GUI elements

Shroomz~> · Post by **Shroomz~>** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:08 am

OK, this is long overdue, so I'll be brief with the explanation & get down to business asap.

The concept I've been working on for a while is that we build a fresh & high quality collection of gui elements (control animations) which can include all sorts of controls that we'd like to make available to the SDK developer community. Anyone can contribute gui elements to the thread & they can be either custom, new designs or 'modelled' on existing & classic control designs of pots, knobs, sliders, dials, switches, toggles, leds, lcd animations, basically any relevant gui elements.

OK, lets get started

>>>

3D generated Knob animations

Custom pointer pot

Moog-style rotary switch pots (similar to the one used on the moog 904C module) in 3 sizes.

Custom variations of the moog-style pointer knob. >>>

more custom knob designs. >>>

As requested by Wayne... a pair of chickenheads.

custom pitch/mod wheel....

another new knob in 2 flavours.

A simple modern knob design >>>

custom slider cap design in 8 colours. STM sized versions available.

modern knob design with illuminated surround.

Behringer BCR-style LED surround in green.

NOTE:- Downloads are not currently available. In the meantime, if anyone wants something in particular.. just ask.

MCCY · Post by **MCCY** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 9:16 am

This is gigantic!!!!! Unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!
Be sure, there will come some nice devices!!!

Martin

Lima · Post by **Lima** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 5:09 am

Great idea Shroomz! What are the specifications? (size, number of colours, etc...)

Shroomz~> · Post by **Shroomz~>** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 5:42 am

Lima, they need to be 32-bit TGA (Targa) files with an alpha channel defining transparency. This allows for shadows to be included in the animation, although this is not always necessary.

Size doesn't matter

You can have any frame count, but it should preferably be an odd number such as 61, 65 etc. It's also best to keep the animation frame size to an odd pixel number like 55x55, 65x65 etc, as that seems to eliminate the common 'wobble' problem.

Anyone can contribute their work to the collection.

Here's an example of how the black ribbed pot with the new lighter shadows would look when placed on a dark background skin with light graphics.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 6:11 am

you (or anyone interested in) may consider to set the rendering params to more than one and to more diffuse lightsources to avoid the artificial look - imgine 8 of these in a row

Even better if the angle of the light sources varies with control position on the surface, or the shadow vanishes occasionally.
Shouldn't be too difficult as it's a reusable setup (and just variations) anyway.

cheers, Tom

wayne · Post by **wayne** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 8:07 am

Deadly knobbage, Shroomz

wayne · Post by **wayne** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 8:09 am

How 'bout proper chickenheads?

Shroomz~> · Post by **Shroomz~>** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 8:18 am

I'll need to research the chickenheads

In the meantime we've made 4 new versions of the ribbed pots. These ones have no shadows.

Download black custom ribbed pots without shadows <a href="http://www.si-rus.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ ... p">here</a>

Download grey custom ribbed pots without shadows <a href="http://www.si-rus.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ ... p">here</a>

[ This Message was edited by: Shroomz on 2006-09-03 09:25 ]

hifiboom · Post by **hifiboom** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 11:59 am

Wow shroomz!!

very cool stuff... this will raise the looking of many upcoming devices... very nice....

RESPECT!

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 3:53 pm

On 2006-09-03 07:11, astroman wrote:
you (or anyone interested in) may consider to set the rendering params to more than one and to more diffuse lightsources to avoid the artificial look - imgine 8 of these in a row

Even better if the angle of the light sources varies with control position on the surface, or the shadow vanishes occasionally.
Shouldn't be too difficult as it's a reusable setup (and just variations) anyway.

cheers, Tom

First of all, good work shroomz, aparently they are beeing used allready!

Second, to comment on astros reply, i have never used DP myself, but i can imagine the performance of the device would be sacrified if you were to render a pot for every position on the finished device. i ASSUME that using one animated knob instead of say, 20 different renders (approx minimax estimation from my memory) will save cycles. can anyone confirm or deny this?

