Cliff Cawley

Join Date 07/2006

Looking to Hire an Interface Artist for an Audio Player Application

External Link

What is this?!?
I am the author of Xion Audio Player and am looking to hire an Independant Interface Artist in order to create a default skin for it. Xion Audio Player is a 100% freeware player with an advanced Skin system.

Skin? How easy is it? Do I have to script?
The skin system features NO SCRIPTING in order to create advanced animated skins easily, by using a single Photoshop PSD file.

The skin system I have created is SUPER artist friendly (no scripting required) because you simply use Photoshop/Gimp/Paintshop to create your skin. There is no slicing, cutting or scripting to be seen. You don't even have to rename the file if you don't want to. Just drag and drop it onto the interface or place it into the Interfaces directory.

So if there is one file, how on earth do I get it to do anything?!
To create a play button you add 'play' or 'play_normal' somewhere in the layer name of the layer you want to act as a play button.

To create mouse over and mouse down states you simply name your layers 'play_over' and 'play_down'.

Click here for a Tutorial on making skins

Click here for a list of all the layer name keywords.

Awesome, do I have to have previous experience?
We don't mind if you've never created a skin for another media player ever before!

If you have the skills and a passion to create an awesome looking interface for an audio player then we want you to contact us!

Sweet!, but do I get paid?
Payment is negotiable and will be payed through paypal or Direct Bank Transfer if you live in Australia.

Your skin will be featured as the main interface and your name will appear in the About box along with a link to a website you can provide. The default skin will be used for any Screenshots of the application.

Mint! Where can I download this player?
Click here to download Xion Audio Player

The Default Interface at the moment is inspired by MultiPass from http://www.rpeterclark.com/. The install includes a couple of other sample interfaces which you can easily open in photoshop.

You can find the interfaces in the Xion\Interfaces directory. They will be files with a .xsf extension. These are compressed versions of the Interfaces. Simply rename them to .zip and extract the enclosed .PSD file.

How do I get in contact with you?
If you would like to get in contact with us in order to show demo some of your existing art so that we can get an idea of what it might look like, or you would like some more information, please click here to contact me.

Thanks for your time!
Cliff Cawley
r2 Studios
http://www.r2.com.au/

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1845

Edited to get links functioning in Post reply #1 ...

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thomassen

Join Date 01/2003

+10

hmm.... them still seem broken Jafo...

Anyways: this seem very interesting. From the description I like the way of skinning. When I make WB skins I make everything in Photoshop anyways and I allways have a layer for each object. The thing that has allways stopped me from releasing any is that I find it very time consuming and quite boring to slice and but everything into SkinsStudio.
I'll have to have a look at this app you're talking about. Just one thing: this player, is it ad supported? If so, what type? I'm a bit cautious with freeware apps as they sometimes bundle stuff I don't want on my comp.

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No. The links in post 1 work.

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Lantec

Join Date 07/2003

+346

Just one thing: this player, is it ad supported? If so, what type? I'm a bit cautious with freeware apps as they sometimes bundle stuff I don't want on my comp.

I downloaded & installed last week and so far I like it. It doesn't suffer from the bloat that Winamp and WMP and some of the others have. It does have a good sound. I haven't seen any ads so far and nothing showed up in my latest run of Spybot S&D so it looks safe. I'm still evaluating it and I might take a stab at making a skin if I can free up some time over the next couple weeks.

It's not yet a 10, but it seems to have good possibilities.

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Hi all,

Xion isn't ad supported, it is 100% free. There are no ads displayed in the interface or any adware installed with the install.

I was originally launching for shareware with a $14.90 USD price tag, however after a very cold response from users that they weren't even going to touch it if it wasn't free, I have decided to release it as freeware so that it can get the attention it should. (I've spent the last 3-4 years of my spare time, working on it)

As I mentioned above the HUGE appeal for skinners and users alike is that they don't have to slice/script/cutup, etc their skins...they just make them in photoshop, save the photoshop file and load them into Xion.

Cliff.

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I'd like to take a look at it. When will the download link work again?

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I'd like to take a look at it. When will the download link work again?

I mentioned it in the post that you can direct download it from http://xion.r2.com.au/download/xion_v1.0b56.exe

The download link has been removed from the site until I can update the skin, but the download it still active so that you can use it to make a skin.

Cliff

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thomassen

Join Date 01/2003

+10

Hey, what version of Photoshop files does it support? Is layer effect supported or should they be converted into layers?

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Hey, what version of Photoshop files does it support? Is layer effect supported or should they be converted into layers?

I've tested all the way up to 7.0, but later versions should still work.

Layer effects arn't supported, and will have to be converted into layers. At the moment I also don't support blend modes such as Multiply, Soft light, etc.

Transparency, Alpha, etc should all work fine and if you are running Windows XP/2000 will appear as it does in Photoshop.

Cliff

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Lantec

Join Date 07/2003

+346

What file types does it support (png, jpg, tga etc) ?

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What file types does it support (png, jpg, tga etc) ?

I guess you missed it in my first post above, so here it is again:

The skin system features NO SCRIPTING in order to create advanced animated skins easily, by using a single Photoshop PSD file.

There are NO other files needed except for a single PSD file. You just build your skin completely in a PSD file.

Cliff

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I mentioned it in the post that you can direct download

Yes you did. Somehow I missed it, when I went back for a second look.

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Lantec

Join Date 07/2003

+346

There are NO other files needed except for a single PSD file. You just build your skin completely in a PSD file.

Oh well, that'll leave more than a few of us out since not all of us use Photoshop.

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thomassen

Join Date 01/2003

+10

I've tested all the way up to 7.0, but later versions should still work.

Did that version support nested layer groups?

Oh well, that'll leave more than a few of us out since not all of us use Photoshop.

PSD files aren't created excusivly by Photoshop. The first tutorial page links a a couple of alternatives, one free: http://xion.r2.com.au/index.php?page=tut1

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Did that version support nested layer groups?

No, I believe nested layers were added in CS1 or CS2, however a friend has been able to create skins in CS1/2. The file format should be the same, you just might not see any layers which are nested under another layer group.

Cliff.

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Hi all,

I've had only one proposal so far, so please if you are interested use http://xion.r2.com.au/index.php?page=contact to get in contact with me to register your interest and/or to send me a proposal.

I'm looking for a number of skins to choose from. It doesn't have to be a 100% complete skin, even just a mockup is fine, at this stage I am trying to get an idea of styles that artists can come up with.

I hope to make a decision on an artist on the weekend.

Regards,
Cliff.

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Oh well, that'll leave more than a few of us out since not all of us use Photoshop.

Hey Lantec, Gimp and Paint Shop Pro will save files as .psd.

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thomassen

Join Date 01/2003

+10

I'm interested. Just a bit apprehencive against commiting to anything because I'm too sure how busy I'll be the next weeks.

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I like the player so far.

I'll start following the tutorials shortly to see how easy it is for a non skinner.

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werewolf

Join Date 04/2001

+28

yeah, the player is nice and the skinning method is really interesting. To the tuts

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Hi Cliff,

I was wondering if you got my skin (I uploaded it to the xion homepage), if not you can see it here:
http://www.customize.org/details/46564

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thomassen

Join Date 01/2003

+10

That's a nice looking skin Cerberu5.

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Seems alot of fun, will try it when i get back on September, looks promising though. The idea is very skin-friendly, which me likes.

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On second thought...just seen the tutorial and the Layer name reference chart...it's good for the average, but gets rather difficult when you have more complicated skins....but hey the trouble that saves you for scripting is just peachy. Thanks.

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Nice looking skin Cerberu5.

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