NEW! Customizable Skin for Plug-n-Script by Letimix

[ilyaorlov]

Hey, guys!

I'm excited to finally share with you the skin for Plug-n-Script that's been in development for about a year already. It has included many improvements that were asked on the forum as well as many new cool features you'll probably find useful. Still this is a first version that should be well-tested so I'm ready for your bug-reports and critique.

skin.png

Here's a list of features:

• Easily change background colors, add gradients and shadows
• Add your own background images, groups of images, layer them, resize them, stretch and so on
• Live preview of changes on working plugin; toggle between old/new to compare two themes
• Save new skin configuration for every plugin you make (used skin file is remembered in PnS presets)
• Save and load themes with all skin settings for quick reusing and sharing; selectively load themes and theme parts
• Change body/toolbar/status bar size and padding, icon sizes and colors
• Change body/toolbar/status bar fonts, sizes and colors. Try custom .ttf/.otf fonts easily.
• Easily show or hide toolbar, meters, decorations, statusbar; additional statusbar option - show up only on errors
• Choose your own action for clicking on title (or no action); for example - click on the title to reload script/skin while in development mode;
• Customizable toolbar; use pre-build items or add your own. Easily add you own url or file link/manual to toolbar. Make toolbar single row or multiple rows. Two ways of using presets. Add your own elements using <TEMPLATE id="TOOLBAR_MYLOGO" ... />
• Customizable status bar. Add additional items to status bar. Printing to status bar from KUIML using status("text"). Add your own elements using <TEMPLATE id="STATUS_MYINFO" ... />
• Freely remove any skin part (with no warnings) and write your own toolbar, body or statusbar
• Convenient debug skin for development: see all the variables, params and actions available in KUIML, easy copy and use.
• Fully customizable meters with several styles (flat, gradient, LEDs)
• Show/hide/limit the number of meters, change it's size/orientation and position.
• NEW TOOL! Skin scanner (built-in option) lets you see what knobs/faders/meters/icons etc are defined in your skin. Easily browse/find/copy the name of the knob you need and paste into your code.
• Skin scanner lets you examine skin structure, see what elements/templates are defined in which files, how much they are used and where. You can load other skins (from other Blue Cat Audio plugins) to examine. Filter and save lists of elements for future use.
• Improved auto-layout for scripts with no custom .kuiml. Two auto-layouts present - text controls only (useful for development and testing) and graphic controls (evolved from default skin). In graphic controls use any elements (including your own), change knobs/cells size, padding, grouping, colors etc.
• COOL EXPERIMENTAL! Customizable knobs/faders/switches/meters drawn insize your skin (no need for rendering external png strips). Make knob/fader of any size and color, change it's properties, opacity etc. These elements also support basic properties like zoom, offset, reverse etc and some additional attributes like "disabled", "angle_from", "angle_to" and others.
• Built-in 3D light/shadows engine that draws custom shadow for each knob/fader in the layout depending on it's position. Adjust light source properties and see how your shadows change. Adjust camera properties to get 3D look of rendered controls.
• Export enhancements: select which plugin formats you want to build
• SMART EXPORT copies only the files that are used in your skin/custom .kuiml. Usual skin size after export is ~400 Kb, and can go even lower.
• Now inside your .kuiml you can use external graphics/scripts/includes, current folder is defined in KUIML_DIR variable. All included files/scripts/defines are automatically copied while export. In addition you can mention extra files to export using directive <EXPORT files="readme.txt;sample.wav" dirs="imagesDir;dataDir" manual="myplugin.pdf" /> inside your .kuiml
• Letimix Skin is free for personal/educational use and for freeware plugins development. If you want to release commercial plugins, please donate from 19$ and get a licence.

You can get it here:
https://letimix.com/pns-skin

[ilyaorlov]

Here's a video tutorial (part 1):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgO0EKSR8OA

[Blue Cat Audio]

You rock! I'll need to take some time to try it out in details!

[GregMalick]

Aloha Ilya,

You did a lot of fine work on this.
You should have a donate button.

[ilyaorlov]

Greg, thank you! Actually, I have one: http://paypal.me/letimix

[GregMalick]

I will donate when I get home.

In the video I thought I heard you say that KUIML doesn't allow you to use external images.
Does that mean you can't use custom control images?

[GregMalick]

Donation complete - for your hard work.

[ilyaorlov]

Thank you, Greg, for donation!
BTW don't forget to get your licence code here: https://letimix.com/get-licence/pns_skin/1.0
(use "I've already donated" button)

After that open Skin menu -> About LM Skin -> Paste Licence Code

[ilyaorlov]

You sure can use custom images and custom controls in KUIML language.

I mean when writing your .kuiml file for your script (which is a part of skin that is loaded dynamically) you cannot easily refer to external files/images/scripts, because in default skin you don't have the variable that contains the path to the folder where .kuiml file is located. So you can only use absolute paths, which is inconvinient, cause they'll break when you export your plugin.

This is a limitation that is mentioned in Plug-n-Script manual - it says "your .kuiml file should be self-contained".

BUT this restriction was overcome in Letimix skin. Now you can use $KUIML_DIR$ variable and include external files, load external scripts, define controls using external images. They will all be copied while export as well.

If you need some more files to be copied while export, you can mention them in special "EXPORT" tag in your .kuiml like this.
<EXPORT files="myfile1.txt;myfile2.txt" dirs="mydir1;mydir2" manual="mymanualfile.pdf" />

All the paths are relative to the same folder where your script files are (.cxx/.kuiml)

[GregMalick]

Thank you Ilya.

BTW, "I've already donated" button works in IE but not Firefox.
not a biggie but I thought you should know.

[ilyaorlov]

Greg, thanks for noting! Firefox problem should be solved now.

[ilyaorlov]

New video tutorial: How to add background images (decorations), try new fonts and remove parts of skin you don't need.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WnaIKnffmU&t=0

[Blue Cat Audio]

That's really impressive! It looks like we'll have to sync up with you for the next release... There are a couple of ideas in your skin that are in the todo list for "standard" PnS features...

[ilyaorlov]

Yea, I feel a little guilty for that But I'm really happy to make these features come to life, and I'd be glad to communicate!

[Blue Cat Audio]

You rock!