Panic Button

The Monthly Stardock Support News Letter

In our continued efforts to improve support for all our customers we have created Panic Button, the support newsletter. This newsletter is designed to update everyone on the top most (top = reoccurring/popular) troubles that people are experiencing, and the solutions or work arounds that we can provide at this time. Please keep in mind that this is a generalized list and that all the info is subject to change due to updates after the date of posting. As always if you have any questions you can always contact us at support@stardock.com. If these solutions do not work for you please do the same.

 

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-Impulse:

Impulse Phase 2 is due out soon. Many updates to the software are underway. If you didn’t see CEO Brad Wardell’s post on the topic here are the main updates to current issues:

-Fixes issues with Anti-Virus programs causing download failures
-Fixes issues with updates not restarting
-Makes new download mechanism the primary
-Fixes Auto Archiving and Archiving

New Tools and features will include:

-Load time. A new Fast Load option is on by default and allows Impulse to be loaded in about 1 second or less depending how fast the machine is.

 

-Downloads. Downloads are much faster thanks to new clustered server back-end along with Stardock's new digital download framework that comes with Impulse replacing bits by default.

-Logons/Connections/Redownloads. A major back-end update is nearly complete to handle the higher than anticipated user base of Impulse at this stage. This should radically improve the responsiveness of it.

-Processing/Building List. A major improvement in determining which files need to be updated. The existing system literally checks every file against what's on the server. This is fine on say WindowBlinds but on a program like GalCiv or Sins of a Solar Empire, it's a very long process.  The new system should reduce this time to almost nothing.

 

The full article can be read here:   https://forums.wincustomize.com/321533

The following are a few good things to try whenever you have any issues with Impulse.

-Clear your data.

This has been suggested many times but is presented as “Clear your XML data”. There is now a tool in place to do it for you. This is suggested when registrations are giving you errors or account data seems to be having trouble. It is always just a good idea to try when having almost any issue.

-Click the Stardock Orb

-Select Preferences

-Select the Folders tab on the left

-Click Reset Data

 

-Connection issues.

There is a new download mechanism for Impulse. If you are having connection troubles you can always choose to use this one instead.

-Click the blue Stardock logo in the upper left of the Impulse interface and select 'Preferences...'

-Click on the 'Connection' section on the left.

-Uncheck the box that says 'Use new download mechanism'

-Close Impulse and relaunch it.

 

-Changing your directories.

This is more of a FAQ than an issue but we are asked it so often I thought it best to post it again.

-Click on the Stardock Orb in the upper left corner of Impulse, choose 'Preferences'

-Click on the 'Folders' section on the left

Here you can select from the drop down menu where you would like apps from each category to install to.  You can also check the 'Prompt for install directory' to be prompted during install for where you would like the apps to be installed.  You can also from this dialog choose where Impulse's archives and temp directories are stored.

It is important to note that some software that is installed by Impulse has its own installer as well. Applications like Corel Draw for example will have to be told where to install after the download is complete even with these settings in place.

 

-How to archive an application.(note: archiving is disabled temporarily as of this posting but will return shortly)

-Launch Impulse, you must have the game already installed for the Archive to be available.

-Once Impulse is loaded, right click on the software in the tab it is listed under (MyDesktop, MyGames etc..) and from the menu choose

'Archive Application'

-Once you've archived the game and all components you want, copy the archives (located by default in C:\ProgramData\Stardock\Impulse\backup for Vista or C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Stardock\Impulse\backup in XP) and the Impulse installer ( http://www.impulsedriven.com/impulse_setup.exe)to a portable media.

 

To restore at a later time

-Copy the saved impulse_setup.exe file onto the computer.

-Run the Impulse installer

-Copy the archived files into C:\ProgramData\Stardock\Impulse\backup for Vista or C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Stardock\Impulse\backup in XP

-Click the Blue Stardock logo in the upper left and click 'Restore archive" and select the archive(s) you wish to restore.

 

 

-Deskscapes

Here is a run down of everything you can try if you are having troubles with Deskscapes.

If you previously had the trial version of DeskScapes installed you will want to remove it first.  Installing the full version over the trial will not overwrite all the files from the trial version.  You must uninstall the trial (or any full versions installed over the trial) and reboot the machine before installing the full version.

You will want to first go to Start->Start Search and type services.msc. Once there, be sure the Desktop Window Manager Session Manager service is running and the startup type is set to automatic.

If that does not help or it is already running, please make sure that you have the Windows Vista theme enabled.  To do so:

-Right click on your desktop, choose personalize.

