What are you skinning?

By bugzlitey 17.02.2026 15:45

644 views 29 replies

elwin

Member

17.02.2026 16:06 OP

"I´m better off just being a desinger..." No way, dude! You gotta get in there and get your hands dirty. Not enough to throw the pixels around - you gotta´ teach ´em to dance, too... {:p Learning to skin is a lot easier to do than to become a good pixel artist. 90 percent of good skinning is just a matter of mechanics. No where near as hard as, say, mastering the digital air brush. Take it slow and easy. Work your way up to it. Skinning Talisman can be a "you-know-what" because there is so much that can be done. Kick back and try something simple. Get used to the idea of the graphics - and the instructions that go with them. Try programs like beatnik, and quicknotes. Work until you´re comfortable, then step up to something bigger and better. And hold off on the Killer skinnable apps like Winamp. Programs like it can frustrate the creativity right out of you. Be patient until you´re ready for the "big show". Even the best had to crawl before they could walk... Oh, and if it makes you feel any better, I´m still working on that myself... {:p

craeonics

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

I´m currently doing behind the scene stuff.

brub

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

eFX is probably the easiest that has a cool effect. I mean Skinner is easy to change with Panekiller and/or TClock with more options. And Scribble is kinda useless when you have KewlpÄd. i´m still kind of new to skinning. But before I started I was doing Cursors and Icons my first skins where Colorpad and SkinMem (hooray for gRAVE) ChiChi. For animation on the start button. I think that Panekiller do accept animated cursor. But they end up pretty small.

scarebear

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

That´s right. Sadly :( No animation apart from the mouseover changing of images.

chichigirl46

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

Yes scarebear I understand that, then you mean it can not be animated...... right?

scarebear

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

Skinner uses bmp files. One for normal, one for mouseover and one for pressed. Simple :) 3 bmp files is all you need :D And if anyone goes looking for DigiDeck like I did, it´s here http://www.skinnables.org/orphanware.php Thanks to the good people at skinnables.org :)

snowman

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

No clue chichi! Never used it, just know what it do ;) :snow

chichigirl46

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

Snowman.... does skinner allow you to make the startbutton animated when skinning, or is it a manual animation like I already do with the startbutton on wblinds program?

scarebear

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

Digideck is easy? - I´m going to have a look :) Velocity is damn easy for an audio player and so is SysTrayPlayer. SysTrayPlayer doesn´t get in your way either which is cool!

chickie

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

I show my screenshot (desktop.) Screenshots ain´t skinning. It´s the closest thing I could "skin." Does this make sense? I skinned Colorpads but I stopped cuz I don´t have patience. Thanx for the artists who make & create skins. :)

doreen

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

I only skin pocket pc stuff now... and I stopped uploading cuz of personal reasons

elwin

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

disclaimer: these are my personal choices. No doubt, someone will chuck rocks at me and tell me that some other app is easier/better. They may be right. On the other hand, they can bite me... {:p Easy: Quicknotes T-Clock SkinMem Easiest Window Skinner: eFX Easiest MP3 player: Digideck

snowman

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

Skinner changes the Windows startbutton and Scribbles is a texteditor :) :snow

chichigirl46

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

The two applc you mentioned.... skinner/scribbles what do they do or should I say what are they?

scarebear

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

BruB - ignore me ;) Most people do :D adni18 - thanks. Same as Elwin, my icon is the start of my next skin suite. bugzlitey - Many different skinnable clocks, notepads etc and they all offer something unique. I like BeatNik best. But the others BruB mentions are cool (Tyme is easy to skin too). As for other easy to skin applications, there is nothing easier than Scribbles or Skinner (both can be found here). No coding, just images with the correct names :) SkinMem is easy and useful. Plus :grave made it of course ;)

brub

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

The left. the left. it´s...huh....well.....it´s the translation. Left means right in french (ok no but i´m trying to get out of looking stupid) SCare. Ok i´m not skinning ALL of them but anything I like in there. everyone understood that. Than again I did say right, right? Bugz. I have 4 clock going on. Beatnik, Tyme, Elegant Clock and Windows´s

bugzlitey

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

It´s interesting that you all install many skinnables on your puters...seems like eventually some would overlap like clocks and notpads...but cool never the less and just wondering...aside from beatnik...what would you say is another easily skinnable app?....bugzOut...

chichigirl46

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

Me skins WindowBlinds, yahoo messenger, and make matching Walppapers, hotbar skins and icons to match them :-)

elwin

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

Thanks, adni... :) (My icon´s actually a part of a theme I´m working on...) Oh and back to bugzlitey´s question: eFX, Nextstart, Litestep, and lots of smaller apps. And if I can get some REAL time to sit down and work, I´ll be doing my first HoverDesk skin. {:p

adni18

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

Your´s too, scarebear !

adni18

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

Elwin , your new logo is very nice! ;)

adni18

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

Well, I am working for the GUI OLYMPICS 2002, windowblinds skins, for representing SkinBase ;) In the meantime I make some wallpapers or logonXP files. Also I am doing a request for an icon package in red! :D

scarebear

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

BruB can skin 325 applications!? ;) I´d like to see that suite :D

snowman

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

on the right, brub?! don´t you mean on the left :p :brb :snow

brub

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

look on the column on the right. you see all those softwares. Well this is what I skin. Anything i feel like at the moment. I´m not great but I have fun and that´s the main goal.

scarebear

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

Yeah gRAVE - get back to that code ;) I skin everything :) I have skins for BeatNik, kewlpÄd, SysTrayPlayer, eFX, SkinMem and Scribbles here waiting for the rest of the suite to catch up. I hope to do a skin for Sonique and one for Ashampoo+ too. Time will tell on those. My point is skin what you want to skin and have fun doing it! :)

Gregor Klevže

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

I´ve made some wallpapers lately and some skinmem skins. My primary job atm is programing in php and C++ :)

snowman

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

I´m currently working on three themes for Hoverdesk which is my favorite app to skin! Other than that I skin Beatnik, SkinMem, Coolplayer, Aminews, eNotes, QuickNotes, Nightlife + alot more :) :snow

chichigirl46

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

I use sangria for a painkiller, and yes sometimes I see animation too lol lol lol .... ok ok, what is panekiller for making animated icons and cursors and then try to apply it to the Startbutton? I don´t think that will work though with wblinds........

luci

Member

17.02.2026 16:06

actually (when chichi reopened this thread ;)) i´m busy with creation of Kubical icon theme suite for KDE now (instead of work for my boss ;) shhhhhh!)... you can have a look for a preview here http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=1094 (maybe after finishing this, here can be a new icon section created - un*x icons?)