From Zero to Theme (2) - Start Panel
Day 2
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 by JJ-Ying | Discussion: Community
Today is about to extend the rough design to other parts. Window borders and start panel play big role in a theme, so after the rough design of window borders is done, I choose to add the start panel in Atlas for this stage.
To keep functionality and simplicity, no textures are used here, but to make the plain panel more interesting, I added some highlight and a stripe in the top part of the panel. And as I always do in the past, I use 2 different colors for the background of left/right hand side. And for the log off/turn off area, a very dark blue is there to keep visually balance with the stripe in the top part of the panel.
Consistency should be considered at any time, and the whole panel has the same look & feel with the window, and for now, the basic tune is shown, the overall appearance has gradually been shown.
Great to get feedbacks from you guys, so if you have any problem to ask about the process, please be free to leave a comment and I will try to answer as possible as I can or we can discuss together 
To see the post with all parts, please go the following post:
Reply #2 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 9:45 AM
This is great. I'm trying to follow along and hopefully get through a skin. 
Reply #3 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 10:04 AM
Sorry for no making these posts step-by-step, but originally I just want to show the overall progress and show different sides of making a skin.
Here, I used Photoshop CS3 and later, SkinStudio will surely be used to make it into a wba.
Reply #5 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 12:26 PM
Just commenting to follow this thread.......Good stuff!
Reply #6 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 2:24 PM
Great insight JJ. Might I suggest keeping this as one post so folks can follow the progress along more easily? 1 post vs how ever many this is going to be? Just my 2 cents.
Reply #7 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 2:41 PM
I'll second that. Many posts can end up getting confusing, or at the very least, it'll be hard keeping them all together for the sake of reference. 
Reply #8 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 2:57 PM
I suggest editing the first thread and add a link to this one. In the following threads it could be convenient to add a link to the first one too. It's easier to follow a series of threads rather than having to browse through tons of comments stating "thanks dude"...
Oh, and THANKS DUDE!!! I'm looking forward to the rest.
Reply #9 Wednesday, February 4, 2009 9:22 AM
Reply #10 Wednesday, February 4, 2009 10:48 AM
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Reply #1 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 9:38 AM
Thank you for this tutorial, JJ
...could you mention how you formed the images and which PSP tools you used?
Sorry if this is obvious to those more skilled than I (everyone!) and I hope I'm not wasting your time with the request.