Working on theme editor

bcbarnes wrote on 6/17/2003, 12:48 PM
I've been working on a theme editor for DVDA. There is a small res screenshot posted here:

http://www.briancbarnes.homestead.com/files/Date__Small_.jpg

When done, this program will be free for downloading from my site.

I'll be releasing it for beta soon, pending a few questions I'm waiting for answers on with Sonic Foundry.

Question for those that are interested: As you can see in the screen shot, the UI is a bit cramped and clunky. In addition, it currently is larger than 1024x768. I like having everything on one screen, and don't mind the large size. What do you'all think?

Please Note: This is NOT an official Sonic Foundry thing. This is a program I wrote, without request by anyone at Sonic Foundry, and I am soley responsible for it.

Comments

jetdv wrote on 6/17/2003, 1:17 PM
Looks interesting.
BillyBoy wrote on 6/17/2003, 1:30 PM
Nice looking. I was going to do one too and never could get myself motivated to get started. What are you using Visual Basic or something else?
BrianStanding wrote on 6/17/2003, 1:45 PM
Can you give people an option of making some or all of the controls on free-floating pallettes, docked or hidden? (i.e., the way Vegas controls work) This would make it easier for those of us (like me) still working with 17" monitors.

Probably a lot more programming work, I suppose.

Looks like a great project.
MJPollard wrote on 6/17/2003, 2:19 PM
Looks very nice, though I'd have to disagree with you about the "everything on one screen" approach. Too cluttered, IMHO. Perhaps you could pattern the theme editor after the DVD-A interface, with resizable, selectable, tabbed windows? Not only would it reduce the clutter, it would make the look & feel of the editor more "seamless" with the app it is supporting. Just a humble suggestion; after all, the final decision is up to you. :-) Good luck!
PAW wrote on 6/18/2003, 2:47 PM

you posted recently in a thread about XML if I remember rightly and mentioned you had thought of doing a theme editor - glad you followed this through I meant to reply and ask you to do it.

Can't make my mind up on the interface from the screenshot, yes at first glance it may look cluttered but then again it also looks pretty sensible. Hard to work out what is numeric based only and what would be numeric or drag/drop with numeric for fine tuning if at all. Is the preview just a preview, can the theme editor be used as the creative workspace for a theme i.e launch photoshop to create a frame? etc

Above 1024 may be a problem for a lot of people, I run at 1280x1024 which should be OK but there can be a downside depending on your window size etc.

I would be happy to provide any input into the beta version and thanks for making this available.

I guess the best add-on to DVDA would follow the same style guidelines in an ideal world.

Cheers, PAW
bcbarnes wrote on 6/18/2003, 3:12 PM
Thanks to everyone for the comments.

Now that the editor is functional, it sounds like many of you would like it if I went back and spent some time cleaning up the UI so it was more like DVDA. I'll start looking into that. Hopefully, that should allow me to get the app down to where it fits well in 1024 x 768.

PAW - Yes, you can launch your favorite editor to edit the different graphics elements in your theme. Currently, you right click on either the preview window, or one of the three graphics asset windows, and the program either launches the configured editor, or the application that is associated with that file extension. Once the editor app finishes, the theme is re-drawn using the new images.
PAW wrote on 6/18/2003, 4:02 PM

gulp, sounds awesome :-)
beatnik wrote on 6/18/2003, 10:51 PM
I love the way you guys create these programs. My hat is off to you! I look forward to
using your product. Thanks for enhancing my Vegas environment!

Regards,

Alex
Luxo wrote on 6/20/2003, 7:14 PM
Looks fantastic! Any chance you'd release the current beta version while you work on shrinking the UI? Personally I have no problem with the resolution you chose, in fact I'd prefer it.