Need opinions on new global theme

[Trnzaddict]

What I have so far. Watch it in 720p.

I'm also animating the genre menus to match the rest of the theme as well, on genre 33 out of 70 I have in paint.net.*Barf* Then it's into flash to animate and export to swf, then rename to png.

Once I get the genre menus all done, I'll make a final presentation video then release. Hang tight guys:)

[marxkemp]

The first one is more modern to me and less obvious fron what if seen the past few months. I like the background approuch so the movie gets the attention

[Fromlostdays]

I like the top for the main menu theme and the smaller more for a system theme. But I'm far from an artist.

[Johnny Mazzic]

The first is fantastic, I would like to see it in action.

[Trnzaddict]

Yea I agree with all of you the first I like a lot too.

Johnny, this is still very WIP. When I have a put-together theme, I'll post it.

Thanks Guys for the responses

[SUBZERO]

First one, looks great and looking at it gives me an neat idea, the cartridge in the console doesnt have a sticker, why not add them so when you land on that game thats sticker would fade in on the cartridge should be an easy batch in PS and an artwork one layer in the default theme...gives it that extra wowness lol

[Trnzaddict]

First one, looks great and looking at it gives me an neat idea, the cartridge in the console doesnt have a sticker, why not add them so when you land on that game thats sticker would fade in on the cartridge should be an easy batch in PS and an artwork one layer in the default theme...gives it that extra wowness lol

That's an awesome idea Donnie but, this would be the only background that does that. It would be weird that 1 out of the hopefully 50-60 systems I make would do this feature.

I'm a consistency freak unfortunately LOL.

[zero dreams]

Definitely the first type would be my choice. I'm curious to know whether you're going with vertical or horizontal scrolling as I would display the arrows in the layout.

[KrillCaz]

This first one is amazing! Awesome work, trnzaddict! I will definitely use this for my HTPC build.

[Trnzaddict]

Definitely the first type would be my choice. I'm curious to know whether you're going with vertical or horizontal scrolling as I would display the arrows in the layout.

Hey man I'm glad I caught ya. I'm going to try to cover both Horizontal and normal wheel style bases with this one. One idea I have is have normal wheel style for main menu using Crylens framed wheels and then going to horizontal for game menu, but I don't know how to design the menu if I do that way. Actually let me rephrase that. I have the idea put together in Paint, but the huge HD console fade pic does not look right, because I have the floor the boxes scroll upon up high in the theme.

What my main idea was is to have framed wheels for all systems using AutoKustomWheels, and have them scroll horizontally along the bottom black glass info bar. That is the best way everything fits in.

I gotta see dude. It's tough trying to fit all ideas into one theme.

[relic]

I vote the first one as well it looks impressive i like where this is going and i think haveing labels show on those carts would be neat as well as having a horizontel wheel option on bottom with glass display look.

Another feature that would be nice if you could put boxes in a normal vertical way on the left or right and scroll through them while change wheel.

[SUBZERO]

I'm a consistency freak unfortunately LOL.

i have the same problem lol

[Trnzaddict]

Hey guys, all 55 Main Menu themes are done, I will try to put up a video soon. I am stuck with how to do the default themes, not really sure what to do. I have 1 done as a sample, but this method of importing EVERY SINGLE IMAGE into Flash to get crisp HD has really burned me out. So friggin repetitive. I wish Flash Professional had an automation feature/batch export feature but it doesn't. I have spent my lunch hour at work the last week and a half importing every PNG file that makes up this theme into Flash to convert.

I also replaced some images from the Console Fade pics I was using as a basis for the theme with some newer one's taken by Evan Amos, specifically the Neo Geo Pocket Consoles and the WonderSwan Mono.

[Styphelus]

I agree. It's extremely tedious. We need a way to automate this process of importing to flash and reducing the size. I gave up after a while.

[Iggy]

...has really burned me out. So friggin repetitive...

Take your time Bro....cant wait to see what you got as they look really neat and simplified

[ninja2bceen]

Where can I go to download this? I like the descriptions

[SUBZERO]

Where can I go to download this? I like the descriptions

Not released yet

[Trnzaddict]

Updated first post.

[dark13]

Just curius... how did you make the scrolling text in main menu? .swf as usual? It's really good

Please take a look here http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?36527-HOW-TO-batching-txt-csv-to-create-png-artwork-layers-for-infopanel I guess this may interest every htpc-like theme makers as batched infopanels would be useful in these kind of visual

[Trnzaddict]

Just curius... how did you make the scrolling text in main menu? .swf as usual? It's really good

Please take a look here http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?36527-HOW-TO-batching-txt-csv-to-create-png-artwork-layers-for-infopanel I guess this may interest every htpc-like theme makers as batched infopanels would be useful in these kind of visual

I just read your post. I like your theme btw, I love the reflection effect on the boxes. I'm glad some other peeps are starting to take interest at a different side of HS.

