Gateway To Heaven

[caz]

Seeing as my other post has died lol...i thought id post my new skin preview in a new one...after all it is a new skin...tell me what u think :P

Gateway To Heaven is a pretty cool name huh? i think so anyway..if u guys can think of somethin else then be my guest :P and tell em me

|edit| and i could still use some help on the antialiasing part :)
preferably from someone who uses psp like moi

[Forevever]

Originally posted by Cazsius
Gateway To Heaven is a pretty cool name huh?

don't you dare change it! its too appropriate - looks like a gateway to heaven - I'm anxious to see more of this skin - I have a feeling it'll be a new keeper for me

[Lucid DM]

Now that's the kinda skin I like.

I make all my skins 4 times normal size, so instead of 275*116, I start off at 1100*464. Then when I'm finished, I resize down and it's all anti-aliased. (This is basically doing the same thing as a vector program does when anti-aliasing)

[caz]

are there any other ways of doing it? now that ive already started?

and dont u dare say use retouch lol i h8 it

[Forevever]

depending on how you're doing it, you could possibly add a drop shadow, or use your freehand selection tool to roughly outline the edge you want antialiased, with feathering set to like 5, then apply a blur filter (more than once if necessary) - I personally prefer the drop shadow method - Vertical: 0; Horizontal 0; Blur: 5; Opacity between 65 and 100% - depending - its a trial and error thing

[caz]

heres my progress so far...

about the antialiasing forever i know what u mean..its just using teh freehand tool is really really hard lol - i dont get how u can do it without getting the shadow onto the area where u dont want it (if that makes sense :weird: )

its a shame cos i dont want to get stuck :cry:

|edit| I dont believe it...my skin idea gettin praised by a kick ass skinner like forever? woohoo! :cool: (not that any of the other skinners who've praised my work arent kick ass :D....im goin to bed)

[caz]

Forever...just ignore me when im tired ok? lol


how do u add a dropshadow without using the freehand tool..is it possible?

[Forevever]

I strongly suggest you learn to use layers - easier to go back and edit with drop shadows later

Originally posted in another thread by me
PSP - many many many possibilities for antialiasing - its a matter of trial and error - there are plugins - several selection tools - easy selection options to make it bigger/smaller/feathered - drop shadows - blur - soften - resizing - in PSP7 there's an "edge preserving smooth" under the "noise" option - which also contains an option to "despeckle" - and of course there's retouch - giving you even more control on the amount of blur/anti-alias - as well as light, darkness, and zillions of adjustment modes (I think I'm turning into a commercial here... ) - moving right along..

the trick is to find correct combinations of these items - sometimes there's a big difference in the quality and often times one effect will not work right in different sized areas and will not work the same on circles as it will on rectangles or "s" curves and such

experiment with selection tools - and the options you can apply to what is currently selected (under selections) - you'd be surprised how often you find yourself using them once you get the hang of it

you don't have to download Photoshop..

See attached for an example - although I wouldn't settle for this - I'd try some different things.

In the future if you get used to layers - you can put certain elements in new layers and before you're ready to save, add your drop shadow just to the layers you want - dig?

[caz]

thx forever u helped a lot :P

btw do any of u know what this means?
ERROR The component file you have uploaded is not a valid skin archive.

ive tried uploading my zpworld skin and this is what i get....

[Forevever]

it means either the database is currently not working properly - or there was a problem during compression which might have corrupted the file

I vote for winamp screwing up - try again later or tomorrow

[binary hero]

Try putting it all in a new zip file.

I like the skin btw :)

[caz]

I could really do with some ideas lol im stuck and ive hardly done anything more...how would u guys feel about the edges not being antialiased...or should i do em even if i dont like how it turns out?

[aestas caerulea]

;_; Please don't blur that skin all to heck that way...jagged edges aren't generally good, but things look worse when they're that blurry, and I think it's a really cool skin so far. The only way I've found to make something jaggy anti-aliased that works without making stuff look...unfocused, is to zoom right in and put in individual pixels of colors that are in between the two colors touching each other, and that takes a -really- long time and some trial and error.

[caz]

heres an update for those of you still interested lol...sorry i havent done much but ive been pretty busy...

Ive done the antialising the best i can - i havent blurred it into oblivion lol so dont worry :P i tried lots and lots of different options but i couldnt get any to work the way i wanted...its not perfect but im pleased with it.

any ideas on what the cbuttons should b like? - i was gonna use the same style of symbol as i did on the zpworld skin (ill post an ss) what do u think?

[caz]

here r the cbuttons from the zp skin

[caz]

I was just thinking - do you guys think i should bother with putting titles like: Browser, Equalizer and all that stuff? i dont think i should...for three reasons...

1. Its gonna be hard to find a font to go with the skin.
2. Its gonna be even harder to find space for the titles to even fit.
3. It would be a change :P lol

[caz]

what is it about my posts? they all seem to die after the 10th reply....

[caz]

...any ideas for improvement?

[skinme!]

I'm confused and I don't have a smilie to convey it. Will you or will you not be antialiasing this skin? I do hope you do.

This is such a sweet skin and yet it also has so many great interface items.

[caz]

lol which bits do u want me to antialias? i find it very hard...:(
i had a go at the grey bg bits and it came out like that - and without blurring it out thats the best i can do...could u point out to me where u think i should do it?

and btw Skinme! thanx for answering! :P i was goin crazeeee

[caz]

This is how it looks with a full gaussian blur (or howeber u spell it :P) - to me it makes it harder to see...do u think it looks better or worse?

[caz]

well lol the design part is :P now onto the making...:weird:

[Forevever]

Sorry Caz, been kinda busy. I hate to see you blur too much of this skin - some people like everything smooth - and most skins look better smooth - but in this case seeing as how you're so far into it and its kinda too late to go back and adjust without majorly blurring the thing - I think we should stick with the stark edges

as for titles? I think I tend to leave them out 95% of the time. I might put a label on the main just for some decoration or so that there is a main title - but almost never put Equalizer, PLaylist, Minibrowser, Mikro, or AVS labels - I figure if they do'nt know what it is they shouldn't be using it :D

My advice - keep going on this skin - don't blur it out anymore - learn to use layers - and remember to smooth things out on the next one :)

[caz]

It looks ok like this though right? :cry: i hope soooooo

Well nearly finished now...and im already gettin new ideas for the next one...(I h8 it when that happens :P) and im going to try and learn how to use layers more effectively - i mostly use em for fading images into other images, but thats no use :igor: lol

[Forevever]

yes - it definitely looks good the way it is - the important thing is if you like it or not though - and if you aren't completely satisfied thats ok too - I'm not really happy with 80% of my skins either - and I think most of the good skinners around here can say the same thing

we never can quite acheive what we set out to do - as far as I'm concerned - you've got mad talent

[caz]

thanx :P

I need to ask one more question..then i'll shut up :P

which file do i need to edit to prevent this (see attach) from happening? I cant find out where it is anywhere.

[caz]

YAY :D finished at last...

and only one teenie tiny bug (that i cant seem to fix :cry:)