Acotil

[ONE_HUMAN]

UPDATE: October 28, 2008

I've edited this post once again because I've made modifications to all of my themes. These themes are now final and the screenshots represent the newest versions. Altogether, there are 5 theme sets comprising 39 different themes.

My themes have been fixed so they are now compatible with Viewports and Rockbox 3.0 as well as any recent build. Please download from these direct links:


ACOTIL BLUES: http://upmyfiles.com/en/file/590/acotil-blues-zip.html

ACOTIL EXTRA: http://upmyfiles.com/en/file/591/acotil-extra-zip.html

ACOTIL FOR GIRLS: http://upmyfiles.com/en/file/592/acotil-for-girls-zip.html

ACOTIL GREENS: http://upmyfiles.com/en/file/589/acotil-greens-zip.html

ACOTIL HOT: http://upmyfiles.com/en/file/593/acotil-hot-zip.html


* Note - DO NOT DOWNLOAD MY THEMES FROM ROCKBOX-THEMES OR RBTHEMES UNLESS YOU SEE IT SPECIFIED THAT THEY'VE BEEN UPDATED TO WORK WITH VIEWPORTS AND ROCKBOX 3.0.

.....

ACOTIL - It's not a French word. It's an acronym for "A Combo Of Things I Like" (or "A Combo Of Themes I Like"). I borrowed ideas and elements from a number of themes to achieve my goal -- a clean look with the info I want: Artist and Title (I don't need the Album name), bitrate, local time, volume, battery level, next song, track times, progress bar, play/pause, shuffle, and repeat.

You can download these themes from the links above or the direct link provided below each theme.

I've included screenshots of each WPS (While Playing Screen) that is included in a theme so you can see exactly what you'll be downloading and what it will look like on your player.

.....

A couple of the menu screens:



.....

ALCOTIL BLUES is for the person that wants BLUE and only BLUE. It's actually 13 different themes but they all have one thing in common: the colour BLUE.



Direct download link for ACOTIL BLUES: http://upmyfiles.com/en/file/590/acotil-blues-zip.html

.....

ACOTIL EXTRA has a couple of features not included in previous ACOTIL themes: Sleep timer display and battery level shown as a percentage. This package is actually 6 new themes (3 blue, 1 red, 1 purple, 1 gray).



Direct download link for ACOTIL EXTRA: http://upmyfiles.com/en/file/591/acotil-extra-zip.html

.....

ACOTIL GREENS is just that -- very GREEN. This package contains three themes, all of them green, but each one different. The green elements such as the progress bar, volume meter, shuffle/repeat buttons, and the battery level indicator match the shade of the backdrop in each theme.



Direct download link for ACOTIL GREENS: http://upmyfiles.com/en/file/589/acotil-greens-zip.html

.....

ACOTIL HOT is very ORANGE. This package contains two different backdrops and two different sets of indicators: standard blue and new orange ones to match the backdrops. The all-orange theme is perfect for Halloween.



Direct download link for ACOTIL HOT: http://upmyfiles.com/en/file/593/acotil-hot-zip.html

.....

ACOTIL FOR GIRLS is the newest package I've developed. As you can see it's aimed at females, however some guys in touch with their feminine side might like a few of them too! All of them have button colours to match the backdrops.



Direct download link for ACOTIL FOR GIRLS: http://upmyfiles.com/en/file/592/acotil-for-girls-zip.html

.....

[CrowdAds]

[pienose]

nice, but I hate the progress bar! it's good to have a big package of themes like this!

[infamous16]

I like it alot, too...I think a different progress bar like the one in wmp11 would be awesome, witha little circle at the end to show how far it is...maybe some album art support later on would be nice, too.

But good job!

[ONE_HUMAN]

Thanks. I happen to like the multi-coloured progress bar; it stands out against most backgrounds. I obviously borrowed that element from the default Sansa theme.

It would be easy enough for someone to drop in their own progress bar or even remove the existing one, in which case the default white Rockbox progress bar will be displayed.

I could implement a progress bar similar to the one in WMP11 I suppose, but as for the little circle on the end, I wouldn't know how to do that. As it is now, it simply reveals more of the bar as the track plays. I don't know how to make an image (i.e. a little circle) move from left to right or if it's even possible.

