How do you come up with your skin ideas?

Ideas for me mostly just come as I start a skin, as you do one part it rolls into the next etc etc.

Keep working it till it looks just as good as your possibly capable of making it. Never settle.

Try to be as original as possible, while maintaining useabilty.. its a fine line.

If you think something..an image, part of theme is done.. sleep on it. May look diff. day after.

Try not to skin yourself into a corner.

and lastly if your having problems with ur skin and you get stumped..open a theme you KNOW works good in that area and see how they did it.

Good luck Philly0381   

i take my idea on... my mind
i can't explain where did they come from cause i don't know
But sometimes i see a thing on the web or in my life who give me some idea. And after i write all in a notepad and try to find a line for this idea.

I start with a frog sacrifice.

?

I made one skin. That gave me an idea for another... then that one gave me an idea for another... and so on. Each skin more or less evolves from the previous skin, hopefully each time getting better.

If that fails, I go for the Zubaz sacrifice...   

I have yet to actually produce a skin that is usable .  . perhaps I should sacrifice something else *TO* a frog(boy)?

so.. you didn't mean you kill frogs?   

vStyler & Quintin94 - Thanks for your replies, you both gave some good advice.   

Fuzzy Logic - What was your motivation for starting the first skin?   

Zubaz - Atleast you have acutally tried to produce a usable skin.   

I don't know about sacrificing a frog, but i plan to sacrifice some inch thich pork cutlets for dinner, does that count?   

zubaz, it would seem to me that after sacrificing a few frogs, that you would have plenty of frog skin laying about, do we see a frog wb in your future?   

you're orange wallpaper is the inspiration for my orange colored wb coming soon,
I never thought about doing an orange wb until I saw your wallpaper - that's where I got that skin idea from.

As far as my other skin ideas, what vStyler said above is absolutely true, you're working on one skin and then you get an idea for another, some skins need some time to settle in your head and you end up changing your mind until you finally see what you were looking for. Sometimes you need a break from skinning too just give your brain a break and charge up those creative batteries.

My kids watch cartoons (too many) but alot of them feature some decent artwork and I wonder if I should be working on a kid themed wb skin: spongebob, robotboy, danny phantom, etc.

Sometimes even food can be an inspiration for a skin, like right now I'd love to see a pizza themed wb skin for some reason or maybe a subway cold cut combo wb skin. However it's good friday and I'm limited to uggg.... fish.

How about a Fish Vista theme for Good Friday... anyone? anyone? Don't put all of your hands up at the same time!

Thanks for the shout out Philly, I can't really skin so the least I can do is help other people make their computers look awesome.

Although...I did make a few somewhat decent IPB skins a few years ago that might make a somewhat decent windowblinds skins if anyone is looking for inspiration. Sad thing though, my incompetent webhost forgot to restore the blasted forums database so I can't give a demo.

Keep your "skinning mind" open during your everyday routines. That means working, playing, driving or watching TV. Sooner or later something will hit you...THAT'S A GREAT IDEAL FOR A SKIN! Then wright it down. Say you were sewing or folding towels and a certain pattern strikes your fancy...PLAID! That might make a good skin.

At the time every other skin was a XP clone, much like vista is now. Everything was blue. There weren't any yellow/orange skins around. I wanted one so 'Hot One' was born - never got round to 'Hot Two'   

@ Drill'n Boss......just doesn't fit your name   

I appreciate all of the replies. It would appear that the hardest thing with skinning is to "just start".   

For anyone wanting to start skinning, what would be a recommend skin to start with and why?    

WHY..a Windowblind of course ..because we need some new blood.   

Well....How about changing the oil or sloping the hogs? That puddle gives me a great idea for a skin!

Probably not.....not as a first foray into skinning.  It's a bit daunting to start with what many/most think is the most difficult...as it may just put people off from any form of skinning if it's seen as 'too hard'.

There are other, simpler programs.....eg Winamp 2x or Sysmetrix which may just whet your appetite for 'more'...

Then i must have taken the daunting route   but actually I said that in jest..reason.. new blood. Honestly though I never considered visual styles hard even when I first started, just time consuming and repetitive.

It's no good having a fantastic idea for a skin if you don't know how to use the software to make it.. You don't say whether you are using Photoshop or any other image editing software, or if you have ever tried using something like SkinStudio.

I found that what inspired ME to start making skins and wallpapers was learning to use Photoshop. If you find some good tutorial sites, and start learning basic interface techniques, you will soon become inspired to start using that knowledge to make your own skins.

It's all about having fun, and making something that YOU want to use on YOUR computer, and when you do, you'll want to share it with others.

Good luck! Enjoy the ride.