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SteamPunk Theme (2021.12 compliant)


Colin Nicholls

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STEAMPUNK

Slate.
Bronze.
Oiled Leather, amber, and hints of turquoise....
Clarity, consistency, medium-brightness. A smooth mouth-feel.

You don't have to be a Victorian Gentleman of Learning to appreciate...     SteamPunk.

SteamPunk_Theme.png

 

Update April 2020:
I've validated that this theme works fine in the new 2020.04 EA release. Feel free to use.

Update September 2020:
Includes Markers view Lock indicator icon.

Update January 2021:
Control Bar Select Module

Update April 2021:
No actual image changes but theme was re-saved to eliminate the erroneous "theme compatibility warning" in release 2021.04.

Update July 2021:
Very minor change, Browser Media Tab and Track View Menu Bar Background. Hardly worth updating

Update December 2021:
No actual image changes but theme was re-saved to eliminate the erroneous "theme compatibility warning" in release 2021.12.

 

GET IT HERE:  SteamPunk.zip

 

 

Edited by Colin Nicholls
Version 2021.12
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I daresay old chap, I do rather like what you've done here!

While it pains me to risk being perceived as detracting from such a worthy addition to the pantheon of Cakewalk themes, there is, however, one critique that gentlemanly honesty and honour I feel compel me to mention. One colour element jumps out at me as if it belongs to another paradigm.

That of which I speak is our old friend 00FEFE (and its cousins 53CDF5 and 43CCAA). Hues that I have applied liberally to my own comparatively primitive efforts, when seeking to find something that will not fatigue the retina against a darker background. My own father, something of an amateur underwater explorer himself, used to fascinate me with his luminescent diving-watch. As a bedtime treat, he would remove it from his wrist and allow me to view the timepiece in complete darkness under the bedclothes.

However, good sir, your backgrounds are anything but dark! On the contrary, they recall the burnished bronze and polished wood of ships moored at Greenwich awaiting the signal to set their chronometers and proceed down the timeless Estuary to whatever adventure may await beyond its mouth.

If it were your intention to invoke the spirit of someone such as the balloonist-for-hire Lee Scoresby whom we may imagine accepting turquoise in payment from a Native American tribe, then I can understand the choice. However I suspect that such an association is a flight (ha!) of fancy on my part.

Were that it were so easily changed, I know, my friend, from my own meagre and now abandoned efforts to create themes of my own. While the text in the Browser may be a simpler matter, the various buttons are images, and as such, a Photoshop of horrors. Would that my own pixel editor skills were up to the task, I would happily take it on, to create a black-on-bronze three-dimensional button set for this worthy theme. Sadly, I am but a GIMP when it comes to such things. Were it but a matter of colour replacement! O joy!

For the time being I shall have to accept and enjoy your worthy theme as it is and for what it is, and I must say it had not occurred to me to go in such a direction with my colours! You do bring wider meaning to the term "theme" with this one, Sir Colin. Bravo.

Edited by Starship Krupa
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Krupa, my old friend. You have adroitly identified one of the constraints I set for myself with this theme - that is, to avoid the burden of having to update all those blue button images, and instead see how to work around them in a complementary way.

The blue itself does fit in with the SteamPunk "leather, bronze, stone" palette if you consider it as the "water" or "glass" component.

I realize they pop out visually but the effect is not altogether displeasing. Maybe some adjustment of the other custom colours might ameliorate this effect, somewhat.

(My earlier attempt at this theme, called "SteamPink", I confess I abandoned due to eye strain)

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Your themesmanship so captured my imagination that I had to visit the laboratory and engage in a bit of it myself. It occurred to me that the transport background might be fertile ground for pattern fill with a bronze or wood texture rather than the traditional solid or gradient, and then it also struck me: why not add some decoration to the lines that separate the various readouts? Just to prove the concept I started with these primitive dots at each intersection, but by jove, there's no reason a modified fleur de lis border or something more ornate wouldn't be possible!

The raised Victorian lincrusta wallpaper is something I found on a royalty-free site, but the sky is the limit there as well.

