DasBlog is a very famous .NET blogging platform - originally based on BlogX by Chris Anderson - by Stephen Forte among others. We just had the pleasure of redesigning www.stephenforte.net - Stephen Forte's blog, and the first installation of DasBlog.
With all the talk about our retail products, it is easy to forget that customized UX services are the heart of Nukeation.
We are proud to announce our new Phase 2 theme "Nomad". Nomad is designed to be a highly kinetic design, guaranteed to wow your customers!
Head on over to www.reuxables.com to see it in action.
Click image to enlarge | Download the demo
We are happy to announce our new theme customization service. If you have a Reuxables Theme and want to have it customized, our team of expert designers can do it for you for a very small fee! It can be anything from a simple color or design tweak to having whole new controls skinned, or even matching things up to meet your branding specifications.
Email us at info [@] nukeation [.] com for more information.
We have just released the 1.6 update for all Phase 1 themes. This applies to the Alpha Pack, Candy, Frog, Fusion, Glass, Metal, and Paper themes. All customers will be receiving their download link soon. Please contact us if you have not received it.
Update 1.6 contains:
- Controls placed inside the toolbar control are now skinned as well
- Various bug fixes and performance enhancements
The long awaited Discovery and Expressive themes (part 1 of Phase 2) have officially shipped!
You can download a demo or purchase these themes at http://www.reuxables.com
Also check out the brand new video tutorial and other new stuff at the freshly updated website!
Check out how easy it is to customize the basic essence of any Reuxables theme.
Click here to see the video (Silverlight 1.0 required)
And stay tuned - more new things are coming online in the next few hours. ;)
Head on over to Christopher Menge's blog and check out his implementation of the MenuKiller UX I wrote about some time back.
I think Christopher has created a fantastic control and I really look forward to seeing how it develops.
It's been a long time since the blog was updated. I myself was on a much needed vacation in the Costa Rican rainforest chasing after reptiles, while the team was busy with client projects and other things. But now we're back in action, and here's a news update.
Reuxables is finally going to enter Phase 2 soon. Very soon. Sooner than you think, in fact. We have new themes and more skinned controls. But more on that later. For now, I'll just leave you with a sneak peek at one of the new themes:
Do note, this theme will change a bit before the final release.
WTF is back on track and will soon be finished. We intend to release it by mid-June. Nothing major here - just bug fixes, some new minor functionality, and general enhancements. Again, more on this as we near release.
nukeationMachine - (formerly Codename "NukeBall") - is being re-built from the ground up. Originally created as an internal tool for VB6, this expanded quickly with the .NET Framework. Now we rebuilt it to provide full support for not only C# and VB, but also J# and C++ and across all main technologies - WPF, Windows Forms, HTML, and ASP.net! Built for Visual Studio 2008 it will provide unprecedented UI creation and automation tools!
During the whole redesign the entire UI was moved from Windows Forms to WPF to provide a much better, more intuitive workspace. Instant search has been improved and new more visual options for working are available rather just treading slowly through large lists.
Stay tuned as we will be releasing some demos and videos of nukeationMachine very soon.
We ran a little behind on our release schedule, but that's only because we wanted to deliver the best upgrade we could create.
All customers have been sent an email with a link to the upgrade. If you haven't received it or are having trouble, please email us from your registered/purchase email address.
Upgrade highlights include
- Full orientation support for TabControl
- Full orientation support for Expander
- NEW - ToggleButton skin
- NEW - ListView/GridView skin
- NEW - Toolbar skin
- NEW - GroupBox skin
- NEW - RichTextBox skin
- More efficient animation of existing skins
- And several minor tweaks and bug fixes
All new purchases will automatically receive the 1.5 version instead of 1.0.
You've all seen how cool the new hyper-animated Discovery theme is. Now, you can choose to buy it ahead of time - get to play with the latest Beta 2 (much more powerful, efficient, and fun than Beta 1) and use it in actual deployments.
We're providing an early adoption program where you can purchase the theme (and variations) for the reduced limited time price of $159 for a single user license (multi user packages are also available at a highly reduced price). Please contact us for details or to purchase the early beta. This early adoption program is available only until 6 April 2008.
All early adopters will receive the final release for free when we release Discovery in mid-April.
To try a hands on demo Download Discovery Beta 1 Preview EXE (86.2KB) (Beta 2 is, of course, far more advanced)
Reuxables Phase 1.5 Upgrade
The long awaited Phase 1.5 upgrade for the current Reuxables themes is now finally complete and we're performing final efficiency checks and design tweaks. Here are the new features of the upgrade:
- Full orientation support for TabControl
- Full orientation support for Expander
- NEW - ToggleButton skin
- NEW - ListView/GridView skin
- NEW - Toolbar skin
- NEW - GroupBox skin
- NEW - RichTextBox skin
- More efficient animation of existing skins
- And several minor tweaks and bug fixes
Themes that will contain these updates are: Candy, Frog, Fusion, Glass, Metal, Paper (including the entire Alpha Pack).
