Making over the Matrix

[Starship Krupa 2,993]

This is a view that I don't think gets a lot of attention when it comes to custom theming. I didn't take it on for a long time because I never used it, which makes it harder to know what to do with the art. I don't want to break something by making a button disappear or some text illegible.

Anyway, I want to show off the Matrix View makeover that I'm doing for Midnight Blue (soon to propagate to the 5 other themes). I finally figured out how to change the color of the grid lines between the cells (hint: it's not a color selection). I'm still having a hard time tracking down those teensy buttons on the cells themselves. They're tiny, and I think they need to be more legible. I already made it easier to spot instantly which cell is in play mode. I think maybe I'm not the only person put off by the fugliness plainness of the stock Matrix view, and I may find I'm more interested if it looks more interesting.

[tecknot 131]

Hi Erik,

Here is one of my version of the MV.  Make note that I did not bother with making the tiny buttons on the Cells.

Kind regards,

tecknot

Edited January 5 by tecknot

[Starship Krupa 2,993]

5 hours ago, tecknot said:

Here is one of my version of the MV.

Nice! "None More Blue." 😄

Once I determined that the empty cells/grid could be any color without messing up the functioning of the program, I was off and running.

I finally figured out the tiny buttons, so to help visibility, I changed the images to use a brighter white:

 

[Starship Krupa 2,993]

On 1/5/2022 at 7:56 AM, tecknot said:

Make note that I did not bother with making the tiny buttons on the Cells.

Like the way that your buttons blend seamlessly with the rest of the cell. It's what I'm trying to do with the Control Bar in Blue Ice and Nickel Mint. Not every button has to stand out so much, although I do still want them to look like clickable buttons.

I erred on the side of caution when I started working on the Matrix because I'm just getting my feet wet and don't know which elements should stand out, which can be less obtrusive, etc.

I'm still not sure why those little buttons are grey or blue depending on their state. The usual paradigm says that grey=inactive, but they seem to all be just different states. There is some business with the loop button changing state depending on whether the setting is global, though.

[tecknot 131]

Yeah, most buttons have five states:  Off, depressed, cursor float over, On and disabled(?), in that order.  However, some of the buttons have more states which I haven't quite figured them all out.

Kind regards,

tecknot

[sjoens 360]

Cakewalk's use of button states is hit-n-miss. Some applications don't use all of them.  I mentioned one button had a "broken spring" and they fixed it, but that rarely happens.

Edited January 11 by sjoens

[Starship Krupa 2,993]

On 1/10/2022 at 6:59 PM, tecknot said:

some of the buttons have more states which I haven't quite figured them all out

Check TYLIP for some epic battles with button states. The Export module has a crazy amount of states for something that's basically a checkbox. The Step Sequencer cell buttons are wonders of (IMO) excess complexity. The arpeggiator Latch button is ripe for customization. I make mine smaller so as to separate it from the global arp On button.

A state that I would like to have in all of them is rollover when a button is already "on." Some have it, some don't.

[tecknot 131]

Yeah, Collin certainly went to work on his great helper.  Excellent guide.

[Starship Krupa 2,993]

7 minutes ago, tecknot said:

Collin certainly went to work on his great helper.  Excellent guide.

He's put in a couple of chronicles of my button spelunkings. Step Sequencer and Export for sure, maybe others, can't remember at the moment.