Haven't we "Over Burden" Our Skinners
Just felt that we have
Wednesday, May 18, 2005 by BX | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
Since last few days, I am feeling as we have "Over Burderned" our skinners.
For instance, in good old days of win9x and 2000 era, our skinners just had lesser components to customize. They just had to go for start button, task bar, menu bar, title bar, some buttons, and scrollbars (forgive if I have missed something). But now, just imagine how many components they have for customization.
In the same tredition, there were very few icons which needed to be customized but now a "Good" package should have atleast 50+ icons and bust must have over 70 customized icons.
Needs for customizing DX has increased too. Lots of gedgets, objects, layers, and scripting. Logon Studio, cursorXP, Boot screens, and right click have emerged as well ...
What do you folks say about it. ....
Reply #2 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 12:34 PM

Reply #3 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 12:38 PM
I'm wondering how it will all be when Longhorn comes out.
Reply #4 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 12:48 PM
I mean, if it becomes less "Fun" and more "Work" then it's time to perhaps find another hobby that is fun..right?
I think Koasati is right..
| Over Burdened? nah....... sure there's more to be skinned now, but we got what we asked for........ more, more, more. |
and perhaps more satisfaction when it is finally completed..
but thats just how I see it..
Reply #5 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 1:23 PM
| By Master Apprentice Black Xero "Good" package should have atleast 50+ icons and bust must have over 70 customized icons. |
Thats quite small even though it is very time consuming. Probably 65 - 70 icons for a full system set, thats not counting filetypes add another say 70 - 100 and you'll soon have a very respectable looking icon set which would atleast take a good 8 weeks.
Imagine what a WindowBlind will be like 6 - 12 months after longhorn is in stores, probably would take 2 - 3 weeks to make a full WB after that.
After all we do want a stunning useable design don't we!It's great to have so much to skin, after all its a masterpiece of work if its not rushed!
Reply #6 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 1:50 PM
Reply #7 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 1:59 PM
| after longhorn is in stores, probably would take 2 - 3 weeks to make a full WB after that |
You must be kidding. Making a good WB NOW can take much longer than this.
Reply #8 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 2:01 PM
| 've been thinking the same thing. But then again it's not mandatory to skin everything |
~Thats true. I could care less if my log on sceen was skinned or not. I only see it for a few seconds. But read some of the comments . " Nice skin BUT ".......always a but. I try to appreciate all the skins. I made a comment about a skin being for " males " ..which is true...I dont always want space ships and guy things. But the fact is, this site is more men than women. I could take the " Antares " blind into skin studio...tweak it a bit, color it pink and watch the authors cringe. (only kidding )
~What I would like to see is maybe a new catagory. Blinds made by beginners. How can anyone learn unless they try ?...and fail on many occasions. But..to give 1 star or ridicule their effort..that will never encourage anyone. Maybe a catagory that the more experienced skinners could offer a bit of constructive critisizm. " Bet " aka Boopish, has been trying out her blinds on a few of us. The first ones were rough...and they get better and better. I think its a shame noone could watch her progress. But I know that NightTrain was a huge help to her.
~Sorry if I strayed from the topic. im a woman...we do that....

Reply #9 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 2:48 PM
| Making a good WB NOW can take much longer than this. |
Yes it can. But that's not always how it is. I managed to make a semi decent skin in a week. Minus toolbar icons and progress animations though. But they don't have to take long to make.
I don't think of it as a burden. The more we're able to change the better.
Reply #10 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 3:22 PM

Reply #11 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 3:44 PM
It went from essentially " Gosh, there is a bunch of stuff to skin now" to " Gosh, it's all done by men.. for men...".
I could hurl...
Reply #12 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 4:32 PM
| Considering it's all voluntary, I don't see how it could possibly be considered a burden. These people do it because they want to |
Spot on, matey!
Reply #13 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 4:42 PM
Reply #14 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 5:36 PM
Fortunately better tools have helped with this slightly, but there is no denying that there is still a lot of work involved in making a good skin. This is one of the reasons I support skiners who wish to sell their work; it is indeed work now, in some areas.
Reply #15 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 5:50 PM
Two years ago there were fewer images in a skin compare to what a full skin has now. My 1st skin had a total of 86 images. My latest skin has a total of 164 images. Almost twice as much, and lets not forget that most of these images are composed of several images.
A full skin usually takes me 1-2 weeks to complete, but since I often create mini-suites (I like everything to match
) the whole project can take me up to a month to complete.Regardless of how much I love to skin or how much fun it can be, it still is a very long tiring process. I have a few unfinished projects pending, and every time I load them up on PS and stare at them for 5 mins, I close them back down thinking how much work I have to do on them.
I often get requests or read comments about the type of predominant skins at the site (too manly, not enough kids theme, not enough girls themes, etc) but keep in mind that most (if not all) authors skin for themselves and choose to share their work with others. When I design a skin I don’t think about who is going to like it at the skinning sites, I only think how much I like the design on my desktop.

Reply #16 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 6:31 PM
Sarcasm is just one of the many services I provide for free..
Sheeeezus! Fairyy..get over it already! Phoon is 100% correct on this one Im afraid... It's a classic form of denial, place the blame on everything and anything you can, other than yourself..in this case, to the point of charging everyone to be prejudice..Give me a freakin BREAK!
Personally I "Like" women, I have nothing against anyone based on their Gender,Race, Color, where they live, what they eat, what they like..etc,etc.. No, there are to many other reasons not to like someone..::laughs::
I have trained women to be carpenters and have dealt with the whole "But she's a chic" attitude personally...Those "Chics" never once blamed anything on their gender, and a few of them are making more money per hour in the trades than some of the morons that laughed at them for even considering the idea of becoming carpenters
Get over the "Im just a female" *CRP you are breaking my heart with it..::just shakes his head::
Reply #17 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 6:34 PM
I know for me it's a little daunting since version 3.5, but that's because I just don't have free time in chunks large enough to accomplish anything, and like A67 mentioned, I've made the skin I want for myself and I'm still happy with it. I decided I'd do another for fun and after 18 months it's still a work in progress.
I glad there are those who still skin for the joy of it, I hope they don't feel overburdened or unappreciated. I don't want to take anything away from those who have gone "commercial". If I had the talent, I probably would too.
Reply #18 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 7:23 PM
Oh well.
Reply #19 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 7:33 PM
It 'would' be nice if there were a better balance of the sexes in skinning. Most times if inything is dominated by one or the other it can be restrictive and insular.
Anyway....it's all very well somehow equating 'skinning' with 'Windowblinds' and ignoring all those other apps that can be as taxing as YOU wont them to be. Eg. Sysmetrix can [if you want] be as simple as a Beatnik or as complex as any WB skin.
Simply choose your poison....
Reply #20 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 7:57 PM
| [Phoon] Really.. what is the deal all of the sudden with this "Women vs Men" garbage. Doesn't the community have enough problems without a new one being unjustly fabricated. It went from essentially " Gosh, there is a bunch of stuff to skin now" to " Gosh, it's all done by men.. for men...". I could hurl... |
~Make sure you hurl towards double ZERO ...I don't want my purty dress all messy. < batting eyelashes and fanning myself >
~You missed the whole point...which doesn't surprize me at all..your still whining from the other thread cos I said your the biggest offender of critisizing others work..you cried till you got your comment removed...now who's the girly girl here ?
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Reply #1 Wednesday, May 18, 2005 12:15 PM