It is very very complicated at first and massively time consuming. My slyk1hd skin took 3 months from beginning to end working on it every single evening. A lot of this was the learning process, but even now there is still minor bugs that need tweaking. I doesn't have to be as complicated as mine as I pretty much skinned every component individually and obviously I was trying to replicate the original as close as possible. I don't think any other sky skin went into so much detail as mine though so you never have to go into this much detail. And you will crash your box a lot. And I mean a lot. And the only way to test your skin is to install it on your box. This means rebooting your box literally hundreds of times in a day. oh not forgetting there will probably be an error in this...so you will bootlloop your box, so you have to keep amending your xml file until your box comes out of the bootloop... repeat..repeat again....ha
There isn't any real tool you can use other than a photoshop and google.
You need to mockup everything first in Photoshop, using losts of layers and lots guides.
Here is an example screen my skins epg.
The obvious way to start is to have a play around with an existing skin. Amending the main elements. This would be the epgs, channel select, info bars, menus, message boxes. But to skin everything is a major task. There are 1000s of elements to find and skin. (warning don't do it ;) )
You will constantly need to cross-reference existing skins. the default ones are just one big huge file. Metrix breaks it up a little. My slyk1hd breaks the individual elements up in to more organised files.
the default openatv skin
https://github.com/openatv/enigma2/blob/master/data/skin_default.xml
the default vix skin
https://github.com/oe-alliance/oe-alliance-e2-skindefault/blob/master/skin_default.xml
metrix skin is very complete, but massively over complicated. But a great reference for finding components.
https://github.com/openatv/MetrixHD/tree/master/usr/share/enigma2/MetrixHD
A good reference guide is this german guy who has tried to document a lot of the elements of the old enigma2 boxes.
Kategorie:BlueDreamHD – Gemini-Wiki
You also have to learn the names of every single screen component. This is a mission in itself. Finding where the bleeding thing appears.
There is also lots of legacy screens that are in the default skins that don't even exist anymore that you will try and find but don't exist. Which will drive you insane.
For each screen I went through the entire default skin and put a reference text label in it, then tried to find that screen on my box. Again a mission in itself.
<screen name="Menu" position="center,center" size="560,460" title="Main menu">
<eLabel text="Menu" position="0,0" size="200,20" font="skymed;10" foregroundColor="white" backgroundColor="red" zPosition="20" transparent="1"/>
<panel name="BasicTemplate" />
<widget source="menu" render="Listbox" position="10,55" size="520,350" scrollbarMode="showOnDemand" itemHeight="35" font="Regular;28">
<convert type="StringList"/>
</widget>
</screen>
Your first starting point is the skin.xml. This is where you set up the basics of the skin. Colors. Fonts. Menu structure etc. This is the heart of the skin.
http://wiki.blue-panel.com/index.php/First_basics_for_a_skin_(en)
You will also soon learn some graphics have to live in a particular folder or the root. These aren't referenced by you, but by the python elements themselves so they have to be in the correct location.
You also have to learn to cross reference the default py files to see what elements can be used in a particular screen. Again this is a needle in a haystack finding which screen references which python component. You will be constantly google enigma2 openatv py etc.
I have 20+ years as a graphic designer, I also have a programming background. But this was a very difficult task.
If you are still up for it, go for it. I will help with any questions you have. But believe me it isn't easy to do a full skin. Part skin of key elements shouldn't be too difficult if you are willing to put the effort in and do a lot of research.
Start by changing colours, changing fonts, changing the positions of a few things.
Good luck. You will need it.
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and here is where my skinning journey began
http://www.techkings.org/zgemma-star-2s/77148-new-sky-skin-coming-soon-blue-hd-2-a.html