All existing users of these Reuxables Themes will receive a download link this weekend.
Thanks to the overwhelming response, all beta tester slots for the upcoming release of <WTF/> are now filled.
Keep watching the blog - we hope to publish more info and some demos of WTF's new functionality shortly.
We're almost done with WTF. But we need YOUR help. We have a need for a few beta testers. To apply, please use the contact form on this blog. All beta testers will get free copies of WTF and a discount coupon for our Reuxables products.
I'll be posting more info this weekend about some more new features we ended up adding to WTF:TransitionContainers, and our roadmap for WTF 2.0.
EDIT: Sorry, all available slots are now filled. Thanks to everyone for the great response.
We're very excited to announce a new partnership with our friends at LICAS digital - a digital interactive company based in the UK.
Our goal is to combine Nukeation's expertise with LICAS' interactive entertainment power house and create some compelling solutions.
From the press release:
LICAS Digital CEO Liam Cassidy described the formal arrangement as a significant step forward for both companies; “I’m excited and very proud to be working closely with Nukeation. We have benefited tremendously from our close-ties with Nukeation behind-the-scenes these last two years, so it’s a pleasure to formalize that partnership moving forward.”
The partnership begins with marketing and distribution collaboration on the newly-released Reuxables – a rich collection of custom-built designer themes for software applications built upon Microsoft® Windows Presentation Foundation™ (WPF). Reuxables is the first in a catalogue of projects scheduled for release throughout 2008, closely followed with the launch of an ambitious new high definition advanced-training media service for 3D graphics professionals. Codenamed "Eidos", this service will be augmented with high-quality full-color publications. “This will be a busy year with several key releases designed to enrich the workflow and resources available to software developers and design professionals,” added Cassidy.
Find out more at http://www.licasdigital.com
Here's a sneak peek from one of the advanced 3D training videos from Codename "Eidos":
Our upcoming theme (the first of the Phase 2 themes) is nearing completion. Featuring hyper animation and lots of BitmapEffects, here's a preview of Beta 1. Do note that many aspects of this theme are still under development and will change as well undergo numerous visual enhancements and bug fixes.
NOTE: This is the "Better Quality" version which requires decent graphics hardware. The final version of the theme will ship with a "Better Performance" variant that will be suited for low-end machines. We will also provide special code to help you switch between the themes easily during runtime.
Download Discovery Beta 1 Preview EXE (86.2KB)
Nukeation is known for its web design, graphic design, and user experience services, but what few people know is that our roots are in animation, 3D graphics, and traditional art work. (Before it's introduction into the world of UX, back in the mid-90s we were known as Atomic Diaper Productions... don't ask why)
To familiarize you with that side of Nukeation, let me tell you about an internal project we've been running for a short while. Project "NE" started as a solution to a very boring afternoon and quickly turned into a full scale project to create a digital spokesperson for Nukeation.
Images copyright © 2007-2008 Nukeation Studios. All rights reserved. Setup and render in e-on Software's Vue 6.5 xStream.
These test renders show a work-in-progress version of "NE" or Annie. We're using some of our advanced XAML components, Silverlight 2.0, 3D animation, and (thanks to some friends in Hollywood) professional voice over to give life to Annie. While such a project is more than common in the 3D CGI industry, we hope to give Annie a functional role in the world of UX that will make her very unique.
Annie will be the "face" of Fingertip as well as play a functional role in it.
A bugfix to the Paper Theme has been made available. This update addresses some drawing issues found with the Treeview, ListView, and other controls.
Users of the Paper Theme and Alpha Pack can use the same download link in you order confirmation email to download the latest version.
If your download tries have expired, please email support [@] nukeation [.] com and we'll reset them for you.
The most difficult thing to create is a design that pleases everyone. It is nearly impossible. But the next best thing is to create a wide range of themes that meet different needs.
So we're asking you! What do you want in a theme? Is there a cool design you've seen that you'd like to see in a WPF theme? Is there any specific functionality you want?
Comment here or email us at info [at] nukeation [dot] com. We'd love to hear from you!
I've encountered some designs in WPF apps that utilize a "fade out gradient", that is, a two stop gradient with one being 100% opaque and the other being 100% transparent.
However, often some developers have chosen to leave the "fade out" stop of the gradient to the default color. After all, it is 0% alpha, so what does it matter right? Wrong.
If working on a black background if the "fade out" stop is left to WHITE and faded out, irregular color fades occur. Same goes for a white background and a BLACK fade out stop.
Here is an example to better illustrate. We have a green gradient that fades out on the left. In the first gradient, we have a default (BLACK) fade out stop. In the second we use the same color as the visible stop for the "fade out" stop. See the difference yourself - the first gradient has black banding in the middle.
Nothing earth shattering, but keeping these little things in mind will always make your app look all the more professional.