Do you realise what you've unleashed, man? I feel like Professor Sherman waking on the beach days before the eruption of Krakatoa to find himself in the midst of not a primitive jungle, but the most amazing inventions a secret diamond mine could fund! Dinner at Mr. I's tonight, for I love spaghetti!

Transportconcept.jpg.f9f5bf40cdbf1ec7da5af81124e20173.jpg

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Sir, I respect your choice of wallpaper. I was envisioning something with cogs but hadn't found the perfect one. Your comments did cause me to have a fevered dream about glowing amber displays.. there may be some scope for improvements in my initial design. Please consider the schematics to be publicly available to approved applicants; apply at the  office on the 2nd floor of the Royal Society building on Carlton House Terrace, London.

Respectfully, etc etc

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The thing is that yours is the first theme I've seen that liberates the theme from real life recording hardware or other software. Not that others don't exist, I just haven't noticed them. Approaching the task with the idea of trying to make it look like the control panel of a steam-powered airship that's only existed in fantasy novels is wonderful, great fun. A good theme, to my thinking, should help inspire creativity.

I was shopping for a vest to complement my ensemble at the Charles Dickens Fair this year in San Francisco and the young lady helping me pointed out that in the Victorian era, there was no such thing as "too much." Here is a photo of my lovely assistant and me. Sometimes she tidies and I can't find anything! Yrs, unblinded by science, Airship Krupa....

DFSm.jpg.a2e2e338368744d55ad131aaca9cd8f4.jpg

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On 12/14/2019 at 12:54 AM, Colin Nicholls said:

STEAMPUNK

Slate.
Bronze.
Oiled Leather, amber, and hints of turquoise....
Clarity, consistency, medium-brightness. A smooth mouth-feel.

You don't have to be a Victorian Gentleman of Learning to appreciate...     SteamPunk.

SteamPunk_Theme.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SteamPunk.sth 455.5 kB · 12 downloads

Love the Steam Punk graphics. Thanks for sharing it. Here's a pic of a Steam Punk guitar speaker cab I just finished. Now I just need a amp head with gears and levers. Actually the pic on the chair was before it was finished. Corner protectors will cover up the wood seams.

WP_20191203_008.jpg

WP_20191205_007.jpg

Edited by BassDaddy
info correction
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  • 2 months later...
10 hours ago, Chappel said:

I thought this theme was pretty groovy except for one thing. I had a hard time telling if a track was selected or not, but that's just me and my bad eyes.

Hi @Chappel, I realized from your comment that the screen shot of the theme in my post above doesn't actually show a selected track. I've updated the preview image. You might need to refresh your browser (Ctrl-F5) to see the new image.

Yeah... a selected track is a lighter shade of grey background in both Console and Track view, and the track name is given an Amber background (whereas un-selected tracks are pale yellow text on black).

Originally I thought this was pretty clear, but I see on reflection that after I changed the plugin colors to also be the amber/gold highlight, it is perhaps less obvious than it used to be, because the selected track visually doesn't jump out as obviously if you have many many plugins (or the FX rack visible).

One possible solution is to revert either the "selected track background" or the "active FX plugin background" to the blue highlight. Probably the selected track name needs to revert (I really like the way the FX Rack looks.).

Thanks for your comment - I'll think about making this change. No guarantees, and as ever you're welcome to customize it for your own use.

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  • 2 weeks later...
10 minutes ago, Killo-Tao said:

Congratulations on the great work @Colin Nicholls !. I try to download the theme for my tired eyes and it always gives error. Could you give me a functional link for the download? Thank you.

Thanks!

I'm not sure what happened to the attachment, but I've just refreshed the first post with a new ZIP. You should be able to download it now. I don't think there are any differences since I last refreshed it in April, but let me know here if there are problems, and I am sorry for the inconvenience.

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On 7/4/2020 at 7:43 PM, Colin Nicholls said:

Thanks!

I'm not sure what happened to the attachment, but I've just refreshed the first post with a new ZIP. You should be able to download it now. I don't think there are any differences since I last refreshed it in April, but let me know here if there are problems, and I am sorry for the inconvenience.

 

Thank you very much, now it does work correctly. Thanks again for your prompt response, friendliness and professionalism.

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