(Previous thread, BlueTurtle Classic)

This just in, Tometheus stuns the world by doing some actual skinning work. In a move that shocked friends and relatives, BlueTurtle, a popular Trillian 0.7x skin, has been converted to STIXE. Inside sources say things that we just don't believe, so we won't quote them here. However, outside sources have told us that the temperature has suddenly dropped. In other news, there appears to be chaos in hell as imps are seen to be throwing what appears to be snowballs at each other. We turn to our correspondant on the scene... Adolph, what can you tell us about these events?


Yep... what he said. Grab the beta already! What are you waiting for???

Part of the reason for the conversion is that while BT started out as my technology testbed, SETi is my current testbed. Since the aesthetic was designed for a more technophobe crowd, I've stripped it down to its bare essentials and converted it to STIXE so that it will be easier to support in the future. (Another reason is I'd never done a STIXE skin.)

No, the scrollbars aren't bugged. Part of the artistic philosophy of BT originally was negative space. The other part was that it was to feel as if the light blue background was the skin, but a living entity, so the negative space morphed into positive space on interaction from the user (mouse-over). (I would have looooved to have had animated mouseovers for the buttons.) Since the light blue was the base skin, all other parts were intended to seem to arise from it. (The first icons released with the skin had gradients in the background to blend from the normal to the hover colors, etc as well as being blended against the background color for offline/idle contacts before Trillian supported alpha blending.)

Since BT Classic only had 4 images, all of the images for this conversion were re-created from scratch, so there are no themes yet, although steps for theme support have been started in the settings.ini. Creating new themes should be much easier than BT Classic since most gradients are created using alpha-blended PNG files. Most of the other user settings are built in to STIXE now (by way of interfaces and skin packs), so no user config options are offered (yet).

Anyways, grab the TSZ already. Recommended iconpack is Tomethicons and interface is Default. (After loading the skin, launching the Trillian Advanced Settings [Pack Rat] from The Configurator should give you these selected by default)

(stupid forums. you need to give it a .tsz extension when you save it for it to work.)

(48+55)

Attached Files

blueturtle_for_stixe_3.1.3.tsz (125.7 KB, 441 views)

Screeny

Attached Images

bt_screeny.png (251.8 KB, 2091 views)

CoffeeTurtle , \/




ForestTurtle , \/




FossilTurtle , \/




BlushingTurtle , \/






Other themes to be converted from BT Classic (improved)... Purple (Wino?), Mustard.

Attached Files

attachment reserved (do not download).zip (0, 488 views)

FABULOUS!!!

So what prompted the Stixe conversion? Looks good, just curious though

GuiStyle for Astra | Who is LSR? | Twitter

wow nestelgic

nice

Just got to say I love the Trilly Tunes top billing on your contact list! Especially it playing the "Dream of the Blue Turtle" by Sting. Oh and the Dr. Suess quote from "Yertle the Turtle" in your message box.

Of course, the skin is great looking too! Nice job! The intro to this thread is also hilarious!

"Coffee, the finest organic suspension ever devised!"
~ Captain Kathryn Janeway ~

Did you read the first post of the thread?

I skipped straight to the screeny

GuiStyle for Astra | Who is LSR? | Twitter

So you finally redid it? lol.

The weekend that my computer crashed.

Good job Tom, and thanks!

I am loving this skin. It's nice to see a /stixe skin that's not so boxy... and the scrollbars and buttons are way cool!

I'm looking forward to more themes... hint, hint.

ah.... that reminds me of good ol' Aikon 3 by Juz...

"Coffee, the finest organic suspension ever devised!"
~ Captain Kathryn Janeway ~

Congratulations Tometheus!! It looks great.
Good for you!!!

/me notes that BlueTurtle had themes before Aikon did...

Of course, you're probably right Tometheus. It was more the fact that neither of the two skins are "boxy". They're both slick!

But this thread is about Blue Turtle... long live!

"Coffee, the finest organic suspension ever devised!"
~ Captain Kathryn Janeway ~

We need a coffee theme for BT... hehe

I certainly second the motion!!

"Coffee, the finest organic suspension ever devised!"
~ Captain Kathryn Janeway ~

looks nice, very plain and minimal

(although i dont see why a mod didnt use "[WIP]" )

Unlike the Perpetually Percolating One, I don't drink the stuff, but I do notice that I never did a deep brown theme for BT... It would probably look nice.

"plain"?? That's like calling impressionism 'unfinished' Subtle, yes, simple, maybe.. but 'plain'??

The reason there's no '[WIP]' is because this is not a WIP. It is a fait accompli. It is only here for bug testing before being posted to CS. I don't post WIP threads because I personally don't believe in them. It's unfair to both the users here and to myself. If I do post previews, it's on my website, like Heavy Metal. Posting WIP threads gets people's expectations up for something that Trillian may not even support. (i.e. Parasite Satellite, where people are dying of dehydration from their mouths watering so long.). The only exception to this was SETi and that was because it was a team project with Shuji and he had already posted the design concepts before I joined in for the code.

