Im a CDROM and Web Design and none of the current MXM skins float my boat too much so I am gonna have a go myself.

At first I wanted to rip XBMP off as I think its basic clean layout is the best way to work, however it doesnt seem XMX would like this..

Anyhow, I knocked this up a few days ago:


Just in photoshop, its a millions miles away from a skin at the moment but you can see where I am trying to go with it.

One thing I may leave out is video preview, as cool as it is, I dont find myself using it, also, I guess I could do 2 versions one with and one without..

If anyone has any tips as to get this from a flat photoshop file into a skin, using MXM skinner of course then reply

Hopefullu should get it done in a few weeks...

EDIT...
One thing I am REALLY trying to do is make the whole STATS bit look cool.
It always seems to be one of the most misled parts, I would like ICONS for the network IP C, E drive stats and CDROM status, as you can see, I have tried to do this in the image above..

Anyhow..

Looks like its coming along pretty well. I actually like the XBMP layout as well and I think there were a couple other skins out there that mimic'd the style so I'm sure if you went ahead with an XBMP style skin no one would mind.

And on another quick note, MXM gets overscanned quite a bit by HDTV users. So my request/recomendation when making new skins is to give ample room on all 4 sides of the skin so that only unnecessary stuff gets hidden away on the sides of HDTV users and nothing like the menu or stats info...

ohh dear looks like its not as simple as first thought!

How do you convert regular fonts so they work on the xbox then??

I wonderd why all the fonts were so bad..

Any help??

Cheers ben, just loading up the usual places now

tried my skin with the regular fonts, it was horrible!

hopefully should be able to create a whole lot more skins once I get some of my fave fonts converted...