Theme: GoodBye Black Mamba (LinkSheet) Updated Dec 14th

Thanks architectonic. Im not that old but I do remember the days when we actualy had to draw stuff by hand and then scan it if you wanted it on a computer. Now with a quick search, anything you want is handed to you on a silver platter. Really makes setting up your themes and sheets easy. Image search is my best friend. That of course is a section of my “Gangster” genre, and the other is “Action”.

Thanks for the props

-P

@pearl :smileyvery-happy:

i’m not too old myself, but i also remember the ‘old’ days before computers did all the work! In my profession I also had to hand draw everything! We didn’t have scanners even back then!!!..so I guess i am OLD! :cry:

aaahh those were the good old days, but I’m all for new technology for making life easier these days! 

dudeman316 wrote:

@ Daerx

Do you have it in a folder of the same name, then inside that folder season 1?

I have had the “tv” do that to me when I didnt have the correct folder structure.

/facepalm

Heh I forget the Season 1 folder, just had the episodes in the ‘Veep’ folder. Thanks everyone for the help.

@ sudheer I will try and get it to you by Saturday, I got some midterms coming up and I still want to clean up some of the template stuff.  I have never seen XSLT files/coding before (I just know basic HTML) and I think if I can learn how these XSLT files work the template could be much better.  Right now its just a hack and paste of code into something that works okay.  

@ DeVicious I agree simple, plain, clean is better to me as well, I’m not a fan of over use of graphics and unnecessary text.  Before I was using the AEONISH theme and didn’t even know you could have foldersheets,LOL, I think I was firmware 2.xx.  I really just wanted to see how hard it was to create one of these templates, I find that the hardest part is knowing what the keywords are for the code, for example it took me forever how to figure out how to center txt in a text element.  But with examples it comes together.  What language is the TG template written in anyway?  Is there a link for the code variables?

@ pearl  You definitely can have great backgrounds using a basic graphic program.  Crop, paste, position, done. I think when it comes to graphics though, its amazing how the use of filters, opacity, layering, etc can drastically change an image from flat and boring to absolutely amazing.  Most people would find it difficult to put a stroke and shadow on a image.  I think the beauty of TG is that many filters/effects can be preloaded through the use of code and used by everyone (albeit in a generic way) to produce very stunning effects.  This whole theme is a testament to that.  I was surprised at how much filters and layers where used to produce the cover art theme that  DeVicious made.  It really is great work.

@Prophet, I am in complete agrement with you, and the concept that a good TG template can make great and uniform folders and sheets, that anyone can use. I love it and it has been an amazing help to me along the process.

A wonderful thing. But… I have to say that using Dev’s theme pushed me to learn to use both TG and photoshop because I wanted my own things to work within the theme. Three weeks ago I was making flat folder icons that really didn’t work well with Black Mamba. No good, I had to do better. So, I am stil just a rookie with these tools, and nothing I make compares to what I have seen and used here that others have produced, but I quickly learned how to manage layers, opacity, gradience etc, and do simple mods to the themes from the help of everyone here. The differance has been tremendous, and has one huge upside, I am not reliant on hoping someone will create a template that meets my needs, or makes a genre folder icon for the movie genres I use.

I am 100% for bundles and templates, but seeing what you all are able to make drives me to want to learn how to do it as well. I don’t expect that from everyone, but for me it has been a great learning experience. So from flat an boring pics to the below genre folders in a few weeks has been well worth tthe effort. Waitng for someone to make me an icon for “Stand Up” or “foreign” might have never happened, and now at least I dont have blank folders for those genres, or have to put the movies in other folks pre-determined genres that work for them andnot me. From reading this thread, I learned how to make link sheets for folders that hold collections. Infact, seeing yours above drove me to make my first one today for the Godfather series. BMfinal has a snakeskin theme, Hmm how did she do that so i can use that on my genre folders? A few quick searches, a help file and 20 minutes of tests, and voila, I have semi-snakeskin around my genre folders. Amazing, extremely cool and gets me the what I need without PMing Dev or others to ask “can you please make me Film Noir folder?” I am sure the theme designers on this board get those all day.

