Patrick speaks: the Density mkII UI (making of)

making of

Dear VoS community!

Someday ago, Bootsy asked me to raise my voice here and to talk a little bit about my design works and he suggested that the Density mkII artwork might be a good idea to do so.

Beginning

Typically, our common projects basically starts like this:

Bootsy: «Hey Patrick, how about another super cool Plug-In, do you have the time and are ready for some fun?»

Me: «Surething. Count me in!»

Bootsy: «Excellent, here’s the briefing…»

And again we’re already right in the middle of another new adventure. He gives some briefing about the technical spec and details or explains if some design criteria should be fulfilled.

Preparation

To get into the right mood, I usually start research over the internet and have a look at existing hardware devices, checking some supplier sites and have a closer look at pots, LED’s and other tech stuff like that – everything which is needed in such an audio device.

The net - an important inspiration source for preparation

Modelling and texturing

Afterwards I do a sketch of the Plug-In in my mind and then start to model the parts in a 3d program. In most cases two or three attempts are necessary until the desired part does actually look like I do had imaginated. The textures I do create in a graphic software.

In 3d program created polygon model with texture

Layout and design

Now that all 3d parts were modelled I create the design of the background graphic which consists of multiple editable layers. This way potential change requests coming from the later beta test or so can easily be edited and without large efforts.

Thanks to individual layers, the graphics remains editable until the end

Bootsy receives then the assembled layout and gives feedback right afterwards and then the design typically passes one or two iterations until we both agree to 100%.

The Plug-In gets assembled from its parts

Animations

Now, that the layout is defined, I do all the animations for the moving parts and render them into graphic stripes so they can be integrated into the programming code.

The individual animation steps rendered into stripes

Bootsy now integrates this into code and compiles a VST-DLL which is send then to the beta crew. They do not only judge the audio quality but also give feedback concerning the UI.  In most cases some helpful information comes  back and gets implemented into the interface until both, layout and algorithms, are onto the same quality level.

Artwork teasers

While the beta testers were already enjoying the newly created VST (sonic and visual wise) we usually do tend to put you guys out there on the rack until the release day 😉

Cruel as we are, we do like teasers ...

Closing comments

I’ve not yet seen Bootsy in real live and we just had contact via internet – regardless, our teamwork is so smooth as if we would have already worked together for ages. It’s a great fun to me to be part of this project. The community here is simply terrific. And I guess there will be some other eminent Plug-Ins see the light here in the future.

So long, cheers!

Patrick

The chief design dude