4th Place: Half Life by Raymond Sepulveda
Author: Raymond Sepulveda
Final Score: 85%
Description: This theme is obviously inspired by the video game of the same name. The windows are filled with as much textures as I was able to fit in. I would have liked to dirty the windows up a little bit more (especially the aqua window... mainly cause it looks like someone wiped windex all over the top part unfortunately), but due to the way that some resources tile and function, I wasn't able to include all the crazy textures I drew up. But I feel the final design came out nice.
Biography: Not provided.
Comments
Posted by Harlan Lewis (Panel) at March 30, 2004 06:28 PM
Fantastic. I would talk about everything I like, but there's too much. The blast marks on the metal window to make it look different from the aqua (they're still too close for my tastes, but I'm a scrooge), the progress bar, selected menu item, the widgets... just fantastic.
I do have a few quibbles though. The blast mark/Apple menu looks too similar to the blast mark in the metal window and it's easy for an eye to pass over it as a non-interactive element. Also, the Finder toolbar background area changes a lot. It can be viewed with text, without text, with just text, with small icons but with text, etc etc. Those Finder toolbar buttons aren't going to look so perfect depending on how you view them, and that's not even getting into how it might look in Safari or other metal apps. The buttons and tabs also seem a little too sleek for this theme, they could do with some battle scarring.
Overall an excellent mockup, with no major flaws to speak of.
Posted by William Bart (Panel) at March 30, 2004 07:51 PM
Some nicely rendered surfaces and effects here... a little too scary for day to day use, though.
Posted by Phillip Ryu (Panel) at March 30, 2004 08:05 PM
And Omega isn't? ;)
I want this theme made badly. There are definitely not enough 'scary' themes for OS X right now, and we need a few for when we feel scary, or want to scare our PC budies, or whatever. And Half-Life is a great example of the best of something different. The texture work on the blasted metal is pretty amazing, and I think it's great that you distorted the Apple menu out of recognition. Almost an inside joke for us GUI veterans. And William mentioned with Orange Ghost how he wanted an Orange entry; well here it is, and it kicks ass. Awesome as always, Raymond.
Posted by Joe Kohlmann (Panel) at March 30, 2004 08:13 PM
The blasted metal texturing is the icing on the cake. Wow. Great coloring as well. I agree with Harlan however, the buttons look a little too shiny for such a grungy design. The progress bars are okay, but they really look plain in comparison with the rest of the design. As far as technicalities, most of the design seems possible but I'm not sure how one would go about doing the Metal window with current theming technology. Overall, very well-done, easily one of the best mockups I've seen.
Posted by Angel at March 30, 2004 11:59 PM
Jesus, those textures are amazing. I wouldn't use it as a theme perse because I'm not much for themes based on games, movies, etc. but awesome work man.
Posted by Bruce Baugh at March 31, 2004 12:07 AM
This one grows on me every time I look at it again - it's scruffy, but useful.
Posted by Sage at March 31, 2004 01:21 AM
Very cool. Not something that I'd use, since I don't play games (same reason I don't use EYLO, though I think it's very nice), but very cool nonetheless. Executed extremely well (how's that for alliteration?).
Posted by OwlBoy at March 31, 2004 01:47 AM
This one reminds me of Onyx!
Posted by Max Rudberg (Panel) at March 31, 2004 04:25 AM
I love this! Top of the bunch with Calabi, Sweet Slumber etc.
Being a mac user I've not have a chance to play Half Life as much as I would have liked to, but this theme mockup definitely reminds me of it and I'm very impressed with the textures..!
All the elements seems to flow nicely and I really like the contrasting yellow. You might want to consider to use it for the scrollbar as well, because they easily get lost if they are the same color as the scrollbar track. The textures really does the theme. Maybe you could give the menubar and menus a bit more effort, but I love it anyway. Great work!
Posted by Mugget at March 31, 2004 08:09 AM
i really like this!! :D i'd definitely use it as my theme of choice. the textures really are impressive and the contrast of colours is just great. :)
Posted by Dan Shannon at March 31, 2004 09:36 AM
Wow. That's all I can say. It's everything that one could ask for. I want this one to win, just so that I can show it to my PC friends. As if they weren't *already* green with envy!
Posted by eyevaan at March 31, 2004 10:24 AM
A dark theme for those moments when we just don't want to be smooth and happy. This one could sit side by side with [fear]platinum as a theme that evokes a real emotional response - just read the posts.
I think the tabs and buttons need to be "Dirtied" - - and maybe a little dried blood thrown on it ... but nothing glossy.
Great job on the mockup of this theme.
Posted by gautch at March 31, 2004 11:02 AM
A very well put together Mock-up! i love it. Though i dont think id ever use it. I want this theme to get created, soley on the quality and feel of it. Great job raymond!
Posted by Mr Mojo at March 31, 2004 12:07 PM
This one I think will be a big hit. As many push for HL 2 to be ported to Mac. I think this may feed their cravings slightly.
Posted by Bill Snebold at March 31, 2004 03:24 PM
By far the best of the bunch! Make this one please. Very well thought out.
Posted by Allan Nyholm Nielsen at March 31, 2004 07:03 PM
Nice theme. BUT what is it with the small widgets in the titlebar ???? First TiSkin and now this. Anywho. Overall nice theme. Has to include a wallpaper and some icons(read CandyBar) for it to work.