I appreciate all that everyone has made on this board and offered to us for free. What a communnity, truly amazing. And the fact that it drives me to learn it is even better. 

It’s funny, In an matter of a few weeks, I  went from frustrated, waiting for new theme releases, and wishing someone would make the tempates I needed,  to reading a bit and playing with TG and Photoshop, to moding my own linksheets, making genre folders and  and turning my HUB into something that really suits my personal needs. A much different path than I had expected to be taking. 

I can truly say to anyone on this board, that a with a little effort, the knowledge you gain can make your HUB your own. peronalized for your needs. I still use BMFinal with just a few mods as I am no way near ready to write a theme, but everytime I use the HUB (which is essentialy all day), I can see my own work mixed in with Dev’s and it enhances my experience. I hope that someday i will have the time and the knowhow to give something back to this community that has driven me to learn so much about the product. Maybe a template, or who knows, perhaps even a whole them (doubtful, but anythign is possible)

Don;t get me wrong, after all that rambling, yes, I am all for the TG templates and how a well designed one can really rev up theme. I hope that soon I will be able to create something good enough to offer back to all the rest of you.

@Dev, thanks for the the theme that has pushed me into trying to learn more about the design aspect of the unit. before this rev I just went along with whatever was pre-made. WIth your linksheet release and your generosity in giving us the PSD files, I realized that i could make my HUB my own.

-P

2 Likes

It’s amazing… I just went through this entire thread and was thinking, my god Dev’s work and KAD79’s discovery have generated so much learning and creativity! I’m blown away by what’s going on here! It’s like maybe we need a Modded Theme Repository where all this can be found. Like a forum for themes broke down by theme so people could just download the sheets and stuff they like but may not be able to do on their own… but that can’t happen I guess, unless ALL those writing themes would allow what Dev has allowed.

Man…it’s good to see this happening. A lot of GOOD ideas are comming foward!

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@Pearl, you are absolutely right. With little digging and just play around the templates provided by the themers, we can able to personalize the sheets according to our taste. I am very thankful to Devicious for providing the PSD’s and thumbgen for great application and all the themers (Tinwarble/Joey ….) for their great work.

Now my question, I am trying to create Folder sheets, my idea is to create it from the covers with in the folder. So, from the Thumbgen, I am taking first movie from the folder and generating the required Backdrop, one right hand fanart and synopsis and Title info. And I want use at least 3 covers on this sheet. I copied the Covers from the movies as 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg and placed it in the same folder where my movies resides. In my template, I was trying get these images by using %titlepath%/1.jpg,  %titlepath%/2.jpg and %titlepath%/3.jpg. But when I ran this template to create the Folder sheet, I am seeing the same cover (which is a different cover image from these 3 images). So, it is just taking the default cover image and putting it on these 3 places. Could someone let me know if the use of “%titlepath%” is correct? What I should do differently to get my 3 images on to the folder sheet? If you want I can attach my screen shots.

Thanks in advance.

@sudheer I use   the “xxx” are where you want it located and this is if you have no actions to the image.  Are the files in the same folder as the image?

questions for the Genre Thumbs,  how are you getting the rounded corners & what did u do @ the bottom where the text is, it kinda blurs the pic into a darker look.

dudeman316 wrote:

questions for the Genre Thumbs,  how are you getting the rounded corners & what did u do @ the bottom where the text is, it kinda blurs the pic into a darker look.

For me, and I assume others, I used the gradient function.

1) Make a black or other dark color rectangle that is the size you are using for your genre cover

2) Add your picture on top of that as a second layer

3) use the gradiennt function on the top (picture layer) which takes the photo from fully shown to moving though levles of opacity, the end being see through so you only see the black form the the first layer at the bottom. You are taking a layer and turnign it slowly to invisible over the length of the picture or wherver you decide to start the gradient, Just remember to have the color you want on the layer below because that is what is going to end up showing through.

4) Add a the writing in white or some other light color and place it over the black or dark bottom

5) Flatten the object so you ca save it as a JPEG intead of a multi- layer picture.

