yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
You're very welcome, and keep going! ;)

Took a while, yep, but I enjoy doing it so it's no biggie :p It's not a steady flow though: there are times when I just don't have inspiration so sometimes it may take a while between a release and the other

From scratch with gimp :) Every now and then I just take a look at a bunch of fonts on 1001freefonts or dafont and if/when I see something that strikes my eyes I try to play around with it on gimp. Sometimes I end up discarding everything, some other times I happen to put together something that I like enough to make a new skin out of it :)

That's for clock skins of course.... different thing is for weather, toggles, batteries... there's no font-related inspiration there, so an idea just has to pop up in my mind out of nowhere, and that's when I try putting something together.
[Android Themes] rawrv42:
@ Vostradamus

First off, thanks for the quick reply and the support.

I see. Haha inspiration is a funny thing. Making things from scratch ~ that is very impressive.

Thanks for the websites and tips, much appreciated.

I do plan to play around and create more skins.

Kudos to you sir, :D

Vrawr
[Android Themes] moosc:
Still looking for a decent pic. But they all look the same

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
No need to hurry, take your time and find one that you like a huge lot ;)

I'll throw in an idea... what if, instead of looking for a pic to use as a background for the clock, you looked for a pic to use as a whole wallpaper for the phone?

This way the pic could be much larger and maybe finding a very nice one could be easier...

The clock could then be made with those silver 3d-like military-style digits and no background, so you could place it wherever you like, with whatever widget size you like and on the spot that would look better on the wallpaper :)
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
Just wanted to let u know ev1 loves my clock!!!
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
eheh glad to hear it! :)

I've actually got a bunch of female friends who says it's terribly cute too (a couple guys liked it too, but they wouldn't say it out loud 'cause they were afraid to look "girlish" because of the pink digits LOL) :D
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Released 8 new skins (2x BW clock, 2x BW superclock, 1x BW weather, 2x FW clock, 1x FW weather) :)

Details in the first post ;)

Enjoy! :D
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
Haha but they liked it too hee hee
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
Uh huh u know they liked it tee hee
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
do you like the new doggies clock? This time the request didn't come through xda: someone sent it by mail to BW authors, and they forwarded it to me lol :p

It's another breed, but still fluffy and cute :D
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
I will go check it out right now:)
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
The biscon? Yes very cute!! I like
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Yep, that's the one :)

lol fluffy pets invasion on beautiful widgets :D
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
Yup I love it!! I'm not a purse dog kind of girl lol
[Android Themes] desspil:
thanks for your work and sharing ! ;)
[Android Themes] Psyloid:
i made a nice ICS skin

you can download it here

unzip the file and put the folder in sdcard/data/beautifulwidgets/scskins

it looks like this with a black background
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
You could submit it to BW guys as well, so it would be added to the in-app skin list ;)

It's a superclock skin, so you could use their online skin submitting tool: http://levelupstudio.com/skincreator/
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Quite "massive" update today :cool:

Released 27 new skins (9x BW clock, 9x BW superclock, 9x FW clock) :)

Details in the first post ;)

Enjoy! :D
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
See I can't ever change clocks again tho lol
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
lol too fond of the fluffy one I guess :p
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
Oh yes!! Indeed
[Android Themes] NamNamNom:
Hey guys, this is my first skin

Hope you like it!
[Android Themes] deepash:
nyc man...just saw it...i had all ov em ...but lost em ....glad to get em back..thnx :)
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Here's another.... juicy update! :cool:

Released 21 new skins (7x BW clock, 7x BW superclock, 7x FW clock) :)

Details in the first post ;)

Enjoy! :D
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Ooook, these days I'm definitely being productive! :cool:

Released 27 new skins (9x BW clock, 9x BW superclock, 9x FW clock) :)

Details in the first post ;)

Enjoy! :D
[Android Themes] ttlphotography:
help with skin mixer build i made

Hey guys;

did a search and this is the most current thread i could find in regards to the latest beautiful widgets update. Im hoping someone can clear up my confusion or my error in doing things.