[kratonator]

Great effort, but it's actually the Anemone/KratoGlass theme with an ugly progress bar and some other toxic green elements. Too bad about those nice backgrounds...

Originally Posted by ONE_HUMAN

I don't know how to make an image (i.e. a little circle) move from left to right or if it's even possible.

No, it's not possible.

[ONE_HUMAN]

Well, I like it, and that's what matters. Beauty (or ugly) is in the eye of the beholder. I initially created these themes for myself when none of the other themes met my needs. Like I said in my first post, I've clearly stated that I borrowed elements and ideas from other themes. Sure it can be improved, but I'm not looking to win any contests. I wasn't really looking for criticism, constructive or otherwise. I simply decided to share these in case there were other people like me looking for an alternative. Thanks though.

If someone really wants to, it's easy enough to replace the "toxic green" volume meter, shuffle/repeat, and battery level, and the "ugly" progress bar with their own creations. And hey, if nothing else, all 17 backdrops are provided, so people are free to do what they want with those "nice backgrounds".

[ONE_HUMAN]

Here's a screenshot with a blue progress bar that I whipped up. It matches the Play/Pause button now.



You can download the new progress bar by clicking here: http://www3.sympatico.ca/one.human/files/progbar.bmp

Simply replace the old one by overwriting it with this one.

By the way, I am aware that the progress bar sits above the backstop of the ledge or groove that it rides in, but I had to make it at least 6 pixels tall to have some gradations of colour. I suppose I could make the backstop taller, but for now, I think it looks fine the way it is.

Also, maybe eventually I'll get around to replacing the volume meter, shuffle/repeat, and battery level with some nice "toxic blue" indicators.

[infamous16]

Sweet, it looks better (imo) with the blue one...Good theme so far! it would be cool if you could give out a .psd file, too. Just so I could mess around with some stuff as I am learning a bit by messing with themes..trying to work on making my own, eventually.

[ONE_HUMAN]

Thanks. Yeah, it does look better with the blue progress bar, and now everything else is blue too! I changed the volume meter, shuffle/repeat, and battery indicator to match the rest of the theme. Take a look:



I haven't uploaded this update to www.rockbox-themes.org yet. I'll do that tonight for the ACOTIL BLUES and ACOTIL EXTRA packages. Hopefully the new themes will be available for download by tomorrow.

Sorry, I don't have any .PSD files to give out. Believe it or not most of the work was done with IrfanView and at the pixel level with MS Paint.

[pienose]

very nice, it would be nicer though if the volume bar had a bar instead of bubles, if you know what I mean!

[ONE_HUMAN]

Originally Posted by pienose

very nice, it would be nicer though if the volume bar had a bar instead of bubles, if you know what I mean!

Why would that be nicer? That's just personal preference. I kinda like the bubbles or circles. There's already a bar for the progress bar, and this is something different.

By the way, I'm going to edit my first post because I've made modifications to all the themes. Gone is the "ugly" rainbow-coloured progress bar and the "toxic green" top bar elements. And I didn't only create new blue elements, but also some new orange and green ones too, depending on the theme.

[dap_pad]

Wow... i absolutely love this theme...but the only problem is, there is no unicode (Asian language) support, but I think this one of the most beautiful RB themes out so far.

GREAT JOB!

[ONE_HUMAN]

Thanks dap pad. I have to admit I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I guess a little constructive criticism did motivate me to come up with something better.

As far as unicode (Asian language) support, is that something a theme builder can add, or are you referring specifically to a limitation in Rockbox?

[pienose]

yeah, I have to admit this started of as a pile of **** but you have refined it and made a quite original theme! well done!

[ONE_HUMAN]

Not sure it was exactly a pile of shit to start out with, but thanks though. I've noticed a lot of people on this forum can't seem to say something nice or complimentary without it being accompanied by a negative comment. Weird. No worries. My net feelings will survive!

I don't know that my theme is all that original, as I was influenced by other themes which of course also borrowed from other sources. However, I think it's very clean looking and the large variety of snazzy, colourful backdrops really makes it stand out. My favourite is probably the red one right now. It looks even better on the player than in the screenshot.

