Solved Custom Cursors

[Hopachi]

Thread related to custom cursors.

Edit: Newer cursor versions and types will be added in newer posts.
Install procedure: (for those interested) see this post: link

I'd love to see some more metro styled cursors, like instead of a flattened Areo loading animation, it could be the little metro loading circle animation and such. And in complementary colors to the Start Screen of course.

Everything is possible in graphic editing, yes, the flattened aero loading is the one on the cursor: View attachment 9076
But where do you see the little metro loading circle animation? Sorry I rarely use apps.
To use that one you'll need to know where the files are, like for example the cursors are in c:\Window\Cursors, or at least export the desired animation somehow.

View attachment 9216
That.

Thanks. Ah that one! Indeed, it's all over the place. But you're right it looks good as animation.

We'll just need to find where it's located or create it from scratch.

Edit:
This site has what we need: Preloaders.net - windows 8 loading animation
You can choose colors, generate gif or animated png and your good to go (for cursor editing). I'll see what I can do.

I've managed to get that animation in the cursor format. Here are the two animated cursors. Pointer "working" and "Busy cursor".
They are 48px standard size but the default on windows is 32px on standard dpi.
The red version (as requested by Coke Robot) is here as preview:





Two animated cursor format files are in zip attachment.

Technical:
This has 3x more frames as the default aero cursors (54 frames instead of 18) because it's a more complex animation.
They work well, after assigning them to a customized cursor scheme.
Note that the animation is small compared to the one on Metro screen but it's made in comparison with the original cursor animation scale.

Some 32px sized or higher res versions may be available if requested. Other colors are available.

EDIT:
32px is mainstream and more colors are made.
Cursor were updated to look better. See post 21:
http://www.eightforums.com/customization/9827-custom-cursors-3.html#post139743

That's it.
Hopachi

 

[Hopachi]

Update:
Size 32pixels versions available. Use these if you have a standard UI with 96dpi settings or if you use the standard-sized cursors.

preview:




Note the smaller pointer than in first post.

These were tested and work OK. Also, other colors are possible.

Thanks to Coke Robot for the idea for this cursors.

 

[Coke Robot]

LIKE!

 

[Hopachi]

Glad you like those.

The standard aero pointer was used but the animation was integrated from scratch. That worked surprisingly well.

Since this thread is here, I'll probably consider some other designs in the future, who knows...
Anyone is free to post other cursor stuff here.

Cheers
Hopachi

 

[Arpan]

Got it working. Thanks a lot Hopachi :thumbup:

 

[Coke Robot]

I'd LOVE to see different colored cursors! Especially if they're colored by using the Start Screen accent colors as well as some custom colored ones like black.

I used to put custom cursors for ever install I did on Windows 7, but I felt it was a bit out of place. I'd like to have a metro cursor that could be used as a custom system default as I will be using those to create a custom install.wim for Windows 8.

 

[Hopachi]

Thanks guys!

As a followup on the red version, here are some other basic colors:

Black:



Light Blue:



Green:



Magenta:



Orange:



Purple:



White (for hi-contrast or dark backgrounds):



Yellow (for hi-contrast or dark backgrounds):



The animated cursors are in zip attachments. Choose the color(s) you need.
This concludes some extra colors for the default (white) cursor theme. Replace the ani files in a cursor scheme to use them.

Next time we'll consider black/dark or colored pointers as well.

EDIT:
First, I've updated this version to look better:
http://www.eightforums.com/customization/9827-custom-cursors-3.html#post139743
(post 21)

Cheers
Hopachi

 

[Coke Robot]

 

[Coke Robot]

I was wondering if the little balls in the animation can be made a bit bigger, so the animation is a little more prevalent.

Thanks!

 

[Hopachi]

I was thinking about this issue but for now, as you can see on Preloaders.net - Circular (Spinners) AJAX loading GIF and APNG spinners, bars and 3D animations generator , the original version has fixed thickness. It was this version that was resized to match our needs:



This looks very thin if resized so I'm afraid we need a way to make the balls bigger (don't know if possible on this site) but manually resizing all the animation is overkill and can lead to errors.

