Thinksamuel

I have my patch ready, now i would like to make the appearance goodlooking. How can i put a background color and make the clickable items in the patch look like normal buttons, so you don't see anymore that it's made in maxmsp

I have my patch ready, now i would like to make the appearance goodlooking. How can i put a background color and make the clickable items in  the patch look like normal buttons, so you don't see anymore that it's made in maxmsp
Thanks in advence
Samuel


presentation-skin-over-the-patch

There is a whole chapter in the Max tutorials called "Tutorial45: Designing the User Interface". That will be a good start...it also has a series of "See Also"s at the end of the chapter that will be a good middle. :)

Quote: Thinksamuel wrote on Fri, 26 January 2007 15:26

----------------------------------------------------

> I have my patch ready, now i would like to make the appearance goodlooking. How can i put a background color and make the clickable items in the patch look like normal buttons, so you don't see anymore that it's made in maxmsp

There is a whole chapter in the Max tutorials called "Tutorial45: Designing the User Interface".  That will be a good start...it also has a series of "See Also"s at the end of the chapter that will be a good middle.  :)

Quote: Thinksamuel wrote on Fri, 26 January 2007 15:26
----------------------------------------------------
> I have my patch ready, now i would like to make the appearance goodlooking. How can i put a background color and make the clickable items in  the patch look like normal buttons, so you don't see anymore that it's made in maxmsp
> Thanks in advence
> Samuel
----------------------------------------------------


Yeah seriously RTFM. If you want good examples check out Lewis work at www.glewlio.com, he makes pretty good interfaces, stuff looks great. Ill also post a few of mine later tonight.. www.axiom-crux.net

Takes a long time to make pretty interfaces but its worth it cause you feel more connection to your patch. I dont really like the look of applets that you can tell are made in max/msp.. I feel unjustified buying them cause I feel like I could make them.

Also check out grid pro. Amaaaaazing jitter applet that looks nothing like a max patch.

Yeah seriously RTFM.  If you want good examples check out Lewis work at www.glewlio.com, he makes pretty good interfaces, stuff looks great.  Ill also post a few of mine later tonight.. www.axiom-crux.net

Takes a long time to make pretty interfaces but its worth it cause you feel more connection to your patch.  I dont really like the look of applets that you can tell are made in max/msp.. I feel unjustified buying them cause I feel like I could make them.  

Also check out grid pro.  Amaaaaazing jitter applet that looks nothing like a max patch.


Quote: Axiom-Crux wrote on Fri, 26 January 2007 17:13

> Yeah seriously RTFM. If you want good examples check out 

haha great, funny pictures, i like how he arranges stuff!

somehow a counterpart to my patches style, he makes me 

Quote: Axiom-Crux wrote on Fri, 26 January 2007 17:13
----------------------------------------------------
> Yeah seriously RTFM.  If you want good examples check out 
> Lewis work at www.glewlio.com

somehow a counterpart to my patches style, he makes me 
feel like a technican.


Heres a screenshot of something I am working on now. It still has a ways to go. 

http://thelifenomadic.com/pics/screenshot_3.png

Heres a screenshot of something I am working on now. It still has a ways to go. http://thelifenomadic.com/pics/screenshot_3.png


http://homepage.mac.com/andrew_burgess/Pic1.png

At 10:23 PM -0800 1/26/07, Andrew Burgess wrote:

Chris Muir | "There are many futures and only one status quo.

cbm@well.com | This is why conservatives mostly agree,

 | and radicals always argue." - Brian Eno

At 10:23 PM -0800 1/26/07, Andrew Burgess wrote:
>here's a shot of my latest pluggo:
>
>http://homepage.mac.com/andrew_burgess/Pic1.png

-- 
Chris Muir           | "There are many futures and only one status quo.
cbm@well.com         |  This is why conservatives mostly agree,
http://www.xfade.com |  and radicals always argue." - Brian Eno


A way to make Max look good, imho, using only built-in objects : 

I, personally, have quit using fancy UI objects because they'll never 

look as good as you hope, and building pretty things with only what Max 

guives you is an exciting challenge each time. And it keeps portability 

easier, from your computer to another of your computers; but not from 

one OS to another because, as you may read a lot on the forum (and 

especially the latest thread about it), fonts are not displayed the same 

f.e chanfrault | aka | personal computer music

> >>>>>> |sublime music for a desperate people|

> At 10:23 PM -0800 1/26/07, Andrew Burgess wrote:

