Skin shot advice? Help?

Cant offer any advice regarding the blind. But what can offer is a compliment...I love this! Love the colors. Great work sir.

Hi...here is what I go by when I make a windowblind....I usually start with Taskbar and Start Menu. Then I will sit back and look at it. If I like it, I continue. If not, I change it. All in all what I am trying to say is if you are happy with it that is what counts. First you do it to please yourself, and if others like it, that is a plus and a motivation to improve....  

i really like the color choices you chose to use. and i agree with butch123. if it looks good to you, then go with it. i personally don't think it looks big. keep at it!learn by learning i say. keep up the good work on this skin!

i agree with butch 200% its whether YOU like it or not.......if you are in half minds about it, then probably it needs tweaking.....play with it until you LUV it...then you cant go wrong....as soon as yr in that skinning zone and start dreaming about yr skin.....then you know you gotta winner.....

(dreams may vary, batteries not included.....)

I'm not gonna sugarcoat, if you want my opinion... too much color..also... the darker green area's, right side of start menu and bottom of explorer windowes make the dark text hard, if not almost impossible to read. People enjoy usabilty, using a less saturated color in more areas, especially in buttonface\toolbar color will be recieve a better reception to everyday users.. if your going for shock value, the more color the better, but I, personally, would advise against it.

Couldnt edit last post (WC  ) Excuse the grammatical errors in last post, REALLY wish they would fix the edit post problem.

Try to stay away from rectangles inside of rectangles, its been done over and over ... also...

The start menu, compared to the frames is.. far bulkier, I would advise making the borders of the start menu and the frames more in unison...sizewise... looks a little lob-sided.

Don't take offense to anything I've said, only trying to help.   

If you want as many people to love it as possible.. the old "skin for yourself" may not be a great idea.

Try to get as much feedback , critique and advice from as many people as will give it to you, don't take 'looks great' as an answer as people will tell you that ALL day long to make you feel better.

Good luck man, would like to see you improve as a skinner in your future works.

Thanks Everyone I do agree with You all about It should be how I want Bu vstyler has got a point. I Wnat to like it but I want to make Shure that others will too. Skinning is fun for me but the real fun Is pleasing ohters. I dont make skins for myself I want to provide for the site and for the users. I want to be a good skinner.
There is no way to make a skin they every single person will like but I want my skin to appeal to a large group of people. Color may be what some like But others will like OS styled skin? Like artifice and Diamond. What I want to accomlish with skins is a median between the two. Like quest, Sexy, Etc you know what I mean.

I totally agree with you vstyler about the start menu That is why I posted this because It is so big compared to the Windows. It doesnt look clean and Professional It looks out of place in the skin but I have a very hard time with start menus!The rectangle thing, I know I am learning SKS and its ability and How to use it and stuff so Yeah in the future That will change.

I disagree...

Skin for yourself.  It's a fact of life you will not please 'everyone' if ever you try.

Individuality is the most important goal.   From that popularity/Kudos/Karma/respect will come.

Pleasing the masses [or trying to] will generally result in mediocrity - where the only difference is in the detail/polish/quality.

There are enough well-executed-but-predictable-skins out there already....;)

Long ago, in a galaxy far away there was a wild diversity in the skins being produced.....so much so that individual artists were easily recognized from their product.

So much these days seems to be more about making Win 9x look like XP ....or XP look like Vista.

OK, so one of the first 'skins' I dabbled with was making 9x look like Amiga [in Litestep]....but at least it wasn't just another variant of the standard MS look....;)

That may be true, but I think that if the object is to get as many people to love it as you can, then the skin loses some of the personality of the skinner.


Ditto.   

Totally agree on this point, its truly IMPOSSIBLE to please everyone.. some like this, some like that...its never ending,....

therefore skinning to how YOU like it plays such a major role, over time, if you skin enough, you begin to notice your 'own' style coming out in every skin you do.


At the end of the day....if your proud of your submission and totally in love with it.....then that is the main thing. (also making sure youve completed all the small work, margins ect, skinning the lot ect....you know, the grey matter)


......From a personal experience...i once did a skin where i tried to skin for the crowd.....and the skin i made just wasnt working in sync with my imagination...(basically my imagination was screaming at me to go one way and my brain was telling me to go another).....i had no motivation, and didnt even want to even bother to do it....in the end the skin just made me sick and i trashed it and never saw it again........

Ever since ive gone for MY style, MY own feelings, thoughts, zany notions and ideas...
trust me....it works.........

Totally agree, however, making something different doesn't neccesarily make it good.

I said nothing about making 'popular, mainstream' skins or not being an individual.

I merely pointed out some simple skinning do's and don'ts  :NOTSURE: 

Ditto butch's comment, with one small exception. I always start with the start menu, and until I get that just "perfect" (meaning totally in love with it), nothing else gets done. I have made as many as 25 different start menus for a blind before I was totally in love with it. The remainder of my blind always comes from the start menu...I feel the start menu is cornerstone of the blind.

The key here is to skin for yourself...  

haha me too Jazz!...its a great way to start a skin......cant fail hey?

I guess that this subject is sort of controversial? LOL I just want everyone to know I am skinning for myself! Well not for me but I am makeing skins that I have always wanted. This skin and thes colors are what I LOVE! My favorite colors and I love them together. Right now Since i am a beginner I am trying to use color for my Uniqueness? since i am not that good at graphic design or whatever you would call it?
anyways I made a new start menu and I just dont quite like it so... I will take everyones advice and keep trying till I love it. Thanks everyone and Keep the advice comeing! thanks so much for you help guys.

thats the spirit!! :CONGRAT: 

I dont know where to ask this question, so maybe someone can help me.
I am trying to post my screenshot, but I get an error message that says I am missing a skin file.
What skin file? I am only uploading jpgs.
Please helppppp.

You have to have the .jpg file in both boxes. the preview box and the skin\screenshot box. Some times that site doesnt work right because of wierd unknown reasons, maybie it is too busy or you connection isnt good right then. Try it again tommorow. I have had that problem so many times! I have leaned that it is best to copy your description before you press post just in case your upload fails. MAKE SHURE YOU DONT JUST PRESS THE BACK BUTTON WHEN YOU UPLOAD FAILED. Sometimes if i go back to wincustomize homw(by typing wincustomize.com in the adress box or pressing the sites home button) and then go back into submit to gallery it will work. I hope that I helped a little. that is the best I can to. That is all of my knowloege about uploading in general? It doesnt just happen for screenshots. OH check the size of the picture. Not the accual resolution the the .mb of the file. the size on disk size. I think there is a limit?

You are going to hate my skin soon to be released its dark on dark....


RobJK like the colors but your first feeling was right a little to big... tried my hand at some vista skinning the other day and must say.... its a b*tch to skin.. therefore no vista version of the one im working on... Like the green and the frames looks great. Just do it over and over again until it feels right.. when it does leave it there... work thru your skin then when you have used it for some time you know if its a keeper or not... thats my way anyway

Yeah I have to do this whole skin again over. I lost everything so..I know its a keeper and I know I like it! I wouldnt waist my time makeing it all over again. that start is defenately changed! I like it but not for this skin.




I think that vista is funner. more skin areas to work with... Less ICONS. those shell icons in xp are very very sucky. fun but time consuming. I am going to make shure my skins are for both though. My first was and this will be and all of mine are definately going to be for both xp and vista. The main will be vista so some may not have those icons changed... LOL that is so hard for me.

NE ways thanks viodcore.