-Click on Themes

-From the drop down menu, choose 'Windows Vista", then click apply and ok. (If you have WB themes applied, you can reapply them later)

 

If that still does not allow you to display .dreams, please try the following:

-Click the Start orb

-Right click on Computer, select properties

-In the tasks pane on the left, select 'Advanced system settings'

-Click the 'Settings' button in the 'Performance' section

-Check 'Enable Desktop Composition' from the list

-Click 'Apply', then 'OK'

-Click the 'Settings' button to be sure that is still enabled. If it is not, please go back and make sure that the Vista theme is set by the instructions above.

 

Edit:

If .dreams files will still not play, and you are not getting the Desktop Window Management service not running error, you may need to install a mepg2 codec.

Here is the Microsoft information page about codecs:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/3d0c5a49-8f61-45cc-8a7d-38c4695ba9291033.mspx#EBB

 We recommend if you are unsure about what codecs you have installed using the following tool to find out:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/installed_codec.html

If you do not have Vista Home Premium or Ultimate installed you likely do not have a codec. There are many third party codecs available. During testing we found that the codecs bundled with Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra, and DX for Windows Vista appeared to be compatible with video dreams.

Here is a link to the Microsoft DvD Mpeg2 decoders:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/plugins.aspx

If at this point DeskScapes will still not run, please do the all of following:

 -Hold the Windows key, press R, and then type "eventvwr.msc" into the run dialog. Press enter

 -Once this loads, open 'Windows Logs', right click on Application and go to 'Save events as...'.

 -Ensure 'Save as type:' is set to Event Files *.evtx

 -Please repeat the process for the System section

 -Send support@stardock.com the two log files

 -Follow this link in Internet Explorer (Firefox and other browsers will not handle it correctly, must use IE):

      http://sd.stardock.com/mike/apps/enumerate_startup.bat

  save the file, run it, and attach the log file it generates on the desktop to the return e-mail. 

 -Launch DeskScapes from the Start Menu and click the option 'About Stardock Deskscapes'

 -Click the option, 'Copy information to clipboard', and then paste the information into the email.

 -Also please go to Start->Start Search and type 'dxdiag'. Once everything loads, please click the "Save all information" button and attach the output file in the support email.

 

 

-Windows XP 64bit

As a reminder Stardock no longer develops with XP 64bit in mind, nor does it test for it. I apologize for any inconvenience.

 

-Tip from support (Use of Free Stuff):

If you have played around with the freeware or trial version of our software it is best that you uninstall it before installing the full version. In programs like Object Dock Plus, for example, conflicts will keep most of the full version utilities from launching at all. Be sure to restart after uninstalling a trial to clear your computer cache.

 

-Icon Packager 4.10 BETA

(Note: this is a beta build, should you have troubles with the software please revert back to the last full version of the software. Betas are not officially supported as they are still in the testing phase)

-Fixed drag/drop icons into the Package Builder on Vista.
-Fixed redraw issue when dropping icons into Package Builder.
-Added option to change the Connect To icon on Vista Start Menu.
-Added option to change the Printers icon on Vista Start Menu.
-Fixed applying packages when changing the Control Panel icons in Vista

 

-Stardock Central

Stardock central no longer gets updates for our games section. This is due to Stardock Central using the Legacy pkzip file format. Due to the size of today’s PC games this is not a format that can be used as it’s file size limit is 2 gigs. Many games exceed that limit now which is why Impulse uses 7zip which has a limit of 16 million tera bytes (8 billion times larger than pkzip). Components of Object Desktop and other Stardock software are still being updated through Stardock Central as well as Impulse, but game users should make the switch to Impulse for the latest updates to their purchases.  

 

-Stardock Update: Aquarium Desktop.

Aquarium Desktop is being updated to work fully with Windows Vista. There is no solid time line on the completion of this project but this is a often asked question. Please look to Impulse and Wincustomize.com for further details.

 

-Support Tip: How to obtain account information:

Please use the following link to see a full list of all of your account information.

https://www.wincustomize.com/myaccount.aspx?

You may need to log into your account before using this link.

Your account information is always available through the registration page of Impulse as well

 

How to best use the support system (support@stardock.com) to save time and troubles:

As Stardock grows the traffic for support has greatly increased. Here are some of the best tips and suggestions we can provide to utilize our support system to your advantage. It also highlights a few pitfalls you can avoid.

-Please fully explain what is broken, what steps you have already taken to fix it, and what was happening when the problem occurred. A long and very detailed list of information is not needed but if question or concern is too short or unexplained the resolution could take twice as long.