I was having the same issue you were a few weeks ago trying to find a way to get the writingt to pop, and then I read about opacity and gradience and it all made sense to me. If you have Photoshop, download and take a look at Dev’s PSD files. They are for screens but you can see how may layers she uses when building stuff which is what pushed me to figure it out. If you don’t have photoshop or want to ise something a little bit easier, i woudl highly suggest getting “paint.net.” It’s freeware, easy to learn and use compared to PS, and I end up using it about 95% of the time. Unfortunatley it will not open up PSD files.

You can ge it here:

http://download-paint-net.com/

 

Learn how to blend multiple layers and pictures togther using gradience and opacity levels for layers and you can make almost anythig you want at a “non-professional” level. After looking at Dev’s stuff, I got on it and it took a few hours to get the hang of all the options and i was off and running making some petty decent stuff fo a person with pretty much no skills in design or computer graphics. My stuff may never look like some of the graphic art folks work that is posted on this board, but it is pretty amazing what a novice can do at home these days.

Good luck

-P

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prophet_ca, I was using the name as cover front1, cover front2 etc. Some how thumbgen is ignoring the second part and putting the cover image instead of my specifications thats the reason it generating same cover image on all the spots, I changed these names, now it is generating the folder sheet with the images that i specified.

old code:

<ImageElement Name=“Cover Front1” X=“75” Y=“150” Width=“200” Height=“255” Source=“File” Offset=“0” MultiPageIndex=“-1” SourceData=“%TITLEPATH%\01.jpg” NullImageUrl=“” PreserveMetaData=“True” TGD_IsLocked=“False” TGD_IsVisible=“True”>
       
          <RoundCorners BorderColor=“-16777216” BorderWidth=“2” Roundness=“10” Corners=“All” TGD_IsVisible=“True” />
          <Glow Color=“-16777216” Opacity=“100” Softness=“5” TGD_IsVisible=“True” />
       
     
      <ImageElement Name=“Cover Front2” X=“300” Y=“150” Width=“200” Height=“255” Source=“File” Offset=“0” MultiPageIndex=“-1” SourceData=“%TITLEPATH%\02.jpg” NullImageUrl=“” PreserveMetaData=“True” TGD_IsLocked=“False” TGD_IsVisible=“True”>
       
          <RoundCorners BorderColor=“-16777216” BorderWidth=“2” Roundness=“10” Corners=“All” TGD_IsVisible=“True” />
          <Glow Color=“-16777216” Opacity=“100” Softness=“5” TGD_IsVisible=“True” />
       
     

Changed code:

<ImageElement Name=“Front1” X=“75” Y=“150” Width=“200” Height=“255” Source=“File” Offset=“0” MultiPageIndex=“-1” SourceData=“%TITLEPATH%\01.jpg” NullImageUrl=“” PreserveMetaData=“True” TGD_IsLocked=“False” TGD_IsVisible=“True”>
       
          <RoundCorners BorderColor=“-16777216” BorderWidth=“2” Roundness=“10” Corners=“All” TGD_IsVisible=“True” />
          <Glow Color=“-16777216” Opacity=“100” Softness=“5” TGD_IsVisible=“True” />
       
     
      <ImageElement Name=“Front2” X=“300” Y=“150” Width=“200” Height=“255” Source=“File” Offset=“0” MultiPageIndex=“-1” SourceData=“%TITLEPATH%\02.jpg” NullImageUrl=“” PreserveMetaData=“True” TGD_IsLocked=“False” TGD_IsVisible=“True”>
       
          <RoundCorners BorderColor=“-16777216” BorderWidth=“2” Roundness=“10” Corners=“All” TGD_IsVisible=“True” />
          <Glow Color=“-16777216” Opacity=“100” Softness=“5” TGD_IsVisible=“True” />
       
     

Now my folder sheets are working good.:smiley:

GENRE FOLDER SHEETS (updated 12/14/12)

alrighty people, here is a very easy to use genre folder sheet going with the theme and intentionally avoiding graphical overkill, they can also be used as folder sheets for movie franchises. I didn’t bundle this one since it doesn’t require much installation…

1) Download the template here

2) open your movie sheet profile in Thumbgen

3) save this profile as “Black Mamba Genre Folder”

4) unpack the rar file and copy the entire folder into ThumbGen/ Templates

5) in thumbgen options General Tab deactivate “Extra Movie Sheet”

