Admiral Quality Poly-ana offers custom skinning (and win a free license)!

[Teksonik]

Did some cleanup. I only went back nine pages or so. If you think your post was removed in error/overzealousness/whatever you can PM me and I'll take a look (they're out of sight, not deleted, so if needed posts can be put back).

Thank you. Hopefully things can remain civilized from this point forward.

[xamido]

So, is there anyway for me to demo poly-ana with the new skin?

[thecontrolcentre]

So, is there anyway for me to demo poly-ana with the new skin?

Yeah. Download the Poly-Ana demo and install the skin (instructions are on the AQ website).

[Ingonator]

As mentioned earlier i had deleted my screenshots and download links here and will no longe post new ones here.
Anyway i started ,my own thread with a bigger (also in size...) update of my previous skin:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 1#p6206881

[thecontrolcentre]

As mentioned earlier i had deleted my screenshots and download links here and will no longe post new ones here.
Anyway i started ,my own thread with a bigger (also in size...) update of my previous skin:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 1#p6206881

[Teksonik]

Anyway back on track.......Here's the first winner of the skin contest again so it doesn't get buried. This skin was done by Hoverland. Hopefully there will be other winners as well.

[Daags]

a worthy winner, by the looks of things.

[Teksonik]

With Hoverland already winning a license, how many licenses are up for grabs?

I got an official answer to this question:

"No limit but the more skins we get the harder it will become to
impress me and/or do something original. (And just re-coloring an
existing skin won't get you very far.) As I mention on the skins page,
anyone seriously thinking about putting a lot of time into it should
contact me early in their process and I can let them know if I think
they have a shot and help guide them in the right direction".

So as I've said several times before please contact Admiral Quality if you are thinking about doing a skin.

[fmr]

I got an official answer to this question:

"No limit but the more skins we get the harder it will become to
impress me and/or do something original. (And just re-coloring an
existing skin won't get you very far.) As I mention on the skins page,
anyone seriously thinking about putting a lot of time into it should
contact me early in their process and I can let them know if I think
they have a shot and help guide them in the right direction".

Well, it's his prize, so, I guess he has the right to pull the strings, but from the user POV, I would not trust AQ to judge what is a good skin, and what isn't, given the past history. One thing is trying to win a license, another is trying to come up with something that "really" pleases the users. If that last is important, listen to the user base is a must, IMO.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I got an official answer to this question:

"No limit but the more skins we get the harder it will become to
impress me and/or do something original. (And just re-coloring an
existing skin won't get you very far.) As I mention on the skins page,
anyone seriously thinking about putting a lot of time into it should
contact me early in their process and I can let them know if I think
they have a shot and help guide them in the right direction".

Well, it's his prize, so, I guess he has the right to pull the strings, but from the user POV, I would not trust AQ to judge what is a good skin, and what isn't, given the past history.

Well he chose the overland skin as a winner. So far so good.

[Teksonik]

Well, it's his prize, so, I guess he has the right to pull the strings, but from the user POV, I would not trust AQ to judge what is a good skin, and what isn't, given the past history. One thing is trying to win a license, another is trying to come up with something that "really" pleases the users. If that last is important, listen to the user base is a must, IMO.

Oh I totally agree that if you want to sell more units you have to do what attracts potential customers and that goes for any product but.....

Well he chose the overland skin as a winner. So far so good.

....this is a good point. I know the Hoverland skin goes against AQ's design philosophy* but he chose it anyway because it's the kind the thing the user base wants and the fact that it is of sufficient quality. The whole idea of working with AQ during the development of a skin is to make sure you don't make the same mistakes others have made such as incorrectly labeling controls. Working directly with the developer also allows you to make suggestions on skinning such as allowing user control over the Patch Name color (*cough* ). I don't have any problem at all with a developer setting certain standards for officially sanctioned skins that earn the artist a free license. I would do the same thing.

* To clarify Poly-Ana was designed to sound and look like a synth that might have existed in the 1970's. While the Hoverland skin is awesome in my opinion it's not really "period correct" since it looks to me at least like it's from a later decade. That's what I meant by design philosophy.

[Teksonik]

As a disclaimer........ no one in the early years of Poly-Ana was a more vocal critic of the original backwards tilted gui than I was. I actually found it quite disorienting. AQ and I had very heated e-mail exchanges on the subject that I'm sure if we were having that same discussion in a Pub it would have led to fisticuffs (especially if I had been drinking Tequlia. )

Over the years I saw people post time after time "I like the sound of Poly-Ana but I won't buy it because of the gui" or something along those lines yet AQ stuck to his artistic vision. I began to gain respect for someone who although it was costing him sales had the backbone to stand up for what he believed.
(in fairness over that time some people also said they liked the gui a lot.)

So for those of us who have owned Poly-Ana for years and have begged for a new skin the decision to allow user skinning and a non tilted gui is a blessing.

At this point I'm not sure the results are convincing that all the hard work to code user skinning was worth it but I still have faith that given time and more skin options from various artists that many people will now take a second look at Poly-Ana, fall in love with it and buy a copy.......at least that is my fervent hope.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I agree that the hoverland skin isn't totally in line with the vintage philosophy but it looks great and is quite clear, thanks to a combination of the new flat perspective and the nice controls. I also like the new layout that AQ did. But I think it's a credit to Mike that he supported this skin despite being somewhat more modern looking.

The worst thing was the extreme til of the lower controls beside the keyboard, so that alone getting fixed was awesome.

Looking forward to what other vintage flavors of skins show up.

[OutCider]

Well, it's his prize, so, I guess he has the right to pull the strings, but from the user POV, I would not trust AQ to judge what is a good skin, and what isn't, given the past history. One thing is trying to win a license, another is trying to come up with something that "really" pleases the users. If that last is important, listen to the user base is a must, IMO.

I think what's needed is a skinner getting involved who isn't trying to win a copy, thus taking the developer out of the equation, so designers can just design freely without having to satiate mike's somewhat bizarre and rigid control which I believe is stunting real artistic expression.

[Frantz]

So as I've said several times before please contact Admiral Quality if you are thinking about doing a skin.

Every would be skin designer can enjoy friendly interaction with Admiral Quality. He wrote this to Ingo:

You either must be blind or just in love with anything that's had your magic touch applied to it. Sorry but there's no nice way to say it. What I'm seeing is stupendously, outrageously, appallingly bad. Your lines are jaggy (particularly the curves around the corners of the borders). You've increased contrast so all the antialiasing of the text is gone. It looks like it's made out of Lego. And you've annihilated the branding. Don't worry, there isn't a chance in hell that I'd ever let this go up on our site. (I wish I could make it disappear from KVR!)