-Please be certain that you list what account email you hold with us if you are writing in from another email address about your concern (IE a work email address and so on).

-If you have an auto validation software please add ‘@stardock.com’ to the allowed list. Stardock support or sales will not go through a validation process. This is a matter of both security and time.

-Please be certain not to add support or sales @stardock.com to your face book profile. We very often get requests to personal pages due to broadcast emails.

-Make sure that any screen shot sent in be no large than about 1 meg in size. The filters that govern our email server will likely block or strip the message. Embedding pictures into the email will also result in something of the same. You will always want to attach the file.

-Support is not available on the weekends. If you have a problem you are trying to fix though please send in the email as soon as possible. All email is sorted and queued up as a first-come-first-serve system. Thus the emails that were sent in Friday evening will be serviced first. Feel free to post your question in the forums of our websites to ask for help as the community is very accommodating. Support passes through the forums on weekends from time to time so this can also be a big help.

-Do not send in multiple replies to pending tickets as this counts as an “action or update” to the ticket and resets the ticket time. In other words the ticket is forced to the back of the line before a tech can even see it. Also do not start new emails or tickets, but always reply to the message sent to you. This way whomever answers the ticket can see the history of what has been suggested already.

-Please do not write in all capitol letters as this is considered shouting in the online world. Our techs are more than happy to assist you. We understand that you may be frustrated and we will do everything we can to assist you as quickly as possible.

-Please do not curse or swear. In most cases these emails are filtered and receive an auto reply saying so. However if the mail should get through a tech will not answer the email but will ask you to state the question again. The tech is not required to take any verbal abuse.

-If you did not get an auto reply from the support system then the support department did not receive your email. Please try again.

-If you have sent in a request and it has been longer than 48 hours (through the work week) please check your spam filters for our responses. If there are none write to us again in askance about the first ticket.

 

I hope this helps everyone! Thank you for reading and be sure to drop us a line should you need to hit the panic button.

Seabass

 

Stardock Support

Seabass

Shirley

Highlander

Well even though we are on day 4 of non-stop rain, it's still time for This Week in Skinning.  If you missed the news this week, Object Desktop subscribers got their first free MyColors theme, Gloss Burgundy.  Don't forget to post a screenshot of your desktop in our monthly screenshot thread.

Now for this weeks picks!

	Blue Arroy for Bootskins by sAARGe A great looking bootskin with a matching wallpaper in the galleries as well.
	Orbital in DesktopX Themes by gef This Master DX Theme is one of my favorites.  A beautiful design with plenty of functional objects to go with it.
	SD On Screen Display in DesktopX Widgets by Vad_M Another cool gadget from Vad_M, this time showing an on-screen display of your volume control.
	Channel Marker in Dreams by CarGuy1 Nice scene of a channel marker in the ocean.
	Birthday Suit(e): Icons for IconPackager by mommaTee Another addition to the Birthday suite.  This time we have an icon pack for IconPackager.
	Surreal Eclipse in Wallpapers by DEVJIT The colors in this wallpaper really stood out to me.  Looks real good on the desktop.
	New Roof and a Harvest Moon in Wallpapers by kenwas A beautiful scene which is perfect for an ending summer.
	Swimming for WindowBlinds by casualtraveller This is a real nice WindowBlinds skin, and it's also good for everyday use.  Nice job.

Great job to everyone this week.  Be sure to stop by the personal pages of each skinner and drop them a note, and check out their other works.  See you next week! 

Today we will dive back in to the core user folder with the Music folder. We will be basing it on our Original Icon-A-Day My Music Folder, and will be using almost the same exact steps. However, because of the change in folder size, we will need to recreate almost all the assets for our 2.0 version.

Day 13 (Thursday, August 21th, 2008)

The Music folder The original Music Folder was one of my favorite icons in the Icon-A-Day series. It was one of the first special folders we did, #5, and it set the standard for the overall look of the folders in the pack. I want to do pretty much the same type of thing with the 2.0 version. We will do a nice disc or two in the folder, and scatter in some pretty candy-like notes. We might even be able to salvage a few assets, however I am going to take this opportunity to show how we make the notes, as well as the disks. We will be doing this in almost exactly the same way as we did them 3 years ago, so I recommend that if you have any questions I don't cover here that you take a look at the original tutorial.

