(Better late than never?)

I wanted to do a red theme this week, but was unsuccessful in finding a good number of red skins that worked well with my system.

I managed to salvage my idea with just one skin ,Thundera by Z71 . I wasn't really thrilled about using this skin because it looked kind of light in color, and it has a cat on it..(wolves, cats,...don't really mix...) but I tried it , because I was running out of time and options. I am glad I did. Despite the cat, this skin is clean, and fast. I like the sword animation on the start menu , and the plum color of the window not in use.

The biggest problem I had with most red skins was the text boxes tended to be either too dark, or totally white(I guess to compensate for when the background was dark, the light text would work best.. but on a white background((shudder)) it just didn't work.)

I used Light Streaks Ultra Ver by DEVJIT for the wall. I tried a few, but this one was less busy and had a nice three dimensional depth without having such detail as to detract from other things.

For the CursorFX theme , I chose Interfaced FX by PuterDudeJim . Not really a flashy cursor, but it has great speed, sharp point, and a nice animation that doesn't last overly long. oh ya and it's red. lol see where this theme is goin?

Valentine Vious by Skinhit rounds out the basics with a red hued icon package. Though it's called valentine, it is really a year round look. There's nothing frilly and hearts n flowery about this package. It' great to use anytime. And as a great side note, this is one of those special packages that includes some extra icons for much used programs , like firefox! I love bonuses!

I added a clock object just to dress things up a bit,Red Grunge Clock by ravenbloodbath has the red dragon skin bezel with a nice black face . I liked the look and decided to keep it. I just wish there were a widget set with the same theme. I think a grouping would really look good.

I purchased Object Dock Plus this weekend, and was hoping to have enough time to set it up prettily, but time ran short, so I am going to show you just a few of the dock changes I made. One of the benefits of Object Dock Plus is the ability to create more than one dock. I chose to have two in view. I also have noticed the quality of the graphics has changed dramatically between the free version and the plus version. I don't know if it's just the choice of icons and dock backgrounds, or if the higher quality is intentional but I do know I like it.

First I chose Red Satin by Cavan1  for my dock background. It's a nice sleek red look, with stylish curves at the edges.I changed the firefox icon to Firefox by SG since it's a red hued theme , that icon works best. I used as many of the icons from  Wraith Dock icons by Skoriginals. as I could. It worked ok for this setup and I wish the wraith set had icons for start menu and configure dock. I would have done the whole thing with that. I really dislike the object dock icon, so I changed that one to object dock pngs by Brickhead I used the metal looking one.

Well folks, now is the time to start the real countdown to this years GUI Championships, the largest GUI customization competition around,  and to give some more details about the competition.  Let me first start off by thanking all our sponsors for this years event, I have no doubt this will be the best one yet!

The GUI Champs ‘08 will officially start on Monday, October 13th. 

The judging and more detailed schedule will be posted soon, but this is when we will start accepting entries.

Prizes (as of 9-15-08)

• Video Cards from AMD
• Camtasia Studio 5, and SnagIt 9 from TechSmith
• Subscriptions to WinCustomize.com and DeviantART.com
• 32GB iPod Touch
• Subscriptions to Object Desktop from Stardock
• Cash $$$
• Autodesk is sponsoring a copy of either Maya or 3DS Max (to be determined)
• and more!

As it stands now, we have well over $10,000 in cash and prizes for this years event so far.  I say “so far” because we are still talking to a few great folks about additional prizes, and I will post more info as it comes in.  More details about prize distribution for categories will also come later.  Just be assured we have a great prize lineup already.

The current GUI Champs ‘08 categories are:

1. WindowBlinds Skins
   1. Most Original
   2. Most Usable
   3. Best Overall
2. IconPackager Sets
   1. Most Original
   2. Most Usable
   3. Best Overall
3. Animated Wallpapers (.Dreams)
   1. Most Original
   2. Most Usable
   3. Best Overall

So that is the Pre-Kickoff, and more info will be along shortly.  There’s plenty of time to get the skins going before the official start, so get to work if you haven’t already.  Also, be sure to visit this post that details more of the rules for this years event.

It’s been a busy week, but I still wanted to make a quick This Week in Skinning.  Here are this weeks picks!

See you next week!

Yesterday was the last day of my trip to Stardock HQ.  It was a very productive day with a few meetings, and I’m happy to say that Zoomba and myself have nailed down the final plans for the GUI Champs ‘08, and a more “official” announcement will be posted in just a few days.  While I missed my family, I was a bit sad to leave because I was having a great time and it was just awesome to get to know people better than I have in the last couple of years.  I also have a lot of a cool stuff to talk about, so watch the front page of WinCustomize today for a big “teaser”.

I flew back to Florida late last night, which happened to be a very rough flight back, and now I’m just catching up on the last few days.  Here are a few more pics from my trip.

