skin creation tool

**knobby** · 08-01-2007, 11:08 AM

So I've been working on a tool to help in skin creation. It was making me nuts trying to put together a skin and get everything to line up correctly, so I made a directx windows app that will take a skin and display it as it would show on the iphone. After making it, I think it might be good also as a skin viewer for someone looking for a skin they would like to put on their phone.

I think this would be a good app for skin creation and more for playing around with the different ways to create a skin to see how the iphone would render such a skin. It's still very early in the development and all I have rendering currently are the icons and dock. I'm still working on the top bar and the ability to show keypad, lock screen, etc.

You can animate the home screen by clicking on it and if you right click it will play the animation at 1/4 speed so you can better see how things are moving. I don't think the animation is 100% perfect yet most notably with regard to the dock icons.

I wanted to see what the reaction was to this to see if there was any interest to keep working on it.

You can download the app here.

**Shimizu1006** · 08-01-2007, 11:29 AM

AWSOMEEE!!!! (now make one for mac

This is going to start a whole new era of iphone moding apps!

**LoringStudios** · 08-01-2007, 11:54 AM

This is making more sense now..
So it can actually test any icon.. for whatever section you use it for. does it accept displayorder.plists and so on?
Im getting more interested. =)

**knobby** · 08-01-2007, 11:59 AM

Originally Posted by LoringStudios

This is making more sense now..
So it can actually test any icon.. for whatever section you use it for. does it accept displayorder.plists and so on?
Im getting more interested. =)

It does read the displayorder.plist file to determine what icons to use and where to put them. The only shortfall currently is that it doesn't handle more or less than 4 icons in the dock very well(read at all) yet. It also does the zorder like the iphone, so you can check for overlap and holes in your paper to make sure that the icons will show through correctly. I'm pretty sure that this is a pixel accurate representation of the phone and I've tried many different skins and they all seem to work well. I included one of your skins in the zip for a demo and I hope that it is ok to do so. I included your readme and also a blurb about where the skin came from in my readme.

**LoringStudios** · 08-01-2007, 09:27 PM

Nice. I think that skin you have is 1 pixel off from me =( If its the clouds one. I never got to re-aligning it.

But hell ya. I like the concept. I could do all the testing and visualization right on the comp.

**Kyle Matthews** · 08-01-2007, 09:33 PM

Wow... PM me with your AIM or MSN, this is awesome!

**arthursdomain** · 08-01-2007, 10:16 PM

You rock man, i restarted my computer HUNDREDS of times trying to align my template!. This will aleviate the pressure on my iphone

mind if we mirror it here??

**cipher0925** · 08-01-2007, 10:17 PM

Oh D! Very COOL!!! if you are a mac user like me it should work with crossover for mac!

**LoringStudios** · 08-01-2007, 10:19 PM

Dude.. Its RAD.. I just ran my new set on it.. All i did was replace the files and display order... perfect..

Look.. Screenshot.

**knobby** · 08-01-2007, 11:44 PM

Originally Posted by LoringStudios

Nice. I think that skin you have is 1 pixel off from me =( If its the clouds one. I never got to re-aligning it.

But hell ya. I like the concept. I could do all the testing and visualization right on the comp.

That is one thing that I don't know if I have 100% correct, the alignment. I'm guessing at everything based on skins that I've found. If anyone knows the exact locations of all the icons it would really help. I have no problems at all with someone mirroring the tool.

**dyeguy** · 08-02-2007, 12:31 AM

but does it really matter if its off by one pixel?imean exact allignment sure tight **** . But i think if its off just by one it shouldn't matter much should it? Jw

**LoringStudios** · 08-02-2007, 12:40 AM

ya one pixel shows a lot when you have a entire screen running of pixels. If one icon is one pixel off. It throws the others off too. But I think hes got it dialed on I ran a couple sets and they all looked sick.

**JakeyBoy** · 08-02-2007, 12:46 AM

Very nice even if it is a bit off. Very good work.

**arthursdomain** · 08-02-2007, 01:27 AM

I played around with it and setup my background and what not, looks good, heres my pic, this will be a lot easier to make good screens. as previously stated its a pixel or so off, you cansee in mine where the transparent background is showing through. normally its well aligned.
Also i think you may have a memory leak or something, im running windows xp MC. if you can get this to then port to the phone, this product is gold

Btw- hope you dont mind file is mirrored here

**knobby** · 08-02-2007, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by arthursdomain

I played around with it and setup my background and what not, looks good, heres my pic, this will be a lot easier to make good screens. as previously stated its a pixel or so off, you cansee in mine where the transparent background is showing through. normally its well aligned.
Also i think you may have a memory leak or something, im running windows xp MC. if you can get this to then port to the phone, this product is gold

Btw- hope you dont mind file is mirrored here

Someone tell me where this thing is off by x pixels and I'll fix it.

I can't see from your pic where it is off.

Also, what makes you think there is a memory leak?

**arthursdomain** · 08-02-2007, 12:53 PM

i hadnt check my processes to see if it was an actual memory leak, but my mouse lags some when its open, and i tried opening photoshop cs2 when it was open and it didnt, until i closed it, it was stuck in that main loading screen.

if you notice the note pad/calculator/stocks are a sliver of white on the right side of it. Im not sure if that is the mis alignment or its the whole thing one pixel to the left. can someone confirm this?

**knobby** · 08-02-2007, 04:46 PM

Originally Posted by arthursdomain

i hadnt check my processes to see if it was an actual memory leak, but my mouse lags some when its open, and i tried opening photoshop cs2 when it was open and it didnt, until i closed it, it was stuck in that main loading screen.

Oh, this is because the program currently isn't very CPU nice. I have a fix for that, I just need to get it coded up.

**laz305** · 08-03-2007, 09:58 AM

dude very killer tool, i think this will bring in alot more theme makers including myself. Now I can give this thing a shot, look out Loring hehe

**knobby** · 08-03-2007, 01:21 PM

Originally Posted by knobby2346

Oh, this is because the program currently isn't very CPU nice. I have a fix for that, I just need to get it coded up.

Sorry the development has been a little slow. I had intentions of fixing the dock animation and having the top status bar available by now, but I'm kinda working on a little something else.

I did just update and fix the CPU issue. You single core guys should be happier now.

**Mandara** · 08-11-2007, 05:05 PM

Originally Posted by knobby2346

It does read the displayorder.plist file to determine what icons to use and where to put them. The only shortfall currently is that it doesn't handle more or less than 4 icons in the dock very well(read at all) yet.

Hi, Thanks for your hard work! This simulator is pretty good. I don't have to copy+reboot everytime I update my theme.
I'm trying to share my theme with screenshot. And, my theme always have 5 icons in the dock. Are you planning to get this work sometime?
I know that there is a screenshot utility to capture your screens. But, I don't have a wireless router to SCP. So, I can't chmod +x to that utility...
Instead of spending for a wireless router, I hope that this App got updated.
I really appreciate

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