Prawly gonna get a skin done sometime soon...
 

I've got about 2 weeks off school, so I'll have nothing to do but skin! Plus, I'm currently downloading a try-out version of Photoshop, so that'll be a mojor bonus. I've got some stuff done, but will probably be able to improve it, so I won't post it yet. Can anyone give me some general advice for classic skinning?

Start with skinners atlas, if you're using photoshop, do it with layers on top of skeletons2.bmp. Maye a design before you worry about putting it into winamp (I always have trouble stopping myself from trying out every little thing as I make it, but it's things like that which made me redo my volume bar 3 times in my last skin).
Use different layers for each thing and group them using layer sets. It takes a bit to get used to but it's very very helpful to be able to switch things on and off, and to move and replace things so easily.

see this thread: http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....hreadid=134725

this thread: http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....hreadid=134529

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....hreadid=134424

and use Skinner's Atlas instead of the base skin.

Oh yes, and http://www.gimp.org

Well, nearly 45 minutes (curse my internet not working up to its full potential of 120kpbs) later, it is done downloading, and I'm debating weather to install it tonight and fool around with it for about a half hour before I go to bed and waste a day of my 30 day trial, or wake up early tomorrow morning and do it.

@k_rock - Yeah, i've read those threads through. I am planning on using skinners atlas. I had the Gimp, but I didn't really like it all that much. Might try it again though, now that you mention it.

@Luigi - Yeah, I'm gonna hafta figure out how to use layers to their full potential.

Well, I've decided, I'm gonna install it tonite. Why not.

/Edit - Fuck. Apparently I won't be using Photoshop. Curse Windows 98 *grrr*. And that 45 minutes, wasted! I'll never get that time back!!! FUCK!!! I guess I'll continue with Ultimate Paint. It works.

I hope your computer can handle it... my old computer had the hugest problems with the photoshop demo... that and I was really, really incompetent at the time...
Luigihann tries to use photoshop
I doubt that'll be too useful, except to help you avoid making the same mistakes I made :D

Edit/ Never mind I guess... Sorry dude.

Gimp can be kind of funky to run under windows because you probably won't have gtk already installed.

@Luigi - Wow, if thats incompetant, I wish I was incompetant!

@K_rock - I downloaded the GTK seperately, but still, I didn't really like the program. Don't ask me why. I think I might go try it now though.....

Hey there, you're closer than you think ;) :p

Sorry, you walked right into that one :D

But yeah, when I said I was incompetent I meant with photoshop, not with skinning. Both just take a lot of practice, like anything.

Here is what I've got so far, which is most of it, but theres some kind of glitch where its not saying "Winamp Library" at the top of the Media Library, it says some random letters instead. Can somebody take a look and maybe tell me why?

There must be a problem with your spacing. Make sure there's a strip of that light blue pixels between each letter, especially important to have it before and after the letter A. Also, make sure there's only one row of pizels between them.
Winamp is real picky about that part and its weirdness.

Thanks, that was it. I didn't have a space before the A, so now it works perfectly.

a bit too dark for me...i don't know...and too simple too...
what's your idea for this skin?

I quite like the colors. I would change the line in the EQ though. Also just try to make it a little less square all around. Note that less square does not mean perfectly round. Or perfectly anything for that matter. This especially applies to the playlist stacks which look like colored skinner atlas. Not that that's a huge moral crime. For example, hardly anybody changes the skinner atlas text.bmp, but the PL stacks just look to overpowering the PL window the way they are now.

sorry for the other post, i think my other monitor sucks doonkey ass...well, i like the colors too(i love black :D) and, well...i think that you can do something about that PL stacks...if you like them that way, you can just change the font. Use the same you used with the EQ PL buttons in the main window...i'll work well..
The video buttons are a bit too dark, try to fix tem too...
and look out the font of the GEN.bmp titlebar..try to separate the letters with one pixel of a different color...it looks buggy...

Okay, I've changed a few things, and I'm still gonna make some modifications yet. I don't really understand what you mean about the title bar El-ArGeNtO, but if you explain I'll try to change that too. I'll also brighten up the video buttons, I agree that they are too dark. The stacks were just the colored skinners atlas, but I made them a little rounder-looking, and I'm gonna change the font. I've also found a few little bugs mixed in which I'm gonna fix.