I went to the new skin market and created a clock skin and i can see it when i log into the BW skin market and look at the skin mixer. I follow the instructions and it says that it has been downloaded to my phone. I even get a notification on the phone that the skin has been downloaded and "applied". Yet when i look at the widget, my build isnt there. I look in the settings under clock skin and weather skin and cant seem to find it anywhere. So the question is, am i doing something wrong, am i missing something, am i looking in the wrong place in the app to find this skin i built?

Any assistance would be appreciated and if this is in the wrong thread or section, my apologies and feel free to move to where ever it needs to be.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Tom
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Where exactly in the app are you looking for the skin you built?

Skins built with the skin mixer are superclock skins, so if for example you're looking for it in the "normal" clock skin list of course you won't find it.
[Android Themes] ttlphotography:
i set a widget on a page, then hit the weather (sun ball in this case) and it takes me to the full screen weather page. there i can hit the ICS menu in the upper right hand corner and it gives me clock skin, weather skin and settings as options.

Ive looked under all 3 of these to locate the skin mixer download i made.

Before posting this reply, i tried again to find superclock, but to no avail, is it somewhere else i need to be looking under?

thanks

tom

*EDIT* - i think i found my problem. I was using a regular widget from the BW widget list. I realized that there are "superclock" widgets as well. So i tried that and it works.

So 1 last remaining question. .. . is it possible to just have the clock portion of the widget showing and not the weather portion?
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
It all depends on which kind of widget you placed on your screen...

When you add a widget you can pick either "beautiful home for weather" (or the smaller version "smaller beautiful home") or one of the superclocks (only talking about the clock+weather widgets here of course).

If you picked any one of the superclocks, the "clock skin" link in the menu will take you to the superclock skin list, while if you picked one of the "beautiful home" widgets it will take you to the normal clock skin list.
[Android Themes] ttlphotography:
found it.

thats what i was doing wrong. i was looking for superclock skins thru regular widgets settings.

think i have it sorted now.

do appreciate the quick assistance.

Coming from an iphone and really enjoy the flexibility of android, but just gotta get past the learning curve.

thanks again

Tom
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
You're welcome! ;)

I'm positive you'll like it more and more :D :p
[Android Themes] kevin_diu:
I love you :D:D:D I used your spb mobile shell themes before and I fall in love with you lol, now i see you again and fall in love with you :D big thanks!!

sorry for my bad english.:p
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
lol thanks for the "loving" appreciation :)

(and your English is not that bad at all) ;)

Sent from a galaxy far far away....
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Aaaaand here's another bunch of new skins! :cool:

Some of these required kind of a lot more work than usual, soooooo I hope at least some of you will like them :p

Released 30 new skins (10x BW clock, 10x BW superclock, 10x FW clock) :)

Details in the first post ;)

Enjoy! :D
[Android Themes] shadrach47:
Great skins.

They all look awesome. Thanks
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Here's another update! :cool:

Released 15 new skins (5x BW clock, 5x BW superclock, 5x FW clock) :)

Details in the first post ;)

Enjoy! :D
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
New bunch of stuff! :cool:

Released 18 new skins (6x BW clock, 6x BW superclock, 6x FW clock) :)

Details in the first post ;)

Enjoy! :D
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
Luv, just can't change from my chows lol
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
lol :D

Well, you could try using two clocks at the same time.... say, a superclock with the fluffy cuties and a normal clock with another skin :eek: :p :D
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
New Update! :cool:

Released 21 new skins (7x BW clock, 7x BW superclock, 7x FW clock) :)

Details in the first post ;)

Enjoy! :D
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
Hmmmmm good point!
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
New Small Update! :cool:

Released 4 new skins (2x BW weather, 2x FW weather) :)

Details in the first post ;)

Enjoy! :D
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
Soooooo can I make another request??? Pretty please...

