Editiorial: Are skinners abandoning originality in exchange for popularity?
Thursday, March 25, 2004 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
I was doing an article today on the history of WindowBlinds skinning. And I firmly believe that the vocal "minimalistic skinsa re king" crowd have really done real harm to skinning. I say that because skin authors seem to have become so afraid of making anything that isn't "minimalistic" because not only will they not be appreciated for being creative and original, they're likely to get flamed by the "Minimastic" brigade.
Let me show you some skins from 1999 so you can see what I mean in terms of originality.
This is old but when was the last time you saw a skin that tried to look like something other than "Look, it's another generic GUI"? Or at least done reasonably well?
This is from 2000! Sure there's OS skins in here too but look at that Allend Bond skin. Or Dangeruss's skin.
This is from Shoggot. His title bar blade actually rotated (animated) when it was the active window and the blade stretched as you increased the size of the window. I can't even remember the last time someone made a good animated title bar. And it's so easy. It's just frames of animation. Some little glowing effect or SOMETHING other than the usual gradients that everyone seems fixated on.
I believe that the reason for the lack of creativity these days is because of the obsession with downloads combined with fatigue from being flamed by the critics who will look at a skin that took 2 weeks to make and shrug it off "I won't use that crap" simply because it's not Windows Luna (but red) or some skin that looks like a slightly more minimalistic version of Luna.
Here's one from DAK from Russia released FOUR years ago.
When was the last time you saw a skin that used animation this clever? This Matrix skin by Mercury was made 4 years ago.
These two skins from Dangeruss, which are going on 5 years in age, show what skinning is all about. Creative and yet outstanding quality. These are the kinds of skins WindowBlinds was made for artistic freedom to create cool and interesting looking things. Little touches like semi-transparent scrollbars (how often do you see that these days?) and captions on the title bar buttons.
Many skin authors seem to be skinning more for popularity rather than for themselves. Back before skinning was so popular, popularity wasn't an issue - there just weren't enough peopel using this stuff. But now, skinning is not just popular, but with popularity comes..well criticism. The skins you see here took real work to make. But who wants to spend weeks on a skin only to have some anonymous user slam it because they think it's "gaudy".
I wish I had the talent to create good artwork like you see here because I would create "gaudy" skins (if these are "gaudy"). I would rather create a skin that is new and different than yet another "It's very much like Luna but the title bar is slightly smaller and it has a gradient..." (not that I'm not guilty of that myself since those kinds of skins take less time and will get more downloads.
The skins you see here are available on WinCustomize.com in the WindowBlinds section. Just look at Dangeruss, Mercury, D.A.K. and Allen Bond if you, as a skin author, want to see how these skins were made or if you, as a skin user, want to try them out (of course, since they were made before XP, not all of xP will be skinned with them).
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Reply #22 Thursday, March 25, 2004 5:13 PM
The minimalist skins are user friendly and mean you are not stuck looking at the same frames / buttons / titlebars everyday, but at the same time you can get some work done.
A lot of work recently has been on shading and tones rather than wizzbang special effects. Could this be a maturity in the hobby?
Reply #23 Thursday, March 25, 2004 5:34 PM
Reply #24 Thursday, March 25, 2004 5:59 PM
There are many other varibles to designing skins and so much needs to be skinned. It takes a lot of time. Maybe if Stardock would pay skinners, they would get better skins. I've actually been spending two months on my GUI Olympics skin. I started it before I even heard of GUI Olympics. Then, it became an endeavor to make it as "creative" as possible without effecting usability. Adding all the plugins, takes more time because they also must be skinned. You add toolbar icons, animations, and everything else into the equation, and you are talking about a whole, whole lot of time. By the time I finish my GUI Olympics skin, it will be a four month project. I spend at least two to five hours a day on this skin. On my days off, it is like eight hours a day or more. My skin will take over 100 hours of work easily. I'd laugh at a job offering me $1.00 per hour, if I win first place. I'd be lucky to actually win a third or fourth prize, and what good is that? How about at least a Object Desktop subscription to those who spend all this time to win nothing?
