The first week in December is off to a great start, so lets hope the momentum continues.  Since it is the beginning of a new month, the November edition of "This Month in Dreams" is now out, so if you didn't see it before go check it out.

This years Holiday Skin Guide is about ready to start, so I need your help in finding the best holiday skins out there.  Drop by the holiday skins thread I have going and post a link to your recommendations.

Now for this weeks picks!

Green Apparatus for CursorXP By J. Aroche I really don't have to say much about this one.  It's a new cursor from J. Aroche, that means you need to download it.  Great job.

Christmas Garland for DesktopX By Island Dog No, it's not shameless self-promotion, it's a nice Christmas garland for your desktop.

Earth V1 in Dreams  By chaorendabusi Another fantastic .dream of a "spinning" Earth.  Nicely done!

Eagle's Eye in Wallpapers By Bandit4edu  I'm not sure what exactly what caught my eye with this wallpaper, but it is surely a beautiful design.

Darth GUI (OSX Style) for WindowBlinds By thewer A great OSx styled WindowBlinds theme, with a nice dark touch to it.  Great work.

Sequel for WindowBlinds By navigatsio  I like this WindowBlinds skin because it has a simple, and very usable design.  Be sure to check this one out.

Piasa for Xion By pictoratus  This is just a very cool design.  Wonderful job on this.

We are coming up on the final weeks of the WinCustomize Charity/Subscription Drive.   In order to meet the goals we need your help, and remember a subscription to WinCustomize or a Master skin is the perfect gift for someone.

Also, don't forget about the Alienware Dream Contest where you can win some spectacular prizes for creating your own "alien" .dream.   Thanks to everyone for their hard work this week, and as always check their personal sites for more of their works.  See you next week!

Last month was also exciting as we announced that DeskScapes 2.0 will be able to be used on all Vista versions that can run Aero.  For more info about that announcement, click here.

The holiday season is here, and there aren't many holiday inspired .dreams in the gallery, so let me know if you are working on any so I can be sure to include them in the holiday skin guide.

Now for the featured .dreams!

To use these .dreams you will be need Windows Vista Ultimate, and the free download of Stardock Deskscapes.  All the .dreams featured in this video can be found at the links below.

• Winters here by muckyman
• Waterfall by stephenvw
• unreal3 by muckyman
• The Artifact by TheMasterBaron
• Nanosuite - Max Strength by chaorendabusi
• Waterwall by muckyman
• Crystal Island by TheMasterBaron
• Photo Dream by Stardock Design

Just as a reminder, if you are working on some holiday skins or know some that should be included in this years guide, please let me know in the holiday skin thread.

So in this first edition I wanted to focus on cursor themes for CursorXP. 

Santa Claus by Lgp85 This cursor pretty much speaks for itself, but if you want Santa for your cursor, then this is the one you need to download.

For more cursors take a browse through the CursorXP gallery.  Keep an eye out for the next holiday article, and let me know what your favorite holiday cursors are!

To go along with the launch of the Create Your Alienware Dream Contest, I asked Seabass, our resident undiscovered 3d artist extraordinaire to put together a quick and dirty Dream and write up a little bit on what he did and why, as well as give a few other examples of what would or wouldn't make a good Dream.

This article should help out any Dream maker, whether for the contest or otherwise.  It's a good lesson in what makes a Dream successful and usable, and what sorts of effects and techniques you'd be best to avoid.

Without further delay, here's Seabass's article

In the course of the next contest we thought it would be best to go over the Do's and Don'ts of Dream creation. Since this is an art medium however there really is nothing that you can't do. However the most popular Dreams all have certain things in common. We are just going to go over a few of those in the hopes of giving everyone that extra edge in this contest.

Yesterday I put quickly put this dream together of the planet Earth exploding in a fiery ball of death and... well fire. This Dream contains several bad things as well as a few good things.

Splode!

You might notice that the Planet takes up the center of the screen. This part is good. Since currently the only Dreams that are used out there are on Vista Ultimate you can be certain of space being used on either side of the screen. With icons taking up one side and the sidebar taking the other side it is best that you allow the more visual aspects of the dream to be centered. You can also make the focus lean right as not all use the sidebar, and most leave it transparent. However filling in the spaces between the cursors on the desktop will make it look cluttered and will not be as usable. The center of your Dream is always the best.

Another good point is that the planet explodes in a really bright ball. No matter how pretty it might look this is bad. Having lots of motion on the desktop is harsh on the eyes and worse on whatever you might have had in your stomach. Now this isn't always true since many people like using full screen applications and will cover the whole of this destruction. So this is not all bad but it still will only be appealing to a select few. The best dreams are the subtle ones with small or smooth motion.

Size of the file is a big deal. If you make a file enormous (like using a stupid amount of particle and fluid effects for example) you will bog down the computer and the movie file will drag. This makes having the dream as pointless as it gets. Don't go overboard, but if you do look into the best compression software you can find. If it would be the same as just running a loop on the media player in the background then something has gone wrong.