Step 1:  We can start once again by grabbing our Wrapper folder, and our original Music folder. Then we remove the assets that we will not be able to use.    Step 2:   I keep all the notes and the CDs, though I don't know if we will be able to use them. I mostly want to be able to use them to copy effects and fills from them, while we create our new assets. That said, I quickly create new ones as simple objects, using circles and boxes. When I have the shapes, I weld the notes together. I also combine the circles together, creating an inner and outer ring for our disk. Step 3:  Before I go any further, I group our two disk circles together, so that I can apply a perspective to them. Now I use the Perspective tool to quickly give our new notes new perspectives. I also do the disk at this point.    Now it looks like we won't have enough room to get our green note in without crowding the composition. This frees us up to move on to our fills. We will start with the CD. Step 4:   I give the main body of the CD a nice Conical Fill, copying the colors from our original CD. Then I give the center ring a gray to white liner gradation. I give the same fills to the rear disk, however when I'm done I tint them 2 clicks black, to darken them up. Then I copy both rings one more time, move them behind the originals, and over to the right a bit, to create the illusion of thickness. I also tint these a little darker. Step 5: Now we need to make the inner rings of the disks transparent, which we do using the Interactive Transparency tool, and give them a liner transparency. At this point we need to use our front circle to crop the copy of it we made in step 4, so we can have a lip yet be able to see through the "Glass." We need to do this twice, once for the inner lip, and once for the outer lip.  We do the same thing for the rear disk.   Step 6: Before we give the discs gloss or shadows, we will go ahead and move on to the music notes.   We will be doing them with mesh fills and blend groups. We start with the blend. First I draw a fresh ellipse over the bulbs of our notes. Then I copy that ellipse and make a smaller version, down toward the bottom of the other. We make the larger one the same color as our note, and the smaller one a lighter blue. Now we just blend the two ellipses together. Step 7:  Next we draw two new mesh rectangles to give that glossy look to the rest of the note. When we are done with the blue note we do the same thing on the new red note.   Step 8:   Now we need to go through all of our new shapes and create new gloss, which we do this with our standard gloss technique. We have to be careful to crop some of the gloss on the Wrapper folder where it would be occluded by our new objects. Step 7:  Once again our last step is the Shadows and Reflections. These are a bit more difficult than normal, because we have a lot going on, and several reflective surfaces to keep in mind. See shadow and reflection techniques for more.   Finished Icon: Here we have it, the new Music folder. I think it stands up well when compared to our original.

Wrap Up: With the completion of the Music folder we are over half way through the User folders. Tomorrow we will end the week with a Videos folder. Who knows, we might even be able to do it in a Video. About Me: You can find all my skins, tutorials, and articles, on my Wincustomize Homepage, at http:\\mormegil.Wincustomize.com. Questions on icon use and techniques, can be emailed to mormegil@gmail.com. Twitter users can find me with the user name: Mormegil.

Download The Music Folder Icon:  Get today's icon from the Miscellaneous Icons Library. Find all the Icon-A-Day tutorials, and links to the icons and more at the Icon-A-Day 2.0 Index. All Icon-A-Day artwork, copy, and icons, are copyrighted by Paul Boyer © 2008, and may not be used with out express permission.

I thought now would be as good as ever to write a "State of the Community" post.  Over the past couple of weeks I have noticed a lot of negativity coming back to our forums, which have been a positive place for a while now.  Negative and discouraging comments on skins have been increasing, and when a post was made to address it, it turns into another argument and battle.  This really needs to stop and it will one way or another.

I do want to take a moment and give a big hats off to Zoomba.  Just over two years ago he took over WinCustomize and associated Stardock sites, and since then we have seen many, many improvements.  Not all are visible to everyone, but believe me a lot of work is done behind the scenes to make the experience at WinCustomize better.  If you don't listen to the WinCustomize SkinCast (which I don't know why you wouldn't), you might have missed that Zoomba has moved on from WinCustomize.  He's now doing some great work on Impulse, but thankfully he still has a part in WinCustomize, although not so much public now. 

Community

The thing I have always had pride in at WinCustomize was the community.  When I first started skinning people would jump at the opportunity to help, and not say that isn't happening now, but the tone has definitely changed over the years.  Obviously, skinning has changed over the years as well.  Commercial skinning now has a definite market and some don't seem to take too kindly to that.  Regardless of how skinning has evolved it shouldn't have an impact on how the community treats each other or behaves.

The insulting comments and bullying of other members will not be tolerated at all, regardless of their rank or status on the site.  We want WinCustomize to be a place where anyone can come and upload their skins and be part of this community, without having to be subject to ridiculous comments that only drive people away.  For newer skinners out there, you will get criticism on your works, but don't take it personally.  Listening to experienced skinners will only help you get better.  On that note, giving constructive criticism is fine, but blatant attacks and insults do not help, and will be dealt with. 

