Hello Treetog.
I'm not a frequent poster ( ok, thats understating things JUST a little, I guess ) so I'm not sure how this comments things works Re: length, replies, etc...I noticed that they seem to be very short for the most part...I will probably be the only exception to that. ( Don't say you weren't forewarned! LOL ) I also noticed that they are only one-way (you don't have posts here too), so I guess a good general question to start off with would be: "How should I expect any replies to this post?" Since I don't know the answer ahead of time, I'll play it safe and provide an email: nJenUis@gmail.com
Now, down to business! (ha-ha)
Firstly, I just want to say that I've had some of your skins for a long time, but as I don't usually pay much attention to the authors --heck, I try to obliterate traces of them (ie: logos and such) from showing on my desktop--reminds me too much of advertising.....but you came to my attention for the distinction of creating one of my most tantalizing, yet frustrating Windowblinds skins: Transilvania (which is spelled wrong, btw...you knew that tho, I'm sure). Tantalizing, because it was my first intro to the idea (beyond extra roll-up button) of many extra buttons, both on the titlebar, and status bar--or bottom frame--with a wide variety of applications/features! Frustrating because the items along the bottom are just toooo small to be helpful--I have to squint to even see them, and because the skin itself is not my idea of beautiful, AND it doesn't accept colorization well, which pretty much makes it pretty much useless to me. Yet I hang onto it...thinking maybe I can learn how to apply these kinds of extra buttons to others skins, wondering if its possible to extract them, how to configure them, etc.. Obviously, I have gotten nowhere on any of these questions, except to render one button useless, and somehow, completely erase all traces (except the graphic) of a similar button I found in a skin called MetalX (authors name not handy, sorry).
I would DEARLY appreciate it if you could share the basics with me, as I have no patience for all the in-depth this stuff requires. I just want to gather, for now, all my favorite things in one skin: these extra buttons, glow effects, nice design, good colors, etc.... I'm not prepared to take on the intricacies of learning how to make this stuff from scratch yet. I guess I'm just lazy in that regard. I have tried to learn some, but ....well, for example? I downloaded this guide: Skinning Windows XP? Most everything it said was way too beginner for me...I knew most of it! Yet when I try to read more advanced skinning tutorials, all of it is WAY over my head!!! So, at least on an active level, I've given up. On an inactive, experimental level, I AM still learning, albiet very slowly!
My request to you is the first time I've asked for help with any of this, because til now, there was too much confusing me to narrow down!
There is one other area...the other reason I chose to write you: I was reading some comments today for a skin of yours called Palm Beach Colors. Comments 1, 2 & 4 grabbed my attention. They read, respectively;
"Why would you not just colorize the skin? You could have done the same thing with a single skin then..."
, "I tryed Brad, but the original gradients doesn't look good when colored, so I made it as compound.", and "Do you mind if I colorize it for you? The trick is to make your color masks a grayscale version of the original title bar/sides, etc rather than a solid mask."
The 2nd, comment, of course, being by you. I guess I should have aimed this part at the other commenter; Frogboy, but, like I already mentioned, I'm a little on the lazy side...why post twice? Anyways, I think I can relate to your comment; Theres this skin I like called With Love, which looks nice in its original form, but being as my fav color ( and most of the world's, apparently) is blue, I tried recoloring it...but the graphics lose their... poofiness...look up the skin, you'll see what I mean. ANd attempting a substyle that was completely reciolored was a bomb: all my text boxes and scroll bars were completely filled in with the same color! Variations of the color would have been much more preferable...So, you see why I think I can relate to your comment? If we ARE on the same wavelength, my final reason for writing you is that, since these comments were posted in 2001, I was hoping that instead of harassing Frogboy too, you could now understand (if you didn't already) what he was talking about, and how to implement this idea yourself--most of all, I was hoping you could explain it to me!
I know all this is a lot to ask, and I know (ALL of) you have to be pretty busy, with all these great skins under your belt(s), as well as a real life on top of that (I don't know how any of you do it, honestly)!!! But any comprehensive help would be appreciated , especially in these two areas.
This is FAR too long!!! I'm done, K? Please write me, even if it's to tell me you can't help! THX LOTZ!!!
Sincerely; JenUin
