New skin creator here. - The Political Machine Forums

Reply #176 July 3, 2011 8:34 PM from

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Quoting Uvah, reply 174

The spaces between the buttons and the borders top and bottom must be equal.

In my illustration, the upper row shows in red all the margins between the buttons, as well as the edges of the png. They are all precisely 5px. Any other possibilities?

peace,

Dave

Reply #177 July 3, 2011 8:45 PM from

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That's the only thing I could think of sorry.

+1

Reply #178 July 3, 2011 8:52 PM from

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Thanks just the same, Uvah. That's what originally thought also.

Cyndi, when you described the trick, it was in relation to the user name at the top of the Start Menu, but you said it was also useful in some other places, too. Maybe this isn't one of those?

peace,

Dave

Reply #179 July 3, 2011 10:39 PM from

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Quoting MallyMcGinnis, reply 159

one sees a couple of pixels of wood when a button is pressed than one doesn't see when it's not. Still, even when not pressed, the buttons look organic, like they fit into the wood rather than applied to it's surface. How'd you do that, if you don't mind my asking?

Well, the pressed buttons have a stroke 2 pixels, I believe, which uses a wood grain pattern, rather than a color.

As for the "organic" look, it is done with the combination of an inner shadow, and an outer glow on the layer.

+1

Reply #180 July 3, 2011 10:55 PM from

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Uvah was very close. You need the same space around each frame. so if you have 2px around each frame, that would mean that there are 4px between each button, and 2px on each end.

Quoting MallyMcGinnis, reply 178

Maybe this isn't one of those?

Correct (you can use it on these buttons in Windows 7 though)

+1

Reply #181 July 4, 2011 1:41 AM from

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Quoting RedneckDude, reply 179

Quoting MallyMcGinnis, reply 159one sees a couple of pixels of wood when a button is pressed than one doesn't see when it's not. Still, even when not pressed, the buttons look organic, like they fit into the wood rather than applied to it's surface. How'd you do that, if you don't mind my asking?

Well, the pressed buttons have a stroke 2 pixels, I believe, which uses a wood grain pattern, rather than a color.

As for the "organic" look, it is done with the combination of an inner shadow, and an outer glow on the layer.

It's a really nice effect, and it couldn't be more perfectly crafted. I can sure see spending 7 months on your first skin. You learn new things, go back and rework something you already did, and the cycle would go on. It would be hard to know when it was finished. It's a really beautiful skin, and when one considers it's your first, one can't wait to see what might be coming next. Any ideas yet?

peace,

Dave

Reply #182 July 4, 2011 1:50 AM from

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Quoting Xiandi, reply 180

Uvah was very close. You need the same space around each frame. so if you have 2px around each frame, that would mean that there are 4px between each button, and 2px on each end.

That solved the issue; thanks Uvah, and Cyndi!

Quoting MallyMcGinnis, reply 178

Maybe this isn't one of those?

Correct (you can use it on these buttons in Windows 7 though)

Ah, well. That's ok. Thanks for your time again, Cyndi!

peace,

Dave

Reply #183 July 4, 2011 1:53 AM from

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Quoting MallyMcGinnis, reply 181

Quoting RedneckDude,
reply 179

Quoting MallyMcGinnis, reply 159one sees a couple of pixels of wood when a button is pressed than one doesn't see when it's not. Still, even when not pressed, the buttons look organic, like they fit into the wood rather than applied to it's surface. How'd you do that, if you don't mind my asking?

Well, the pressed buttons have a stroke 2 pixels, I believe, which uses a wood grain pattern, rather than a color.

As for the "organic" look, it is done with the combination of an inner shadow, and an outer glow on the layer.

It's a really nice effect, and it couldn't be more perfectly crafted. I can sure see spending 7 months on your first skin. You learn new things, go back and rework something you already did, and the cycle would go on. It would be hard to know when it was finished. It's a really beautiful skin, and when one considers it's your first, one can't wait to see what might be coming next. Any ideas yet?

peace,

Dave

Thanks for the kudos. I know of several things wrong with it. As far as what's next.....

Kicking it around....

Reply #184 July 4, 2011 8:13 AM from

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Quoting MallyMcGinnis, reply 173

the upper row shows the button I used in SKS (minus the 5px red margins, used here for illustration), while the bottom row shows that there is a joggle of a couple of pixels while changing states. What is causing that?

I would guess that your spacing is off. You want 5 px of blank canvas on each side of the buttons. Remember that that equals 10 px between buttons, while there should be only 5 px on both ends of the strip.

+1

Reply #185 July 4, 2011 8:34 AM from

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I was thinking its the same as smx and rainlendar, equal spacing on all sides. For rainies I use one pixel all around and on smx two all around. What would the difference be between them?

Reply #186 July 4, 2011 10:05 AM from

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This over sized start button presented some new issues when I moved into the horizontal position. This image is a screen shot of the vertical bar as displayed in SKS.

It's centered nicely, without my assistance, at the top of the vertical task bar, but the top piece is missing. In this image from my own desktop

the button is no longer centered, and the missing top piece is still missing. In this 3rd image, also from my own desktop, the button is displayed, but wouldn't hurt to be moved to the left to accommodate the space between the edge and the button inside the red circle of the first image. I think the missing sliver from the bottom might be due to my monitor; it has few adjustments, and can't vert/horiz align it.

Are these little bugs fixable, or do I just live with them if I want to keep the over sized start button?

peace,

Dave

Reply #187 July 4, 2011 11:30 AM from

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Not meaning to be a smart ass or anything, Dave, but skinning isn't an exact science and a little experimentation and trial and error is the best learning tool there is. Move stuff around, change settings, push it to the limit (s), MAKE it do what you want, poke around in every section or sub-section you can find and if you break it...start all over again! THAT'S skinning.....