Posted by Ernest Liu at March 31, 2004 08:56 PM
Fantastic, great job! I'm just questioning a bit after viewing the full preview... are all the affects you put into it do-able? I'm semi-familiar with how creating a theme works, and not everything seems like it can be created.
Posted by Harlan Lewis (Panel) at April 1, 2004 01:57 AM
Ernest,
The only things that strike me as impossible are parts of the graphics on the top and bottom of metal windows. The middle will be stretched horizontally, so there won't be any of the cool little imperfections in the top orange area, and on the bottom the yellow/grey diagonal would get stretched across the bottom as well, so there's no real way around that.
The battle scars are definitely possible, though.
Posted by HEPB at April 1, 2004 02:38 AM
Looks really great Xanthic !
Posted by at April 1, 2004 09:22 AM
Oh this is cool! This will definitely get a vote from me!
Posted by vödka at April 1, 2004 01:24 PM
Sick work as always Xanthic!
Posted by Ernest Liu at April 1, 2004 10:06 PM
Harlen, exactly my point =). Anyways, its still a great theme.
Posted by Harold Harmon at April 4, 2004 07:21 PM
I'm really glad this mockup placed. It's a nice break from the normal themes, I can't wait to see this one realized. Congratulations
Posted by Daniel Goffin at April 4, 2004 08:03 PM
Raymond, good job and this is really one of the entries the blew me off my feet especially when taking a look at these awesome textures in the FinderWindow. A true winner. Congratulations.
Posted by at April 4, 2004 09:08 PM
Ahem:
UGH!
Posted by Paul Johnson at April 4, 2004 09:09 PM
Well done, and congrats! This is one of the very few good uses of textures I've seen. It will be fun seeing how it works in real life. PS. In case you haven't seen it yet, check out the HL2 WMP skin from the Skins Factory guys:
Too bad it's not available in any Mac format. It would make a killer packaged item with this theme!
Posted by Paul Johnson at April 4, 2004 09:09 PM
link: http://www.theskinsfactory.com/skinsfactory/?page=fvportfolio&id=96
Posted by Gramage at April 4, 2004 09:12 PM
I don't even like half-life but this theme is cool.
Reminds me of the kinda themes we used to see with Kaleidoscope. Pushing the boundaries and whatnot...
Posted by Philip Beck at April 4, 2004 09:16 PM
Congratulations, but again I'm not sure why this was a winner. It appears that the panel's voting pushed this over the top. Again its yet another theme that may look interesting but isn't one that I would use on a daily basis. I think that usability should be the first criterion for being a winner.
Posted by Harlan Lewis (Panel) at April 4, 2004 09:17 PM
Ernest,
I actually plugged a bit of this into ThemePark and with only a few minutes of screwing around had a fairly nice metal window, complete with imperfections. The trick is finding the right metal window bevel size... some stretching would happen in big windows, and in very small windows it wouldn't look perfect, but overall it would be fairly nice.
Hehe, can you tell which theme I was hoping to make? ;) ProLCD will be great too, though.
Posted by Ernest Liu at April 5, 2004 12:42 AM
Harlan: Well, if you do end up theming Half Life, good luck! I'm sure it will turn out terrific, whoever does make it.
Raymond Sepulveda: You know what's missing from this theme? A nice lookin' matching desktop pic to match it.
Posted by Jason Harris (Panel) at April 5, 2004 02:54 AM
Well, I'm a sucker for anything that's orange and has gritty texture, so I just automatically love this mockup. I'd use this theme forever. The apple menu rules, as do the drop-down menus. The menu texture is wonderful, and the dirty nasty caution highlight on the selected menu item is just frickin' fabulous. The window titlebar widgets rock.
Things I don't like: the left titlebar cap should be slightly wider - the maximize widget looks a bit cramped. The tabs and buttons don't seem to fit in with the rest of the theme that well.
This theme would grab one's attention instantly and strongly. It's extremely original, and I think it would be very very usable over the long-term. As I mentioned, I find it to be very aesthetically appealing. I don't see any issues that would keep it from being realized into an actual theme. Good job!
Posted by Max Rudberg (Panel) at April 5, 2004 11:04 AM
Congratulations Raymond! I rated this theme 10 and I can't wait to try it when it's done :)
Posted by raymond (xanthic) at April 5, 2004 10:24 PM
wow! thanks guys! :D glad that so many liked it, and i can't wait to get started working with my themer to realize this theme.
Posted by Elizabeth at April 6, 2004 03:42 PM
Congratulations!
...and can we anticipate some great Xanthic icons to match?
Posted by Mike of GuiStain at April 6, 2004 05:16 PM
Looking forward to working with you. I just need the files :) congrats! I really do like this theme and maybe if it comes out good we can make a Day of Defeat one also because all in all DOD is an awesome mod of half-life. I play it daily.
Posted by raymond (xanthic) at April 6, 2004 07:53 PM
hey mike, do you have an aim screen name?
elizabeth: most likely, and matching wallpapers as well probably :D
Posted by Zicola at May 11, 2004 09:07 AM
merci
Posted by KICK BUTT!!!! at June 3, 2004 10:48 AM
My favorite of the lot so far. Industrial screen view for my iBook!!!
MORE, MORE, MORE!!!!!
Oh yea, for OS X please.
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is it done yet?
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