On hiatus, but for reference:
Projects: 'Pack Rat | The Configurator (Thread) | TrillKey
Skins: BlueTurtle | SETi | Heavy Metal (design)
Icons: Tomethicons | NecronomIcons (Halloween) | Χ-maçons

If you havent already noticed i like plain and minimal skins

it was definately a compliment.

from a quick glance it looks plain but upon a closer look its quite detailed

Smooth gets it

part of the original aesthetic was supposed to be simple / nonthreatening, so you're not confronted with too much information at once, but when you move the mouse over areas, the skin presents you with more information. (i.e. 'what you have the mouse over is something you can click')

(I remember in the original version of the skin that I posted over four years ago, the drawer button was invisible and when you moused over it, the skin 'ripped' to reveal the drawer below, but I got so many requests asking for me to add a drawer that I decided to make the button more 'obvious'....)

I miss my drawers *sigh* [edit]Yes, I know that sounds humorous to certain regions of English speakers[/edit]

Attached Images

blueturtle-window_olddrawer.png (1.7 KB, 2216 views)

I had been waitin patiently a long time for this, and it has been well worth it. My old favorite from .74 is now my new favorite, and it's even better IMO. Good to see somethin simple but beautiful ran on 3.x.

Any ideas for a good VS and winamp skin to use with this?

You know, quite a few people have asked me in the past to make a VS (or windowblinds skin) based on BT... I've thought about it a few times, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that one day people would find an article in the obituaries about a physicist who died by too much exposure to blue. (And when I think that, lately I think about the line 'You got red on you' and I start chuckling. 'You got blue on you' must be a line from an alien zombie flick.)

Not having XP, I can't really recommend a VS, but maybe Christie has suggestions?

As for winamp, I might make one someday, but I tend to prefer 'classic' skins in WA because they can use winshade mode in both directions, unlike any 3/5 skins I've seen.... but I haven't looked in a while.

I've come to like blue, it's easy on the eyes. I wasn't expecting you to make a VS, though I'm sure you'd make a rather nice one. The work you do, although tending to be rare at times, is rather thorough, and you combine several talents and tend to suprise me. Guess I just don't see many physicist with art skills.

Something kinda interesting you just reminded me of, my gf spilled blue oil paint on her today, and it was on her pants, coat, hands, and face. Apparently she had blue on her, but she didn't much enjoy it.

Haha. We were only saying it in jest... but if you do decide to do it, would be nice to have some coffee, coffebeans, and other coffee items as emoticons and such. You're very good with coming up with emoticon sets and the like! Your work speaks for itself.

--The Perpetually Percolating One--

"Coffee, the finest organic suspension ever devised!"
~ Captain Kathryn Janeway ~

To be fair, I have never created an emoticon set. It's the one last piece of skinning I've never created from scratch, so the completeness nerd in me wants to do one, but I just don't know what I can do that hasn't been done (better) before. (I realize you meant 'icon' sets and slipped there )

I have the tools, and (probably) the ability, but I just haven't had the inspiration.

(Although, between you and me, I'd love to do a turtle-based set ... I just haven't gotten the flash of inspiration that comes before the hard work. My pencil art tends to be more 'realistic'.. I've never been great at caricatures.)

As for physicists and art, they actually go together well. Although most physicist/artists I know tend to be musicians. (Something about wave mechanics draws in them I think ) People who make physics their carreer have to have some creative gene in their system or they'd just be engineers.

/me ducks and runs away quickly from the engineers

(I jest of course... I work for/with engineers... they're good people ...even if they do tend to have a knack for plug-n-chugging equations rather than looking at the 'why's.)

Wow... that's very interesting! I wish I had the mind for any of that. I do love asking why and learning the reasons... trouble is I can't always grasps all the intricate details.

As for the turtle inspiration... Of course, that would be an excellent Trillian Theme (skins, emoticons, etc.)! I am totally for it. But I have a hard time finding "character" turtles on the web, let alone coming up with my own.

I used to use Cecil Turtle as my buddyicon (from Warner Bros. (Bugs Bunny) remake of the Turtle & the Hare). I wished I could have made it 3D looking instead of it's old fading color. My new turtle is from a site boring3d.com. I wish I had an ounce of his inspiration. His stuff seem to be actual models that he molds.

Thanks for sharing... I do hope you can find the inspriation for the Turtle theme. With all your art already on turtles, it seems to me you're half way there!

"Coffee, the finest organic suspension ever devised!"
~ Captain Kathryn Janeway ~

I had been pondering something along the lines of Dewie for the basic facial structure. Including the eyebrows. (Yes, I realize a turtle with eyebrows doesn't make sense, does it? But it adds that touch of 'humanity' that a turtle face just misses)