Nice MP3 Interface

[cholin]

I made a pretty nice XML MP3 Player and I need a nice skin for it. I just need one done quickly, that looks nice with a nice LCD type display and some buttons. If you do it in Photoshop I would like to have the PSD too.

[ar]

And all of this is going to be of no cost, right? In that case, I'll see what I could whip up :).






!GB! - PEACE -

[cholin]

Well normally I'd offer money but since this is the starting point of my "business" type thing I can't really offer much. I do plan on selling off this player so some money would be "donated" later on to whoever gets me a nice one.

[ar]

There's this, I started it a long, long, long time ago, and I stopped making it.






!GB! - PEACE -

[cholin]

So far so good :) By the way, if it's in flash its better for me, considerring the buttons need effects and crap... this is one I made in photoshop in like 10 - 15 minutes (I was fooling around with bevel and emboss) -- http://gimp.zapto.org/~malcolm/scripts/files/upload/uploads/newplayer.html

[cholin]

I need it to be slick. Remember, people want something appealing to their eyes in order to buy a product. I really like that one posted before, actually I could probably work on it a bit too, but keep it small and slick. Or it could also be one of those unique ones with circular controls and stuff, like I *attempted* to make :P

[robvr6]

I was developing an xml mp3 player with somebody and I developed a small app that allowed the user to browse and add mp3 files and then it would automatically write the xml file so all that was needed was for the folder with the mp3s in and playlist created uploaded via the app.

is yours hand coded by the user??

[cholin]

Nope, mine will have a PHP frontend that comes with it. You use the php script online to easily modify the XML file on the spot, so that web developers and/or designers can simply add the script to their administration section (after purchasing the package) and change a few variables, such as the HTML code for the page and the location to the XML file. The file will then take over the XML functionality, allowing you to add songs, delete songs (and remove the file), rename songs, etcetera. Don't worry, I've got it all planned. By the way, I used the first picture posted and added a little screen to it and stuff, so I don't need this post any more.

[=guinness=]

lol i hope you at least get a credit for it eternal... people starting threads in this section have a tendancy to think that free/bater also = anything posted becomes their intelectual property.

to be honest you should be paying for this if you plan on selling it. its called investing in your product.

[cholin]

I know I should, but as of now Im broke, this is the start. Read parts of the second and third post:

And all of this is going to be of no cost, right? In that case, I'll see what I could whip up :).

Well normally I'd offer money but since this is the starting point of my "business" type thing I can't really offer much. I do plan on selling off this player so some money would be "donated" later on to whoever gets me a nice one.

Im not selling this for anything over 10 bucks, so its not really a massive income or anything, just to save some people some time for a product thats already done. IMO the most impressive part, that people tend to have problems coding, would be the progress bar believe it or not. You usually can't accurately display the progress bar while the file's loading because the file doesnt show the complete time of the song, so if youve played 2 seconds but the song has only loaded 5, it looks like youre almost half done the song! Some people decided that people would have to set the time of the song themselves in the XML file, but I steered away from that. The only thing you need in the XML file is the song name and the song location, nothing else. You can add stuff, such as albums, guests, whatever, and it will only take like 3 minutes beause of my loading function. Once I throw some protection on the file, Ill start to show people. Oh, and the way Im selling it, it comes with a PHP frontend that allows you to manage the XML file, so you can modify it on the go without changing a ton of crap through FTP (blah).

[ar]

Here's the thing. Something like an mp3 player, even one like this, if it looks awesome, and it works good, then you could sell it for well over a hundred or two, it's up to you.






!GB! - PEACE -

[cholin]

I know, thats why I needed one of these interfaces, because looks are VERY appealing! Thing is, I dont want to rip people off. When I said im selling it for around 10 bucks, thats to people that personally request it, otherwise I might sell it for a little more, in an attempt to get some money for a domain and stuff. I just want to save people some time but not break their wallet! It has been alot of work though, and time is money...

Okay, lets do this, what do you think it would sell for? Ill post an example soon...

[ar]

I'd say, if everything works smoothly, and if you add some more features, then around $120 should do it. If that, I would gladly help you out, no cost, just as long as I could say that I made the graphics end of it.






!GB! - PEACE -

[cholin]

Oh, dont get me wrong, I dont mind paying you at all. I have the interface pretty much done, I just added a gradient screen and a little drop shadow on it. It looks really nice. Right now, Im coding the draggable part of the progress bar. I have the volume and progress bar done so far, Im just trying to do the math to get the Progress done.

[ar]

So did you use my interfacy thing?






!GB! - PEACE -

[cholin]

Yes I did, hold on Ill make a picture of this beast and label it...

Point A -> That's the progress bar with the little progress arm sliding along it. The arm is selectable, as it is a button inside a movie clip, so it moves along the bar, but you can also drag it along the amount of the song that is loaded. That means, if only 30 seconds is loaded you cannot drag it to 40 seconds. The blue bar behind is the amount of the song loaded. Now, the progress bar is very accurate so even is the song isnt fully loaded, the bar still moves along the loaded part, it is updated once every 6th of a second.

Point B -> Nice little volume bar there for ya. The little blue slider is hard to select sometimes, so it has a transparent box around it so you dont need to have the mouse 100% on the slider for it to work. It updates dynamically meaning that as you drag the bar, you can hear the volume going down, rather than it changing when you stop dragging.

Point C -> Your main controls. The previous button, Stop, Play/Pause (changes depending on whether or not the song is playing), and Next.

Point D -> Information. The red text says 100, which is the volume of the player, again, dynamically updated while you drag. Then we have the current position divided into minutes and seconds and the current duration in minutes and seconds. The current duration shows how much of the song has loaded, so you can tell if only 30 seconds are loaded in.

Then, there's the song name up top. It doesnt have any fancy effects where it scrolls along a mask or anything, it just pops up and stays. This stretches across the whole player so you have TONS of room for song names, artist, featuring... etc.

[ar]

Do you need an LCD font? Oh, and I think you should try to make the screen an inlay, and not use that drop shadow.






!GB! - PEACE -

[cholin]

Nope, don't need an LCD font, I have one, just never thought of using it. I could make it an inlay if it will look better, I just added some stuff to your design quickly so I could get it coded.

EDIT: Nevermind, maybe I do need one because this one looks horrible when implemented. Ive downloaded about 30 and they look like crap, so lets see what ya got.

[cholin]

POSTING THIS IN THE SHOWCASE/CRITIQUES FORUM

[ar]

So, are you done with it? I would love to see the finished version.






!GB! - PEACE -

[cholin]

Yeah im pretty done, just got my webhost up for a bit. I need to get a domain name registerred and crap, but I will put up the actual sample soon.