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

[plexuss]

Maybe i am a bit biased as i did my own skin (see my update and links at this page) but with all due repect to the work of others that posted their results here (e.g. Teksonik and Norbz) for me my skin looks MUCH cleaner and better to read than those other skins.

Thanks very much Ingonator for your time and effort on working on PA skins. it's amazing you got up to speed with it quickly. your initial skins are not too bad either. I know its early days of this and you are pioneering the whole concept as it applies to PA. I am sure your skins will get more refinements and I look forward to what you post. Keep it coming. Very much appreciated!

Also thanks to the other people here too making skins - they are also pretty nice. I like aspects of them all. Skin design is very subjective and there is no golden standard. one benefit of skins is the ability to custimize for your own preference. and so far with all the skins you guys have been making, there is a lot to choose from.

[fmr]

Neither of your "skins" would really hold water when held up to a professionally designed commercial UI, though they are both better than the horrific mess that we started with. The hard truth is that what is needed is more than just an easier to read interface. The controls from AQ are not well laid out, and any amount of art revision is just a band-aid on a deeper wound. It's a big job. I know, "Why don't you show us how it's done instead of just being a critical jerk!?" The truth is, I've long since stopped using Poly-Ana and it's been replaced with other synths, hardware and software. It's hard to work up the motivation to start editing xml files when so many other fun more rewarding things via for my free time. It's hard enough to make time for a personal book illustration project I'm working on. Maybe I'll give it a go at some point and then you guys can all tell me I suck.

Thanks. Finally I see someone that says the same I 'v been saying... and it's a professional designer. Lt's hope someone takes the task and comes with something really convincing.

[Ingonator]

Maybe i am a bit biased as i did my own skin (see my update and links at this page) but with all due repect to the work of others that posted their results here (e.g. Teksonik and Norbz) for me my skin looks MUCH cleaner and better to read than those other skins.

Thanks very much Ingonator for your time and effort on working on PA skins. it's amazing you got up to speed with it quickly. your initial skins are not too bad either. I know its early days of this and you are pioneering the whole concept as it applies to PA. I am sure your skins will get more refinements and I look forward to what you post. Keep it coming. Very much appreciated!

Also thanks to the other people here too making skins - they are also pretty nice. I like aspects of them all. Skin design is very subjective and there is no golden standard. one benefit of skins is the ability to custimize for your own preference. and so far with all the skins you guys have been making, there is a lot to choose from.

Hi,

many thanks for your comment.

Actually i already added some updates today. Yyou could check my post at page 16 for details if you like. You and others are free to download download my skin from the link i posted at that page.
The ZIP file is updated now so it contains all current changes. This also includes the Kobman file i had used for that skin.

[Norbz]

Looks like Ingo is getting shit on for his enthusiasm a bit .

Ingo, some tips for you - been designing for xx years now, photoshop is your new best friend (and since you know how to work the XML pretty easily, you are dangerous you just don't know it yet).

If I were you, I would take a little time to not only learn the apps, but more importantly LOOK/ABSORB other GUI's that have 150+ knobs/elements and how they are laid out. Simple background and border color changes and rearranging within the same canvas space is going to be a band-aid as said above.

Here's a screeny of some of my other work, LESS DEAD SPACE there is the better.



There is such a thing as 'too tight' and small, but right now I think you need to educate yourself on whitespace/composition/layout more than eye candy. I wish I was a wiz with the xml and had the time to create this from scratch, you might have that time so I'd encourage you to literally SCRAP all your work to date on this and start over - from scratch. Utilize some of the things you've learned/will learn through this process. I've done well over 100 interfaces and each time I still pick up tricks/tips so please don't think I'm shitting on you just want to see you put your time into this properly vs just more color treatments/minor rearrangements of the elements.

Is anyone actually creating a wide version of this as stated on the skin page? If not maybe Ingo can at least arrange things to fit laptops/be universal (I'd go with 880x600 or 650 if you can't squeeze enough). There is still room to make the knobs smaller and the labels can indeed be reworked to say less but still be intuitive.

[chk071]

Looks like Ingo is getting shit on for his enthusiasm a bit .

Wondering where the shit is coming from though. If i don't care about someones creations, i'll just stick out of his stuff, big deal. There's a lot of stuff i don't like here, be it plugins, applications, music, design or photography. But i wouldn't get the idea to bash onto someone. Maybe give him some ideas why i think it could be better here or there if i care. Always remember that the person, in this case Ingo, does all this for free, and shares it even. There's really no need to bash on him or his work if you don't care for it.

I think a lot of this is just due to antipathy wherever it may come from.

[plexuss]

Looks like Ingo is getting shit on for his enthusiasm a bit .

