One Piece At A Time : Windowblind Tutorial Part IV
Putting It Together : Start Menu
Friday, February 3, 2012 by PoSmedley | Discussion: WindowBlinds Tutorials
We're going to take a break from One Piece At A Time : Windowblind Tutorial Part III for just a moment and get into the assembling of the windowblind in SKS. There are a few reasons for this that you may have picked up on if you have been following along.
- We've been making sections of the blind without putting them into SkinStudio as we go along. A majority of skinners will go back and forth between their graphics program (Photoshop, Paint, etc.) and SKS as they go along. That method hasn't worked for me in the past and I wanted to go through the actual design of several areas without the added confusion of SKS.
- There comes a point, once you get past the Start Menu and Window Frames and start getting into the Edit Controls, buttons, etc., that you need to see what they are going to look like and if they will work they way they should. I tried to just keep making the graphics without going into SKS but it's just too much detail and in this particular case, with a lot of the areas we'll be getting into, 'size does matter'.
One of the main reasons that I may have not mentioned for doing the Start Menu and Task Bar areas first is also to assist visually in determining how the overall windowblind will look (per Tim's suggestion). This will actually help a great deal when you get into the buttons, header bars, and other details and you're trying to determine the best colors and other design details.
The way in which I am approaching this is something I came up with some help from 2of3(aka Tim). As I said, not all skinners do it this way and the opinions I offer are just that (my opinions) and by no means written in stone (or sand, Lucite, chalk, crayola, etc.) It if it helps anyone, let me know.
We'll be going back and forth between this thread and Part III. There will also, more than likely, be another thread where we can go over testing the skin and putting on the finishing touches. In this thread we'll be going over the assembling of the Start Menu.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS as to why something is done this way and not that or anything pertaining to the Start Menu ask them here. We will try to explain as we go along and may miss some things that you consider important or problematic.
If you're looking for Part I, II, III you can find them here:
One Piece At A Time : Windowblind Tutorial Part I
Design : Start Menu and Taskbar
One Piece At A Time : Windowblind Tutorial Part II
Design: Title Bars & Window Frames
One Piece At A Time : Windowblind Tutorial Part II
Design: Edit Controls
PLEASE :
- I am open to suggestions but may not use any of them. Please, don't be offended if I don't use yours.
- Keep the image posting to the skin(s)
- If you want to make a skin to go with this, PM me for the files. My PSD's tend to be a mess, but I save everything and will be happy to share. I am uploading the actual files to the Graphics Gallery here on Wincustomize.
- We'll be skinning for Windows7, maybe Vista. If someone wants to do XP, PM me and I will get you what you need.
- Any files you request will come as I complete them. I won't be jumping ahead. Please be patient.
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The PSD files for the previous threads are in the Graphics Gallery.
Roan WB Title Bars and Window Frames
Roan WB Taskbar Buttons
ROAN WB Start Panel UPDATED
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Reply #182 Tuesday, February 7, 2012 2:12 PM
The suspense is ........ j/k
I can wait ......
little bit ......
arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!
Reply #183 Tuesday, February 7, 2012 6:16 PM
He's working on the next parts of the startpanel. We've been in contact today via messenger and it looks like he's got everything under control. We'll most likely be wrapping up the start panel tomorrow here on this thread.
Reply #185 Tuesday, February 7, 2012 6:47 PM
I can wait ......
little bit ......
* Note to self - Uvah may be starting to suspect. Go to plan 'B'.
Lurking as usual.
You are going to plan B and still on the start menu. Better stick with A for awhile still a long way to go. Looking very goos BTW.
Reply #187 Tuesday, February 7, 2012 11:09 PM
It jumps to the right on mouseover. Resetting the margins just makes it worse.
Reply #188 Tuesday, February 7, 2012 11:15 PM
Is the mouseover image the same size as the background? If so, go to the background layer and set all the text margins to zero.
Reply #190 Wednesday, February 8, 2012 10:57 AM
Got it. Worked great. Thanks. 
*Going to be on later than usual today to finish up the start panel. I (hopefully) just got some good news and have to run into the city. Keep your fingers crossed. This has been a freaking long time coming and I'm hoping the worst of the wait is over.
Reply #196 Wednesday, February 8, 2012 9:45 PM
Sorry for getting back so late. Between the travel, stress, and pain I pretty much zonked out when I finally got home. I'll finish the Start Menu up tomorrow morning so we can move on.
Thanks for the 'good thoughts'. Hopefully, next week will bring closure. I'm 8/10 of the way there.
Reply #197 Wednesday, February 8, 2012 11:40 PM
Haven't been around in a while and just found these threads... kudos to you guys for doing this. VERY educational and a great looking blind shaping up as well!
/mode=lurk
Reply #200 Thursday, February 9, 2012 10:35 AM
Okay, then.
First, I apologize for the delay in this. Life.
I'm going to start going over what's left to finish the Start Menu. Jump in, stop me, whatever if I miss something or screw something up. I'm kinda multi-tasking here so hang with me.
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Reply #181 Tuesday, February 7, 2012 1:07 PM