Waxing nostalgic again.. Lets hear about your first skin/skinning origins..
Rehash of my old first skin thread..
Friday, April 25, 2014 by HG_Eliminator | Discussion: Skinning
With recent visits of the old guard of skinning, I once again wanted to offer the opportunity for folks to post about their first skin, what got them in to skinning, any interesting skinning related story that they might remember or even a short biography of their skinning life.
Pictures if yas have any, are welcome additions but not necessary.
I'll start.
1997 I find this interesting program called SimpleStep to customize my desktop.. I download it and even tho it was in it's beta stages I saw it had potential.. I poke around and fix the task manager that was having issues, then repackage it and ship it off to it's creator Lonerunnr. He emails me back asking for my phone number. * interestingly enough it is during our first phone call he asked what my handle was. I said I did not have one, so he gave me the handle PhenomTT*. For the next dozen months or so we collaborate, bouncing ideas etc..
Just before the freshly renamed LiteSTEP 1.0 ß23d is released he asks me if I could take over the project as he had other Ideas on the back burners he needed to have a go at. Me with a new baby in the house and trying to start my own business I could not take on such a responsibility, but said I would stick around helping the new development team as a beta tester and help out where I could.. Francis agreed and told me my handle would be an everlasting part the LiteSTEP Development team, to this day I am the only beta tester ever to be listed in the original LS development team..
I suggest we offer the source code to the masses. Francis states he wants the project to live on and grow without being watered down and disseminated, So we come up with the idea of releasing it under a GNU GPL with the stipulation.
Please, do not distribute modified versions on your own or we will end up with a big mess.
If you have made modifications that you would like to see in the released package, contact the Litestep project coordinator and
submit your work. You may also join the Litestep development team, we welcome everybody who is motivated.
I hung around for almost another year and helped with stuff like wharfs etc. and thus made my very first skin..
Made sometime early 1998 for LStaskman.. yeh is not much to look at. but back then I was so stoked..
I would love to hear other stories of how folks got in to skinning, as well as if possible see your first Diamond in the rough..
Would also love to hear again how Brad and the guys started off and built the skinning Empire we all know to be Stardock.. 
Cheers..
Reply #2 Friday, April 25, 2014 11:32 AM
Fli7e ... and Winamp .....
Lonerunnr .... and Litestep
#skinners on Efnet....
skinz.org and LSnet and com [and all the others] ...Deskmod, Devart...and the first of 'em....Custo ....
Reply #3 Friday, April 25, 2014 11:50 AM
Sitting in a room in a house shared by three other guys, a place called Transitional Housing back in 06. Had a eMachine at the time and was on dial up. Found this site purely by accident. The first skin I ever made was a wallpaper called Emerald and the first comment was...emerald is green not blue. The only other comment was by ArleneDesign. Hope she's still around.
Then the skinning bug bit me. The rest is history.
Reply #4 Friday, April 25, 2014 12:48 PM
I got into skinning by finding out that I could change the wallpaper on my screen! It was very early in 1998, and I had just bought my first ever computer at the age of 41, and really enjoyed personalizing it. I was so impressed with all the images I found that I decided to buy Photoshop and make some myself. How hard can it be to use Photoshop I told myself!!........... 16 years later i'm STILL learning it!! LOL. but sometime in 1999 (I think), I managed to get a wallpaper onto Skinz.org, past the (very tough) moderation of Shoggot. I was really pleased with myself, and shortly after scored a really big hit with a wall called "The Summoning".
After that I got into Litestep themeing, and with the help of a certain Mr. Jafo, I managed to make my own theme, called BoXXiStep.
Everything else just snowballed from that, and I'd have a go at skinning most things eventually. I'm afraid I may be lost to skinning now though 
Since the death of my wife three years ago, I really have neither the time or the desire any more. (And it's become too complex for my feeble mind these days..... Old dog, new tricks etc.....) But I still come here every day to check out what's happening, and I still love the skinning world!! 
Reply #8 Friday, April 25, 2014 3:41 PM
My first WB 2007: Assimilation
I messed around with some logons before graduating to WBs (as you can see, it's important to finish the first one even if it sux or you'll never get better)
I originally stumbled upon this place looking for star trek skins (wanted the complete LCARS desktop......still haven't realized that dream). My biggest supporter and mentor was the modest master himself......Shawn aka skOriginals. I received a great deal of help from several skinners and members along the way. To name a few: Quentin, Ellen, Shawn, John, Craig plus many more. Thanks, guys!