I love that leopard furry clock u made, anyway to make it pink w my chows? I promise I'll leave ya alone after lol, or even if u can't :)
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Of course you can! ;)

Uhm... "leopard furry clock"? :confused: am I missing something here? lol I'm afraid I don't remember making that one, or at least the description does not ring any bell :o Could you give me the actual skin name?
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
Sorry I went back and looked and it was a jean one, oops :o

But I do really like one of your new ones..
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Soooooo I take it you'd like the Bright Lights Fuchsia one with the addition of your fluffy cuties, right? :)
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
Uh huh, yup yup
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Got it, I'll see what I can do ;)
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
Yay thank u ;)
[Android Themes] DJBhardwaj:
This is really nice. Skins for my fav. Widget app :)

Thank you
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
Losing one of my chowbabies Monday :(
[Android Themes] jwomalley3:
Beautiful Widgets, Weather Skins, Vos-Neon

By far, my favorite weather skin for Beautiful Widgets is Vos-Neon. The one thing I have noticed recently is that with all your "new" weather skins the Moon is "Crescent". But with Vos-Neon, the Moon is "Full". Do you have any plans on updating the skin with a Crescent Moon?

Thank you for ALL your great work!
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
You're welcome! :)

Why??? :(

First of all, thanks for your appreciation! :)

About the neon skin:

I could as well re-design the whole skin and also make it larger (more suitable if using superclocks needing an HD version of the graphics)... The current one has smaller images 'cause it's a direct porting from one of my old spb mobile shell weather skins on windows mobile (hence the full moon: I started with the crescent one only recently)... I'll think about it when I'll have a bit of time (weather skins need more time than clock ones, and the neon one also needs special attention not to end up with an awful "cut-off-glow" effect)
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
She 16 and in alot of pain. She has cancer and I've struggled with option of putting her down :(

She goes Monday
[Android Themes] AndroidIsEpic:
I just wanted to say you make my favorite beautiful widgets skins. I saw the raving rabbids clock and I have no idea how you made it but it's fantastic.
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
I'm so sorry :(

I'm sure it's the right choice: she won't be in pain anymore... give her a hug for me
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
lol I admit I've had a lot of fun designing that one :)

It's not been too hard: I just collected a bunch of rabbids pictures and then I tried placing them on the digits in a....... BWAAAAAAAAH way rotfl :D

Sent from a galaxy far far away....
[Android Themes] bogfather:
Thanks for these skins, the just bloody clock skin goes perfect with my home screen :)
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Great home screen! :D
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Let's fulfill a few requests! :cool:

Released 7 new skins (1x BW clock, 1x BW superclock, 2x BW weather, 1x FW clock, 2x FW weather) :)

Details in the first post ;)

Enjoy! :D
[Android Themes] AndroidIsEpic:
How do you get your transparent number backgrounds and transparent backgrounds to work? I always get patching errors when I try to load them with invisible backgrounds. :(
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
I guess you're trying to use completely transparent pngs?

Those background pics need to be 9-patches... just take your transparent image and draw a 1 pixel wide black (000000) line on the top and left edge of the image (make it some pixels long, not the whole height/width of the pic) and try again :)

(or.... just grab transparent background pics from any one of my skins and use them, lol) :p ;)

EDIT: if you're gonna use your own images, keep in mind that you do not need full sized pics... just a small one will do 'cause the 9-patch handling algorithm will stretch them to the needed size :)
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
Hug was given ty
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
Look close, her pic on my wallpaper

clock looks great ty
[Android Themes] AndroidIsEpic:
Thanks for the help! I just started so I don't know what I'm doing really. I didn't understand the patching thing but I get it now thanks to your explanation. I did get two skins done though. I'm inspired by your work!
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Not really sure why, but I don't seem to be able to see the pic you posted :confused:

Glad you liked the clock though ;)

Good job ;)

I guess those skins are the "minitransformers" and the "daminionz" ones, aren't they? (I sorta guessed it by that AIE at the beginning of the names) :p

If I may throw in a suggestion: the screenshots on BW webmarket show a background behind the numbers... as long as there's that background, the ":" between hours and minutes looks kinda out of place, you could try getting rid of it ;)
[Android Themes] AndroidIsEpic:
Yeah It was "naked" but it wouldn't upload because of my transparency issue lol. But I think I'll upload a new one like that now that I know :-D haha

If I wanted to edit the one I already published is there an easy way to do that or do I just upload another clock?

