GUI Development: Interactable objects

Following the research into skeuomorphism, I began designing knobs and sliders that allow the user to interact with the GUI. to do this is used a free software called Knobman. Knobman allows the easy design of knobs, sliders and faders by layering objects and animation steps. This makes the process considerably easier than creating them manually in photoshop and allows real-time preview of the animated knob.

With Knobman I prototyped several different knob and fader designs before settling on a select few. I tried to recreate real-world knobs used on audio hardware. I tried to create a grungy, raw feel to match the sound of our samples and really sell the idea of the sample library.

The knobs are output by knobman as a .PNG file as a column of each frame of animation the knob has. This can then be assigned to a GUI element in the Kontakt GUI editor.

Sliders can also be created in Knobman, by changing the type of animation of elements from rotating to vertical. Using this I designed a fader to be similar to those found on a mixing console.