Then you have to add the fact that image quality is hard to achieve with Bitmaps. Creativity in windowblinds means square or ugly pixelization. And a lot of the images require bitmaps. It takes a lot of time trying to design something within the constraints of the program, and more importantly within the constraints of the operating system.
So, I really resent the comments myself. Have a little compassion for the skinners who are doing this for free. No offense to you Frogboy, I know that you are trying to inspire us. The GUI Olympics was great inspiration. But, a skin won't pay the bills, regardless. So, please be gentle, we're trying.
Reply #25 Thursday, March 25, 2004 6:04 PM
Reply #26 Thursday, March 25, 2004 6:11 PM
Reply #27 Thursday, March 25, 2004 6:54 PM
I wonder if it's cuz wb's has changed so much and more elements of the windows are now skinnable that ppl are threatned by what may seem harder for them to tackle so they get busy trying to cover all the bases instead of focusing on the far less fewer bases that were skinned back in the earlier builds of wb's? (who knows)
Reply #28 Thursday, March 25, 2004 7:04 PM
I'm a new user to this skinning thing. I paid good money just to get away form the usual, the simple, the boring.
This is just what I needed to read. thanks for SPEAKING UP. Maybe the creative skinners like Pixtudio, Tiggz and others will continue bless us with great inspired artwork. Many of us users are truly greatful for their hard work.
Reply #29 Thursday, March 25, 2004 7:07 PM
Many times, I recieved comments that my skins was some kind of busy. I have my style and I am happy with it,my skills keeps changing all the time, but my style doesn't, I will not change it, even when making hired skins or premium suites.
Creativity and Originality is the thing that i most respect in a skinner work.
Reply #30 Thursday, March 25, 2004 7:25 PM
Reply #31 Thursday, March 25, 2004 8:13 PM
Reply #32 Thursday, March 25, 2004 8:44 PM
disclaimer...I have no skill in making skins so I'm sure it's hard, but look at the skins above and tell me "it can't be done"!
Reply #33 Thursday, March 25, 2004 8:48 PM
Back in the day, someone could ask for a skin in the morning, and by lunch, someone would say "here ya go".
Now, it could take (for a good skin) 2 to 3 weeks or more.
People were more creative back then, but they didn't have to live with it (so to speak).
Reply #34 Thursday, March 25, 2004 9:01 PM
Reply #35 Thursday, March 25, 2004 9:33 PM
Reply #36 Thursday, March 25, 2004 9:36 PM
I love that kind!!!
Reply #37 Thursday, March 25, 2004 10:10 PM
But, when it comes down to it, I have to be able to do my daily tasks without being destracted by the skin itself. Some of the skins pictured above are incredibly fun, but I think I might get a headache if I used them for more than a day or two
I agree with the others that there is a place for both types of skins. I like the ones that make me think outside the box, and I like the ones that I can leave on for a month... it's a matter of personal preference.
Reply #38 Thursday, March 25, 2004 10:16 PM
Anyway, I think as of late there were some skins that are out of the ordinary.
I would disagree with that a skin has to have all the parts skinned. Some authors get allot of flack about that... add a new feature to Windowblinds and you HAVE to skin it.
At any rate, lets see the next generation of skins for this year. Maybe there will be something different.
Reply #39 Thursday, March 25, 2004 10:33 PM
I want skins with animation. I want skins with a clock. I want skins with lots of buttons doing neat stuff like Winmenu2. I want skins with buttons someplace other than the top edge on the far right.
The *only* reason I don't use the older skins now is because older skins don't support the newer features of WB. If I had more time, I'd probably teach myself enough about skinning to update some of my old favorites. But that is just not possible.
At present, I D/L a bunch of skins about once every month or two, I try them out for 10 minutes, then I discard most of them. WB is a really neat program, but almost none of the newer skins interest me. I am sure the newer skins have many fans. I am just not one of them.
Reply #40 Thursday, March 25, 2004 10:49 PM
Thank you one and all for using your time and then let us non artists reap the benifits of your creations.
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Reply #21 Thursday, March 25, 2004 5:13 PM
Oh well....that's life....loath it....ignore it....you just can't like it.