A way to make Max look good, imho, using only built-in objects : 
http://francois.eudes.free.fr/news.htm

I, personally, have quit using fancy UI objects because they'll never 
look as good as you hope, and building pretty things with only what Max 
guives you is an exciting challenge each time. And it keeps portability 
easier, from your computer to another of your computers; but not from 
one OS to another because, as you may read a lot on the forum (and 
especially the latest thread about it), fonts are not displayed the same 
way on mac or pc.

f.e chanfrault | aka | personal computer music
> >>>>>> http://www.personal-computer-music.com
> >>>>>> |sublime music for a desperate people|

Chris Muir wrote:
> At 10:23 PM -0800 1/26/07, Andrew Burgess wrote:
>
>> here's a shot of my latest pluggo:
>>
>> http://homepage.mac.com/andrew_burgess/Pic1.png
>>
>
> Beautiful.
>
> -C
>
>


And "Open Tuning", the first ever made software with MaxMSP selected by Apple as Featured Download on their audio download pages during two months in 2005.

Plus a 3 months ad in their 'Macintosh Products Guide', and lot of awards I got from a such focus on this shareware.

Hope that's still an encouragement for your projects!

And "Open Tuning", the first ever made software with MaxMSP selected by Apple as Featured Download on their audio download pages during two months in 2005.
Plus a 3 months ad in their 'Macintosh Products Guide', and lot of awards I got from a such focus on this shareware.

Kindest regards,
Philippe
www.open-tuning.com

Op 27-jan-2007, om 11:08 heeft f.e het volgende geschreven:

> I, personally, have quit using fancy UI objects because they'll 

> never look as good as you hope, and building pretty things with 

> only what Max guives you is an exciting challenge each time.

It literally took me months to 'port' a simplified GUI made in Flash 

to Max. Horrible experience. Max is not made for pretty GUI's. You 

can do it, but it's really hard. Neatly arranged GUI stuff will shift 

when opening and closing the Max editor, the fullscreen command has 

In fact, I'm looking for an environment I can do GUI's in, and use 

OSC to communicate to a plain and ugly max patch that does the real 

work. Preferably on the same computer. Running Flash and Max on the 

same computer is too unreliable, unfortunately.

> I, personally, have quit using fancy UI objects because they'll  
> never look as good as you hope, and building pretty things with  
> only what Max guives you is an exciting challenge each time.

It literally took me months to 'port' a simplified GUI made in Flash  
to Max. Horrible experience. Max is not made for pretty GUI's. You  
can do it, but it's really hard. Neatly arranged GUI stuff will shift  
when opening and closing the Max editor, the fullscreen command has  
its quirks etc.

In fact, I'm looking for an environment I can do GUI's in, and use  
OSC to communicate to a plain and ugly max patch that does the real  
work. Preferably on the same computer. Running Flash and Max on the  
same computer is too unreliable, unfortunately.

A Max patch is no ugly thing. It's one of the prettiest things on a 

> Op 27-jan-2007, om 11:08 heeft f.e het volgende geschreven:

>> I, personally, have quit using fancy UI objects because they'll never 

>> look as good as you hope, and building pretty things with only what 

>> Max guives you is an exciting challenge each time.

> It literally took me months to 'port' a simplified GUI made in Flash 

> to Max. Horrible experience. Max is not made for pretty GUI's. You can 

> do it, but it's really hard. Neatly arranged GUI stuff will shift when 

> opening and closing the Max editor, the fullscreen command has its 

> In fact, I'm looking for an environment I can do GUI's in, and use OSC 

> to communicate to a plain and ugly max patch that does the real work. 

> Preferably on the same computer. Running Flash and Max on the same 

> computer is too unreliable, unfortunately.

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Max patch is no ugly thing. It's one of the prettiest things on a 
computer.

