My announcement

[Reanimation]

I'm going to take a break from skinning winamp, maybe a long term break. For a few reasons :-

1) I just don't get the same level of fun and excitment out of skinning anymore, it's more like a task than fun. I used to think "I'm bored what can I do?" then i started a skin, and it was all fun from start to finish, now its just not the same.

2) I have ran out of ideas, I did a while back but I still tried, the ws techamp was just putting skills learned off cleanup, onto a skin trying to make it like jasonl would of. I know everyone like raydreams skins, but I think jasonl's skins can never be beaten, they just rule all. And the skills cleanup has with MSPaint was so simple but worked so well, I'm very impressed man.

Well thats about all the reasons I can think of right this miniute. I know half of you would just read this and see "well..." but I just wanted to say it.

Thanks for all the help and advice and tips you have all give me.

I may do more on Winamp 2 if I ever get the skills with psp7, or I may more onto Winamp 3. Or I may just dump the idea of skinning all together. Just depends on what I'm thinking of at the time.

I'll still be hanging around the forums and stuff, so you wont forget me (haha!) but I just won't be skinning. If anyone wants to finish off anything I've done in the past however long its been just say and I'll make a temp site and put all my work on it.

Well, thats about it now....

[Atmo]

Seems like everyones quitting skinning lately...

I guess we all go thru moments like this, i nearly gave it away just a short while ago, and im back at it already. Personally, i hope you do take up skinning again in a while as your work has really been improving lately.

Good luck with whatever you choose to fill in your spare time with, and its good to hear you'll still be hanging around.

[gsx]

I did give up for a few weeks a while back, just never anounced it. Im back, and working on 3 skins right now. Half way through my new webdesign too.
I like the attitude in this forum and i guess thats what keeps me here. I like working in photoshop, and skinning has improved my skills in it which i in turn use for my webdesigns.
I will be getting into WA3 soon, and have already thought of some ideas. I'l be arround for a while taking the occasional break.

PS to atmo: Your WA3 skin looks sweet (check news section on atmos site http://atmo.tk ), but i dont think you should do a colab, i think id be cool if you did all the graphics and coding yourself. Imagine how proud you could be of that? Just a sudgestion tho, id recomend learning XML.

Good luck to all going into WA3 in the next few months.

[Kenny D.]

Must be something in the air! I was bogged down re-doing my "alien alloy" skin. Then I was offline for a week thanks to some "newdotnet.dll" shit I picked up somehow that screwed up my "WSOCK.vxd" files. And now I just have lost all interest in skinning. Probably a temporary thing but it`s odd that we all sorta "bottomed-out" at the same time.
Dragon, maybe we`ll do that colab one day when we get re-inspired.

I still am interested in the chain-skin collaboration and looking forward to doing my bit on it though.

[marc falk]

you'll be back sooner than you think...

i've stopped skinning a couple of times(actually... after every skin, i tend to mutter "never again")..

and always come back...

damn cold turkey.

fsnl
sparky

eo: Hybrid - Beachcoma

[Forevever]

don't let artists block get you down
with all the skins I've done, I have experienced artists block more often than I care to recall - but then I find myself spitting out 3 or 4 skins in one month
having a block right now myself - seems to be something going around - I'm still playing around though - eventually I'll hit on something I really like - I'm contemplating doing a plain and simple skin just to keep in practice - and "boo" to anyone who doesn't like it

[binary hero]

I recently had artistic block, and the feeling that everything i did was utter shite, and i would never be any good. But then i started to think, I will get better, if it kills me. So i read through many many tutorials. Then i practiced, i just made loads of pieces of crap, not skins, just things to show what i could do, and to try and inspire myself, I made a test tube, countless millions of circles, textures, backgrounds, gears, glass gears (turned out crap...but i will try again soon). Experiminting with lighting effects, noise, 3d effects, glass, everything. Then, last night, i was lying on my gf's sofa, watching some crap film when i got inspired,

Anyway, the moral of this is stay up all night, messing around with psp/paint/ps/gimp and just keep trying to develop your own style. If you think about it, if you see a raydream skin, you know it's his, and it's good, you see a cazsius skin...and again you know who made it. It isn't about talent, that comes from straight practice, and tutorials, it's about ideas...go to google and type in "paintshop pro tutorials"...and do them ALL. Then look at the world around you and get an idea for a skin. Make the skin...there you go, you will have a unique, stylish and ultimatley fantastic skin.

You have to remember that not everybody likes jasonl, caz and raydream skins, it's a matter of taste, it's just that those skins have been made well, (i'm talking about kaolla, citrus and aquair), time has been put into them, and they have all got inspiration, they are all totally unique...they are great skins.

does that make sense?