To answer your question, the text is a looooooooooooooooooong png file that's animated in flash to scroll through HS's canvas and then reloops about 5-8 seconds after done. I think the file is 5123x25. A huuge pain in the butt:(

I have no idea what csv files are. I will tell you this much...if we are able to get info panes into game menu's somehow through a batch process like you are proposing like in RCB............HS will be changed.

[dark13]

So I guess HS theme making will be changed That neo geo theme was done batching .svc (basically text based files, you can even use a .txt). There's an artwork layers for rom's name and an artwork layer for infos done trought 2 separate batches. Once we'll have databases everyone will be able to use it with photoshop; just modify the infopanel layout (I'll share .psds with pre-assigned variables to make things easier), load the .csv file and get .pngs sets from data

The theme is obviously a remake of aeon nox, it actually uses some graphics taken from aeon nox svn) Boxarts were made from my 2d neo geo set, batched to add reflections. Yeah, reflections can be batched: you record an action on one sample and then launch the action on the whole set, so to quickly create this look you can easily batch standard HS 2d boxarts

[zero dreams]

Damn the scrolling info looks sweet!! It looks very well thought out & I can appreciate every aspect you've tweek'd out in your theme.

[Unknown50862]

Just saw your updated video, it is turning out absolutely amazing! Not only that, but you seem to be pumping it out quickly too (just don't burn yourself out). You have me questioning whether I want to switch out the Unified Megatheme for this, even with my setup so close to completion. I'm really happy to see the global themes getting so much love recently.

Out of curiosity what size are you resizing your themes to before separating the layers and exporting them to Flash? Reason being is that while experimenting with the method on the Megatheme project, there were different resolutions tried with varying results. For example, I tried 1440p with visible improvements over 1080p, but not everyone saw the same benefits. Of course, I'm not suggesting you experiment with things after you've already finished converting all of your main menu themes (I know the pain of having to do it for 50+ themes ). Just trying to get another data point, since I don't think we ever did figure out what caused the varied results.

[Trnzaddict]

Just saw your updated video, it is turning out absolutely amazing! Not only that, but you seem to be pumping it out quickly too (just don't burn yourself out). You have me questioning whether I want to switch out the Unified Megatheme for this, even with my setup so close to completion. I'm really happy to see the global themes getting so much love recently.

Out of curiosity what size are you resizing your themes to before separating the layers and exporting them to Flash? Reason being is that while experimenting with the method on the Megatheme project, there were different resolutions tried with varying results. For example, I tried 1440p with visible improvements over 1080p, but not everyone saw the same benefits. Of course, I'm not suggesting you experiment with things after you've already finished converting all of your main menu themes (I know the pain of having to do it for 50+ themes ). Just trying to get another data point, since I don't think we ever did figure out what caused the varied results.

I'm glad you guys like it. Everything is made on a 1080p canvas in paint.net, then exported into a 1024x768 canvas in flash and is aligned and blah blah blah.

I honestly think it depends on the monitor why some people were seeing improvements on 1440p versus 1080. I just followed gibbawho's method to the tee, I haven't had any problems with it.

One thing I am NOT happy with is the visual quality of the video border in this theme set. I tried the .swf to .png file trick for the video border so it gets scaled as good as the rest of the theme, but it crashes Hypertheme. I don't know why Bill designed Hypertheme to use swf for everything but the border.

It is scaling fuzzy and the text looks dark and stretched. I'm going to try to get it to clean up as best as possible.

And Zero, this theme set I wouldn't of done if it wasn't for you creating the console fade pics which sparked inspiration so...

[Unknown50862]

The one thing I know is that it is not determined by monitor resolution, as I've already tested on multiple different monitors/tvs with varying native resolutions. When gibbawho first came up with the method he used 1080p, but he started using other resolutions which prompted my experimentation, but I never did get the exact dimensions he used. I'll think I will probably just make a test theme and have anyone willing to help, list their results. Anyway, not trying to derail your thread, so I'll leave this discussion for another thread.

As for your video border issues, one work-around you could try is to use an artwork layer instead of the provided border slot, so that you can use the .swf format. If you're already using all four layers, you could also try merging it with another layer, though this would limit your animation options. If you don't mind it being static, you could include it in the layer you used for the info bar.