Horizonz: Future Concept Art

xb2iris Wrote:The order of the day is Conceptual. Two months ago I put together a few concept shots of what Horizonz was aiming to become. With Volume III nearing completion and my big move just around the corner, they never saw the light of day, until now that is.

These designs highlight some of the Home Screen features I've implemented over the last few months and clearly illustrates the reason for their inclusion. From day one, my initial intention was to finish Horizonz' feature set prior to improving it's appearance. Too date, I haven't spent too much time tweaking graphics, but after Volume IV is released, I intend to do just that. Bare in mind thought, VIV may still be some way off, for obvious reasons. Also, note, these are psd mockups I made two months ago, so a few ideas may have changed somewhat.

CONCEPT ART

This illustration highlights the DarkShade Home Scroller with revamped Now Playing Music panel, alternative Time panel and RSS Feed panel positions and new Menu Description and Media Section Info panels.



This illustration highlights the Lower LiteShade Home Scroller, with new Now Playing Movie panel, original Time panel position, new Player Control location and also shows how the RSS panel text fades.



This illustration highlights the new Now Playing Episode panel with a variation in the panel's play state and the new location Disc Popup on disc insertion.



This illustration highlights the Shutdown menu with dimmed background losing focus to Time panel, Section Information panel and all important Dialogs such as Shutdown Timer and Player Controls.



This illustration highlights the Setup Menu categories with new look Category Controls, Scrollbar support and better Item highlighting.



This illustration highlights the new Weather Popup and the new location for all Home Screen dialogs including Volume Control and Mute.



DONATION UPDATE

Don't forget to donate to the PC Fund if you wish. At the moment, $55 is the Target. Yes, thats how well you've supported Horizonz, so thanks for everything. Still attempting to sell a few things in the newspaper, so hopefully, I'll be able to grab a PC asap and finish Volume IV. Here's my PAYPAL details again, if you wish to donate:

fayedickinson@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks again for all your support! Hopefully I won't miss any of you in the Donation Shouts section in Horizonz itself.

LAST WORD

These concepts are intended for Volume V and beyond. I look forward to hearing what your thoughts on them are, and remember, they are concepts, so constructive comments are only constructive if they're positive in manor. Graphic Design isn't my speciality, so a lot of self-training had to be done in the months leading up to Volume I. It's only been six months since I first used Photoshop and Illustrator. Hope this shows considerable improvement on what I've designed thus far.

Special Thanks to Six_Storm for giving me an idea or two and DigitalHigh for helping with a Backdrop or two.

Hope you like what you see dudes and dudettes, and lets be nice, okay!

Nice to see your online. Anyways, I don't know what to say about these new Screenshots! They're absolutely stunning first of all, and I like everything you've done with them. Agree with a the one dude about the dvd cover, its a bit oblong, but i guess thats okay, but this is something special!

Not bad for a photoshop baby! I'm amazed at how you've improved dude! I think the final product will be revolutionary! I for one am super excited!

BlackRose Wrote:Nice to see your online. Anyways, I don't know what to say about these new Screenshots! They're absolutely stunning first of all, and I like everything you've done with them. Agree with a the one dude about the dvd cover, its a bit oblong, but i guess thats okay, but this is something special!

Not bad for a photoshop baby! I'm amazed at how you've improved dude! I think the final product will be revolutionary! I for one am super excited!

thanks babes... especially like the part where ur insulting anyone and not picking a fight... very special times... hehehe...

nyways... close to xmas and no pc yet, so keep the faith, a dude donated over the w-end, so maybe others will chip in with the odd xmas donation... hehehe!

Hey, great to see you finally posted these! Said you should a long time ago, but yeah, your a stubborn one. They look great man, better on my pc than yours i take it, i remember the pics being darker somewhat! Nonetheless, their a work of genius and I look forward to the day they're actually in Horizonz!

Anyways, donate people, XB2IRIS only needs a few bucks, then a Volume IV will be here for all to enjoy! Tested it the other day, and their are some neat new features and a lot of the things he's posted as screenshots actually look a hell of a lot better than you'd think when you actually get to see them in person! But yeah, its almost finish, but isn't at all stable. Some of the other stuff that used to work doesn't anymore, so trust me, he's not holding out on you guys but I reckon it'd take a full 3 or so days to finish it, but thats a guess, coz a lot of stuff isn't finish!

I've donated, your turn if you haven't already!

are you planning on separating all settings menus from the movies, weather etc menus?

Like the brushed metal look...definitely crispy. Could be just a*tad* less pronounced in the OSD menus and stuff. Keep the metal, just make the transparency higher. (Fourth Picture down)

And actually, looking at that same pic again, I think the whole thing would look really sharp if it were just a bit more transparent. I really like the glasslike feel this adds tho.

And I have to agree...the "Play Your" thing above videos, and "adjust the" above settings...it's a bit too much like mediastream. Or maybe it's because it is too busy or something. What if you had that text appear at the top center or top right of the screen? Keep it in there because extra descriptiveness is always good, but don't have all that stuff interacting in one spot?

I like the new "now playing" stuff you did tho...fits very nicely with the rest of the skin.

Have you given any thought to having the weather display with the main bar somehow? Add the option to have it on top or right on the main scroller or something...

Interesting concepts.

For my money though I have to say I prefer the current overall look. The addition of brush metal as well as glass effects, coupled with what in my opinion looks like an unnecessary 'patio roof' effect over the main scroller's sections, seems to be moving away from what made Aeon so appealing: its clean, uncluttered simplicity.

My personal recommendation would be to keep focus on the "less is more" philosophy, and not tinker with textures and design concepts for tinkering's sake.

MediaStream has the cluttered, over-complicated angle sewn up. I'd say differentiate by offering the exact opposite.