Reply #10 Friday, April 25, 2014 8:02 PM
I don't remember my first skin. It was a likely a hacked together WB skin.
I was really into DesktopX and made a lot of gadgets for personal use. I remember working with Po' Smedley on a glass bottle that was going to roll across the screen with matching sounds. When it finally worked . . it was like angels singing.
My first submitted skin was for DesktopX for work. It worked well for our internal help desk and I uploaded a version here customized for the site.
https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/desktopx_objects/3941/
"Flaming Aero of Death" - That's the best wallpaper ever. It should have won the GUI champs because "Aero" was so hot then: https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/wallpapers/31968/
Reply #11 Friday, April 25, 2014 9:54 PM
Date shows Jan, '99 ....was one of the first [test] uploads here while T-man was debugging Wincustomize...the signature on the bottom popup graphic shows '98 and the computer graphic top-right was a photo of my machine at the time....and that'll be a Pentium 100 ...
Reply #12 Friday, April 25, 2014 10:07 PM
I started out modding other's DX themes to suit myself. Cut my teeth on restyling Murex skins, Gef skins, Quentin, and emecoelho, etc.
Then I made a few of my own, barely useable.
Later, I modded some WMP skins to DX players.
Eventually started making the matching addons for other people's Windowblinds skins. The rest is history.
I do have one WB I'm kinda proud of, my first.
Reply #13 Friday, April 25, 2014 11:45 PM
Awesome replies folks. 
Still working on it tho very slow going..Can only spend a short amount of time at the screen anymore.. sounds are finished for the most part, animated button presses are coming along nicely I think.. Prolly going to need a tutor for making elements resolution independant.
Reply #14 Saturday, April 26, 2014 12:53 AM
Fli7e ... and Winamp .....
Lonerunnr .... and Litestep
#skinners on Efnet....
skinz.org and LSnet and com [and all the others] ...Deskmod, Devart...and the first of 'em....Custo ....
Followed him from LS.net/.org, custo, deskmod,Razorart,deviantart,and finally here..
So now you all know who to blame.. 
In all honesty one couldn't ask for a better friend than Paul... After leaving the LS dev team I wandered around the skinning community never really feeling like I fit in anymore. It was Paul who talked me in to rejoining the mainstream skinning culture and taking a chance on Wincustomize. I hung around for the first year just observing, then finally he got me on IRC and with the help of a few others convinced me to call WC home.. It has been one hell of a roller-coaster ride since then, but I've never regretted it..
To my Bro.. Thank you for believing in me when I didn't believe in myself. Counseling me thru some tough times and just being a stand up guy. A soul like yours is a rarity. I am and have always been honored to know you..
HG.
Reply #15 Saturday, April 26, 2014 6:44 AM
As soon as I got my fist W98 pc I started messing with themes. Not satisfied with that I found a program Called Desktop Architect. That kept me quiet for a few weeks, but then dissatisfaction set in again.
While searching for an alternative I stumbles across windowblinds. I installed version 0.something and downloaded a few blinds. This was in the days before WC.
It took me a few months to realise everyone had migrated to the new site (WC) - duh! I didn't get invloved in forums in those days
On June 5th 2002 my first skin, Hot One, was completed and released.
The rest, as they say, is history...
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Reply #1 Friday, April 25, 2014 7:55 AM
Skinning? What's that? That sumpin' ya do with dead animules?
Capsula (the original Allan Bond) hooked me. How I loved that skin. Sat on my desktop for years.
During that time I watched guys like hippy, NT, v, LS...and IR, 2of3, Xiandi, WebGizmos (and many more). Came to the conclusion I could never do that, but Jack and Noah would slay me with how they went on at each other and did this mysterious thing called 'shopping'. That was something you did as well, HG. Then, a couple of years ago, Hank sent me a link to creativeLive. Tool a 'Deep Dive' on CS5 and never surfaced.
Still not a skinner...doubt I have the patience for it. BUT, I do love Photoshop, fixing pictures and such. Still love watching the beginning skinners evolve.