My Windowblinds Anti-tutorial Tutorial

Entry One

By Po' Smedley Posted January 1, 2006 20:16:07

11:39 AM
My biggest hurdle so far has been in not knowing where to start. I have opend SkinStudio, too many times to count, and closed it after after a few minutes. I truly don't know what I am doing. So, I decided to post in the forum at WC, to ask if anyone could offer a ‘good or best place to start’. Forgetting that there are 'Trolls' a foot, I allowed myself to be taken by surprise with the response " uhhhh.....how about the START panel?".

12:07 PM
Having survived the 'Troll', I am set upon by a scorpion and a werewolf. However, they both agree in that I should start with the 'window frames' and 'buttons'. It is further suggested that I start with an 'existing skin' and go through it, altering it 'piece by piece'. Using an existing skin as a base sounds good to me. And you don't have to warn me about ripping and copying and all that. I know it's wrong, but that aside....with me at the controls youcan be rest assured it will be severly altered by the time I am done. I just don't know if it will be usable.

12:50 PM
Opened SkinStudio and made the fatal mistake of checking my forum post one more time. It has been suggested that I design the entire project first, in wallpaper size. A 'Design Board'. Keep it simple and do the details once I am ready to open SkinStudio. I like this idea, so I am going to go with this. (Note to self: Do NOT refer back to that forum after this!)

1:08 AM
I worked on the ‘Start Panel’ for about 4 hours this afternoon. Why so long? Well, the first version sucked. When I realized what I was doing wrong, I started over. Now, keep in mind, I am only working on the ‘Design Board’ right now. The other reason it took so long is that I ended up with about 6 different color variations. I need two. I am making a ‘sub-skin’ for this.

01/01/2006
This is the start panel design. Geometrically speaking, this is what I want. The colors are only what I am using for this article.

I’m pretty pleased with it. Not so happy with the ‘task bar backgrounds. “A” does not do what I ‘want’ it to do. I don’t like the way it repeats. “B” is not quite what I want, in as far as the graphics. I have to do some shading, but it worked well when I tested it.

Only slightly into this Design Board and I am wondering (after having looked over SkinStudio numerous times) how I am going to apply this stuff, especially, the Start Panel. I should probably start with something easier, but for me it’s impossible to keep it simple.

Notes: a. I am working with the SkinStudio that came with WB v5.
b. Icon Pack is about 8/10 done. A few more, them I have to convert the PNG’s.

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