Skinning Windowblinds frames

Per Pixel Frames and UIS2 frames

from WinCustomize Forums

I'm trying really hard to make my new Windowblinds completely from scratch, and I'm using Photoshop to do this.  My question is, what are the sizes of canvases a person should use for making the mockups of both the per pixel frames and UIS2 frames?  Pretty much what I've had to do so far is pull in pieces of other Windowblinds I like, measure the pieces in Photoshop, then add all the dimensions of those pieces to create what the canvas size should be, then create a design in that canvas and slice and dice it when I'm done.  

Working in the medical field, I can only liken this to a med student slicing up a cadaver in order to know how to perform transplants.  Somehow this just feels like I'm either A. cheating, or B. going about the whole thing in a backwards type manner.  Maybe half my problem is I'm so excited about how I want to put the WOWZ! on the finished frame, I'm not focusing on the "hard science" of Windowblinds.  

Also, I still don't fully understand what a lot of the pieces in Windowblinds do, or what order they should be constructed in.  I don't understand the difference between UIS2 and UIS1 frames or how they relate to per pixel frames.  

I have creating the taskbar and start menu pretty much solid in my mind, thanks to Island Dog's excellent tutorial, but the rest of the stuff is kind of hit and miss.  I've reconstructed the frames about four times now.  It's exilarating and frustrating all at the same time.  

Back to the main question - what is the best canvas size for frames?

skinning
3,110 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Shocker, an 'actual' skinning thread :w00t:

 

There are two sets of frames, one , per pixel, supports transparency, dropshadows etc, the other older ones have to be magic pinked and do not support these things.

You need to skin both as some apps dont support per pixel and will default back to the older ones.

They also need to be cut differenty, Take diamond, the default skin.. open up all sections.. and jigsaw it together in PS.

That will give you some good default dimensions to work from.

Do this for both per pixel and non-per pixel frames and you can see how they vary in how they are put into SKS.... and you will have an idea of useable sizes.

Alternately, you can download this psd of mine that has some pretty default sized frames.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/v6s6ix

To make the older uis frames.. just turn off dropshadows and make the frames a solid color, then just merge the frames layers and "pink" around edges and background.

Look at an existing set of uis frames to see how they are sliced differenty. :snowman: :sun:

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Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Thanks, vStyler!  That clears things up for me.  I bestow karma on you for helping me, the blind, to see!

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