Here at WinCustomize we have a class system:

• Citizen
• Apprentice
• Master Apprentice
• Journeyman
• Master
• Wizop/Moderators

You can view specifics of each class here.  Basically, you start out at citizen and if you contribute skins and to the community, you will be promoted through each of the classes.  Promotion is done by recommendation and votes from the site moderators (wizops) and admins on a monthly basis.  The Journeyman level allows users to bypass moderation, so your skins go directly to the gallery.  The highest class most can achieve is Master, but this is not an easy road.  One of the advantages of becoming a Master skinner is the ability to sell your skins on WinCustomize.  There are just a handful of them currently, and we are always keeping our eye out for the next one.

This is a system that has been around for a long time, but lately I have been pondering if changes are needed, especially when it comes to the Master class.  One of the descriptions of Master is, "not only must the user be a significant contributor to the community, but instrumental to the day to day life of WinCustomize." We have Master skinners that contribute quite a bit to the galleries, both free and paid skins, but are not necessarily active in say the forums for instance.  Not everyone is into the forum scene, so how much leeway should be given for that?  Should it matter?  Those are all questions I have been asking myself lately, and one of my projects is to re-write the member descriptions and define member classes going forward. 

Ideally, I would love to see all Master skinners take a more active and positive role in the community, be true leaders to help guide the next-generation of skinners.  They are the "best of the best" in terms of what they do, but maybe just contributing skins isn't enough.  Is more community involvement needed?  I would definitely love your feedback on this.  I will also be looking for skin moderators soon, so anybody in the community that has been established for a while can feel free to contact me.

Skinning

This summer has been fantastic.  Usually during this time of year skin submissions drop to almost nothing, but not this summer.  I haven't looked at the numbers but I think submissions have actually increased.  I am also seeing a lot of new skinners make their way over here, which is even more exciting.  Skinners who have been missing for a while have also made some returns, so I am very excited on the skinning front.  Not to mention the GUI Champs 2008 is due to start very soon, I think the next half of this year is going to be great.

Halloween and the Christmas season are also approaching, and I would really like to get some good sets of skins going, possibly even another community based skin.  I also have a mockup skin that will be the basis of a community project, but not until the GUI Champs is done.  You all have enough on your hands as is.

Although I can't mention specifics, we have also been tossing around ideas for the next version of WinCustomize.  Although nothing is set or guaranteed, I'm really hoping to have a bigger focus on personal pages and sorting of galleries.  I will leave it at that for now. 

Now lets address some issues people have been bringing up lately, and attempt to squash problems going forward.  Gallery moderation has been going pretty smoothly.  Most skins are moderated in good time, and we have been working to make sure a clear set of guidelines are followed.  To make things easier for everyone, I wrote the Tips for Moderation guide which everyone who submits skins should look over. 

Let me now emphasize some things to end some discussions and problems:

• Resetting skin dates on updates will only be moderated if the skin has a significant change.  Fixing a start menu issue, or altering the color slightly does not constitute that.  Trying to game the system to stay on the front page of downloads will no longer pass.
  
  
• Vista clones are permitted within reason.  Some of the most popular skins across the net are modifications of Vista.  The advantage we have with WindowBlinds is that the skins can be much, much better than the default Aero look.  Now we all have personal opinions on Vista looking skins, and the origins of images, but it's things we have gone through and determined it's not a simple matter to determine who created what. 
  
  
• Multiple colors of the same skin must be included in a pack, or sub-styles.  SkinStudio has a remarkable re-coloring feature which makes making separate colored sub-styles very easy so this is what I would recommend.

Conclusion

Overall, I have been very happy with the state of WinCustomize this year.  Although there are some minor bumps in the road lately, those are ending today and I expect a great time for the rest of this year.  Your comments and feedback are welcomed.

Today I spent most of my Icon-A-Day time figuring out how to get some videos to integrate in future tutorials. Unfortunately this left me with very little time for tonight's icon, but luckily we have a quick one available; the Links folder.

Day 12 (Tuesday, August 19th, 2008)

The Links Folder The Links folder is another of the new additions in Windows Vista. It is simply a User folder where the user can place shortcuts. All the shortcuts in this folder are then made available in all the Explorer Windows. Tonight we will be able to save a ton of time, because all we have to do is take yesterdays icon and replace our Download arrow, with a Links arrow.

