Plea for help with app icons/launch image

Wells for icons?

Yeah, there's some kinda bug in Xcode assets but sometimes the proper apple tv "well" is above or below the universal well. When in doubt, delete it and start over.

Basically, it sounds and looks harder than it actually is. You need an large app icon, a small app icon and a "top shelf" image.

The reason for the parallax layered icons (large app icon/small app icon) is that as the user moves around the icon it appears to change perspective. That said, if you're lazy, you can just use the same image for all the layers - it works fine. But, if you're creative, then you can make multiple images that, when layered, will give that illusion of depth.

One important consideration however, is that the "back" layer must not have an alpha channel and must be the appropriate size. The sizes are:

Small Icon: 400x240 - parallax

Large Icon: 1280x768 - parallax

Top Shelf Image: 1920x720

Hopefully this will help some 🙂

Thanks for the reply. I cannot send a screen shot, but I did a 2-layer test icon in PhotoShop Elements with at size 400 x 240 saved as PNG. Added file to app. Only Universal wells appear. But magically an AppleTV well appeared. Well is Apple TV 1x. The image cannot be placed in the well. It
"bounces out."

Then imported image into Parallax Preview app. Only one layer appeard even though the image is two layers. So I added a second layer, and exported the lsr file. So, what do I do with that?

Sorry for being so dense, but I just cannot get a handle on this.

The images that you copy into the various wells are considered as individual layers, not layered images. In other words, you cannot copy a layered image into a "well", only individual layers. So a regular .png file should be able to be dragged in.

The Parallax Preview app is weird in that you cannot actually use an lsr file for an icon - you would have to copy the .lsr into the assets, and then copy the layers from the lsr into the wells. That means (for me anyways) the only benefit to the Parallax Preview app is the ability to move top layers to a particular position relative to the back layer.

Structure in Xocde:

Brand Assest Folder

App Icon - Large

Front has png image

Middle and Back are empty

App Icon - Small

Front has png image

Middle and Back are empty

Top Shelf Image has png image

Result:

Icon does not appear on Apple TV

Top Shelf image does not appear on Apple TV

No errors generated.

you have to have at least two layers defined - they can be the same image though

Would those be the middle and back images? Apple says 2 - 5 layers.

I don't think it matters which two you use. those are just labels. you can delete the empty ones.

Added icons. No errors. No icon on Apple TV.

Two layers for small icon.

Decided to try a new project with the latest Beta of Xcode. The structure was in place, by default, for Assets.xcassets with a folder for App Icon & Top Shelf Image. And disclosure triangles for App Icon - Large, App Icon - Small. Top Shelf Image and Launch Image as well. So, was this fixed in the latest build of Xcode? Seem like it.

So what is the point of the .lsr file? I'm totally confused as why that is created if it is never used???

It's not used for app icons, but I think it can be used for other images in the app. If you put a layered image in a UIImageView you'll get the parallax effect.