Considering I started this simply because I couldn't find a theme that had exactly what I wanted, it has turned into something better than I expected. And that was only a few days ago! (However, there are a lot of hours in a few days!) I'm glad it got to the point where not only am I satisfied using these themes, but I'm proud to share them with others. Hopefully there are some people out there who like me hadn't quite found the right theme... until now!

[surfer777]

i'm really diggin' this theme, thanks a lot!!! is there any chance of you making an album art version? thats not exactly for my sake, i can't figure out album art with rockbox, but i'm sure others would like an AA version. great theme, thanks again!


EDIT: OK, I can't seem to get this theme to load onto my sansa. When I extract the files to the root .rockbox folder, it creates a whole new .rockbox folder within the root folder. I moved the themes under the second folder to the themes in the root folder and tried to load them, but it didn't work, the now playing screen is the standard rockbox now playing screen (really ugly). How do I extract these themes to my sansa?

EDIT 2: Haha, nevermind, I only have to extract it to the sansa folder, not the .rockbox folder. Sorry!!

[kratonator]

For asian support just use nimbus-14+uming. It's the only font I am aware of which is capable of that.

The theme looks much better now, and I have to agree with pienose, it started like a pile of shit. It changed a lot and it looks better. The progress bar is still floating but that could be resolved with ease. Guess how! Just make the groove bigger...

I might do an album art version but since I do Album Art version only for themes that I like...

[ONE_HUMAN]

Originally Posted by surfer777

i'm really diggin' this theme, thanks a lot!!! is there any chance of you making an album art version? thats not exactly for my sake, i can't figure out album art with rockbox, but i'm sure others would like an AA version. great theme, thanks again!

At this time I have no plans for an Album Art version. I don't use Album Art myself and I think it would take away from my objective that I had for this theme: to be clean looking and display only the info I wanted. The end result with Album Art would be an interface that is too cluttered with everything crowded in. Perhaps in the future I'll design another theme and work Album Art in there.

Glad to hear you figured out the installation! You had me worried there for a sec that I had somehow screwed things up!

[ONE_HUMAN]

Originally Posted by kratonator

The theme looks much better now, and I have to agree with pienose, it started like a pile of shit. It changed a lot and it looks better. The progress bar is still floating but that could be resolved with ease. Guess how! Just make the groove bigger...

I might do an album art version but since I do Album Art version only for themes that I like...

In a previous post I mentioned that I could make the groove taller, but it doesn't bother me the way it is. I like it like that. Think of the progress bar like a subway or monorail with a large portion of it riding above above the tracks or in this case, the groove.

What's not to like? I'd take my theme over KratoGlass, KratoJet, and KratoSky2. And since we're being open and honest, let me explain why.

All of them have Album Art which I've already mentioned doesn't interest me. But getting into specifics, the top bar on KratoGlass looks like an afterthought. It's not tall enough for one thing. It could use a couple of extra pixels above and below the numbers. Like what I did by making my top bar 20 pixels tall. The battery indicator definitely could use some work. I definitely prefer the one I designed.

KratoJet has far too much info. Everything is all crammed in there, and I already mentioned that I preferred a nice clean look. KratoJet is the antithesis of that. Also, the large "Play" button in the bottom left corner looks ridiculous and out of place. I would at least have used an element there that worked with the bottom bar. And speaking of the bottom bar, that gray font and the green indicators don't contrast enough. They are very difficult to see, at least in the screenshot. Kinda defeats the purpose of having indicators if you can't see them.

The backdrop on KratoSky2 does nothing for me. It's weak. The opacity thing isn't working for me either. The whole monotone look is kinda dreary and blah. The album art may be the best thing, but it looks out of place amongst its drab surroundings. Well, at least it stands out.

Originally Posted by kratonator

For asian support just use nimbus-14+uming. It's the only font I am aware of which is capable of that.

That font would be too large with the current formatting and would mess everything up. I suppose it could be tweaked though. It would probably be best to leave out the extras such as Sleep Timer and Numerical Battery Level Percentage to fit everything in nicely.



keep it to constructive criticism and don't get too personal - Captain Ødegård

[Jeton]

Jeez! Chillout y'all.

There's no need for this kind of attitude.
ONE_HUMAN, I am suspecting that you took kratonator's comment too serious. And in the end your reply and there's another one after that from another user would end up in a flaming thread....

So let's just carry on talking about themes, and without the 'jealousy' and 'shit' talk.