Fanart Attempt

[dhcf23]

I like the use of fanart on marbles new skin so I figured I would give it a go. So far it's just a quick throw together of a menu page..similar to MeeV2 at Meedios with some borrowed graphics from here too..thanks to baddabings ModernMetal. Right now it loads random fanart for each of the menu buttons when xlobby is started.

Here is the Menu page - it is not very polished at this time since I just got it together last night and have a few other ideas to try, and well then the whole rest of the thing to do if I think I can pull the rest together.

[wesblack]

Very Nice................!







Wes Black \ Calrad

[wesblack]

Found a cool website with fanart. We have a mantis issue pending to add fanart into xLobby. Andy Grooby and other users have been messing around with this for a while, I really like the way it brings the interface to a new level of excitement and detail. Hopefully we can get to this soon.

http://themoviedb.org/

Example: http://themoviedb.org/movie/534





Wes Black \ Calrad

[Marbles_00]

Yep, that's the website I get all my fanart from, it's a great site.

I'm curious to know how you made it random, or is it, each menu item shows a different image, yet it is always the same for that image? If that's the case, then it's a no-brainer, but if you actually randomize images for each menu item...I'm very interested.

Oh, cool looking start. I like the blue reflections on the menu items. Wish my graphics skills were better .

[dhcf23]

That is the same website I use as well. This one is good too for Music and games.

http://www.htbackdrops.com/

I can take no credit for the menu items with the blue reflections, they are not my creation. Those are from Baddabings modern metal skin. I too wish I had that kind of graphics skill. I plan to use this skin with a remote so it would be cool if I could get those to dim some when not selected and then when they are navigated to they highlight so I knew which menu item I was at, other than by the background image. I am not sure I will keep them there or change them to just words we'll see how a few other ways look.

As for randomizing the images, they are random. Right now it is just one set of images for all the buttons as a test. I have a folder with all the fanart in it. I made a fanart database set up like the pictures database. I created a category for fanart also and just put it on a non used page. Then each menu item unhides a text box that shows an image category>fanart>randomcover> might not be the best way but it seems to work well. eventually it would be set up so each menu item is tied to its own set of pictures. Music Art , Movie art, TV Art, etc. So it is random each time Xlobby loads, not everytime you enter the page.

Someone with more skill and better knowledge of plugins can probably set this up to be random each time you enter the page or maybe change after a certain amount of time.

[dhcf23]

I am finding one issue with using this method to show the fanart for the buttons. When you use a text box to display the image I am seeing a big drop off in the quality of the images. If I show the same image as just the image it is crystal clear. So the text box method would have to be limited to the images that still look good when viewed this way.

[Marbles_00]

I've been able to tie my fanart with XAnt, so when the database is created, one of my parameters is called <fanart></fanart> which I have defined to Ant's Media Label field. Then the file location is stored in the database. Then in xlobby, I have a text box ID'd as fanart (which I can hide in my skin setup parameters). For the text I use category>movies>fanart, which calls on the image...the same way that music and movies coverart is called. This works if you create a menu category, and your menu items become a database. To get an idea on how to do this you can look at either Qtips MediaX skin or my Mirage skin. All the sub-menus in Mirage is a "menu" category and the actual menu items are all databases. Then in each menu item you can add a fanart parameter (XAnt will do this if you defined the Media Label field in the moviestemplate.xml), which will then be displayed, unhindered.

Hope this helps.

[dhcf23]

Marbles thanks for the info, I have been able to get fanart to work the way you described for my movies and there is definitely no quality loss that way. I may try a menu set up the way you describe although, I think we are still without the ability for it to be random. So just hiding and unhiding an image from a regular menu would still be the same. The only time I see the quality loss is when I have it set up as fanart database and then a category for that database and the image in the text box set up like this, category>fanart>randomcover>. I'm ok with those not being random as long as I find a few that I really like and have them in full quality, then if I get bored I can just switch them out for others once in a while.

As for the way you add your fanart...that is the way I would like to do it, but I still can't seem to get that pesky XAnt plug in to work for me.

Thanks again for the help and I will keep playing, maybe I will end up with something worthy of showing off.