Wondering where the shit is coming from though. If i don't care about someones creations, i'll just stick out of his stuff, big deal. There's a lot of stuff i don't like here, be it plugins, applications, music, design or photography. But i wouldn't get the idea to bash onto someone. Maybe give him some ideas why i think it could be better here or there if i care. Always remember that the person, in this case Ingo, does all this for free, and shares it even. There's really no need to bash on him or his work if you don't care for it.

I think a lot of this is just due to antipathy wherever it may come from.

+1

[Ingonator]

Ingo, some tips for you - been designing for xx years now, photoshop is your new best friend (and since you know how to work the XML pretty easily, you are dangerous you just don't know it yet).

If I were you, I would take a little time to not only learn the apps, but more importantly LOOK/ABSORB other GUI's that have 150+ knobs/elements and how they are laid out. Simple background and border color changes and rearranging within the same canvas space is going to be a band-aid as said above.

Hi,

i will not buy Photoshop just to do a Poly-Ana skin that i mostly do for my own fun and use (while i wanted to share it here...). I do not plan to become a professional GUI designer and I am much better in doing sound design and beta testing (and most people appreciate my work in those areas, especialy a few companies i worked and work for...).

Anyway i like what i got so far, especially if you consider the quite short time i invested so far and the tools i had used. Besides using Windows Paint, a picture tool from Office 2010 and JKnobman I just have started to check using the free GIMP softwarewith this now.

My personal approach curently will not be to do a "shiny 3D skin" but something more clear and more 2D looking.
Others maybe like a 3D look more but that's not what i am after at the moment. Having those LEDs and a little "depth" with the switches and knobs is enough 3D for me at my current skin.

[Numanoid]

i will not buy Photoshop just to do a Poly-Ana skin that i mostly do for my own fun

There are many plugs that can be skinned, why not try your hand at some other plugs?

[chk071]

Gimp is great for free, although it will take you quite a while to get used to it. Photoshop is much easier to get into IMO. There's also the less pricey "Elements" version of Photoshop which i bought on Amazon for 45 €, and it's already very deep and lets you do all sorts of things.

[Norbz]

Ingo, some tips for you - been designing for xx years now, photoshop is your new best friend (and since you know how to work the XML pretty easily, you are dangerous you just don't know it yet).

If I were you, I would take a little time to not only learn the apps, but more importantly LOOK/ABSORB other GUI's that have 150+ knobs/elements and how they are laid out. Simple background and border color changes and rearranging within the same canvas space is going to be a band-aid as said above.

Hi,

i will not buy Photoshop just to do a Poly-Ana skin that i mostly do for my own fun and use (while i wanted to share it here...). I do not plan to become a professional GUI designer and I am much better in doing sound design and beta testing (and most people appreciate my work in those areas, especialy a few companies i worked and work for...).

Anyway i like what i got so far, especially if you consider the quite short time i invested so far and the tools i had used. Besides using Windows Paint, a picture tool from Office 2010 and JKnobman I just have started to check using the free GIMP softwarewith this now.

My personal approach curently will not be to do a "shiny 3D skin" but something more clear and more 2D looking.
Others maybe like a 3D look more but that's not what i am after at the moment. Having those LEDs and a little "depth" with the switches and knobs is enough 3D for me at my current skin.

Fair enough, and again I'm not trying to do anything more than help ya . If many people are saying the same thing there tends to be some truth to it. While I won't insult your designs or say anything negative, I do think your time would be better allocated and your final result will be better suited to a universal likeability if you take some of the advice being given (not about 3d or colors, but more so layout and overall look/feel compared to what's out there in commercial land, and what AD probably wants re a first impression once this is done and hits the markets).

Cheers,
N.

[david.beholder]

Here's a screeny of some of my other work, LESS DEAD SPACE there is the better.

My eyes are bleeding. Nevermind

[Norbz]

Lol ^ It was to illustrate how one can pack in 150+ elements and still have a relatively small overall UI.

[Ingonator]

I am really tired of constantly having to justify my work on a Poly-Ana skin here (which obviously is WIP...).

So either people like it and then download it (the current version which also includes Knobman files) or just leave it...

I have deleted all screnshots of old skin versions, only the current version is left now.

I did not want to compete with any professional GUI designers and obviously i also did not want to enter the professional GUI design market.

If the attacks in this thread continue i will also delete the remaining screenshot and the download link.

[Norbz]

I'll bow out as of now - I'm trying to help you dude not attack you (a positive critique if you will), nothing on this page is attacking you and I'm giving my free time here just like you for no return and to help an up and coming designer/creative person. I actually felt sorry for you hence my .02 and how you can improve.

No good deed...

Peace out.

[david.beholder]

Lol ^ It was to illustrate how one can pack in 150+ elements and still have a relatively small overall UI.

It's really hard. There are few good examples of nice packing, but it's usually it's either bad or even worse.