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 #282 Tuesday, February 21, 2012 10:34 PM
Greetings!
Sorry for the past few days and being sidelined. Tonight I finally started feeling focused and more like myself again. Saw the doc on Monday and the ball is finally rolling and I ahve some small measure of control over my pain after four months of having nothing at all.
I'll be on tomorrow and we'll start the next thread.
I hope you're all (even the lurkers) still hanging in with me,
Reply #284 Wednesday, February 22, 2012 4:58 AM
I are here too.
see <<<<<<<< /lurk ... /lurk. 
Good to hear the chipper in your posts again Po.
Reply #286 Wednesday, February 22, 2012 8:58 PM
I'm having issues with the taskbar. I thought I had it all tweaked to upload and start the thread but I saved the WB wrong. Trying to get it back to what it should be.
Reply #288 Wednesday, February 22, 2012 10:02 PM
Basically, I don't think I 'saved' the changes. I have too many damn versions of the buttons files as well. They icons don't center on them when I use the frame builder so I've had to do it in PS and keep adjusting until I get it right.
***Okay. I think it might have been Avast. ALl of the sudden it wants to run SKS from the Sandbox. It may not have saved the last time.
Reply #289 Wednesday, February 22, 2012 10:40 PM
If you have too many of them in SKS, all you need to do is 'clean the skin' and it will remove any images that are not being used and dump them in the back up folder.
At the top of SKS : Tools/Clean Skin
I do this several times during construction, just to make it easier to find what I'm actually using.
Reply #290 Wednesday, February 22, 2012 10:57 PM
Thanks. I had a lot of crap built up in the skin.
This is what my issue is right now. I keep just shutting SKS down because every fix I try makes it worse or just mirrors it.
Reply #291 Wednesday, February 22, 2012 11:52 PM
Yup. having the button off center in the frame is the problem. Just shift them over to the middle of each frame and you should be fine.
I've never used the frame builder, so I have no clue what it does, but once you have the finished button in a .png strip, just open it in PS and move all the buttons over at the same time, that way you don't mess up the spacing.
Reply #292 Thursday, February 23, 2012 8:50 AM
The shadows on the ends is a contributing factor when trying to center the icon and text when I am setting thee margins. That is why it is moved so far over to the left (which I know will not work). It's looking like I may have to lose the shadow but not sure how it will look.
Reply #293 Thursday, February 23, 2012 9:05 AM
Just remove it and try it Po. You may actually like what it looks like and realize you didn't even really notice the shadow. Everytime I finish a sub section I save the skin in a folder. I make one main folder called (name of skin) WB. Inside I have lots of folders and just let them name as they are made new folder 1, 2 ,etc. You can always go bact to the last one you liked and apply the WB. Everything will be back as it was. Just a thought.
Reply #295 Thursday, February 23, 2012 9:21 AM
I actually did do this, several times, and it never worked. Now you come along and say it and it seems to work.
Part of the issue is that I also have to have blank space at the top of the button png, or the button sits right on the stitching.
I don't get it, but it seems to be okay.
Reply #296 Thursday, February 23, 2012 12:12 PM
Looks good. 
[wishful dreaming]
If the left and right text margins worked on the taskbar buttons in SKS, it would make them so much easier to skin and be creative with them.
[/wishful dreaming]
Reply #298 Thursday, February 23, 2012 12:58 PM
I need some real, honest feedback on these taskbar buttons. See the screen shot below.
- To center the icons, they are stretched out.
- There is an example of the actual button
- There is an example of the button not stretched out as much.
If you look at the actual png image (ACTUAL BUTTON) hopefully you can see what I am trying for. When it is stretched out, you lose the whole effect. When it's not stretched out as much, it's too small for the icon.
- Which looks the best?
- Do you like any of them?
- Do you think it works?
I know it's my blind. I'm asking cause I have been staring at them and screwing with them for too long. I'm not sure what I am seeing. I'm leaning towards they just don't work for the effect that I was going for. (With the text showing, they seem okay, but not minimized for just the icon in Windows 7)
Also, for the skinners, the Star Trek icon is pinned. I had assumed there would be a button showing for this but it only shows on mouseover and pressed. I almost like it better with no button compared to the other ones.
my inner zubaz says
THEY ZUCK!
Reply #299 Thursday, February 23, 2012 2:54 PM
Have you tried to set the button to tile horizontally rather than stretch? You'll probably have to play with the painting margins a bit to get it to look right. Make it look right on the buttons with the text first, then change over to the icons only buttons and see what it looks like.
Pinned buttons only show on mouseover and pressed, nothing you can do to change that.
Edit: After looking at the screenshot more, I see what you mean...stretched vertically, not horizontally. I think the stretching vertically looks better, actually. It centers the icon better in all cases, and it does not seem to affect the overall look of the button so much.
Reply #300 Thursday, February 23, 2012 3:24 PM
If you can't fix this will you finally give up? 
The buttons do appear to be too small for the icons. Listen to the inner Zubaz.
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Reply #281 Sunday, February 19, 2012 6:48 PM
Still dealing with medicine head. I've been without for so long I'm all kinds of loopy and sleepy. I did get out for a few today. No more having to hide and deal with assholes following me with cameras. It's no fucking wonder insurance rates are so high when you look at how they spend their dang money.