Brad (Frogboy) and myself.

Hanging with Zoomba.

Stardock HQ.

Well Day 2 was my first full day at Stardock, and let me first start off by saying the weather is just fantastic.  I think it was around 60 degrees when I left the hotel this morning, and it felt really good.  I got my own little cubicle to work out of, which is weird to me to be in an office with other people, but I enjoyed having people around.

Here’s me at my space catching up on some WinCustomize moderation.

Just about right next to me we have Zoomba peeking over to say hello.

The rest of the day was meetings, and more meetings.  But I can’t wait to tell you what’s going on!

Lets start off with fdlafkdfj fadf adlfafdkfa d afkdjf adkfaldkfja ldkf adl akfjalkd fa d d dkfjdlfka dlkfa dlkfaj dlka dflkadfl kadf adlkfadlkfa dlka dfdflkadjl ldkjaf ldk fadlkfa dlkafdfadfkjd dflaadfkdfj lafk . Yeah, unbelievable right?

The most exciting thing is aldfkadjlf akd;fkd fa dflkad;lfakdj; faldkfj ;aldkfj; aldkf aldkfj;ldkfaj; ldkf a;dlkfjdlkfldkfja lkf a;ldfkdlfkd;l fka dflakdfjla dkfal;dkfaj; dlfak d;lfakd;lfakd flasd fsldfklkdf dlskfjldskfj dlfkjdslkf which is probably the greatest application ever!

There was some other stuff like dlfakdlfk dlfakdjf aldkfa dlkfjd lfkadfjlakd flakdfjlakd, but I won’t bore you with anymore details. 

So tonight is my last night in Michigan, but there is still a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow.  GUI Champs ‘08 is just about a month away, and hopefully we will have the formal announcement soon, but there is not reason to wait, get those skins started!

In case you missed the news the other day, WindowBlinds 6.3 and SkinStudio 6.3 betas were released via Impulse and Stardock Central the other day.  One of the most notable features was the layer blending feature, which opens up a bunch of creative possibilities for skinners.  It allows you to create some high quality skins using layer blending, which saves some time and trouble.  Layering in SkinStudio was a great feature, but it has now been enhanced by using features like Multiply, Screen, and Overlay modes.

Neil provided some images for me, and I wanted to post them to show you exactly what layer blending can do.

The first image here is an existing skin, with no layer blends at all.

These next two images are the same start menu.  One has a layer blended on color pixels, and the other is blended on greyscale pixels.  This was also done using the Multiply mode.  All that was done was taking two tiling images and adding them in tiling mode as new layers.

For more information about WindowBlinds and SkinStudio, visit the websites below.  If you don’t already have an Object Desktop or subscription, you can also get a special bundle with both WindowBlinds and SkinStudio included.

• www.windowblinds.net
• www.skinstudio.net

Finally it’s Friday!  So many skins this week, including a couple of Master skin releases in the WindowBlinds category.  A quick reminder that the 2008 GUI Champs Starts in just over a month.  You can get more details here, and there is plenty of time to get skins started.  Now for this weeks picks!

	Outer Limits for CursorFX by J. Aroche Another matching skin for the Outer Limits WB skin.  This is just an awesome cursor, download it and see for yourself.
	Leatherbound DX for DesktopX Themes by PuterDudeJim PuterDudeJim is cranking out these DX themes.  I like the way he uses textures and styles to make unique themes.
	ecological meters widget for DX Widgets by philar83 Another great addition to the set of accessories for the ecoLogical WB skin.
	Sea of Burning Dreams in Dreams by Chris Bary This is a really beautiful .dream with a subtle animation.  Looks great on the desktop.
	Wraith Tabbed Dock for ObjectDock by WebGizmos This is one of several sets of dock backgrounds for the Wraith WindowBlinds skin.  Great work!
	Srg138 in Wallpapers by Srg01 This wallpaper really caught my eye.  It has a simple design that goes with many skins.
	Wraith for WindowBlinds by SKoriginals The latest Master skin from SKoriginals is another winner.  A great, black WB skin that is usable for everyday use.

Great job to everyone featured, and thanks to everyone who submitted skins to WinCustomize this week.  See you next week!

Finally it’s Friday!  So many skins this week, including a couple of Master skin releases in the WindowBlinds category.  A quick reminder that the 2008 GUI Champs Starts in just over a month.  You can get more details here, and there is plenty of time to get skins started.  Now for this weeks picks!

