Plugin artwork?

Ok, I feel like I’m monopolizing this thread, so I’ll try to make this the last post about it. I’ll start a new post to discuss actually implementing this as a plugin GUI.

That said, here’s where it stands. I’ve adjusted the knobs to my own taste. I like the darker large knobs, though I’m still not sure about the ring surrounding them. I am quite pleased with the smaller knobs.

I’m worried it’s a bit boring, monochromatic, and all the knobs look the same - though I think that’s kind of hard to avoid.

Also, I tested it in both Firefox and Chromium, and Chromium doesn’t render the dragonfly wing well at all - at least at 100% zoom - But if I zoom in to 150% it looks fine. Anyone have any advice on that? I’m stumped.

Hope you all like it, as always feedback is welcomed.

Maybe I need to take a poll or something. Right now my feeling is that more people prefer the metal style, but I personally am happy with both designs.

Knobspin
Edit: Looks like the forum software purges any embedded javascript from the SVG (which is a good thing…) but makes it where I can’t show you an animation of the knobs turning :frowning:

Attempt3-Optimized

image301179

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I think that looks fantastic! No worries about dominating the thread. I think that’s what this thread is for.

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This looks fine! I love it!

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I opened it in Chrome and kind of looks ok the rendering (and really good the graphics :slight_smile: )

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The whole thing looks fantastic! Thanks for your efforts!

At this scale, the brown parts look slightly bland, but at the normal viewing distance it will be fine. If you wanted to address that, there are many templates to be found if you ask for “svg wood pattern” at the search engine of your choice.

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These look really great.
I still don’t get the need for those “not-so-realistic”, realistic looking knobs and the wood panels.

these would be enough for me:

image image

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I do think the black and blue look better than the silver

I tend to agree with this. These ones give a lot more info at a glance and I think they look nice

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I’d love to have the lightbars added to the knob position.

It’s such a useful amount of info at a quick glance.

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On another note, I did a little experiment over the weekend making a 3D model of an MXR style pedal to try some 3D renders. Here’s an example of a fictitious pedal

A low angle just to show the 3D model

Top down orthographic view

I’ve said before I’m not a huge fan of this style of knob but I just wanted to see how it would compare to a real MXR “dyna comp”

I wanted to test out using an orthographic view (no perspective) as this would make things look a lot more consistent if all GUIs were straight on rather than some being on a slight angle. I think the footswitch and knobs are still pretty recognizable without the need for any perspective

This is just a test I did using some proprietary software. I would want to redo it using Inkscape for the graphics and Blender for the rendering so that the files would be more accessible for people to download and edit. Also I would render each element individually obviously. As in the enclosure on it’s own, as well as the individual knob sprites with all the rotated positions, Footswitch in up and down position and the LED in on and off states. All with accurately rendered drop shadows

I know I’m often talking about vector based GUIs which I still believe in most cases are a really great option but as I’ve said I think there is still a place for bitmap images if they are realistic enough to warrant the extra bytes :wink: these images are 1920x1920 which is significantly higher res than most of our GUIs. They have been converted to .webp and are only up to 80kb so it is promising. Still I would also like to make vector based versions of these assets too which will look less realistic obviously but I think it can also look good

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I agree - I actually prefer that style.

I thought however that somewhere in this 280 comment discussion I it was mentioned that ‘semi-skeuomorphism’ is on-brand for the MOD styling. Maybe I’m misremembering, it’s entirely possible. There are a lot of conflicting opinions, as to be expected.

I think that style is easier to read, and frankly easier and faster to create as well.

So can I be so bold as to ask for a bit more clear consensus as to what direction MOD as a whole wants to go?

I know ultimately it’s up to the developer, but at the same time having some guidance at least to official MOD plugins would be helpful for me when I’m trying to build GUIs that the community as a whole can appreciate.

@James, that render does look great BTW. Though your last two comments leave me quite confused as to which direction to go.

I’m probably over-thinking it and trying to appease too many opinions - both of those are habits that I have.

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Actually I would say that’s what we spefically want to avoid in the sense of styling and textures. Semi skeumorphism was a comment about scaling things in a way that there is less unused space. For example, having less empty grill area on an amp. In terms of textures though I think it is best to go either of 2 directions, either a nice flat, 2D vector design that is easy to read, OR, a photorealistic (as much as possible) 3D render

This is why I think the flat style is so valuable!

Sorry to confuse, this was just an experiment to try an orthographic view on a 3D render. This style would be intended to fit the photorealistic route. I would still make some adjustments to make the final GUI “semi skeumorphic” by perhaps reducing the overall height (making the scale different to the real world device) so there is less empty space

To sumarise:

  1. Choose either to go with the flat 2D vector style with .svg files OR photorealistic 3D renders saved as .webp

  2. Adjust scales and proportions to reduce unused space and make it easier to view information and interact with controls

I don’t want to say everything needs to be flat 2D or everything needs to be photorealistic 3D. There is value for both styles depending on the plugin. I just want to reduce the in between with weird kinda realistic textures and shading and angled perspectives and plugins that have a mix of styles and perspectives

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This is my style! I love it! May be a bit more of scratches and dirt…

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I thought you would like this

Let me spend a bit of time this morning to make a diagram to illustrate the desired direction from my perspective

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Did you model it in Blender?

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No it was modelled in parametrically in CAD and then rendered in another 3D rendering software. I would like to move to blender in the future though so that we can share files with the community

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Did you use PBR-settings for the material or multi-chanel-maps with normal-maps etc.?

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The latter. In this case the graphic on the top is an image which is adding the diffuse map for the black colour as well as a displacement map so that it is slightly raised as if it’s an extra layer of paint that has some thickness


There is a noise image feeding the bump map to give the paint some texture too

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Recomendation from my side: Use the PBR settings. These are much more powerfull and even more realistic, especially for dirt and scratches. The settings are for metalness, refelction, ambient occlusion etc. Or use the substance painter.
This is an example, just taken from internet:

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Sorry that’s not entirely true what I said. The material is PBR but it also has multichannel maps. The 2 aren’t mutually exclusive. So you have an “advanced” PBR material with channels for diffuse, specular, roughness, bump, opacity and displacement

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Here’s a bit of a guideline as to what I believe would be a good direction to go down. Nothing is official yet, this is still a discussion and we are learning together as we go.

I know that this goes against our current SDK. I think we need to update the SDK and create new asset packages but that is a big project that we can’t take on right now. So I would encourage you guys to keep making your own stuff and avoid the SDK if you have the time to make everything custom

Consider this a nudge in direction

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