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 4:58 pm

the 'rendering' of the knob is done with an external (preferably 3D) program, resulting in an animation clip (a sequence of bitmaps).

it doesn't matter how complex the design process was, in that context all bitmaps are indeed created equal

the audio performance cannot be affected as the GUI interaction is native CPU code.

if the system is smart, it could use a single 'mastercontrol' per GUI element type and picture the corresponding frame of the animation by a copy of what's at the respective index position.

If it uses an individual sequence for each single element then there's a load penalty (memory), but not much else to expect regarding performance.

cheers, Tom

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 5:52 pm

i just thought it would be more demanding as each step of the animation is a tga file i im not totally wrong. i assumed loading 20 times more of those files (as in my example) would be more demanding. then again im probarly assuming to much

Shroomz~> · Post by **Shroomz~>** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 1:22 am

Piddi, loading say 20 times more animation frames into a device would only really alter it's loading time in SFP (loading 20x61 frames as opposed to 1x61 frames for example) This would also put a little dent in native CPU & Ram usage.

Note that the shadow direction is barely even visible when the pots are put on a dark background with light graphics like the one in the example above.

Extensive custom variations can be achieved, but they are better done at the request of an actual developer as customized versions of a basic design specifically for a device he's making. For example, modifications to shadow & reflection colours could be made to suit a particular colour of background skin (especially brightly coloured ones), which is a relatively simple process. The whole process of creating designs such as these from start to finish however, is a lengthy & very involved one. Multiple versions from different perspectives (for example) would be an extremely time consuming endeavour when you consider that a new custom or modelled pot animation takes 1-2 days minimum to create. Obviously in some cases at the special request of a developer, I'd be willing to walk the extra mile.

There's more designs on the way this week.

hifiboom · Post by **hifiboom** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 2:19 am

"There's more designs on the way this week."

Run, forest, run........

very nice GUI elements...

I`m waiting for the first nice looking free devices ...

[ This Message was edited by: hifiboom on 2006-09-04 03:20 ]

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 6:15 am

On 2006-09-04 02:22, Shroomz wrote:
...Multiple versions from different perspectives (for example) would be an extremely time consuming endeavour when you consider that a new custom or modelled pot animation takes 1-2 days minimum to create. ...

are your tools a business secret (which I'd of course respect) or can you write about them ?

I assumed that the most time consuming process is the geometric model and it's texture - a day isn't too much indeed.

The 'environment' with the virtual lightsources on the other hand remains rather constant (imho), after you found a setting that's visually appealing.

Then you record one animation sequence of the rotating (or otherwise) moved control.
Shift the control to a different location, record another sequence, shift etc.
(according to my humble 3d experiences)

cheers, Tom

Shroomz~> · Post by **Shroomz~>** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 7:42 am

On 2006-09-04 07:15, astroman wrote:
are your tools a business secret (which I'd of course respect) or can you write about them ?

No not a business secret, I can write about them.

The basic tools are just a block of modelling wax, a scalpel, some spraypaint & a throw-away Kodak.

[ This Message was edited by: Shroomz on 2006-09-04 11:18 ]

Shroomz~> · Post by **Shroomz~>** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 7:53 am

I don't really want to get into the depths of tutorial stuff here, but here's a neat trick for anyone using these pots who wants to get them in a nice straight line on their devices...

When you're at the stage of placing pots or other controls on your device in the SDK, simply make 2 versions of your background skin, the actual skin & a temporary version of it to use for alignment which has visible guides (lines) wherever you're puting a row of controls. Using the version with guides, you can accurately place your controls in nice straight lines then simply swap the background skin for the actual version without the guides. Et voila!

[ This Message was edited by: Shroomz on 2006-09-04 08:56 ]

Shroomz~> · Post by **Shroomz~>** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 5:10 am

<edit>

onomat · Post by **onomat** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 8:35 pm

nice job Shroomz. And I thought I was the only one crazy enough to spend hundreds of hours on the knobs and bits of animation required!

Everyone's lucky there're people like you.
simon
De-Vice'

(pheww, those VU meters for my LeveL-DeviL nearly killed me!).

hifiboom · Post by **hifiboom** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 4:30 am

some more well designed knob for your inspiration...