Zip Boterbloem wrote:
>
> Op 27-jan-2007, om 11:08 heeft f.e het volgende geschreven:
>
>> I, personally, have quit using fancy UI objects because they'll never 
>> look as good as you hope, and building pretty things with only what 
>> Max guives you is an exciting challenge each time.
>>
>
> It literally took me months to 'port' a simplified GUI made in Flash 
> to Max. Horrible experience. Max is not made for pretty GUI's. You can 
> do it, but it's really hard. Neatly arranged GUI stuff will shift when 
> opening and closing the Max editor, the fullscreen command has its 
> quirks etc.
>
> In fact, I'm looking for an environment I can do GUI's in, and use OSC 
> to communicate to a plain and ugly max patch that does the real work. 
> Preferably on the same computer. Running Flash and Max on the same 
> computer is too unreliable, unfortunately.
>
> Best,
>
> Zip
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>


Ok, there's an exception for Roman's patches .-)

>I, personally, have quit using fancy UI objects because they'll 

>never look as good as you hope, and building pretty things with only 

>what Max guives you is an exciting challenge each time.

Beautiful examples everyone has shown so far, nice work!

Here's a pluggo I'm about to release in a day or two - Major 

Malfunction. It's a glitcher/mangler/FSU plugin, which I am gearing 

towards Ableton Live use. I too have avoided almost all 3rd party UI 

objects; this is (with two or three small non-UI exceptions) pure 

http://www.defectiverecords.com/images/mm_full_shadow.jpg

202 Hack / PC-1600 User / VSTi Host / OMS Convert / Jack OS X

>I, personally, have quit using fancy UI objects because they'll 
>never look as good as you hope, and building pretty things with only 
>what Max guives you is an exciting challenge each time.

Here's a pluggo I'm about to release in a day or two - Major 
Malfunction.  It's a glitcher/mangler/FSU plugin, which I am gearing 
towards Ableton Live use.  I too have avoided almost all 3rd party UI 
objects; this is (with two or three small non-UI exceptions) pure 
native Max/MSP objects:

Dan
-- 
Dan Nigrin
Defective Records
202 Hack / PC-1600 User / VSTi Host / OMS Convert / Jack OS X
http://www.defectiverecords.com
http://www.jackosx.com


i guess ideally you want the beauty of a patch to come from its functionality. i've worked a while on this interface, which may still be buggy, but its getting nearer what i need

On 27 Jan 2007, at 12:29, Dan Nigrin wrote:

> Beautiful examples everyone has shown so far, nice work!

http://www.cassiel.com/misc-images/fullmapper.jpeg

http://www.cassiel.com/misc-images/dancergui.jpeg

The former is obviously a Max patcher, although with a number of 

embedded custom JSUI's doing text skinning. The latter is all JSUI, 

and obviously a very specialised interface...

	http://www.cassiel.com/misc-images/fullmapper.jpeg
	http://www.cassiel.com/misc-images/dancergui.jpeg

The former is obviously a Max patcher, although with a number of  
embedded custom JSUI's doing text skinning. The latter is all JSUI,  
and obviously a very specialised interface...

On 27 Jan 2007, at 11:48, Zip Boterbloem wrote:

> Max is not made for pretty GUI's. You can do it, but it's really hard.

It would be interesting to attempt a complete user interface using 

JSUI, although of course it would need a widget toolkit to make the 

task anything other than masochistic. I've done lots of JSUI 

development, but only for components within Patcher windows, and 

hence not requiring heirarchical structure, or very complex interaction.

It would be interesting to attempt a complete user interface using  
JSUI, although of course it would need a widget toolkit to make the  
task anything other than masochistic. I've done lots of JSUI  
development, but only for components within Patcher windows, and  
hence not requiring heirarchical structure, or very complex interaction.

http://www.kineticsoundsystem.com/interface.htm

Quote: Zip Boterbloem wrote on Sat, 27 January 2007 12:48

> In fact, I'm looking for an environment I can do GUI's in, and use 

> OSC to communicate to a plain and ugly max patch that does the real 

> work. Preferably on the same computer. Running Flash and Max on the 

> same computer is too unreliable, unfortunately.

What do you mean by unreliable? It crashes a lot? To me a flash interface that controls max with OSC sounds pretty perfect..