I also had a skin get rejected that was based on the video game halo I'm assuming copyright issues? Very disappointing considering how much work I put into it oh well.

Thank you so much for the help again!
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
There's no way to "overwrite" an already existing skin through the online form, but you can write to support@levelupstudio.com and explain the whole thing and they'll just fix it for you

Uhm... dunno, I never got a skin rejected. Not sure about the copyright issue either... I mean, I guess it's possible, but I too have a couple videogame-based skins (raving rabbids clocks) and I've had no problem with them.

Did you get a specific message about the rejection?

You're welcome! ;)
[Android Themes] AndroidIsEpic:
"Hello,

We are very thankful for your skin submission, unfortunately your skin aie-halcharacterclock can not be validated for now for the following reason:

Unfortunately, your skins doesn't match with our editorial policy.

Regards

Regards.

LevelUp Studio"

Not sure what happend. The same thing happened with my other one that was just the numbers and no characters, using the games font and colors. :(

I emailed them to see what that meant. Will let you know what they say if your curious.

Here's some pics of the clocks (the font one is an older build):
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Please do, I'm curious to know what's that all about :confused:

The soldiers look a little blurry, you might wanna try applying a bit of sharpening filter to them ;)
[Android Themes] AndroidIsEpic:
"Hi,

We received a lot of complaint of our users about the quality of our skins. So, we now take a particular attention to the submissions.

Unfortunately, our team, after having discuss it, have decided not to accept your skins for these two reasons :

The colors really don't match

The numbers are too pixelated

Regards"

Well got a response looks like I know only have to sharpen the characters but I have to fix the font the sad part is I used the official font and gradients but maybe I'll go more classic so they accept it which is disappointing and the colors were the official colors based on the halo xbox below and I can no longer use those.
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Ok, that sort of makes sense... I too noticed the pixelated digits, but I assumed (and it looks like I got it right) it was some sort of official font made like that on purpose (wasn't sure 'cause I've never really played Halo).

I guess I'll have to agree with both you and levelup guys on this:

- you were right in using the official font: it makes sense

- they're right about the final effect: it definitely looks pixelated

maybe you could try to "play around" with the font a little bit and see if it can somehow look any better. For example you could try:

- make the digits kind of 3D-like or raised and/or project a shadow

- use a different, more "normal" font for the AM/PM pics (being small they look really awful with that halo font)

- change the color for that digits backgroud: cyan-to-blue digits on a golden field looks as pleasant as a punch in the eyes lol :p

I'm not sure if the above will help or not, but hey... it could be worth a try ;)
[Android Themes] AndroidIsEpic:
I took your advice on pretty much everything got rid of the halo font, I also thought the colors were horrendous but I tried to stay true to the source, your sharpening idea worked a million. and everything must have worked because it's now online! :D

I donated some money for all of your work and your help to me. I know it's not much but hopefully you can get a can of tuna for your cats!
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
I've just noticed it (both versions) on the web skin-market: good job :)

The soldiers now look great, and the digits are not pixellated anymore :)

When you have some time maybe you could try some experiments with the halo font, and should you somehow manage to make it look good you can always put another skin together ;)

My cat says "meow", which of course means "Thank you soooooo meowuch" lol :p :D
[Android Themes] jamminjon82:
I just use either ics clear or roboto clear. gives it a classy feel.
[Android Themes] oddspec:
Awesome work i use many of ur skins already acessable thru they app u do great work
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
I'm glad you're enjoying them, even though they're not mine lol :p :D

Thanks, I'm glad you like them! ;)
[Android Themes] AndroidIsEpic:
Yeah my biggest problem right now is actually my problem when enlarging fonts and keeping them sharp without aliasing. I have so many jaggies on any font when I enlarge them. If I can focus on making some pure font clocks maybe that'll help but I don't even know where to begin.

Any tips on creating sharp fonts while enlarging without jaggies?

You have some beautiful font work and wish I knew how to get even close to that quality.

If there were any tutorials anywhere on creating large fonts that'd be amazing. (hint hint ;) )

I'm using a program called gimp right now and not photoshop so maybe if I use that it'll work better but either way I still thinkI might have issues. My fix is that I apply some anti-aliasing after I enlarge the fonts but then I lose the sharpness of the font/texture and ends up blurry.

