Classic Shell: Forum

Spinning Windows 8 themed start button

Attached is my spinning Windows 8 themed start button. Hover over the button to rotate the Window by 180 degrees of animation.

I have attached white, red and blue version of the button. If you don't already know how to install, first move the downloaded file to somewhere it won't be moved around, then right-click the Classic Shell start button, go to settings, click the Start Button tab and under Custom Button click on Button Image and browse for the downloaded file. After you've done that, click OK and you should be good to go.

If you want to re-adjust the colours yourself just remember to avoid altering the very top row of pixels on the image file where the data pixel doodads are.

If you like this animated button you may also like my Rubik's cube button also located here on the forum.

EDIT: AN IMRPOVED VERSION OF THE BUTTON CAN NOW BE FOUND HERE

this is a cool idea. i haven't seen much in the way of animated icons that were very good. the only suggestion i have is your icon is opposite of most windows logos. so it seems a little odd for me at least. is there any way you could flip it around.

Yeah if you could flip it around please.

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I am a Windows enthusiast and did Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

Sure, haha. For some odd reason I prefer it flipped the other way round.

Here are the same 3 images horizontally flipped.

thanks, this is really cool. your flipped white version is the first animated button i am actually using. great implementation of using animation. up to now you couldn't really see what the button was doing because it happened too fast or the details were too small. and people seemed to focus more on adding color depth than in the motion of it. if you are interested i can render various propeller shapes against a plain white background that you could possibly edit into rotating propeller/fan buttons. just a thought of a way to utilize motion in a new way.

update; after using your flipped white animated button for awhile i noticed that the aspect ratio is square or close to it. i was wondering if you could use the first frame of the button set attached. that is a set i got from this forum and use most of the time. also, i experimented with different 40x40 pixel props for a possible animated button. i attached two. just wondering if you could make one of those spin around. i don't know if you need to make the background transparent or not or all what goes into making a button. the pics are jpegs. i can make them bigger if needed.

update 2; regarding the prop button request, please disregard. i was able to create one myself. i removed the prop pictures that were attached to this post, as I ended up using a slightly different rendering (due to transparent background issues). also 40x40 pixel pictures work fine to create the button. however, png with a transparent background is helpful. i exported those straight out of the rendering program. then used Gimp to create the button.

Thanks for the feedback. The button is made of 2D snapshots of a perfect square being rotated in a 3D environment, namely SketchUp. I did things this way because its great for maintaining a consistent and realistic perspective, but now that I compare my button more closely with the more 'correct' windows 8 logo its beginning to bug me how different the perspectives are.

Luckily I can quite easily modify the field of view in SketchUp to achieve an essentially identical perspective. While I could import your attached windows logo into SketchUp, due to its inherent asymmetry I think the animation might come out looking a little wonky with the way I do things. I'll see about throwing together a more 'correct' version perhaps later today when I finish work.

Also, I like the propeller idea - I've already done a button with multiple components spinning in different directions, but I haven't done one consisting of elements rotating in different frames of reference, i.e. the moon orbiting the earth which is orbiting the sun etc. Might give the idea a go

Yeah I was also going to suggest that it would be nicer if the first and last frame morphed into the authentic Windows logo. You're already on to it.

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Links to some general topics:

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I am a Windows enthusiast and did Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

yeah i seen your rubiks cube, that is awesome looking.

Alrighty, I've remade the button from scratch to look as close to the windows 8 logo as possible. Here's what's changed.

- I've flipped the logo around so it actually matches the windows 8 logo
- I've corrected the proportions of the button so that its virtually identical to the Windows 8 logo
- I've also increased the size of the button slightly over the original to 60x60 per frame as i thought it was too small orginally. Let me know if you want smaller/larger as it can be easily arranged
- The blue version of the button is now colour matched with the blue Windows 8 logo
- Number of frames has been reduced to 12

If there is anything else needing improvement or modification please don't hesitate to notify me.

Edit: A newer version of this button featuring a transition effect from white to multi-coloured, as well as a pressed state frame can be found here.

they look and work perfectly. i have mine set to 40 for the size, no issues at all. thanks for re-making them.

They are satisfactory for me too. Appreciate your hard work on them very much. Thanks!

I added a link to the final button to the 'Windows 8 Themed Start button compilation'

Animated buttons are so much more fun and hard work - I made some changes to the Start Buttons forum to make them easier to discover.

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Links to some general topics:

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I am a Windows enthusiast and did Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

If anyone's interested I've further modified my button to include a colour transition effect. The button attached below will transition from white to the conventional yellow, red, blue and green colours of older windows logos in addition to spinning.

Edit: At GauravK's request I've also added a pressed-state frame where the coloured squares of the windows 8 logo become outlines. I've attached two versions of the newly modified button below:

Version 1 features no pressed state frame

Version 2 features the aforementioned pressed state frame.

Try both and see which you prefer

Yes of course we're interested Btw the logo colors don't appear to be the exact colors that the current Microsoft logo uses: http://blogs.microsoft.com/wp-content/u ... screen.jpg

Edit: Fixed.

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I am a Windows enthusiast and did Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

Ok, I deleted the old one and re-uploaded it with corrected colours. The colours are now 99% accurate

I guess my usual habit of simply eye-balling it won't cut it around here then

Wonderful and thank you!

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I am a Windows enthusiast and did Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

very very cool. thanks for sharing this.

One more suggestion: I know it's asking too much for such a great button but could you add some differentiation or glow around the logo for the "pressed" state?

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Links to some general topics:

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I am a Windows enthusiast and did Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

As requested I've added a version featuring a pressed-state frame which can be found here

How to "download"?

right click the image, and select 'save as'

nice