Hello all,

For those who don't know me, I was active a while back and quit after law school started and my free-time disappeared. I've recovered the PSD and WBA for the last skin I was working on.

I'd like to see it released, but don't have the time, or familiarity with the 'new' skinstudio to see it completed. A preview is attached. If anyone is interested in finishing it up and releasing it, send me a PM.

^^Gabe~

 

 

Just wanted to pop in and post an update for those that might remember me as I've been inactive for the last half-year.

I'm finishing up my last month of law school before I sit for the bar exam in July (hopefully), I currently have -zero- free time, however I still have a skin which I was working on last year that I would like to finish and revamp a bit and release sometime in the future with all the new Vista goodies as well as a couple skins (Buuf OS and Paippr) that I would like to update for Vista sometime as well.

I still check the site a few times a week and am envious of the great new work thats being put out.

 

^^Gabe

[rant]
Okay, I like doing graphic design. I grew up on a farm, in the middle of a 200 acre cornfield, I didn't like to ride 4-wheelers, go hunting, or line dance so I messed around with the computer when my Dad first bought an old 486. I was lucky enough that my best friends dad was a web-page designer on the side, and that MY dad is an art teacher an had an educational version of Photoshop. I began designing really ugly websites that served no purpose because it was fun and I had nothing better to do.

A few years later when Windows 2000 came out, and everyone was itching for XP I saw a program that could let me have the look of XP early on my older system... I thought that was pretty neat and so I used it. I began customizing the look of my PC and soon began designing skins because they actually were appreciated by people (unlike the useless websites I created.)

I've been happy to make skins and upload them but now as I'm becoming more and more busy and the time it takes to make a good skin become greater and greater with all the new features the fun factor is beginning to wane. I still enjoy the compliments, and the creativity involved... but is it worth dealing with the headaches, the insults, the assholes, the loss of free time?

In my observation several good skinners have recently seemed to say that it isn't worth the hassle, and kept thier creations to themselves. They may be onto something.
[/rant]

:CONGRAT: THIS GUY!
Just received the news today that I have received a full scholaraship to lawschool, if you all were wondering where I've been that might help to explain it... I AM working on a new skin for you all Link


Just wanted to drop an update and boast because I am so happy right now.

Stumbled on a real easy way to make animations...
Knock something up in flash or if you suck at flash like me, cheat and use SWiSH and then export it as an avi, import the avi into GIF movie gear, and you can save it as a .bmp filmstrip of static images (Just like skinstudio uses) neat that these programs seem to work together so well.

Penny-Arcade, a gaming centered web comic with a huge cult-following had good things to say about TotalGaming and Brad Wardell specifically.

""...Before I go, there's a great article about the state of the PC games industry here at JoeUser dot com. The poster goes by the handle Draginol, but I have every reason to believe that he would also answer to "Brad Wardell" if pressed - Brad Wardell being the Stardock guy, who I praised not only for his excellent Galactic Civilizations but also the painless manner in which I was able to acquire it electronically. Apparently, he wasn't finished usurping the retail channel.

Because I wanted access to Stardock's beta software, specifically The Political Machine, I subscribed to a service they used to call Drengin dot net which allowed access to all of their games for the duration of your subscription. That concept has been updated somewhat to include games from other publishers as well, all distributed and maintained via a single host application, in a service called Total Gaming dot net. Apparently my old subscription transferred over, because I've got access to Celtic Kings and the complete edition of Disciples II with all the expansions in addition to the stuff I'd originally meant to buy. I'll be curious to see what other developers cotton to his way of doing things.

You read his article, and he says a lot of the things I've said about how problematic and insulting being a PC gamer can be. The difference is that, in response, he went on to revolutionize publishing. I had a sandwich. I guess that's the difference between us.

(CW)TB out."


From: http://www.penny-arcade.com

Hehe... I made me a homepage.
http://www.tournefortia.tk/

Suggestion...

I'm pretty sure that the people at stardock will know what a wikki is, but since there are so many little things you need to know about WB skinning (such as the weird trick with animating the start menu having non-divisable frames in the graphic) would a user-editable WB help file sorted by products... like WB and DX and then further sorted into sections like taskbar, toolbar icons, and such be a good idea?

Is there a readme or guide somewhere?

For some reason whenever I use the plugin in a skin I'm making, the menu opens at the entire width of the screen... is there a way to change this, and what other parameters can be defined.

Was browsing some photoshop tutorials and noticed some rippage of the Galactic Civ skin..
http://www.photoshoptutorials.de/tut_text_grunch.php