I am a newbie that needs help...

[ONE-ARM]

http://www.winamp.com/components/det...ponentId=69186

That is my best skin so far. I used a skinner program then customized. I am wondering how I could skin better, without a skinning program. How do you people do it? Waht programs do you use? I would appreciate any feed back Taht you could give me.

[simon snowflake]

most people here use Paintshop pro or Photoshop.
you can use a template skin as ...TEMPLATE...lol
That way you know exactly ehre the buttons/sliders are.
Just mess around a bit, and you'll figure it out.

[e-blackadder]

Hey and hello. Everyone skins differently, so advice is kind of hard to give. Speaking for myself, I got started by making up a 245x348 template out of .bmp files you can get by doing a skin search for "template." I took mspaint and cut and pasted together a full picture of Main, EQ, and Playlist. Once I had that, I used to lay out my skin the way I wanted it, run it through a skinner, and then edit all the files until it was right. This is a good way to learn because it teaches you what the various .bmps do and how the skin itself works.
A good thing to do when you are just learning is unzip the Winamp Base skin into a seperate folder somewhere so you can use it as a reference. (like which parts of the .bmp file are button up, button down, that sort of thing.) Another good beginning trick is download a kickass skin like "Major Tom" or "Zeus", unzip that into a folder, and check out how the .bmp's work against the functioning skin. Just dont rip.

Other than that, just get some good graphics programs and start experimenting. You can find demos, freebies, etc. here:

http://www.cnet.com/downloads

just do a search for "graphics editors" and grab a few that look good. Imageforge is probably the best overall freebie, in my opinion.

ps, don't feel bad about the skinner. It's a tool that you can use eventually just to take some of the donkey work out of skinning. (Don't tell, but I use a skinner for all my stuff. ) This was done using a skinner as one of the building tools:

http://www.winamp.com/skins/detail.j...ponentId=66801

Good luck and have fun!

[ampburner]

[lamejoke]Hey One-Arm, need a hand?[/lamejoke]
sorry, couldn't resist.

But seriously. Best way to make a skin is by hand, without using a skinning program (like you used for yours) What you need is a good graphics program like Paintshop Pro or Adobe Photoshop.
A free demo version of Paintshop pro 7 can be downloaded here. It's fully functional but you can only use it for 30 days. After that you will need to buy it. Unless ofcourse you download a crack . . . But that would be illegal

For more information on the actual skinnig, go here or here.

On a side note... I really like the background image of your skin. If you'd learn to skin...I mean REALLY, REALLY learn to skin, IE spend a lot of time practising, Some really nice skin might come out of your hands.



[edit]No cracks thank you , MJ[/edit]

[e-blackadder]

[ampburner]

e beat me to it

[simon snowflake]

I like to keep it short.
Most people don't like reading complete novels as a answer. If they did (in this case i mean) the qould have searched the forums first and then ask the question if the had not found their answer.

[ONE-ARM]

Thx for the advise I have a copy of adobe photoshop 5.0 actually. I will start work on my next skin...

[dekt]

I actually gave you that 3 star 'Extract from Skinamp...' review. Sorry I didn't realise you'd customised it afterwards. I've actually been accused of not customising after using a skinner when I had so I apologise.

You're definitely on the right track though in your method and coming here for advice. Doing picture skins like your 'Science' one is difficult too. You've got a fresh perspective on it though from what I've seen so just keep going.