You will also notice that there is no loop. Earth blows up, is in need of some major hydration only to suddenly be fine... and blow up again. Smooth loops are what set professional Dreams apart from the rest. If you are new to animation for this contest make sure that what ever you are animating have the exact keyframes at both the start and finish of the animation. The best way to do this is to key the subject of your dream, push the slider to the end, then key it again. This all happens before you do any other motions. Many programs like Maya, Flash, and others will fill in the gaps of the animation. So with out those last key frames it could look just a bit off.

No matter what you might think of your work have three people look at your work before sending it in. No matter what kind of art training you might have anyone anywhere can just see when something is wrong. Colors mesh in a strange way, animation looks just a bit off, a little clip in the file or missing frame.... etc. After looking at something for a really long time you miss the details easier than Zoomba trying to hit me from his desk with a foam cow all the way across the office. You kinda have to be there for that one. Suffice to say it's a hard thing to do. Either way let people look at it before you post it. If even more than one go... "uummm I don't know" then do some face scrunching then you should check your work again.

Lets look at a few more examples out there.

Mana Burn is an example of a small blue flame set that runs the bottom of the screen. I like this one because it does not require tiling for those that have dual screens. The animation is simple and isn't over bearing at all.

Mana Burn

Blissful Dream is one I like because all the movement is subtle. The colors are bright but not over bearing and it has it's major focus in the middle of the picture so nothing on your desktop gets in the way.

Blissful Dream

The Lines 2 is another great one in that it's subtle but has a great presence on the screen. The use of color shifting keeps it from getting boring.

The Lines 2

ATI Ruby is a fun to watch but far too much is going on. Having a full movie, even when it is good looking, is over bearing. Besides who wants to watch the same fight over and over? Once again this isn't to say that it is bad but the point of the dream is to appeal to as many people as possible.

Ruby

I hope these tips help! Good Luck!

Cheers,

Seabass

-My Chi knows how to Splode.

Thanks again to Seabass for taking the time to put together both the dream and this article!

The holiday season is finally here, and I would have to say the Christmas and winter seasons are by far the most popular when it comes to desktop customization.  Recent holiday skins have been great, and I hope this season will be even better.  We have Christmas inspired skins in nearly gallery here at WinCustomize, and since last year we have a few new galleries that need to be filled with holiday skins.

It's time once again for the Christmas edition of the holiday skin guide, and I am asking for the help and support from our great community again.  Feel free to post or message me holiday inspired skins you would like to see featured in this years guide.  I would also like to hear from member that are creating holiday skins as this guide is a great way to promote peoples work.

So let me know your favorite holiday skins, and let me know if you are working on any as well.

This week was short for many people because of the Thanksgiving holiday, but I still wanted to show some popular skins from the past week.  I also want to put out another remind about the WinCustomize Charity/Subscription Drive.  We still have a few weeks left so remember to spread the word around.

Now for this weeks picks!

Aquart for CursorXP By DuoPixart  This cursor is part of the Aquart suite.  Be sure to check DuoPixart's page on WinCustomize for more of this suite.

Slider-xp widget for DesktopX By bilbo1930  We have seen some really things based on "Slider", and this is another perfect addition.  Great work.

Another Dream in Wallpapers By HOTRODLED  I really like the colors used in this wallpaper, and it goes great with many WindowBlinds themes.

Tequila Sunrise in Wallpapers By Richard Mohler  I really like this wallpaper, and not because of the title.  Nice work.

Aquart for WindowBlinds By DuoPixart  I already mentioned the cursor above, and here is the WindowBlinds skin it's based on.  I really encourage everyone to download this skin and check it.

There were some great works this week, even though many people are gone for the holiday.  See you next week!

The Thanksgiving holiday is just less than a week away, but unfortunately I didn't come across too many Thanksgiving inspired skins.  That won't be a problem because I have a feeling this Christmas and winter season will be fantastic for skinning.  Speaking of which, next week I will begin making calls for seasonal skins and help once again with this years Holiday Skin Guide.

The WinCustomize Charity/Subscription Drive is still going on, and aside from the subscriptions, several Master Skinners are also participating with many great skins, so be sure to check it out.  If you would like to help spread the word about the drive, I wrote an article explaining how you can put banners on your websites and blogs to help.

Now for this weeks picks!

Curvy for CursorXP By Richard Mohler This is a new favorite of mine.  Richard has created a gorgeous cursor that I have used with several skins and it goes well with many.  Great job.

RC Radio in DesktopX Widgets By buzzh58 Buzzh58 created this to fit perfectly inside a RightClick menu, but it works just as well stand-alone.

Good Night Earth in Dreams By TheMasterBaron This new Master Skin is one of the highest quality .dreams I have seen in a while.  Very nice.

Footure for IconPackager By mrSkope There has been a lack of IP themes lately, but when one comes along it sure is a good one.  This pack comes with over 120 icons for Vista and XP, although there are no Live Folders yet.

Turbo Tabbed & Side Docks for ObjectDock By WebGizmos WebGizmos has once again created an awesome set of dock backgrounds for the Turbo WindowBlinds from Stardock Design.  Nice work.