Sorry if it sounds a bit harsh... You know I'm a fan

Doraemonn Wrote:Interesting concepts.

For my money though I have to say I prefer the current overall look. The addition of brush metal as well as glass effects, coupled with what in my opinion looks like an unnecessary 'patio roof' effect over the main scroller's sections, seems to be moving away from what made Aeon so appealing: its clean, uncluttered simplicity.

My personal recommendation would be to keep focus on the "less is more" philosophy, and not tinker with textures and design concepts for tinkering's sake.

MediaStream has the cluttered, over-complicated angle sewn up. I'd say differentiate by offering the exact opposite.

Sorry if it sounds a bit harsh... You know I'm a fan

Well said, not harsh IMO.

I like many of the changes he's made: new metal+glass textures is nice and the general layout of the controls.
... I agree with trying to keep it "relaxing" to the eye... I feel there are many sharp/hard edges which is "distracting", the 'patio roof' is one of those that does this the most. Maybe soften/round the corners/points on the images just a bit and don't "stack" too many like images on on top of the other - Now Playing is an example of where putting some separation of the menu bar from the Now Playing controls would clean it up a bit and be less busy - again too many hard angles all in one place.

My two cents. I think the future of this mod lies in being all things to all people. As you say, the more "cluttered" look is handled perfectly well by MediaStream while the "minimalist" look will be catered for by Aeon 1.0. So what place Horizonz?

Well, the purpose of a mod like this is to satisfy popular demand. So if you want a banner view, wall view or whatever other view that isn't part of Aeon's vision, xb2iris is your man. Add to that the fact that Horizonz is based on the old Aeon aesthetic, and the old code with its myriad shortcuts and hacks, and it has the potential to be relatively unique. Messy, perhaps, but that's the price you pay. That's assuming it doesn't start feeding off the Aeon 1.0 look, which for courtesy's sake I hope it doesn't.

I do agree about those "Browse your...", "Watch your..." headers over the menu, though. I never fancied them in MediaStream and it looks too much like a me-too addition here.

I believe, after looking at the new concepts, that its bringing a better more graphical approach to horizonz, which in my opinion is great. To make something unique and shine in its own light, somethings gotta be changed, and the new look is amazin in my opinion!

Firstly, XB2IRIS, has mentioned that everything would be optional, so it wouldn't be cluttered and complicated. It would just be the old Horizonz with a few new options, and I think thats great, coz not everyone shares the philosophy of less is more! I believe he's again trying to cater to the larger audience, by providing a few things from other skins to make this skin the best skin it can be, and even better their optional, so if you like it, u can use it, if not, don't!

To be honest, their hasn't been any skins with amazing graphics yet. Everything has stuck with the simple interface look, which in my opinion, is a shame. He's increasing the slickness, which i believe is great, so let him go with it, coz at the end of the day, ur friends will be more impressed with ur media centre when he sees it!

So, lets wait and see what it looks like, these are mockups, and i'm sure his doing what he always does, take suggestions and ideas into consideration and employ them! Thats a great approach, and with who else in these forums, can we actually be as honest without getting blacklisted and ignored! So, appreciate that fact!

XBDD Wrote:Hey, great to see you finally posted these! Said you should a long time ago, but yeah, your a stubborn one. They look great man, better on my pc than yours i take it, i remember the pics being darker somewhat! Nonetheless, their a work of genius and I look forward to the day they're actually in Horizonz!

Anyways, donate people, XB2IRIS only needs a few bucks, then a Volume IV will be here for all to enjoy! Tested it the other day, and their are some neat new features and a lot of the things he's posted as screenshots actually look a hell of a lot better than you'd think when you actually get to see them in person! But yeah, its almost finish, but isn't at all stable. Some of the other stuff that used to work doesn't anymore, so trust me, he's not holding out on you guys but I reckon it'd take a full 3 or so days to finish it, but thats a guess, coz a lot of stuff isn't finish!

I've donated, your turn if you haven't already!

Thanks for keeping the mocks, coz without them, i'd have to do the entire thing over... Anyways, people know they can donate if they want man... Most of the hardcore fans have, and i'm sure a few others will when they can, but lifes not always that simple i take it!

eriksmith200 Wrote:are you planning on separating all settings menus from the movies, weather etc menus?

yeah, thats always been an idea, but maybe i'll stick to the normal setup depending on where things go from here... so, we'll see later in dev... hopefully we can all wait... hehehe

digitalhigh Wrote:Like the brushed metal look...definitely crispy. Could be just a*tad* less pronounced in the OSD menus and stuff. Keep the metal, just make the transparency higher. (Fourth Picture down)

And actually, looking at that same pic again, I think the whole thing would look really sharp if it were just a bit more transparent. I really like the glasslike feel this adds tho.

And I have to agree...the "Play Your" thing above videos, and "adjust the" above settings...it's a bit too much like mediastream. Or maybe it's because it is too busy or something. What if you had that text appear at the top center or top right of the screen? Keep it in there because extra descriptiveness is always good, but don't have all that stuff interacting in one spot?

I like the new "now playing" stuff you did tho...fits very nicely with the rest of the skin.

Have you given any thought to having the weather display with the main bar somehow? Add the option to have it on top or right on the main scroller or something...

as you know, these are still mocks, so transparency can easily be altered, but i'll see how they look when i put them into the skin, so maybe it'll be more transparent, maybe not... the end product is unknown for now, these are nothing but concepts... and as for the info menus, i'm just going to include then as an optional extra... so use them or not... i know there'll be fans of that option... people have requested it... and i like wheres its located, makes the scroller look a little more interesting if u ask me, but who knows, i'll try a few things before i make up mind with a final draught... and that weather idea is cool... see what i can think up... would be different... maybe an added dialog or something... we'll see what happens... but thanks for the comments!