Starting a WB Skin

from WinCustomize Forums
This is mostly for the people who have done lots of WB skins......

What is the best way to start a WB skin? Like, which elements are best to start with?
Also, is there a LOT of coding involved in it? (I know that probably depends a lot on the skin, but what would an average skin take?)

I've always wanted to make one...but figured I'd be edjumacated before before I just dove in.



[Message Edited]
skinning
2,134 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The best thing to start is to get one skin, which has all the graphics in real size and format (.tga or .bmp)..
Next is to run photoshop (or psp) and try to draw the main window. And then make that main window in skinstudio.
I know it looks stupid, but noone else can learn u windowblinds skinning. You need to learn it by ur own. Good luck!
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The best thing is to get skinstudio.

When I start a skin, I usualy begin with the menu bar, and the menu, the rest of the skin I base on that
WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Alright, thanks for the suggestions..

And sorry, I forgot to mention this earlier, but I do have skinstudio.

I was just wondering which part of the skin was easiest to start on
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I base everything on the start menu graphic because its the largest and you can do more with it.SS does the coding for you.You do have to set lots of margins tho or nothing looks right.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
make your titlebar, left side, right side and bottom graphics on one image then use the cut utility in Skinstudio to cut out the individual graphics and to recolor or grayscale the inactive state of the graphics. then add the skinstudio defaults for the rest of the skin so you have something to work from. Also read the old skinning guide for the UIS 2 formatt it's still revelant for the most of the skin and after reading it many things will start to make sense.

I think you can get to it from http://www.windowblinds.net