6) in thumbgen options moviesheet tab select BlackMamba_GenreFolder (upper drop down boy on the right)

7) save the profile…

Processing the Sheet

1) pick a movie you think represents this genre best

2) process in manual or semi automatic

3) select an image for Fanart 1

4) change the title and apply it (green check symbol)

5) Generate…

it’s gonna look like this, the color will always be the same

Genre Sheets

2 Likes

That looks great Dev. Thanks for the continued support for BM. The theme just keeps getting better with every enhancement. With your latest theme, the use of linksheets and all the new templates for folders and genres, the HUB really looks amazing. What an incredible difference from what we we looking at a year ago.

Thanks

-P

@Devicious: the folder sheet looks great.

For users, my suggestion is to change the Main movisheet to “E:\Sheets$F” (replace the drive and sheet folder to your settings). With this it generates the folder sheet with folder name. so you just have to remove the extension and place the sheet in the theme root folder.

Also, if you want the folder name as your folder sheet headline, then edit the template and find for %TITLE% and replace it as %MOVIEFOLDER%. In this way you dont have to edit the title each time.

 <TextElement Name=“TextElement” X=“110” Y=“54” Width=“600” Height=“50” AutoSize=“True” Multiline=“False” Font=“HarvestItal,45,Point,0” ForeColor=“-1” StrokeColor=“-16777216” StrokeWidth=“0” Text=“%MOVIEFOLDER%” TextAlignment=“TopLeft” TextQuality=“AntiAlias” TGD_IsLocked=“False” TGD_IsVisible=“True”>

2 Likes

sudheer wrote:

@Devicious: the folder sheet looks great.

 

For users, my suggestion is to change the Main movisheet to “E:\Sheets$F” (replace the drive and sheet folder to your settings). With this it generates the folder sheet with folder name. so you just have to remove the extension and place the sheet in the theme root folder.

 

Also, if you want the folder name as your folder sheet headline, then edit the template and find for %TITLE% and replace it as %MOVIEFOLDER%. In this way you dont have to edit the title each time.

 

 <TextElement Name=“TextElement” X=“110” Y=“54” Width=“600” Height=“50” AutoSize=“True” Multiline=“False” Font=“HarvestItal,45,Point,0” ForeColor=“-1” StrokeColor=“-16777216” StrokeWidth=“0” Text=“%MOVIEFOLDER%” TextAlignment=“TopLeft” TextQuality=“AntiAlias” TGD_IsLocked=“False” TGD_IsVisible=“True”>

that’s good advice, I really didn’t much much thought in it, was literally a 5 minutes job.

pearl wrote:

That looks great Dev. Thanks for the continued support for BM. The theme just keeps getting better with every enhancement. With your latest theme, the use of linksheets and all the new templates for folders and genres, the HUB really looks amazing. What an incredible difference from what we we looking at a year ago.

 

Thanks

 

-P

Thanx Pearl :slight_smile:

with link sheets the hub became an entirely different devices and the best of it all is that it has erased all the firmware changes that made life harder such as the TV Sheet Trigger. Without the library the whole things has a really good performance too and I can’t even explain how many hours I have spent restarting the device and waiting for the reboot because it wouldn’t properly add my external HDDs (WD) Since the library is off again I never had this problem again. Even when I don’t use the device anymore because of my other project, Link Sheets made it worth playing with it again.

1 Like

ok lets see if I word this to make it understandable lol.

I am wanting to use thumbgen to make just a folder thumb, but I want it to match the ones the blackmamba thumbs put out, but I am wanting it for say movie sets. For example, Indiana Jones Quadrilogy, I have a thumb that I am using, but the thumbs look so much better ran through thumbgen.

I guess what I am wanting to do is kinda like the TV Series Folder thumb, but for movie sets. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks all.

dudeman316 wrote:

I guess what I am wanting to do is kinda like the TV Series Folder thumb, but for movie sets. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks all.

it’s exactly that profile you gonna use, just change the collectors to themoviedb.com and you should be able to do it

1 Like

Hello

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thanks DeV, will give it a try & prophet, looks good.