EZ5i skinning competition

EZ5i skinning competition 20 collectors edition EZ5i to win

Competition now over EZ5i skinning competition 20 collectors edition EZ5i to win

Time for a GBAtemp competition. To coincide with the EZ5i review released today the EZTeam and GBAtemp have a contest to win some of a very limited run of "collectors edition EZ5i"- 25 have been made and we have 20 of them for this contest. If you fancy winning one you need to do is design a skin for use with the EZ5i flash cart and submit it to us. The 20 best skins will win one (prize breakdown below) once the competition ends on one month from start date (that is to say the contest ends on August 7th 2010). Prizes will be shipped by the EZTeam worldwide for free. Below you can find links to an EZ5 skin creation utility and some guides to it that that will make creating skins a delight. It includes full preview functionality so you do not even need an EZ5i cart to test the skins - you can completely test all functionality in the program. Should you win you get to use your skin on an EZ5i of your own rules and other stuff  Click any of the images in this post for a larger version Competition Rules: One Entry per person, GBAtemp forum account required, open to all member groups. You must post your entry in this competition thread and clearly indicate that it is your entry. Entry previews should be in standard web graphic form (JPG, GIF, PNG etc.). No Flash/Shockwave please. Entries should not require the installation of additional software. Entries must not include any illegal, pornographic or offensive material. Entries that are unsuitable will be removed. A full skin is required[1] It should go without saying but this should be your own work The competition ends one month from start date at midnight(UK time). [1] Skin making is covered in the tutorial but a full skin is a skin.dat, skin.ani, skin_bottom.bin and skin_up.bin Omission of a skin.ani file will likely count against you (replace skin with your under chosen 8 letter name) Prizes: There will be 20 individual winners. All of those will receive a collectors edition EZ5i- special colour case and a laser printed serial number. The top 10 will receive a EZ5i in the deluxe package- comes with thumb stylus, extendable stylus and a USB reader. The next 10 will receive a basic package- just the EZ5 with no extras. The top 5 will also receive a 3 in 1 plus- the popular GBA expansion pack. Prizes will be shipped by the EZTeam free to most countries. Judging: Judging will be conducted by the EZFlash USA forum staff- FAST6191, cracker and Slade as well as prominent member Mbmax. The winning entries will be announced some time after the competition closes on one month from start date, while we will aim to finish it all as quickly as possible there is no set date as all the staff need to cast their votes internally and it's difficult when we're all from different time zones. Judges decision is final. ENTRY INFORMATION: As part of being a GBAtemp member you have access to an image host you can use in pix.gbatemp.net and we have a sister site in filetrip you can use to upload skins. Please upload your skin image preview to an online host and post it as a reply in this thread using the URL tags. Please upload your skin in RAR or ZIP format and post to an online host (filetrip is preferred) and link to it in your skin submission along with the image preview. Do not include additional files in the archive such as executables (readme.txt files are OK though) The competition is open for one month from the date of this post (closing date is midnight UK time August 7th 2010, so get busy. Please don't hesitate to enter, skins are judged based on their uniqueness and creativity, not photoshopping skills. Good luck and have fun! EZSkinner- a EZ5 skin making program. Skin making and slash.ani tutorial Tools and guide bundle on filetrip filetrip EZ5 skin upload Discuss/enter competition

Skin entries :



Tips for skinners :

First of all, always use the last version of Ez Skin Forger : >> Ez Skin Forger on filetrip <<

1- no need to own any ez5 flashcart to test your splash.ani. Download moonshell 2.10 and install it on your microSD. replace the splash.ani in /moonshl2/internal folder. Launch moonshell 2.10 and watch the result.
2- upper and lower splash screens are first loaded when kernel start (skinname_up.bin and skinname_bottom.bin)
3- splash animation is played on upper screen just after. If no .ani found in /EZ5shell/skin folder, it play the default ez5 animation.
That's why we advice you to not drop this part and make a splash animation for your entry.
4- skin name mustn't exceed 8 char + dat extension. example : skinname.dat <= max name's lenght..
5- don't hesitate to drag and drop your system icons where you wish on the lower screen. Just avoid collision with others (if collision is disabled in ez skin forger). There is almost no limit to your creativity.
6- ESF support PNG files mean you are able to use transparency (alpha channel). don't hesitate to use it.
All has been thought to not bridle skinner's mind creativity.
7- to change selected bar color on upper screen, simply right click on it and select a color.
8- to change selected bar color transparency, take a look at the Setting.ini file in ezskinforger, line FileListSelectItemBGTransparency=170.
255 value is a plain color.
9- to move system icons or system text, just left click on them and drop them where you wish.
10- to test a system icon, right click on it.


