of each knob. It is called knobstrip.bmp. This one is harder to edit and probably requires expertise in Photoshop to make it happen.

OK, here is a very quick and dirty example of how to change the appearance of Fusion. For the sake of simplicity I've only modified the skin.bmp and not touched the buttons/dials but it demonstrates the basic technique.

1) Starting with the original skin.bmp (make a backup copy first!) in the Fusion program folder...



2) Open it in the graphics app of your choice. In this example I used Paint Shop Pro and simply
used the "Fill" tool to randomly colour in a couple of sections, in this example I changed the active waveform from green to blue and filled in the background in red...



3) Name the file skin.bmp and save it back to the Fusion program folder. Restart Fusion and ooh look what's happened...



Of course now I'm going to need to give the actual colour scheme some thought...creating a worthwhile skin may take some time

Is there a way to change the white line markers to a different color? They seem very hard to see most of the time. Would like to see them red or some other good contrasting color.

Jimi J

Not sure if you've seen this post from Aaron Jimi but it discusses using the skin to make the beat frame more visible...I've not tried it yet but it might give you a nudge in the right direction.

link

Let us know how you get on

What I am referring too are the white lines on the beat grid.....they show up good on the black grid....but when viewed in the timeline on the tracks themselves....when highlighted in green they are hard to see...or when not highlighted on the grey background also very hard to see. Why not use a red or orange for these markers which would make viewing much easier?

Jimi, here's a screenshot with my own tuning of the beat grid in the timeline. Is this what you want?

Brighter beat grid

Here's the ysi link to the skin.bmp I'm currently using. The file can be retrieved from ysi within the next seven days.

I only modified the Beat grid colours in the Timeline. This is what I did:

1) The dark grey measure markers of the background grid are dark blue (line in the top left corner of the Timeline) - don't know what the light blue pixels at the bottom of that line are for .

2) The white measure markers in non-activated tracks are also dark blue (second line in 'Behind the Yashmak').

3) The white measure markers in activated tracks are green (fifth line in 'Strange Place for Snow').

4) The cursor shifts from red to green (two close lines at the right half of the Timeline, I belive).

Moto

Moto,

That skin works very well, and has encouraged us here at casa Wildr to have a look at skinning!

If we come up with anything approaching your excellence, we'll post it here to.

R.

Does look quite a bit better....thanks!

Jimi

Nice one Moto, thanks.

Here's a Cool Blue Skin By Gadget Girl, that not only looks fantastic, it also provides excellent definition of the beat grid & Song Slicer.

If anyone would like the Full Skin file, please see further on in this thread, as there is a link directly to the files.




R.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Wildr>,

quote:

Originally posted by Monkey Dan (Monk):
Nice one Moto, thanks.

What he said

Thanks to Aaron the Cool Blue Skin can now be found by Clicking here.

Simply rename or move the existing .bmp file sin your Mixmeister Studio or Fusion folder, and unzip these to replace them.

Then when you restart Mixmeister you'll have the new Skin.

Personally I think this an Excellent Full Skin, and Gadget Girl worked hard to achieve some spectacular results.

R.

Thanks Roy....do appreciate this very much...tell Gadget Girl this skin does "Rock Da House"
Also Aaron thanks for supplying the link...do appreciate that!

Jimi J

Got the Cool Blue Skin setup....and it is fantastic....what a change for the better!
Thanks....Roy and Gadget Girl.....simply awesome!

Jimi J

You're welcome Jimi J, glad you like it! If you come across any problems with it let me or Wildr know and I'll take a look at it

GG