Step 1: We start my making a copy of our Downloads folder from Day 11.      Step 2:   Now we simply delete the download arrow, the shadows, and the gloss that we created for it.  While we are poking around, we go ahead and change our background rectangle to blue. Step 3: Now we we pick up pretty much exactly where we were in yesterdays step 4.  We draw a new links arrow, and give it a contour -remember to break the contour group apart - and regroup our the two objects together again.   Step 4:   We take our group and give it some perspective with  the Perspective tool. Step 5: Now we give it our poor mans bevel (from yesterdays step 6). Step 6: Now we give our new interior arrow the inner glow. This will be exactly the same as yesterdays step 7, the only thing different is that we are using blues instead of greens. Step 7:  We finish up with the same steps as yesterday. Give it new gloss, then we polish it off with the classic shadow and reflection techniques.    Finished Icon:    Sadly we this was our only remaining super simple User folder icon, but here it is: the Links folder.

Wrap Up: That is it for our Links folder, quick and dirty. Tomorrow, I will be at a meeting of the Michigan Independent Game Developers, so we will have to wait until Thursday for Day 13, when we will do one of the more interesting User Folder icons, maybe by then I will know which one it will be. About Me: You can find all my skins, tutorials, and articles, on my Wincustomize Homepage, at http:\\mormegil.Wincustomize.com. Questions on icon use and techniques, can be emailed to mormegil@gmail.com. Twitter users can find me with the user name: Mormegil.

Download Links Folder Icon:  Get today's icon from the Miscellaneous Icons Library. Find all the Icon-A-Day tutorials, and links to the icons and more at the Icon-A-Day 2.0 Index. All Icon-A-Day artwork, copy, and icons, are copyrighted by Paul Boyer © 2008, and may not be used with out express permission.

As we enter week three of the Icon-A-Day 2.0 tutorial series I stop and ponder, why, why am I doing this? well the answer seems pretty simple: I am crazy.  Of course, this seems to come up often on Mondays. Luckily my insanity is of a variety that won't let me give up on a project once I said I would do it, so with that said, let us dive back in to the User folders with one of Vista's brand new special folders. The Downloads folder.

Day 11 (Monday, August 18th, 2008)

The Downloads Folder The Downloads folder one of the new User folders Windows Vista. It is simply a default location for downloaded media, and you can change it simply enough, however it is kind of nice if you want to keep track of the assorted goodies you get from your favorite web sites and IM friends. It is also user specific, so every user on your computer will have their own place to keep their downloaded content. This is also one of the more boring icons in the new User folder structure. By default it is simply a folder with a blue arrow pointing down. Since it is Monday I am inclined to do something simple, so we will be doing something similar, however we will be bringing in one of the icon conventions that we established in the original Icon-A-Day series. Hopefully we will be able to raise the bar above Vista while still keeping it simple.

Step 1:    Once again we will start by gathering our ingredients, in this case we only have two, our Wrapper folder, and the Log Off Icon, #73. Then we get rid of the elements we are not going to be using. However take not of the key, we will be using the same techniques to create a new Downloads arrow.      Step 2:   Now, sadly, we need to flip our glass plate, since it does not look very fitting when I try and place it in the folder. This is going to require us to do some tweaks to the lighting and perspective.      Step 3:   Now we go in and do our tweak. I start by skewing the glass square up a bit, and then skewing the shadow down a bit. Next we tweek the top left corner up a bit, as well as the blue rectangle, since our perspective does not match exactly. I strongly recommend looking at the original post #32, and #73. The techniques used to do the glass, are exactly the same as we will use today.   Step 4:   Now, for some reason, I've always associated the downloads arrow with green, so I will be doing a new green arrow. Before I do this I use the mesh fill to change the blue rectangle to green. Then I simply draw a nice, new, flat 2D arrow. Once I am happy with our arrow, I give the arrow a small inside contour with the contour tool. When we have our contour, we break the contour apart and then re-group the two objects, the arrow and its outline. Step 5: Now we will use the Perspective tool to adjust our arrow to were it looks correct; sitting out a bit in front of our glass plate. We will be giving it bit of an extrusion, so we have to make sure we leave room for that. Now we bust out one of the classics, what I like to call a "poor mans bevel," and extrusion. Step 6: I simply ungroup or new arrow, shift the green a bit down and to the left. Then I copy the gray area, and shift it up and to the right, and drop it back behind the original. Then with the Shape tool I adjust the corners so they meet up. With the Interactive Fill tool, I give our bevel a nice gradient fill and the extrusion, another darker and more elaborate fill. Step 7: Next we use another classic technique; I give our arrow a gradient fill from green to darker green. With the Contour tool do a 20 step inside contour with a fill from dark green to light green. This gives us that inner glow, that are the hallmark of the Icon-A-Day 1.0 icons.   Step 8: With that done, we are back to the basics. We need to create some gloss for our arrow, and tweak the gloss on the glass plate behind it.   Step 9:  I am going to combine our last 3 steps together, because they will be the same for the rest of the User folders. You can check out day 9 and 10 for more information. To polish things off we create a reflection for the front of the Wrapper. Once we have that we are free to use our shadow and reflection techniques.   Finished Icon:   This gives us our new Downloads folder, and will provide us several new assets for later in the project.