Tips for ADVANCED skinners :

Ez Skin forger lets you edit main files but not all. As some of you as probably found, there is templates files in /makeskin/template folder.
I will gives tips for those files in this section.
But be careful of 2 very important things here :
* First, be sure to not use indexed color or the skin will crash under the ez5i kernel.Ez Skin Forger doesn't monitor the template folder to convert those indexed color.
* second, do not remove any of the file, you must have 64 pictures (i don't count the windows xp thumbs.db of course) in the template folder. Also be sure to respect their size (x,y) and their format (png or bmp).

Note that now Ez Skin Forger RN93 is able to auto-load your custom template when you open your .ess project. It will load the content of the folder named : essskinname_template_files. If it can't find it, it load the default template folder located in ezskinforger/makeskin/template.
See the Sample Skin example for more information.

a- progress_wnd.png picture is used to display the rom loading progress bar when a game is started. His size is 224x59 and it's displayed on touchscreen at coordinates X=16 and Y=66. The file progress_BootRom_bar.png is displayed at coordinates X=20 and Y=88 and duplicated incrementally on X axe until it reach X=235.
b- scroll bar : SB_Grip_Normal.png & SB_Grip_Press.png are not displayed.
The kernel uses 7 files for that : SB_BG.png (scroll bar background), SB_GripBG_Normal.png & SB_GripBG_Press.png (scroll bar body duplicated in Y axe by the kernel), SB_GripBottom_Normal.png & SB_GripBottom_Press.png (scroll bar bottom), SB_GripTop_Normal.png & SB_GripTop_Press.png (scroll bar top). Notice that the scroll_bar.png picture is used for the scroll bar background in the cheat window.


FAQs :

- "is there a ez5i skin viewer ? i don't have a ez5i but i want to join this contest..."
Sure there is. As explained in the main post, you can download Ez Skin Forger and read my tutorial on Ez-Flash forum.

- "I suppose we are allowed to change our entry (for instance, if the game name became longer than the space I provided) as long as we do it before the contest ends."
Sure, but revise the version number on filetrip so we know you have modified it

- "Just something I'm hoping an EZ5 owner can do in their spare time (if they so wish to help the skinners in the competition), you would have my utmost respect and gratitude if you would be so kind as to give a complete video of every possible screen and icon that can appear (so there would be a demonstration of the progress bars and whatever else that most of the reviews I have seen don't show) preferably with crystal clear quality and a default skin, though just decent quality is fine."
Here you go JP :


- "Anyone know what toggle control does?"
Toggle control open the rom setting panel where you can select Softreset, RTS, RTG, Cheat mode, Special Mode ... etc

- "What does System control do then? Is that light settings?"
It opens the system panel where you can select language, ez 3in1 rumble strenght, ez 3in1 mode and the skin.

- "what is displayed on the bottom screen during the splash.ani"
The file skinname_bottom.bin is displayed while skinname.ani is played.

- "I want to replace the icons, but I'm not sure what those icons do.
Could somebody explain what each icon does, so I can make a fitting icon for that?"
Take a look at this snapshot. From left to right : Shutdown icon, moonshell icon (launch moonshel 2), brightness icon, system settings icon (where we set language, ez3in1 mode and rumble, skin), rom settings icon (where we set ROM's SR, RTS, IGG, Cheat).

- "Do i need to have the launch button or my DS bios skin can launch the game using the game icon?"
Check this answer

Edited by Mbmax, 09 August 2010 - 08:31 PM.

cool contest. limited stuff is fun. too bad flash kits don't have a 20yr resale value increase, lol.

-another world

Sounds good! Will have to start designing!

By "illegal" do you mean copyrighted images like video game characters?

Just what we need!

EZ-Flash has by far the smallest, crappest selection of skins.

Ohh true... So are we aloud to make 'themed' skins if the images are traded marked/copyrighted?

Will EZ5i actually be using out skins or something that will profit off the skins?

(Will post entry in this post when done)

Good luck and have fun everyone!

If that extends to all copyrighted characters...I better learn how to make abstract art, otherwise my entry might just be a bunch of scribbles on paper xD.
Also, I looked at the images in the demo.dat and there seems to be more images there than I have been able to see on any video or some of the other skins I looked at (like the double_icon and screensaver images). Are those files even used/needed?

Edited by jurassicplayer, 11 July 2010 - 06:51 AM.

XD I personally want to enter this but I can't make art.

Cool, a contest, i will try to make something for this linker ^^

Yay, a reason to make a skin again. I'm on it!

I'm in this competition !

im interested and willing to try

is there a ez5i skin viewer? i don't have a ez5i but i want to join this contest...

Awrighty then
But if I do win, I only want the 3-in-1s