Quote: Zip Boterbloem wrote on Sat, 27 January 2007 12:48
----------------------------------------------------
>
> In fact, I'm looking for an environment I can do GUI's in, and use  
> OSC to communicate to a plain and ugly max patch that does the real  
> work. Preferably on the same computer. Running Flash and Max on the  
> same computer is too unreliable, unfortunately.
>

Yes. At least unreliable when you run them(Max patch& Flash app) 

together on a dual G5. The combination will just stop working and/or 

crash at some point. Both the Max and Flash programs worked fine when 

run alone. Total CPU shouldn't have taxed the G5 at all. We tried 

very hard to figure out what was wrong, but the problem was very 

elusive, money ran out and I was forced to redo everything in Max, 

more or less keeping the client approved 'skin' made in Flash.

We probably should have used 2 computers, but there was budget nor 

Op 27-jan-2007, om 15:53 heeft Mattijs Kneppers het volgende geschreven:

> Quote: Zip Boterbloem wrote on Sat, 27 January 2007 12:48

> ----------------------------------------------------

>> In fact, I'm looking for an environment I can do GUI's in, and use

>> OSC to communicate to a plain and ugly max patch that does the real

>> work. Preferably on the same computer. Running Flash and Max on the

>> same computer is too unreliable, unfortunately.

> What do you mean by unreliable? It crashes a lot? To me a flash 

> interface that controls max with OSC sounds pretty perfect..

> Interactive audiovisual sampling soft- and hardware

Yes. At least unreliable when you run them(Max patch& Flash app)  
together on a dual G5. The combination will just stop working and/or  
crash at some point. Both the Max and Flash programs worked fine when  
run alone. Total CPU shouldn't have taxed the G5 at all. We tried  
very hard to figure out what was wrong, but the problem was very  
elusive, money ran out and I was forced to redo everything in Max,  
more or less keeping the client approved  'skin' made in Flash.
We probably should have used 2 computers, but there was budget nor  
space for such a solution at that time.

Zip Boterbloem
Media Mechanics
Zwaluwstraat 54
2025 VR  Haarlem
The Netherlands
+31627014758
zip@knoware.nl

>
> Quote: Zip Boterbloem wrote on Sat, 27 January 2007 12:48
> ----------------------------------------------------
>>
>> In fact, I'm looking for an environment I can do GUI's in, and use
>> OSC to communicate to a plain and ugly max patch that does the real
>> work. Preferably on the same computer. Running Flash and Max on the
>> same computer is too unreliable, unfortunately.
>>
>
> What do you mean by unreliable? It crashes a lot? To me a flash  
> interface that controls max with OSC sounds pretty perfect..
>
> Mattijs
> --
> SmadSteck - http://www.smadsteck.nl
> Interactive audiovisual sampling soft- and hardware
>


Quote: Zip Boterbloem wrote on Sat, 27 January 2007 16:44

> Yes. At least unreliable when you run them(Max patch& Flash app) 

> together on a dual G5. The combination will just stop working and/or 

> crash at some point. Both the Max and Flash programs worked fine when 

> run alone. Total CPU shouldn't have taxed the G5 at all. We tried 

> very hard to figure out what was wrong, but the problem was very 

> elusive, money ran out and I was forced to redo everything in Max, 

> more or less keeping the client approved 'skin' made in Flash.

> We probably should have used 2 computers, but there was budget nor 

> space for such a solution at that time.

Hm that sounds pretty nasty. I can't imagine what could be wrong. Maybe I'll try today or tomorrow, see if I can reproduce this..

Seeing that (in my opinion) Max is still not a full-fledged development environment, it's interesting to hear of someone else that works with max on a commercial basis, where money, time and customors demands are real restrictions. I don't think much people have such a 'serious' approach where a few max hiccups can simply cause a project to actually fail, resulting in loss of money and customers.

> Op 27-jan-2007, om 15:53 heeft Mattijs Kneppers het volgende geschreven:

> > Quote: Zip Boterbloem wrote on Sat, 27 January 2007 12:48

> > ----------------------------------------------------

> >> In fact, I'm looking for an environment I can do GUI's in, and use

> >> OSC to communicate to a plain and ugly max patch that does the real

> >> work. Preferably on the same computer. Running Flash and Max on the

> >> same computer is too unreliable, unfortunately.