Opaloid in Wallpapers By radnor27 This reminds of an image of a nebula, but whatever it was designed to be it's beautiful.  A widescreen version is also available.

WhiteFire2 for WindowBlinds By basj WhiteFire is definitely "hot" with a wonderful use of design and colors.  There are quite a few matching skins including cursors, widgets, logons, etc.  Be sure to download this one.

Another great week, and I want to start hearing from people who plan on creating some holiday inspired skins.  Whatever you are working on always feel free to stop by the "What are you working on" thread and give us a peek at what you are working on.  See you next week!

Over the past week or so, you have heard plenty of talk about the WinCustomize Charity/Subscription Drive we have going.  The drive got off to a great start, but we are starting to see a slowdown and if this continues it will be difficult to make our goal.  So what can we as community members do to help, well it's pretty easy and I wanted to share some ways that I have been doing personally to help spread the word.

Personal Blog/Website

Many of us, including myself, have their own personal blogs or website.  There are a wide variety of free blog services out there, and many people have their own hosting.   One of the most popular blogging platforms that people use with their hosts is WordPress.  We made some banners for users to put on their sites as a way to help, and I wanted to demonstrate how to get these on your sites. 

WordPress:  In the Widgets section, which should be found under Presentation you can add all types of things to your sidebar from here.  Just drag a text widget to your sidebar, add some html code, and save.

This is the code you should use for this banner: 

<a href="https://www.wincustomize.com/charity.aspx?cpRef=theislanddog.com"> <img border=0 src="//images.stardock.com/zoomba/charity/ChildsPlay_125x125.jpg"</a>

Remember to change the referral url to yours, so we can see who is sending people our way.  Just replace "theislanddog.com" with your site url.  This is how the banner should look in your sidebar.

The same code can also be placed in any webpage by pasting the html code where you want the banner to go.  We have three sizes of banners, you just need to replace the image url with the banner you want to use.  You can see the banners here. 

• https://www.wincustomize.com/articles.aspx?aid=167021

Some other uses using this type of code would be placing a banner on your MySpace profile.  Check my MySpace profile for an example of this.

E-Mail Signatures

I know many of your are like me, who send and receive a vast amount of e-mails everyday.  Zubaz tipped me off to an idea of placing a banner in your e-mail signature to whenever you send mail the banner will be included at the bottom of your message.  I use Outlook 2007, and all you need to do is create a new signature with one of the images, link the referral url and you are all set.

Zubaz wrote an article detailing how to do this with Gmail, and many other mail services offer signatures so check with your e-mail provider or e-mail client.

Word of Mouth

One of the best ways to spread the word about anything is the traditional "word of mouth".  Let your family and friends know about WinCustomize, and the benefits of becoming a subscriber along which in turn helps out a great cause.

I have sent the link to many of my friends who never even heard of WinCustomize, but are now hooked.  WinCustomize is one of the best communities out there and it's growing day by day, but giving a friend a nudge in this direction is always a good idea.

Your Ideas

If you have any tips or ideas on how to help spread the word about the Charity/Subscription Drive, then please feel free to list them here.  I will write a follow-up article if we get some good tips coming in.  If you have also posted links or banners on your blogs, sites, social networks, etc., then also leave the links here so we can check them out.  I would love to see how our community members are helping to spread the word.

The month is moving right along I see, once again Friday has snuck up on us.  It's been quite a busy week at WinCustomize and there is much more coming.  The WinCustomize Charity/Subscription drive started off with a nice bang, but it's starting to slow up, so be sure to pass the word along.  We had some banners made up with a few different sizes so you can place them on your website, blog, Myspace page, etc.

Next, we have the first chapter posted of the "official" SkinStudio 6 tutorial.  Although the guide is for anyone, it will be especially useful for people who are new to skinning and want to try their hand at creating a skin.  The remaining chapters are being written, so keep your eye out for updates.

Now for this weeks picks!

Harmony DX 2 in DesktopX Themes By PuterDudeJim PuterDudeJim has based this DX theme off of the popular WindowBlinds skin "Harmony".  This launchbar type skin is a perfect accompaniment.

The Artifact  in Dreams By TheMasterBaron This .dream is of a flyby of an alien "artifact" in an artic land.  Nice work.

WhiteFire2 Dock Backgrounds  for ObjectDock By messiah1 These dock backgrounds are made to match the WhiteFire2 WindowBlinds skin by basj.  Great job.

Portal for SoundPackager By Unserene This sound pack includes sounds from the popular "Portal" game.  Some of the sounds are a bit too long, but it's one to check out.

Eye of the Storm  in Wallpapers By Richard Mohler Richard keeps putting out the wallpapers lately, and this is another that you need to download.

Don't forget later today to check out the first episode of WinCustomize Live where your gracious host Zoomba will discuss the WinCustomize Charity/Subscription Drive and take your questions.  Great week by all the artists this week and I'm looking forward to the holiday skins.  See you next week!