Wrap Up: Tomorrow we will move on to one of the other new User folders, "Links." This will be very similar to what we have done today, so it should be a breeze. I will take the opportunity to go into a bit more detail on some of the more obscure techniques we used today. Hope to see you then. About Me: You can find all my skins, tutorials, and articles, on my Wincustomize Homepage, at http:\\mormegil.Wincustomize.com. Questions on icon use and techniques, can be emailed to mormegil@gmail.com. Twitter users can find me with the user name: Mormegil.

Download Downloads Folder Icon:  Get today's icon from the Miscellaneous Icons Library. Find all the Icon-A-Day tutorials, and links to the icons and more at the Icon-A-Day 2.0 Index. All Icon-A-Day artwork, copy, and icons, are copyrighted by Paul Boyer © 2008, and may not be used with out express permission.

Planning for Object Desktop 2009 has begun and we want your help.

Got an idea for any of the products that are part of Object Desktop?

• Looking for a feature?
• Looking for a new product?
• Want something changed?

This is the thread for you!

 

Over the weekend we had a little flamefest going over a skin, and one of the comments was basically trying to trash people for selling their skins.  Now since I posted a warning about a 3 month ban from WinCustomize if any other trolling was going to continue, a certain person decided to go to my personal blog and send me an e-mail to my personal account about it.

The e-mail:

“So you think that there's nothing wrong with selling skins between $4 and $5 a pop, uh. Everyone of you is ripping off the the american public. Do you know how much money it takes to make a simple song? Do you know much mp3 files cost? I get them for 10 cents a piece, and yet songs take a hell of a lot more time and money to make, than your skins, and your selling them for more than what a gallon of gas costs. You need to wake up, and look around you. You obviously don't know what the hell is going on in this country right now. You got the nerve to sell some desktop skin for the price your selling for. You Spencer Scott are very little piece of the problem we have in this country, you Spencer Scott, are very good example of an asshole.”

My first reaction at this e-mail was a very good chuckle.  I then read it again and wondered what this person was really thinking.  Trying to compare .mp3’s to skins really made no sense to me, but then I realized probably what they were saying, and then once again realized this person had no clue about skinning.  Let me explain something to this person specifically.  Making skins is not easy, and making professional-type skins is much, much worse.  A high-quality WindowBlinds skin can easily take months to complete, so what really is the PROBLEM with selling a skin?  Nothing at all, that’s what!

I work with many of our Master Skinners here on WinCustomize, and I think every one of them also creates plenty of free content that is also released, so not only do I not have a problem with someone selling skins, I encourage people to buy them as well and support these works.  WinCustomize will continue with the Master Skins programs, and if you have an issue with it, you can contact me via the WinCustomize or Stardock e-mail. 

Better yet, lets have a discussion about the selling of skins.  What is your opinion about it?  Do you buy skins?  So instead of following me around the internet, step up and post some reasons why someone should not be allowed to sell something they have worked countless hours on.  I really can’t wait to read the communities opinions, especially from this commenter (which I do know who you are ). 

Yesterday we created the first of our User folders, the Favorites folder. In doing so we established the style we will be using for the rest of them. Today we will move from that one to another of the simpler examples, the Pictures folder.

Day 10 (Friday, August 15th, 2008)

The Pictures Folder The Pictures folder remains more or less the same in Vista as it was in XP, or even 9x. However like the rest of the User folders, it has been taken out of the Documents folder, and moved into the User folder. In the Windows Vista Pictures folder icon, Microsoft has also finally acknowledged that just about every digital camera also shoots video, and that despite their efforts, most people will not move the resulting videos into the Videos folder. This is something we will do as well, even though it will be the most time consuming portion of our Pictures folder.

