MM3 Skin editor

[james4001]

Hi

I would like to learn how to skin mediamonkey and am wondering what this skin editor is that people talk about and where can i get it from?
James

[rovingcowboy]

the theme editor is an program made to edit skin files and make new ones.

the version to use now is the found at a link in this post by steegy.

http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... 0332#70332

click that link it goes to the post then just click on the link steegy gave.

to learn on making a skin.

1. make a copy of a skin that was made from the royal blue skin or better yet make a copy of one of my skins and then.

2. place that copy of the skin in a new folder with the them engine.

3. change the name of the copy of the skin file from .msz to .zip

4. unzip the file in to that same folder it is in.

5. then just look for the mskn files if you see one that says default in the folder after you unzipped the royal blue skin you can delete that default one but only from that new folder you just made.
you need to look for the .mskn files those are the ones that are opened
and worked on by the theme engine.

6. find all the mskn files you then should make a folder for each mskn file in the skin just to keep the images separated. then copy or move the mskn file for the name of the folder you made for it. in to that folder.

7. you will have to copy the micro player mskn and ini files then rename them both the copy's and the original one. they should be named micorplayerH.mskn and microplayerH.ini and micorplayerV.ini and micorplayerV.mskn.
they are both the same player just one is vertical and the other is horizontal.

8. you need to once you get all the mskn files copied and or moved in to their own folder, it is time to get the theme engine in to use. start the theme engine up and use its open button to browse to the folder for the
first one you want to change images on. then open that folder's mskn file.

9. now look at the engines menu bar. click on the word file or edit. you need to find the words export bmp's click on that export bmps.
on that panel make sure it will export them in to the folder that mskn file is in. then click on export. then close out and exit the theme engine for now.

10. now go in to that folder and look around at the images.
you will see a couple big images with lots of pink on. that is the skin or part of it. you need to open that image with your image editing program like picture it. but first check the format of the images. for some reason when i export the images from the skin's mskn file the engine adds an extra set of format letters? remove the last set so it looks like themeskinimage.png and not like .png.bmp
once you open the image in your photo editor go to work scanning the images on the makin image there are some places you can cover the pink but not all places. just for the first time cover the exact same images
you see on the main image map.

11. do that with all the images and reopen the mskn file with the theme engine editor this time click on the plus sign by the word images.
it will show you a list of images in the mskn file. and 3 buttons. click on the name of an image and then on the replace image button then browse to the same image name that you changed and put that in the mskn file it will be used now. so do that to all the images that were in that mskn file that you changed.

12. now do the same for the other mskn files. the one called theme has the most images to change so it will be the toughest one.

13. when all images are changed and replaced in their respective mskn files. you then if the mskn files are in separate folders. copy all the mskn files and paste them back in the main folder that they were originally unzipped in .

14. now you see the icon folder. that is only usable for the no album art image. you can open that image up and change it if you want too.

15. now every image that was unzipped in to the folder like the sel.png and the sdb list background images? change them to what you want.
only the long thin ones cant be changed in size and no image will work on them with out some trickery so just change their colors for the first attempt at skinning.

16. okay now all is changed and all the mskn files are back in the folder with each other. now just select all the images and ini and mskn files and the icon folder. use your zipping program and zip them in to one zip file.
change the name of the zip file to what ever name you want to call your new skin and make it an .msz file.

17. now copy that msz skin file you just made. take it to the program folder you made for the mm3 alpha test version. then in that folder you will see a skins folder go in to that skins folder and paste that new skin you made in there.

now when you go and open mm3 you can go to the menu bar click on tools go to the options link click the link when the panel shows up you just scroll the tree down to see the directory for skins. click on skins and you will see the choices of skins you have on the right select the name of the skin you just made and monkey will change to use it then click okay.

now check out all the stuff and see if anything needs fixed in your new skin.

the media monkey 2.5.5 skins are made the same way only there is no image map and they are a combination of winamp classic skins and a theme .mskn skin. you unzip that wsz file by changing it to zip just like the mm3 skins only when you unzip it you will see all the winamp images that you need to change in your image editor.
and an mskn file you use the theme engine on that file tool only there is tons of images in it since there is no image map.

mm 2.5.5 skins take me about 15 to 20 hours to make i can get the mm3 skins done in about 4 to 6 hours depending on how much i change.

enjoy and good luck on making new skins.
any questions ask away lots here can answer.
but i don't work so i am in here a lot.
hope to see new skins shortly glad your willing to make some.

[james4001]

hi thanks for the reply and all the detail. now i look forward to making some skins.... hopefully! sorry i didnt realise that i could use that theme editor for mm3. Thanks again,
James

[junglemonkey]

hi thanks for the reply and all the detail. now i look forward to making some skins.... hopefully! sorry i didnt realise that i could use that theme editor for mm3. Thanks again,
James

You Think that was a lot of details?



you need to go over to the media monkey wiki site
and read morten's how to on the mm3 skinning.

he is going in to fine details. i just gave you a fast run down here.

i gave a even faster run down on the wiki site for the skinning of the mm 2.5.5 and lower skins.