[Xerxes]

Its always hard, frustrating, and... hard to create when you have a blank page...(memories of client work streaming to me aaah!) once you have something that piques your interest... that gives you that soul searing jolt of inspiration... you'll be back. And beware, that inspiration can come from anywhere- the History Channel Nuremburg Rally documentary playing on your girlfriends TV, the empty Cigarette box on your desk with the neat foily paper sticking out, that way cool illustration in that book you've kept for a long a long time you wish you could have as a poster.................. shall i go on?

[Reanimation]

Thanks for all the replys, I will try out some tuts and hopefully get a new idea. But everytime I have an idea I check the forums and somone else has done, is it doing it so I don't bother to try it.

At the mo I just wanna relax and take it easy, but skinning started to be a drag, with all the bugs i started to make. Maybe one day soon i will be back, I acually have some ideas in my head, but they're for winamp 3 and for me to make then with my current graphical standerd would be impossible. Maybe one day i can make it... but maybe i'll never want to make it, right now i don't. I don't even wanna think about skinning anything.

Maybe you lot are right, its just a block, or it might be a dislike.

[Cleanup]

Hey Dragon,

I've been going through some skinners' block, too. I just run out of ideas. I'm trying to come up with something for Kyaela 2 and Nuclear Memory 2 (yes, I'm planning it. It might be for Winamp 3, if anyone's willing to code it for me).

I'm sure you're making the right choice, Dragon, but you'll come back. I just know it.

[dollerspark]

Take a break, dude. I'd like to see you skinning as much as everyone else here, but there's just some things an artist has to do, and this is one of them. Seriously though, taking a break is a good thing (just don't wait too long). For awhile there after my Tetanus skins, I was really gung-ho and all, but my ideas were all very scattered and distant. I was skinning at every feeble idea which came to mind, and failing every one. It's not that my idea's weren't good, I just needed time off, time to cool down. I've been collecting and organizing ideas for a while, and am finding it much easier to skin.

I guess it's kinda like defraggin' your computer. Your computer runs great for awhile, but then over time things come apart and make it harder to work with, so you need to take time off to defrag. After that, you'll be up and running smoothly again. Trust me.

Also, don't let others get you down. I know I was exstatic when I made my first Winamp skin. It was horrible, but I was so happy to see the buttons change colors when you clicked them. Then I started looking at other skins and thought "geez, the skin I made is what those other skinners wipe their asses with." Turn your thoughts around, though. Look at the skins that you admire, and find out what you like about them, and then learn how to design it for yourself (I know Cleanup was telling me the same thing). What you've just learned, is now one of your abilities. Use it.

Oh, and sorry for the lame-assed analogy.

[gsx]

I think im gona take a few weeks off from the forums, graphics, coding.. everything. Il be back sumtime in july. Just wana relax a bit and not worry about anything. School just got out and i wont be on the computer as much. Il work on my site design, redesigning for a 5th time. This time it wont be dark and metalic. Gona think it trough and get to work on a WA3 skin when i get back.
I will finish caz and cleanup's code tho, no worries. Mite come in the MIRC room every once in a while too.
Good luck.

[edit] leaving on post 111 ... cool... [/edit]

[PeaceMaker]

i have the same block, im going into skin retirement soon for a while, just after i finish up on this last skin.

its not just that u run out of ideas, [really thats just an excuse] i get fed up with the junkmail/virismail everyday especially on the servers account.

there's generally ways of coming up with ideas, reading tuts can be one , sometimes looking at a picture can work in your brains favour aswell.

[ripe]

the thing is, to stop the virusmail, you'd have to either delete all your published skins or change the contact addy to a fake.

is anyone getting a new virusmail just lately, around 40k in size? i'm getting it in bulk loads, like 15 times from the same user, then 15 times from another user, etc.

[binary hero]

stop quittin, tha lot of ya. you just want the attention. y'all be back. ya mark ma wurds (why the fack am i typing funny? waaaay too much coffee).

[Reanimation]

Yeah i'll just have a break, i did get off the net and make a shitty glass kinda thing in psp. i'm happy with it as its the first thing ive made in psp worth showing. everything else sux!

What do you think about it, be fair its only like the 4th time ive used psp proper...

[razmansix]

Not bad but I think it could benefit from an extra top layer of white reflection. maybe by making a smaller circular selection on top of it and make a gradient that goes from white to transparent.

[gsx]

id look cool with some lenz flare... Looks more like a bubble filled with water to me.

[PeaceMaker]

getting glass to look right in winamp(2) is almost impossible. [not just a simple lens flare.]

[Reanimation]

I'm not making a skin!

I'm learning stuff in psp. my new sig is being designed in psp just for some practis (sp) so you'll see what crap i can make soon as i've finished it