Step 1:    Again we will start with our Wrapper folder from day 8.  I will also grab the original 1.0 My Pictures folder #25, and the Video Clip file # 54. Once I have these elements gathered together, I delete the elements I don't need.         Step 2:   Now, I have chosen to create a brand-new photo rather than attempt to use one of our existing items. This is because I want something a bit higher resolution, and I want to be able to do a nice perspective.   So the first thing I do is use a Mesh Rectangle to draw in the basic shape of my new image. Once I have this I create some additional mesh nodes to give it some depth and definition.    Step 3:  Next I import in my new picture, and using the Bitmap 3D Effects Perspective tool, I give it a bit of perspective to make sure it fits. Then I crop it down to fit on my photo back.  I also want their to be a black outline around the image, so using the Bezier tool I draw a matching rectangle behind it.    Step 4:   I know it is a bit old fashion, but to make sure that our new Photo matches our originals, I want to go through and add some corner clips. I do this with four small mesh fill objects. You could probably do this just as well with some basic shapes, but I am partial to the Mesh tool.   Step 5:  We still need to add gloss to our photo, but we will do it later. For now we will move on to our Video file.  We will want to change the content of the frames of our video file, so I remove the texture fill we have now. Then I group the file together and with the Envelope tool, and give it a bit more of a film-like look.    Step 6:  Now that we have our film in place, I want to change the image on the film like I did the photo, so I import in another image. I place this behind the cells of our film, and crop it and skew it until it looks ok. Then I do this again for the top and bottom frames.   Step 8:  Now I grab all three of these images and convert them to one bitmap. Once this is done, I use the Interactive Transparency tool to give the images some translucency. Step 9: Now, like yesterday, we will need make copies of our new assets and convert them to bitmaps for the reflection on the Wrapper. Once I have these in place, I convert them both into a singe bitmap, and crop them. Finally I fade them out with the Interactive Transparency tool. Step 10: Now we can finally move our paint brush back into the composition. With a bit of tweaking with the shape tool it seems to fit right in. Step 11: Now that we have all of our assets in place, we need to go through and touch up our gloss. This is relatively simple, but is very important in giving the icon continuity within the set. Step 12:  Our lasts two steps, as usual, are to create the shadows and reflections.  Don't forget that you can learn more about this over at my CorelDRAW for Skinners tutorials. Finished Icon:  Our finished Pictures folder looks pretty good, even if that silly film strip would not leave us alone.

Wrap Up: This brings us to the end of Week 2 of the Icon-A-Day 2.0 tutorials. So far I am very happy with how it is going, however I would love to hear back from those of you who are following along. Let me know what techniques you would like me to go into in more detail, or even things you would like me to skip. I will be back next week, and we will continue our way through the User folders. About Me: You can find all my skins, tutorials, and articles, on my Wincustomize Homepage, at http:\\mormegil.Wincustomize.com. Questions on icon use and techniques, can be emailed to mormegil@gmail.com. Twitter users can find me with the user name: Mormegil.

Download Pictures Folder Icon:  Get today's icon from the Miscellaneous Icons Library. Find all the Icon-A-Day tutorials, and links to the icons and more at the Icon-A-Day 2.0 Index. All Icon-A-Day artwork, copy, and icons, are copyrighted by Paul Boyer © 2008, and may not be used with out express permission.

Another Friday, another week is done.  A tremendous amount of skins came through the submission pipes this week, and as usual, it was a tough pick.  I have to say once again how pleased I am about the skinning activity over the summer, it didn't slack of, and in fact it has increased!

I hope some of you are already getting your GUI Champs skins ready.

Now for this weeks picks!

	Rocky for CursorFX by PuterDudeJim This cursor took some inspiration from the Boulder skin, but it's a cursor theme that will go with many other themes as well.
	Anchorage in Dreams by Carguy1 This is a nice, relaxing dream that isn't distracting at all.  Well done.
	Impulse Blogger in ObjectDock Icons by Po' Smedley This is a really slick set of icons.  I see he has done some others in this same style, so be sure to check those out too.
	Green Piece for RightClick by Lantec Not sure what it was, but this skin for RightClick just seemed to catch my eye.  It's a very detailed design.  Great work.
	Jungle Drums for SoundPackager by hallv5 There are some very unique sounds in this pack for SoundPackager, but if you want something different than the default Windows sounds, this is for you.
	Stormy Night in Wallpapers by Richard Mohler A really beautiful scene here.  Definitely check this one out.
	Jeniffer logo wallpapers in Wallpapers by Jennifer Chang A simple, yet elegant design makes this wallpaper a great pick for this week.
	VITREX for WindowBlinds by pixel-z This is another first-time skin that is just fantastic.  A great use of color and design makes this a definite pick.
	3D Metal for WindowBlinds by theAVMAN A 3D skin.  That's all I need to say, so just download it and check it out for yourself.

Thanks to everyone who contributed this week, your work is always appreciated.  Be sure to show this article to your friends and family and show them how cool this stuff is.  See you next week!