Now, when you say to try making it a little more round, do you mean maybe a little bit of transparency? I was looking at learning how to do that, just a little bit.

I doubt he meant with transparency, probably just about stuff like the PL stacks...
If I were you I'd throw a frame or border around the windows, just for the sake of filling some of that space...

when i refer to the titlebar, i mean the titlebar included in the gen.bmp... you should fix the letters under the windowparts...
this is what i'm talking about

Oh yeah, I mentioned earlier that I had fixed that.

And, now, I present to you, *gasp*

THE ALMOST-FINISHED PRODUCT!!!!

I haven't submitted it yet, because I'd like your input first. So, here it is, in all its glory!!!

/edit - Screenie -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...40/Bigshot.png

It lives up to it's name... >_> But it's not buggy, which is good, except you still have an error in your library titlebar (when inactive). I do like that you've made your own buttons for the most part, but your resize indicator in the corner of the playlist and video is still right out of the atlas, so I'd change that. You can round the Library buttons in genex.bmp, like you did with the playlist stacks.

Yup, those are all things that I'm gonna have to change. But not tonight, once again, I have stayed up until 12:30 AM working on this skin. So, now, I'm gonna read until 1 AM, and go to sleep. Tomorrow morning though, I'll change those things, as well as anything else people mention.

However, depending on how long it takes, I think I might wait for one or more reviewers opinion on this, to find out what rating\comments I would likely get, and why.

Update
 

Okay, I've updated using everything that Luigi said, plus a few other bugfixes that I guess he didn't notice. The biggest change is the addition of a border around everything.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...0/41288b68.bmp

/edit - Whoops, did one quick bugfix in the Video Titlebar.

GRRRR!! I think theres something wrong with the skin submission. I entered in the name, comments, description, gave a primary and secondary categoy(Stylish and WTF), and than the skin file and both screenshots. But then, it went back to the same page and beside both screenshot fields it said "Please submit files as jpg, gif, or png" or something like that. But, they were png files! And, they were the right size as well. What is wrong?

WTF doesn't work anymore. Neither do Png. Dunno why they're still options, but use jpg and don't use wtf.

WOOT!!! I have successfully submitted my first skin!

w007!!!, and the database is successfully broken again, don't hold your breath waiting for it to get reviewed :D








Probably a day or two to get fixed, maybe quicker...

Lol. Thats all I can say, Lol. I didn't break it, did I?


Anyway, I've started on another skin, "Death by Winamp". It is a red and black themed skin, and will make use of a fair amount of gradients, something that I haven't played with much. I haven't taken a screenshot yet, mostly because it isn't very far done.

Okay, first screenshot of my new skin:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...layingshot.bmp

All suggestions and opinions are welcome.

That could be nice although I think you're going to have a problem with the text area and such a heavy gradient. Are you using the base skin as your template? The only other reason it would look like that is if you just put the bitmaps that you finished into a folder without the rest of them. You could make some nice fire effects with the vis area and there are a million cool things you can do with the the cbuttons.

Do you have an overall theme aside from just red and black?

Yes, I'm using the base skin as a template, and yes, I'm just putting the finished ones in a folder without the rest. I was planning on trying to do some firey stuff for the vis, as well as some other places, E.G the bottom of the EQ, the bottom and edges of the PL. I haven't started with the CButtons yet, what do you suggest I do?

And, as for an overall theme, Now that I think about it, not really.

Well, since you have the fire thing, you might want to extend the fire theme to the rest of the skin. Fire is fun to draw and not that insanely difficult. I would probably make the cbuttons things having to do with fire or fighting fires. But even if you want to make shapes as them, they could be flaming which would look really cool. Or maybe have them melting. You know, like that paining with the clocks? That would look pretty cool as well.

Since the database is broken, did my skin not even go through? I just checked my profile to see if (by some strange chance) it had been accepted yet, and it said I had no submissions.

::UPDATE::

Well, I just recieved an email regarding Plain-Amp, and it was rejected because the repeat button looked like a swatiska symbol. A friend mentioned that to me after I submitted it, so I was hoping they wouldn't catch it, but they did. Guess its back to the drawing board.