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 #142 Saturday, February 4, 2012 6:44 PM
While we wait, please feel free to check out my new wallpaper "Po' Wallpack 2012" and be sure to leave a message for k10w3 there concerning her bizarre balloon fetish.
Reply #143 Saturday, February 4, 2012 6:53 PM
Now the Start Panel looks all funky....not at all like Po drew it. That's ok, we have one step left to do:
Go back to all the sections (selecting the second layer) and change the blend mode to overlay (the first overlay option in the dropdown) You'll see this just under the preview image on the right side (default is normal mode)
Reply #144 Saturday, February 4, 2012 6:53 PM
VERY IMPORTANT!
And remember to REMEMBER that you have these multiple layers when editing. You could accidentally reset all the paint margins on the wrong layer and have to go back and fix it or close and reopen SKS if you haven't saved it yet. Not that I just did that or anything. Just putting it out there...as it were.
Reply #145 Saturday, February 4, 2012 6:55 PM
I left it on normal mode first to help me see where best to set my painting margins.
Apply and gaze at your beautiful Start Panel! 
Reply #146 Saturday, February 4, 2012 7:04 PM
It looks great!
If anyone is following along with the psd's you need to post some screenies, lurkers!
Here is mine with the highlights.
Reply #147 Saturday, February 4, 2012 7:11 PM
Looks like we've wrapped up this part. Po is redoing the item mouseover and logoff buttons I think, so we'll pick up again when the images are finalized.
Reply #150 Saturday, February 4, 2012 7:42 PM
In my SKS Tips thread, (https://forums.wincustomize.com/409965) #8 -- Remember to make a .wba file after every successful skinning session to save a copy of your changes in case you need to revert to the last successful version, in case something gets messed up.
Reply #152 Monday, February 6, 2012 10:43 AM
Sorry. Running a bit of a fever since last night and trying to shake some of it off. I should be on later today with the rest of the start panel to upload.
Reply #154 Monday, February 6, 2012 1:56 PM
Festooning should wait until the festooner is well.
(festooner rather than festlater).
Reply #155 Monday, February 6, 2012 2:02 PM
Damn sinus infection and it's kicking my ass.
Mouseovers are driving me crazy. They look like crap behind the icons. Thinking of going with just a highlight/glow. Right now, nothing looks 'right' to me.
I'm sure a lot of it is the shading I am adding. It makes the actual graphic/bg look smaller.
Reply #156 Monday, February 6, 2012 2:08 PM
Suggestion to try... maybe stitching to underline the text as a highlight? Dunno if that would look good or not, it's just the first thing that popped into my head.
Reply #157 Monday, February 6, 2012 2:26 PM
You also want as little "blank" canvas around the buttons as possible. Since you can't pull the icons and text in with margins, you have to design the buttons around that otherwise they look like they are falling off the button
Reply #158 Monday, February 6, 2012 5:08 PM
An idea
That image is totally transparent in the center. 2 advantages:
It keeps the texture while not needing to be tiled.
It also will interact with the lighting of the diff sections of the Start Menu
Reply #159 Monday, February 6, 2012 5:17 PM
Question. Did you use a bevel/emboss turned down with a zero fill? I use that to make inserts.
Reply #160 Monday, February 6, 2012 5:29 PM
rounded corner shape with like you said 0 fill. Then a dark outer stroke and inner shadow at 1px distance and 5 in size. Finally light drop shadow at 0 distance.
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Reply #141 Saturday, February 4, 2012 6:44 PM
Painting margins for the different sections:
Note: Double check that you are adjusting the second layer for each section. You have to select it from the dropdown each time you go to a new section.