How true! I always stare at something for ages until It looks ugly to me!

However.......

Second attempt:

It I like; you . . can't friggin' stand!

Swecond version is so much better though.  Great work!
(And it doesn't look like my floor )

You; I like, but you spelling is frightning!

HI Tim ... I think the 2nd one is a lot better, mate ... and the background does not distract from your logon at all ..


One thing I did notice , was your 'Famous Thumpers' book ... what would it look like if it was a bit more horizontal ..but not quite horizontal ... I hope that makes sense ..

~ apart from that .. It IS a lot better then the first ...

A rotation of 25-40 degrees cw should do it, maybe!


I have everything saved in layers here (geez, 12 layers), so moving the bits around is no problem


How's the "Stumpy" sidebar coming along?

This is what I have so far for buttons- Are they okay...and AVMAN, what do I need to send you to apply them?

Looking awesome po just awesome, I am filling in for the ol fart as he has to re format all of his hard drives due to a muck up at the puter shop.

Po' have you designed the throbber, or is Bichur in charge of that?

How can I answer that and not get in trouble?

Ok .. presenting the First ( of what will be many ! ) Screenies of the STUMPY SIDEBAR ..

Remember that this is the first incarnation ...and it still need a load of work on it ...

~ also , with it being a 'LIGHTER' Sidebar , also gives me a lot more options to play with too

I have put Po's Captions in ,with mirrors on hover .. ,

the ROUGH wood background,and the TROLL Clock , which I grabbed from an earlier post by Po'..and edited in Paint.Net .. I am not too sure about this one,yet ...

The captions , as seen here ,in detail, are set up thus :

OPEN PANEL : Black on Wood
OPEN PANEL HOVER : Gold on Wood
CLOSED PANEL : Green on Wood
CLOSED PANEL HOVER : Gold on Wood

The main reason why I have put a few different Captions in to start with is so I could
see which ones work the best ..when placed up on the Rough Wood Background ..

As It looks at the moment , I think I will be 'veering' towards the Black on Wood Captionswith the Gold Edges ..

The other coloured Captions can be used in the STACK PANEL, which is like an Extension to the Sidebar , and allows the DS user to add extra Panels .. but more about that later ....

Anyway see what you think ... here you go ..
.

Po each buttons need 4 states (normal)-(pressed)-(diabled)-(highlight) but if you have the (normal)-state i can can make the others or you can send me all 4 states

Those 4 states are repeated for the inactive frame so the final image look like this.....
(Normal)-(Highlight)-(Pressed)-(Disabled)-(Inact.Normal)-(Inact.Highlight)-(Inact.Pressed)-(Inact.Disabled)

The example above is in the per-pixel frames .However the roll up and roll down feature as far as I know is only available UIS2 (non-perpixel frames)

Yesterday had all the frames about together when I had error and lost them but I am back on it!
BTW.. the frame DL I got was psd but not in layers was it supposed to be cause I had cut them all out last time?

It should have been in layers. I will resend the stuff and seperate them for you. I have had that happen myself.

I don't have any 'states' for the window frame buttons. I'll send them along today as well. Probably this afternoon. I'm up early today cause it's a big day at the doc's this morning. (fingers crossed)

No problem

for you
Mine are also!

This is really outstanding. Amazing guys. Good luck Po' at the docs   

Good luck

Here we go again ... !!

After a lot of mind-bending, I decided to apply the Stumpy Sheild for the clock ..I think it looks a LOT better then the last clock did , although I have left it in the skin folder , so that the DS user has the choice of clockfaces ...( very diplomatic, hehehe !! )

I have also made a Start Panel up ~ see screeny ~ the word 'Stumpy' changes to 'Sidebar' on hover
~ a pretty neat trick to do that too .. took ages to work it out right !!

Being a 'Lighter' Coloured Sidebar , has opened up the skinning possibilities to further variation , and the result is what you see ..

OPEN CAPTIONS .. Wood on Black ..,
OPEN CAPTIONS HOVER .. Black on Wood ..,
CLOSED CAPTIONS . . Wood on Green ..
CLOSED CAPTIONS HOVER ..Gold on Wood ...

The Weather Window you see is made up of the ROUGH WOOD FRAME , although I did think about putting the EMERALD frame there ..Both Look quite good ...

I will try and post a composite screeny soon , with the news alert, weather alert popup/detail windows , as before ..

Anyway here ya' go for now ... I think it's quite a funky Sidebar this one ... !!
.

Just for the hell of it, I've whacked one of the window frames into a test WB to see what it looks like




Does the Emerald to gold transition seem a bit jaggy? This is the non per pixel frame. Anyway I'm sure Harley can do a better job.... I was just curious

Mike just for a laugh, can you try out Stumpy with a black background to see how it looks? Seems to me, the side "pole" gets lost against the rough wood..... just a thought

Hey there Tim .. Yup , No probs ... I was thinking about that when I went to bed ...

The side pole is what us DS'ers call a 'border' We can widen it too ..

Anyway ,Coupla screenies for ya .. here you go

BLACK BACKGROUND
.

. . . And this idea ... Rough wood background ,BUT with the Emerald Flame Border ..

~ I think it looks quite darn good,this one...

Here ya'll go !! ..
.

I prolly could've guessed that if I used me noggin!


They both look great

I can't decide

I don't know I had the same issue so I remade a couple of areas, here is what I came up with

I am having a bad couple of days here, sorry.

What is the issue with the frames? I notice that the top frame isn't 'centered' between the corners. Is this a design issue on my end that I need to correct? I don't understand the 'smooth' transition issues either. (I am just a lowly Smedley) If you could explain it to me, I may be able to fix it. I think my problem is my approach to the skin, in that I treat it like an image and not something technically functional.

I'm sorry to hear that, buddy (:(

1st-No Problem I hope they smooth out and you and your family and you have a wonderful Christmas!!!

2nd-

We have to have roughly 75-100 pixels on the right for the buttons

*however if we have 100 on the left that would mean you could only have a window 2oo pixels with/out sizing issues

since we have to stretch or tile between the gold we need less margin on the side w/out
buttons for the window to get small enough

3rd-The transition is not an issue I can change it I just thought it looked better on the hard frames (green&black) to have a little step down form the gold
The wood frame (since wood can be easily carved look better smooth)

Pretend I'm skinhit and explain it to me like I'm six years old.

Do I need to make the gold corners smaller?