Dock Skinners Unite!

Hey all, it's been a while, and I've been doing some thinking. In this forum, we have some of the most talented graphic artists I've seen. I fancy myself an amateur at most. I have been working (With Matthew Bice's permission) to port his themes over to ObjectDock, but with little avail. Faithfully reproducing the themes in ObjectDock is no small task...the iTunes 2 theme has me pulling my hair out! Anyways, I am wondering if any of my fellow dock skinners would like to forge an alliance of sorts dedicated to porting and producing high-quality themes for ObjectDock. I by no means wish to discourage any individual creations; I myself have a few in mind and I know there are a few of you who do as well. At the same time though, I think a lot could get done by joining forces. That's about all I have to say...if any of you guys are interested, I would be more than glad to offer my services. Thanks for your time!

-godpunk

#4511

hmm......sure I'm in cuz atleast it gives me somethin fun to do and this will probably help me make more themes when I can't think anything up.

#4512

I would like to help. I think of myself as an amateur too, but I will do what I can. Actually right now I am working on porting Matthew Bice's Industech Dock because I just got done making all the PNGs for the new icons by the same name. I had a question though... I am trying to make the left and right ends have seperate images...but everytime i do it ends up looking stretched compared to the other images. Any help with how to make seperate images for the left and right would be appreciated. Thanks.

Fletch

#4530

That is the same problem I'm having with the iTunes 2 skin.

Matthew's themes are contructed to skin individual icons by sandwiching the app icon between background and foreground icons...apprently the OS X dock is intelligent enough to keep the icons that make up the ends in place and not crop them out like ObjectDock does. I'm guessing we won't have a fully accurate port until Jeff writes in support for indvidual icon skining, if he does at all. We'll have to see what we can do in the meantime.

-godpunk

#4546

That's what I'd like to see.. individual icon skinning.

Using that you'd be able to put a image\icon that goes in front or behind of each icon without having to actually modify the icon.

#4548

Is there a way not to tile the background image (automatically resize or whatever it does) so that the background stays aligned with the icons?

I ported a couple themes and I would have liked to be able to use the left and right foregound and background files instead of having to cut off the edges.

#4583

I agree with that

#4584

I just found something interesting in one of the background folders. It looks like you can use background left and right, etc. I'm going to try it out now. Those guys at stardock rule!

#4608

Here's a list of basic features that I think would be needed to make iheartny style skins work smoothly on ObjectDock. Feel free to add to it.

-Support for specifying specific images for the left and right ends of the dock in the INI file

-Support for individual icon skinning (background and foreground) in units of 128x128 rather than tiling backgrounds and a single-image foreground

-Support for a background that resizes as the Dock's size is changed (like Y'z Dock 3.0 and earlier)

I dunno if you are gonna have a chance to read this Jeff, but these are some features that I personnally would like to eventually see. Thanks everyone for your interest in skinning and thanks to Jeff for the wonderful program!

-godpunk

#4609

I think i was just tired or smoking crack or something. no left or right skinning yet. Jeff needs to release some documentation of what all the sections in the background.ini files do.

::edit::

I was wrong. After playing around with the bavckground.ini file i found you can use skins for the left and right sides of the dock. I used the Water Bath Skin as a test.

Old conversion:

http://www.geocities.com/faroffdawn/water.jpg

New Conversion: (the foregound and background tile, but the edges do not deform)

http://www.geocities.com/faroffdawn/newwatersample.jpg

I'll post more info and possibly updated versions of the object dock themes later tomorrow.

#4611

I tried the same with 0.55, ie 128 in ini to leave edges alone and it stretched it when dock moved but cool if it works with 0.65 though im sticking with 0.55 as it messes objectbar up..

#4623

Asapin-

Can you please post the text from the INI that specifies the left and right images? It would be a great help to all of us, I think! Thanks in advance bud!

-godpunk

#4658

I used a foreground and background that were both 384 pixels (3 x 128 pixels pngs). You have to open up the background.ini file for your dock theme and adjust the left and right widths. These values define what area tiles and what area doesn't for the background and foreground. I copied the info directly from my test ini file. I also added comments for this post.

*note* remove comments before using. i'm not sure if they have any strage side effects *note*

Image = background.png

LeftWidth = 128 'do not tile the left 128 pixels of the background

TopHeight = 1

RightWidth = 128 'do not tile the right 128 pixels

BottomHeight = 0

TileCenter = 1 'tile the center or remaining 128 pixels

[Foreground]

Image = foreground.png

LeftWidth = 128 'do not tile the left 128 pixels of the foreground

TopHeight = 7 'push the foreground down the specified number of pixels

RightWidth = 128 'do not tile the right 128 pixels of the foreground

BottomHeight = 0

TileCenter = 1 'tile the remaining foreground area

This can be used with any size images. I have tried with varying widths and all worked well.

#4663

It works wonderfully, I am going to get permission from Adam Betts, the creator of both the icons and the dock skin. The ends look great. Anyone have any idea for a foreground of anysort? thought it might be cool. Check out my post in Stardocks topic called Industech Dock and Question... anyways, look for this to be released soon...screenshot as well when I am done tweaking it. Thanks for the help Asapin. Later.

Fletch

#4691

Ok, I have full permission for anything related to Industech. Thanks go out to Adam Betts, the creator ( www.thebettsbro.com). Anyways, just waiting to hear what you guys think on foregrounds and I will tweak and release the current version soon, probably sometime tonight. Anyways, talk to you later.

Fletch

#4694

Here it is....

Dock Download

PNGs Download

#4702

looks cool..

#4728

Fletch: awesome!!! We're working on getting an ObjectDock section up on WinCustomize so you can have your stuff hosted there. Very nice work to you, and props to the original author as well.

-Jeff

#4735

Good job fletch. Can't wait to see more docks flowing in.

#4736

awesome work fletch.... are there icons for apps too??... i'd like to have mi dock completely with that theme.....

#4741

Hey guys, any ideas for docks would be appreciated. I am currently working on a Christmas dock (70% done) and an MMX dock (85%). So any other ideas would be appreciated and I will have screenshots soon. I am still working on the Industech dock as well.

Fletch

#4888

well.. i'd really like an space dock... but not focused on space ships or fiction... but focused on planets, galaxies, nebulae, stars, blackholes, telescopes, hubble telescope, could use a deep sky image for the dock background with some galaxies... just an idea.... yeah... perhaps not everybody like it... but.. it's an idea.. and i'd realy love it....

#4902

fletch great themes-can't wait for you to post them for download.

by the way where did you get the snowflake wallpaper i like-goes

great with the x-mas theme.

#4909

Thanks for all of the compliments guys, I realy appreciate it. I will keep trying to pump the docks out as fast and as well as I can. Keep givving me reat ideas and I will work on it. Thanks again. Later.

Fletch

#4955

Fletch, those are AMAZING!!! I love those themes!! You are a great artist! Keep up the good work!

EDIT: At first, I thought you were designing the icons also! Man that would have been insane. But, you are doing a great job calloborating these icons and then making a nice background!

#4958