+1

Reply #188 July 4, 2011 11:47 AM from

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That start button issue on the vertical taskbar cannot be fixed. The top part of the 'glow' is offscreen. When you resize the vertical taskbar, the startbutton moves with it, that's why it's off center. It would be lovely to have different buttons for each taskbar, but right now it uses the same button for both, so we are stuck with an imperfect button for the vertical bar.

Adding more space to the left side of the button is easy. Just add more space to the left side of each frame in the image itself.

Reply #189 July 4, 2011 2:13 PM from

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Quoting navigatsio, reply 25

Yo, Mally ...if you need any help with anything (questions, testing, etc.) you're more than welcome to email or PM me anytime. Of course, with Xiandi, you're definately in the most capable hands here! Just saying 'tho, bud....

Thanks, I'll remember that. I'm sure I'll be looking for testers some day.

Quoting navigatsio, reply 53

Quoting vStyler, reply 44Cyndie, ur such a class act

She sure is.

peace,

Dave

Edited to add, I'm always happy for constructive criticism. I'll try to be a little less of a spoon-feeder.

Reply #190 July 4, 2011 2:28 PM from

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Quoting Xiandi, reply 188

That start button issue on the vertical taskbar cannot be fixed. The top part of the 'glow' is offscreen. When you resize the vertical taskbar, the startbutton moves with it, that's why it's off center. It would be lovely to have different buttons for each taskbar, but right now it uses the same button for both, so we are stuck with an imperfect button for the vertical bar.

Drat. Well, maybe on a later version of the software, they'll make it so we can put different start buttons on both styles of taskbar, but I appreciate the definitive answer.

Adding more space to the left side of the button is easy. Just add more space to the left side of each frame in the image itself.

I wonder if I ever would have thought of that. Thanks!

peace,

Dave

Reply #191 July 5, 2011 3:25 AM from

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lol xiandi's too quick for me

+1

Reply #192 July 11, 2011 7:08 PM from

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Hello, all;

I have a problem I can't find an answer to. This image is of the upper left corner of my per pixel frame in use. Neither the caption border nor the bottom border do this, but both left and right borders turn translucent occasionally no matter the size of the window.

When this is resolved, I have my per pixel frames completed. Any help would be appreciated.

peace,

Dave

Reply #193 July 11, 2011 7:42 PM from

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Hey mally ! Hmmm that looks real strange... Have you been messing with The alphablending or semi transparency for those images in Sks ? -I´m not at all sure that´s the case here just guessing wildly... And it´s the perpixels you say...hmmm...

+1

Reply #194 July 11, 2011 7:51 PM from

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Do you have the box checked that says: the alpha channel in this image is premultiplied?

+1

Reply #195 July 11, 2011 7:56 PM from

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Quoting 2of3, reply 194

Do you have the box checked that says: the alpha channel in this image is premultiplied?

Xactly my thought

Reply #196 July 11, 2011 7:57 PM from

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Or...

If your frames have more than 1 layer, check the blend mode.

+1

Reply #197 July 11, 2011 8:50 PM from

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Quoting neone6, reply 193

Hey mally ! Hmmm that looks real strange... Have you been messing with The alphablending or semi transparency for those images in Sks ? -I´m not at all sure that´s the case here just guessing wildly... And it´s the perpixels you say...hmmm...

Thanks for your replies everyone! Yes, it's the per pixels section of the blind I'm stuck on with those borders. I don't think I've messed with either alphablending or semi-transparancy, but if I did, and they didn't do anything, I'd have set them back to where they were. Right now, I can't find where the settings are located. Here is the code for the left button:

Image=PROFMCGINNISSTEAMLAB\Left Border.tga
Trans=1
PerPixel=1
LeftWidth=0
RightWidth=0
TileLeft=0
TileBottom=0
TileTop=0
TileRight=0
BottomHeight=19
TopHeight=0

The tile boxes for all 4 borders remain unchecked.

Quoting 2of3, reply 194

Do you have the box checked that says: the alpha channel in this image is premultiplied?

That box on all 4 borders is also unchecked.

Quoting 2of3, reply 194

If your frames have more than 1 layer, check the blend mode.

Just 1 layer on these 4 borders, so the blend mode is greyed out. That did bring to my attention, though, that on the 2 side vertical borders which are going transparent part of the time, "paint using margins" are all set to 0.

Thanks again!

peace,

Dave

Reply #198 July 11, 2011 9:05 PM from

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Quoting 2of3, reply 196

Or...

If your frames have more than 1 layer, check the blend mode.

This let me to the answer, I think. It's hard to "paint using margins" when there are no margins set. What might have made that easier for me to catch is if there was some kind of consistency, that is, if they were always transparent. That they were solid more of the time than not made it harder for me to resolve. I appreciate your help, and everyone else, too.

peace,

Dave

Reply #199 July 11, 2011 9:31 PM from

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So they´re transparent randomly, sometimes they are and some times they´re not for no apparent reason.... sounds more like a problem with the system than an Sks issue....Although it could be some problem with the Maximized caption... If those parameters arent set correctly the whole skin can go haywire ! ... Yeah check the Maximized caption parameters Under Captions extra settings tab... SIZE of Max. caption, must be accordingly to the image set.

Reply #200 July 11, 2011 11:14 PM from

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Quoting neone6, reply 199

BottomHeight=19

Quoting MallyMcGinnis, reply 197

that on the 2 side vertical borders which are going transparent part of the time, "paint using margins" are all set to 0.

If they are all set to zero, and the code says Bottom Height=19, something is wrong there. Paint using margins will still work if the margins are all set to zero. It just stretches it from the edge of the graphic rather than from the edge of a margin. Try setting that BottomHeight to zero in the code editor tab and apply it. See if that changes anything.