I'm using Drupal for the first time for a project at work. I'm finally getting my head wrapped around some of the core concepts, but when it comes to customizing output I'm unsure of how to proceed.
I have to build a fairly specialized image gallery. I've managed to cobble something workable together using Views2, but it's not quite where it needs to be. I'd like to write it from scratch, using SQL and actual PHP, rather than working through this web UI.
I figure I'll put this functionality in a new module. Is that right? Or is that an abomination to the Drupal world?
Edit:
Here's what I've got so far. I've created Image Gallery and Image content types with CCK. Images can be assigned to multiple galleries, via nodereference. I've got imagecache creating two sizes for each uploaded image - a thumbnail size and a gallery size.
Two gallery formats are required, but let's assume I'm going to have a carousel style for now, with some custom JQuery and CSS to match the rest of the site's look and feel. Clicking a thumb in the carousel-style navigator will load the full sized image above it.
Now, assuming such a thing does not exist, what is the recommended approach for creating it? Not how to code it, but where would this code live within the Drupal system?