[ztrust]

Hi all
I have been using xbmc for a year or so and everything works like a charm, but I am so much a newbie as a newbie can be, but now I have decided to try to learn to make my own skin and have spent the night looking through this forum and reading the wikki or well tried to its rather overwhelming so since I know nothing about githib and the likes I figured I would ask the pros how do you guys start a skin?
it took me forever to figure out i had to download confluence from github so the images wasent packed.

any tips or tricks ?

Kindly ztrust

[Mudislander]

Start with a skin you like and make a small change, get it working and then make another change and so on. You'll get more comfortable as time goes on and you become familiar with that skin's code.

Baby steps to start

[Sranshaft]

Here's some tips that I've learned along the way:

• Bookmark the wiki. No matter how many times you read it you'll be there often.
  
  
• Find a text editor you're comfortable using. You'll be spending the majority of your time here and you'll want one that'll make your life easier. I personally use Sublime Text 2 but Notepad++ is great as well.
  
  
• Think big but start small! You'll want to jump straight in and create the next best XBMC skin but without previous coding knowledge it will be a difficult task. Even with that knowledge it can be hard understanding the ins and outs of XBMC skinning engine. Grab yourself a copy of Hitcher's Foundation skin and change little things to see how it all works.
  
  
• Remember, it's a huge endeavour. This isn't something that can be banged out in a couple of hours. So take your time, plan everything and keep at it!
  

[ztrust]

Thank you guys
its pretty much where I am Had hoped for that one trick that would make it super easy but back to reality and true with the bookmarks just counted already have 15

[Mesoptier]

• Bookmark the wiki. No matter how many you read it you'll be there often.
  

More specifically: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Cat...evelopment

[MassIV]

Here, added fun new tutorial for you

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...o_the_skin

[toyota12303]

If you are running Windows 8 then I recommend using the Code Writer app from the windows store when modifying/creating skins.
It's very simple, easy to use and well laid out. It even closes commands and shows you any errors that you have made. I'm always using it!

[Sranshaft]

More specifically: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Cat...evelopment

Aye. By wiki I meant that.

@ztrust: Here's a few more to add if you haven't already added them...

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Window_IDs
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Ope...nd_Dialogs

[ztrust]

This is very cool thank you

[ztrust]

hey MassIV
that was really helpfull got me started good and beginning to understand a little.
Since you guys have been so helpfull here I will try and post my questions in this thread.
what is diffuse and what is it used for ? plz dum it down for me,
How would I go about Dimming so focus is brighter ? can I lower opacity or do I use a darker image as overlay ?
and lastly I have been commenting out as mush as I can from confluence to pretty much have a blank canvas to work with but I cant find one thing
<include>ContentPanelBackgrounds</include> I can for the love of god not figure out where it is
Hope you will help again
ztrust

[MassIV]

You mean colordiffuse?

This specifies the color to be used for the texture basis. It's in hex AARRGGBB format.
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Texture_Attributes

So the first 2 are the alpha channel (or opacity). This is white with 100% opacity: FFFFFFFF. This is white at 40% opacity: 66FFFFFF. This is blue at 40% opacity 6600688B.

Go the the site below and see where the hex value #666666 is as a grayscale. Hex values can also be found on the color pallet of Photoshop.
http://cloford.com/resources/colours/500col.htm

To better search in skin code. In for example Notepad++ you can use the search function to search all your files at once. It's under the "Find in Files" tab in the search window.

Another good tip is searching the forum via google like so:
https://www.google.com/search?espv=2&q=s...lordiffuse

[ztrust]

hey MassIV
tx for reply
I meant diffuse in general I have been googling around but diffuse textures are used for some thing like reflection and apparently rounded corners I figured out the reflection but have no idea how I would round corners with diffuse only think I have been able to find are you should use difuse textures for it how would a texture to round corners look like ? but thank you for the help I really apriciate it the banner link was really good

[ztrust]

I figure I will try and ask here to see if I get a reply before starting a new thread.
how would I go about varible offsets like
-----
----
-----
-----
I have been looking through some skin files but I cant find where the varibles a set up?

[sualfred]

Usually variables are defined in a variables.xml (http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMC_Skinnin...#Variables)

Example definition of a variable:

PHP Code:

<variable name="foo-title">
        <value  condition="Player.Content(episode)">$INFO[ListItem.TvShowTitle]</value>
        <value  condition="!Player.Content(episode)">$INFO[ListItem.Title]</value>
</variable> 


[ztrust]

@sualfred
I have been all over the variables.
i am sorry if I dident make myself clear it was not about variables but how to offset positions on images I thought my illustration was better but its not very good I can see that I need to have different offsets on posters like this
------Poster1
--Poster2
---------Poster3
and so on
but I cant find any info on it