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diva42

Join Date 11/2009

Sizes for each separate part of skin

I am completely stuck with skinstudio 6.4 I was told to study other peoples skins which I have done with a few, I want to know what

Size to make each individual section ex. start menu top what size am I supposed to create it in photoshop?

Ther are no tutorials that I found to help the wiki doesnt help me nothing online leads me to understanding how to even make a

beggining there has to be a starting point what size is the start menu each skin Ive looked at all have different sizes so how am I

supposed to know if I should make it 1024x768 or 300x500 really there has to be a set size somewhere.

The only thing I do know is the wallpaper sizes which doesn't help me in the least as that is not sent into skinstudio for adding to

the skin.

What am I failing to understand?

Thanks, Lisa

skinning

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k10w3

Join Date 11/2007

+770

I've asked this question myself, and the answer is there is no set size. What I've been doing is starting with a file in photoshop the size of my monitor resolution as a mockup starting point -- then I build each piece onto that file and when it looks the way I want it to, I merge the layers of the pieces I want, copy them and open them in a new file and do my slicing.

For a starter though (because I know when you're starting out it's just too hard to pull a size out of the sky), I read in one of the older posts that the default start panel size (for XP anyway), is 380 x 436 pixels, so I've been making my start panels that size.

I hope this helps.

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Thanks for the help I really do believe there has to be a set size because I made a start panel and half the art was missing from it because it was to big so that tells me that the size was to big its very frustrating to be told there is no set size when logic says otherwise.

So if its true there is no set size for each piece of the start menu then i could make a 25x25 top and expect it to look like a normal start menu that is no so.

Thanks Lisa

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vStyler

Join Date 11/2004

+919

Most of mine start as roughly 500X400 images although i typically just 'eye' it, it doesnt really matter, u can also adjust the size of width in the extra settings of top and left panel.

The way it is sliced up and where the margins are set are also factors.

Experiment from there.

This should help...SK did a nice little begginers tit. a while ago I was able to find it with a google.

http://wiki.wincustomize.com/wiki/Windowblinds:_A_Complete_Guide_to_the_Start_Panel_Pt_1

http://wiki.wincustomize.com/wiki/Windowblinds:_A_Complete_Guide_to_the_Start_Panel_Pt_2

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Yes, start with a canvas 500x400 and increase the height in top part if you've in mind someting of particular...a suggestion...try to do the bottom part of startmenu above the 50px

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I give up for now there just to much vague stuff for me to make a beggining.

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k10w3

Join Date 11/2007

+770

Noooo! Don't give up! (Take a break, yes, but don't give up). If you'd like, I can e-mail you one of my .PSD files for a mockup and a start panel (I know my work isn't "up there" yet, but you could get the basic idea of what's going on); just PM me you're e-mail address. I'm still fairly young at this myself, so I truly remember the frustration and would like to help.

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vStyler

Join Date 11/2004

+919

to much vague stuff

what is vague? That's a detailed, pretty in depth tutorial.

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zakai1369

Join Date 04/2007

+139

Some good tips in this thread HERE

and I don't know about the difference between the start menu in xp and vista/7 but here is the template that Boxxi originally posted in Reply #12 of that thread but for some reason no longer shows there.

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Update!!

Well Thanks to all the help I received I managed to actually learn how to make a basic template for the start menu

man that was painful

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k10w3

Join Date 11/2007

+770

For a first attempt, this is great! Now you have a taste of what's involved, you learned some new skills and a little bit of the mystery that is SkinStudio. Very productive day for you, I would say. Keep it up.

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Thanks one issue I noticed though on the bottom right and left you can see a space where the corner is rounded is there a way to fix this in skinstudio?

And also I'm reading the wiki for the start menu and its talking about alpha channels being applied in Photoshop which I didnt do with mine is this something we have to do?

I kind of understand what alpha channels are it has something to do with opacity and cutting out certain areas I think.

Thanks Lisa

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It looks like you have sliced your panel up wrong. This will illustrate the different parts of the startpanel

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I kind of understand what alpha channels are it has something to do with opacity and cutting out certain areas I think.

you don't have to bother with alpha channels. If you draw your images and save them as a .tga, then the alpha channel is in there.

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Thanks yeah I did slice it wrong nice example

I've been saving my images a png so I should save as tga?

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I saved as tga and it wouldnt import

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theAVMAN

Join Date 10/2006

+434

Quoting diva42,

reply 15

I saved as tga and it wouldnt import

You are doing good just save as .png and when you import SkinStudio will convert to .tga then if you later edit the image skin studio will open your png.Edit , Save click force reimport and you will have a .tga again!

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Ok not sure what save click force reimport is but when I run in to it I will

now my other issue is the top of the right is not lining up with the places list and it shows different in skinstudio than applied its weird.

There is also a small white tip on the top right side that I dont know how it got there as the background is transparent

How can I fix this?

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I figured it out I had to clean the code out and images then reimport and make sure the sizes of each image was entered in the

extra tab.

Now my only issue atm is that white tip on the right top of my rounded corner I have no clue what it is the background for that

image is transparent any ideas?

Thanks Lisa

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theAVMAN

Join Date 10/2006

+434

posting a pic for both

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theAVMAN

Join Date 10/2006

+434

Hope this helps!

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vStyler

Join Date 11/2004

+919

also make sure u have transparency and alpha channel boxes checked for the image.

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hmm do I have to do this in a certain order I did all the adjustments to each image and applied

and the white tip is still there

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Ok I solved it I had to recrop leaving a bit more room above the top for some reason if the crop is snug it winds up like that.

Thanks Lisa

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Best ways to learn...open a skin that works correctly by a good author and poke around.

If you ever just want to see how big something is just replace its image with a flat colored image (black or white or whatever).

Windows will then display it at its needed size...which you can screenshot and measure.

But,its really arbitrary what size to produce the actual graphic at because small graphics will stretch or tile to fill out the needed size.

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I had to recrop leaving a bit more room above the top for some reason if the crop is snug it winds up like that.

That wouldnt matter...you probably just got it in the program correctly.

But oh well...whatever gets you moving forward.

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