One of the main hurdles we had to overcome was to make it easy for users to customize reuxables themes to their liking. Developers that beta tested reuxables mentioned that more often than not they'd only need to change the colors rather than the shapes of the controls.
So we opted to keep global brushes. You can read more about Global Brushes and how to use them in my article in the Expression Newsletter Feb '08 issue.
The main concept is explained in the diagram above. We have two Color objects created as named resources. A LinearGradientBrush is created by binding the GradientStop to the color resources. The control (Button in this case) uses that Brush as its background. We often use more complex structures where the base color for all controls and brushes is a single color and separate vectors create the shading via monochrome brushes - like with the Glass themes - so changing a single color (instead of two) changes the entire theme.
Reuxables comes with full source code. http://www.reuxables.com
The Microsoft Expression Newsletter's Feb issue just got published today. You can read Part 2 of my article here.
The previous part can be found here.
We're overwhelmed by the response the Phase 2 image got us last week. One particular question I kept getting was "What does hyper animated mean?" So rather than explain how animated the theme will be, let me show you!
Download the Teaser EXE (77KB)
Discovery will be one of 3 premium themes. The premium themes will be built with a higher quality and will require a slightly larger amount of RAM and video memory. Here's a sneak peek at some of Discovery's features:
- 9 Themes in One Pack - Lime [Default], Dark Green, Blue, Cyan, Red, Orange, Monochrome, Violet, Magenta.
- Low-end system compatibility mode (blurs and animations can be toned down automatically)
- Multiple image based backgrounds for each theme style in 3 resolutions (640x480, 1024x768, 1920x1200) to provide that extra touch
- Edit a single color value to change the entire the theme to your liking (just like with all our existing themes!)
Keep watching this feed. We'll be posting more demos soon.
And tomorrow we unveil something that will "nuke your app"...
You think we'd tell you?! ;)
I often get these ideas while I'm waking up. This one is called "Dynamic Animateable Value Lookup".
This value lookup is partially like DataBinding. Right now, we can write Property="{Binding Path=XYZ, Element=ABC, Mode=Default}" and the property will take its value from Path (the property) of the element (Control). However, this is not animateable without animating the original property.
Let me give you an example:
<StackPanel HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"> <Rectangle /></StackPanel>
Now, the StackPanel uses "Stretch" for HorizontalAlignment and therefore does not expose a direct physical double value in XAML. If I wanted to animate my rectangle's Width from 100% (which would be equal to the Width of the StackPanel) to 0px, it would pretty much impossible (as far as I know) in XAML. I'd have to go to code-behind and write the animation in VB or C#.
Here's how a lookup can help...
On Time 00:00.00 / Frame 0
<Rectangle Width="{ValueLookup Path=Width, Element=StackPanel}"/>
I could then, in Blend, go to the Time 00:00.7 (Frame 7) create a keyframe, and then enter a manual value, like 0 or 10 in the Rectangle's Width property. What the runtime would do is on reaching frame 0 it would do a lookup for the current width of the StackPanel control and pass on that value to the Rectangle's Width as a ByVal variable rather a ByRef variable (not an accurate description, but you know what I mean) and then that value would be a physical double and could be animated in accordance with the other keyframe.
Such "once only" lookups can be very valuable. Now, developers might choose to do this in code rather than having a new feature like this. And while yes it is easy to do this in code behind, you have to remember the separation of XAML and procedural code is mandatory for separating design and code - especially when working with a designer. If the Designer had to go write in procedural code, then it would be a mess to manage - especially if you intend to have your own code in there.
EDIT: Please see the comment on this blog post by Paul Shmakov, where explains how my Rectangle issue can be solved with the current release of WPF! Thanks, Paul. Wow, looks like the WPF team DID think of almost everything.
Our goals with reuxables is to provide a comprehensive set of themes for WPF and Silverlight applications. Our first phase was to provide a new, inexpensive, and comprehensive range of themes. All of them are currently available at www.reuxables.com
Next, in March, we intend to release 1.5 versions of all these themes, as well as the Phase 2 themes.
The image above shows a beta preview of DISCOVERY, one of the 3 premium Phase 2 themes being developed right now. The Phase 2 themes will have only animated versions and will aim for an extreme animated UI experience.
The 1.5 update for existing themes will cover bug fixes, performance enhancements, and provide theme support for some legacy controls - such as the Toolbar - that does not exist in the current release.
All existing users will receive the 1.5 versions of the Phase 1 themes for free, as well as a large discount for the Phase 2 themes.
In March, Beta 1 of Silverlight 2.0 will also be released and we intend to provide full Silverlight versions of all Phase 1 and Phase 2 themes. We will provide regular updates to coincide with future Silverlight 2.0 Betas and CTPs and an early version of the RTM edition. Preordering details will be posted soon.
By popular demand, we are keeping Paper Lite available for one more week. Grab it while it lasts.