	Outer Limits for CursorFX by J. Aroche Another matching skin for the Outer Limits WB skin.  This is just an awesome cursor, download it and see for yourself.
	Leatherbound DX for DesktopX Themes by PuterDudeJim PuterDudeJim is cranking out these DX themes.  I like the way he uses textures and styles to make unique themes.
	ecological meters widget for DX Widgets by philar83 Another great addition to the set of accessories for the ecoLogical WB skin.
	Sea of Burning Dreams in Dreams by Chris Bary This is a really beautiful .dream with a subtle animation.  Looks great on the desktop.
	Wraith Tabbed Dock for ObjectDock by WebGizmos This is one of several sets of dock backgrounds for the Wraith WindowBlinds skin.  Great work!
	Srg138 in Wallpapers by Srg01 This wallpaper really caught my eye.  It has a simple design that goes with many skins.
	Wraith for WindowBlinds by SKoriginals The latest Master skin from SKoriginals is another winner.  A great, black WB skin that is usable for everyday use.

Great job to everyone featured, and thanks to everyone who submitted skins to WinCustomize this week.  See you next week!

The SkinStudio 6 tutorial has many sections, most with plenty of screenshots to help show the process of creating your own  WindowBlinds skin.  We tried our best to create a thorough Table of Contents which will make it easy for you to find the specific section you might want to reference.  Obviously, I would recommend reading through the whole tutorial first, especially if you are setting out to create your first skin.

I posted the links below, for reference, but you can find the full TOC here.

1.  An Introduction to SkinStudio

What are Skins?
What is WindowBlinds?
What is SkinStudio?
The Elements of a Graphical User Interface

2.  A Brief Overview of SkinStudio

Choosing What Kind of Skin to Make
The SkinStudio Categories

3.  Skinning the Start Bar

The Elements of the Start Bar
The Elements of Start Menu
Making a New Start Button
Importing the Image into SkinStudio

4.  Creating Images for the Start Bar

Horizontal Taskbar
System Tray
Taskbar Group Menu
Vertical Taskbar

5.  Making a new Start Menu

Creating a Start Menu
Start Menu Logoff Images
Start Menu Popup Windows

6.  Saving Your Creation

Saving Your Work

7.  Changing the TitleBars and Borders

The Elements of the Title Bar and Windows Borders
Understanding per-pixel frames vs. UIS1 vs. UIS2
Making a New Title Bar

8.  Making Title Bar Buttons

Creating and Importing Buttons
UIS1 and UIS2 TitleBars/Buttons
Minimized and ToolWindows Window
Creating Borders

9.  Skinning Windows Buttons and Other Controls

Buttons and Controls
Combobox Controls
HeaderBar Controls
Menus and Menu Bars
ProgressBar Controls
Scrollbars
Spin Controls
Statusbar Controls
Tab Controls
Toolbar Controls
Trackbar Controls
Treeview +/- Controls

10.  Windows XP Specific Elements

Windows XP Shell
Logoff and Shutdown Screens
Toolbar Icons in Explorer and Internet Explorer 6
Control Panel Shell Styles
Shell Style Icons and Pictures
XP File Animations

11.  Vista Specific Elements

Vista Specific Elements
Explorer/IE Shell Parts
Internet Explorer 7
Task Dialog Controls
Vista Explorer Parts
Additional Vista Parts

12.  Fonts and Coloring

Changing Skin Fonts
Changing Skin Colors

13.  Tips and Tricks

Creating and Managing Sub-Styles
Backgrounds
Re-Coloring Skins
Theme Part Details
Start Menu Animation Builder
Animation Compression
Misc. Tips & Tricks

14.  Conclusion and Resources

Conclusion
Stardock Resources

After a long time in the making, the SkinStudio 6 tutorial is released.  This comes at a great time, especially with the GUI  Champs ‘08 right around the corner.  This tutorial guides users through the entire process of making a WindowBlinds skin starting with descriptions of the elements of a Graphical User Interface.  It then guides you through the process of how to use SkinStudio, and how to assemble the various parts of a skin to ultimately make a complete skin. 

This tutorial is aimed more at beginning users who are new to SkinStudio, or possibly thinking about creating their own skin.  SkinStudio 6 is a huge improvement over past editions, and the creation of skins is much more easier for beginners than it was in the past.  I haven’t made a full WindowBlinds skins in a while, and I was pleasantly surprised while creating this tutorial of how much better the experience was.  That’s not to say that creating a high-quality skin is easy, it still takes a lot of time planning, creating graphics, etc., but at least SkinStudio makes piecing them together much easier.

The tutorial was recently updated to reflect recent changes in SkinStudio, and to done in a format which is much easier to follow and learn from with plenty of screenshots to go along.  There is also an extensive Table of Contents, which is also linked at the bottom of every page for quick navigation between chapters.  Over the next couple of days I will post some snippets of the tutorial, just to show some highlights.  If you have been thinking about creating your own WindowBlinds skin, now is the time to start!

For more information about SkinStudio please visit www.skinstudio.net.  There is a free version of SkinStudio available, but this tutorial was created with the Pro version that is available for just $19.95, or a special Bundle that includes WindowBlinds for just $29.95.

Link: SkinStudio 6 Tutorial