[Blake]

Wow rc!
well done

[rovingcowboy]

thank you blakeloth.
i just did it fast here to hit the main points.
morten has taken it to heart to make it more detailed
on the wiki.

did you see my faster one on the wiki? it has one less comment
after the numbered steps and it has one less numbered step.

so that makes it faster don't it

i think mm2 will be needed for some time so maybe there are others that still will need to know how to make an old version skin.

[SenseMaker2010]

great... today I found the Skin editor... I already use some time MediaMonkey and had the wish to adapt it more individually to my personal "corporate idendity" *laugh*. Never thought, I can do it on my own... Great.

After reading the Wiki I just did a test skin (unzipped it from an existing version) to get confidenced with the editor. Looks not too difficult... But many, many details... seems a very, very time intensive work Highest respect for those who created all these beautiful MM skins.

Anyhow... and many thank's to all who made this editor tool available... like it.
------------------------------------
One question:

I'd like to position the "MediaMonkey logo" left side in the top line with the Programme Name "MediaMonkey" new. The existing skin I want re-design, let keep both too close together. Does not look good. I didnt find this part in the editor ? - Which section is it ?

Where is this little MM icon left top ? Bmp or in another graphic form ? I found in the unzipped icon.zip file "Menu022.ico". But it does not appear in skin editor opening the test skin (Royal Green, Royal Orange - Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?bntdtnztmnn ). Actually the background colour of the square frame around the tiny MM logo is grey-black (kind anthrazit) which does not look good as my skin shall become a darker blue-green and as 2nd version a light-bright shiny Indian orange colour. The icon should be filled outside the cirlce with the new colour, so I want make the logo transparent (hope that's the right way). As anthrazit square it does not show the beautiful circle of the MM log. Same the MediaMonkey text is "white" which does not look good with the new colours. The font of this text I want darken too...

How and where must I change it ? - I have not found a path of the MM icon, neighter in the MM programme directory nor in the original folder (extracted/unzipped Skin file (*.msz)). And in the editor itself I have not found a placeholder for the programme name. Or maybe I am just too blind to find it

Hope to get orientation. Tks in advance - TC/SM2010.

[rovingcowboy]

mediamonkey's logo on the left side of the window header can not be moved. it is added by the mediamonkey program and is not part of the skin users are able to adjust.

i suggest making your skin color's work around that background color, and moving your logo to the center section
for the window header. you can add your logo by adding an active bit map to that image section for the window header
and adjusting its placement with the pixels for horz. and for top. in the code area on the right for that active bitmap when you add it in to the center image section on the window header.

[kiwichick]

Hi there, Is it possible to edit skins with a .msz extension? Cheers.

[rovingcowboy]

msz is monkey skin zipped

all you need to do is unzip the msz file and start with your editing of the skins mskn files.

best thing for you to do is go to the wiki site for monkeys skins and then look for the how to make a mm3 skin.
and the fast newbie's walk through, you will find how to make a skin fairly fast that way.

there are now though 5 skins needed for monkey. so you see msz is just a zipped index type of skin file which
contains all the other mskn files and images.

so you will need to have lots of room for unzipping the skin file in a new folder. then changing all the images and codes
the skin uses.

but check the fast newbies walkthrough i show you on that how i have my folders set up to give you an idea of
what would be needed.

that fast newbie walkthrough just shows you how to skin the theme mskn file but that is the one with the most images
on it and takes the most time. from there you can figure out how to edit the player mskn's too.
you should read all the stuff you can on skinning for mm 3. and get that down before you make a skin for distrubting.

enjoy and hope you make some skins we're always wanting new ones to try.

mediamonkey 4 is being made and they have new skinning features in that version, but the skins are made the same way
so get the making of mm 3 skins down then you will need to watch the forum for updates on how to make the new features for mediamonkey 4.

welcome to skinning.

[kiwichick]

"all you need to do is unzip the msz file"

Oh der!! Thanks rovingcowboy, I should've thought of that myself. After the mmip is just another zipped file, too, isn't it? Thanks heaps.

And I didn't really want to design my own skin. I was just hoping I could change a couple of the colours in the skin I use.

[kiwichick]

Ok on that note, Can you please tell me what part of the skin I am looking for to change the background colour of selected text in the Search Box. On the skin I'm using (Helium MD) the background colour seems to be white which is the same as the unselected text colour - confusing as you can imagine. The only change when selecting text is the text appears to go a little bit bold. I hope you can see what I mean in the screenshots.

[rovingcowboy]

yep it can be done i've said how in another thread someplace last year. about the search box background.

but keep in mind it is not easy.
it needs things added to the skin code i think you would be better off asking the author to change it for you.
since you don't want to make your own skins which is needed to know how to do in order to figure out this little tweak you want to do.
skinning is easy but this tweak is not easy.
i've not got any idea now what post that was i said how to do it in.
and i have not done it in some time to any of my skins.
the trouble is one way will change several background colors
and the other way only changes this color.

? i'll have to look for that old post to remind myself.



did a search and found the other post. here is the link.
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... 51#p238351

[kiwichick]

Thanks heaps, I'll check it out.

[kiwichick]

Well that was quick Lol. I go to Objects / Edit / Frame but there is no Client.