Perhaps we need another preloader.

 

[Hopachi]

Issues regarding the resizing of pointer spinner balls.


The first important issue is that the distance is a bit small between the balls:

(noticed at top spin)

But we'll have to see what can be done. Probably a compromise between size and distance.
I don't have a solution on how to resize the balls + you'll have to keep in mind not to intersect anything.


This is a manual edit:

and looks like this in cursor size:
compared to first version :huh:
It's the best you can get for this kind of complex animation and small size. But it's hard to make.

(Don't mind the pointer, we're talking about the spinner...)
Anti-aliasing or cubic interpolation takes care of the smoothness from far away, but from closeby (zoom in) the balls are already intersecting.

It looks better.:thumb:
BUT
This is just a (frame) sample. The full animation I've made is 54frames and you'll need to edit 54frames JUST for a cursor (and there are 2 *.ani files per scheme)!!!

That's the story.

Now you know what to expect if you try to make this yourself.
To keep it simple: Use the already posted versions.
The best solution is to find a better preloader with bigger circles.

I'll leave this as is for now. I'm not gonna do the animation manually. Sorry.
We'll use what we have. At least we know that an improved version is not impossible so there's still hope.

EDIT:
This issue has been fixed:
http://www.eightforums.com/customization/9827-custom-cursors-3.html#post139743

In the meantime I'll post some W7 aero cursor variations (good colors) which were made some time ago.

Cheers
Hopachi

 

[Hopachi]

Here is the Win7 aero cursor variation:
I couldn't find anywhere these combinations and that's why I decided to make them myself.

Aero-Black-Blue


Aero-Black-Gold


Aero-Deep-Blue


Aero-Red


Aero-(Shiny)-Gold


These were the best combinations of colors and contrast I've made.
Some other purple and orange versions don't look that good and are not included.

A Balance of Colors is needed.
As you noticed, the cursors are based on a dark (black pointer) scheme and the (good) visibility depends on the current theme and desktop background.

That's all
Hopachi

 

[TheGrantFitz]

Love the cursors, Hopachi!
Why aren't you a designer? You're good at it.

 

[Hopachi]

Love the cursors, Hopachi!
Why aren't you a designer? You're good at it.

Thanks.

Why not a designer? Good question. Well it started as a hobby but I can be one if needed.

 

[Arpan]

Well it started as a hobby but I can be one if needed.

You certainly can be, Hopachi my good friend!! You are one of the most knowledged members I have met here in the forums. The cursors are great!!! I'm using the blue balls cursor for my Windows 8

 

[Hopachi]

Thank you Arpan!

Glad you found a suitable colored cursor.

Hopachi

 

[Hopachi]

In addition to the Win7 Aero cursors:
Previously unreleased:

Aero-Red-Dark:


Aero-Purple:


This way, all the colors I've released so far for this theme are now posted.
Enjoy.

Hopachi

 

[Coke Robot]

I was thinking about this the other day, would theoretically Visual Studio 2012 have the metro loading animations as that is what is used to build the metro apps?

 

[Hopachi]

I was thinking about this the other day, would theoretically Visual Studio 2012 have the metro loading animations as that is what is used to build the metro apps?

I never used it before to confirm.
In my opinion is the system that should handle the animations (in resources like imageres.dll and such) but it's possible that you're right.

 

[Hopachi]

I was thinking about this the other day, would theoretically Visual Studio 2012 have the metro loading animations as that is what is used to build the metro apps?

I never used it before to confirm.
In my opinion is the system that should handle the animations (in resources like imageres.dll and such) but it's possible that you're right.

I've searched on Visual Studio 2012 and found nothing.

The good news is that I've managed to automate the process of increasing the circles in the initial GIF using the GIMP.
Stay tuned.