> > What do you mean by unreliable? It crashes a lot? To me a flash 

> > interface that controls max with OSC sounds pretty perfect..

> > Interactive audiovisual sampling soft- and hardware

Quote: Zip Boterbloem wrote on Sat, 27 January 2007 16:44
----------------------------------------------------
> Yes. At least unreliable when you run them(Max patch& Flash app)  
> together on a dual G5. The combination will just stop working and/or  
> crash at some point. Both the Max and Flash programs worked fine when  
> run alone. Total CPU shouldn't have taxed the G5 at all. We tried  
> very hard to figure out what was wrong, but the problem was very  
> elusive, money ran out and I was forced to redo everything in Max,  
> more or less keeping the client approved  'skin' made in Flash.
> We probably should have used 2 computers, but there was budget nor  
> space for such a solution at that time.
>
> Best,
>
> Zip
>
>

Hm that sounds pretty nasty. I can't imagine what could be wrong. Maybe I'll try today or tomorrow, see if I can reproduce this.. 

> Zip Boterbloem
> Media Mechanics
> Zwaluwstraat 54
> 2025 VR  Haarlem
> The Netherlands
> +31627014758
> zip@knoware.nl
>
>
>
> Op 27-jan-2007, om 15:53 heeft Mattijs Kneppers het volgende geschreven:
>
> >
> > Quote: Zip Boterbloem wrote on Sat, 27 January 2007 12:48
> > ----------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> In fact, I'm looking for an environment I can do GUI's in, and use
> >> OSC to communicate to a plain and ugly max patch that does the real
> >> work. Preferably on the same computer. Running Flash and Max on the
> >> same computer is too unreliable, unfortunately.
> >>
> >
> > What do you mean by unreliable? It crashes a lot? To me a flash  
> > interface that controls max with OSC sounds pretty perfect..
> >
> > Mattijs
> > --
> > SmadSteck - http://www.smadsteck.nl
> > Interactive audiovisual sampling soft- and hardware
> >
>
>
----------------------------------------------------


to get around the fonts/platform issues, I make the background in photoshop, then when I'm sure of the layout, I add the text labels as part of the image... no font issues then

A couple of mine, made using the bog-standard ui objects available in Max:

http://wildfrontear.co.uk/screenshots/VSTShell.jpg

http://wildfrontear.co.uk/screenshots/S16.jpg

http://wildfrontear.co.uk/screenshots/D16.jpg

http://wildfrontear.co.uk/screenshots/VSTShell.jpg
http://wildfrontear.co.uk/screenshots/S16.jpg
http://wildfrontear.co.uk/screenshots/D16.jpg
Cheers
Roger

https://cycling74.com/twiki/bin/view/Share/MattijsKneppers

How about this one:
http://www.arttech.nl/mpc2000.png

The patch is here btw:
https://cycling74.com/twiki/bin/view/Share/MattijsKneppers

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=370965411&size=o

http://jit.playground.googlepages.com/uiuiui.png

http://jit.playground.googlepages.com/toggle.png

http://jit.playground.googlepages.com/seq.png

http://jit.playground.googlepages.com/pattrs.png

http://jit.playground.googlepages.com/uiuiui.png
http://jit.playground.googlepages.com/toggle.png
http://jit.playground.googlepages.com/seq.png
http://jit.playground.googlepages.com/pattrs.png

> Hey Rui, I like you interface. I have never heard of the "Processing

> Do you have any links to more information?

Actually it's a very simple, yet somewhat powerful, programming language based in Java, specially geared towards animation, design of web applets and such.

it open source, very well documented, extremely easy to learn and compiles easily for web, macosx, linux and windows, so I think it's worth a shot!

> Hey Rui, I like you interface. I have never heard of the "Processing
> interface".
> Do you have any links to more information?

Thanks for the info. I guess that leads me to the question

What benefit does one have in designing a UI using Processing

versus doing it with Jitter. Obviously if you do not have Jitter

then Processing makes sense. But as far as functionality goes

Subject: [maxmsp] Re: Re: Re: Presentation (skin over the patch)

> > Hey Rui, I like you interface. I have never heard of the "Processing

> > Do you have any links to more information?

> Actually it's a very simple, yet somewhat powerful, programming language

based in Java, specially geared towards animation, design of web applets and