I haven't done graphic work since 2004 in high school so pardon my newbieness. lol
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
lol talk to me about newbieness: I'm a major noob myself :p

I too use Gimp, love that software :)

I don't usually create fonts myself though... most of the times I find them on dafont.com and then I just work on the visual effect I want to achieve.

Best size for the clock digits images seems to be 100x140 (which is also compatible with fancy widgets), so what I usually do is:

- start with a blank 100x140 image

- pick the font I wanna use

- find out the max font size I can use to have every digit fit in the image

- create a layer for every digit (turning the text object into an actual image)

- work on colors, shadows and visual effects

Of course there have been a few times when I needed to adjust something manually (like the tetris skin, where I needed to fix the pieces almost one by one, pixel by pixel) or draw everything from scratch (like the meccano skin, where I didn't use any font but I drew the digits myself), but I think most of the times the above guidelines should work :)
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
A small update this time :p

Released 3 new skins (1x BW clock, 1x BW superclock, 1x FW clock) :)

Details in the first post ;)

Enjoy! :D

PS:

For those who may be interested, lately I started making themes for Go Launcher EX.

I've released 9 so far (link in my signature, or just search "Vostradamus" on the market), and one of them is free ;) (the other ones just a few cents) :p

If you could download and rate even only the free one that would help me gain some visibility... :p :o :p

That's it for now... more skins (and themes) coming soon ;)
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Another small update :p

Released 3 new skins (1x BW clock, 1x BW superclock, 1x FW clock) :)

Details in the first post ;)

Enjoy! :D
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Little tiny update :o

Released 2 new skins (1x BW weather, 1x FW weather) :)

Details in the first post ;)

Enjoy! :D
[Android Themes] Ransot:
ok
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Tiny update to fulfill a request :o

Released 2 new skins (1x BW weather, 1x FW weather) :)

Details in the first post ;)

Enjoy! :D
[Android Themes] moosc:
OK I'm running this skin from bw. Is it possible to swap out the Superman logo with the Batman logo like this or a similar Batman logo? Thanks

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
clock skins are stored on the sdcard inside data\beautifulwidgets\skins

- go in the folder of that skin

- grab the image with that superman logo

- make an image of the same size with the batman logo

- name it like the superman one

- replace the superman one in its folder

- re-apply the skin

Done :)
[Android Themes] moosc:
Cool I'll give a try thanks
[Android Themes] itsDinis:
Is there a skin that uses the Android stock weather icons?

Thanks in advance.
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
I'm afraid I can't answer to this question: I have no idea what the android stock weather icons are :p

Do you happen to know some place where I could see an example, maybe? :o
[Android Themes] itsDinis:
This was to use on BeWeather, I know that uses Beautiful Widgets skins. I thouht that by changing the skin it would change the icons, but it didn't. So I found out that from the app we can download iconsets. But thanks anyway for your time.
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
You're welcome, glad you figured it out :)

Sent from a galaxy far far away....
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Small update after a while :p

Released 3 new skins (1x BW clock, 1x BW superclock, 1x FW clock) :)

Details in the first post ;)

Enjoy! :D
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
Question ....anyway to do a chow battery? I sent a donation I hope u got it

Would've came from Chowmomma@gmail.com

Sent from my PC36100 using Xparent Pink Tapatalk 2
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
Not sure how it will turn out 'cause the graphics for the battery are pretty small, but I'll give it a try ;)

Nothing so far, but if you sent it a short time ago maybe it's still being processed (just guessing here lol) :)

Thanks anyway! ;)

By the way, some time ago you added my email address to your G+ circles. That's not the mail I use on G+, I added you with my real G+ account: the name should read Gianluca Gallitto :)
[Android Themes] Chowmomma:
Oh no! I saw that name and said no lol

Let me go look for you!

Sent from my PC36100 using Xparent Pink Tapatalk 2
[Android Themes] Vostradamus:
lol my bad: I should have sent you a message saying it was me :p