Vanity, skins, etc.

I take it you're happy with my request. Don't have much to say though, do you?

WFW 3.11 smooth, flat, streamline and simplistic. No ugly bubbled out messes to clean up

Actually, knowing past practice, they appear to find amusement at the way you presented your request.

I rather suspect your comments would get a more positive reaction from skinners here if you hadn't referred to much of their work as "bubbled garbage heaps." Funny how some people don't take kindly to having their work characterized in such an insulting fashion.

There actually are a number of clean, minimalistic skins for WindowBlinds and other apps. You just have to look. If they're not to your satisfaction, you can make some to suit yourself. SkinStudio does come with OD.
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Most of us on WC purchased Object Desktop in order to make our own Themes that we then share with everyone else.
If you are unable to make your own, then I think you will just have to accept what is freely available.
If you are unwilling to accept what is freely available, then perhaps you spent your money frivolously.

I'm openly admiting that I 'wasted' my money, white_moth. Because in my opinion, what I have seen is garbage. I'm not trying to insult anyone. I'm simply trying to get people to be more creative and get away from the "Windows XP" bubble crap. Move into something a little different. Everything looks the same, whether it be different colors or different shapes and sizes. It's all still bubbled out beveled edges with nasty reflections and imbossed buttons. It's gross. Just my opinion. If you don't like it, don't deal with it. Leave it alone. 'You' may think it's crap, but this is my desktop from a while back:

hellish911, I can give you the stuff you want, just contact me here: Sales@styl-X.com Should cost you arround $1500, but hey, then you do have anything skinned that can be skinned icons, wb, all the stuff. But hey, you paid for OD right?
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Could ya find a bigger JPEG to post Please this one isn't big enough to get your point across. Granted everyone has their likes and dislikes in styles of GUI's, but just telling the whole community that all they produce is bubbled up crap and that you are here to get them to be more creative by telling them it's just crap, won't get you very far with getting your money's worth out of ODNT. There are skins out there of the nature that you mentioned and if you use WindowFX you can add the effects you want.

Styl skinner, like I said.. I wasted my money. I don't like WB. I'm more into DX and IconX.. I still use msstyles for skinning because WB eats up processor and memory. I enjoy skinning, just not with WB. I just want to see something that's not like everything else and I haven't come across it as of yet. In the screenshot above, I made the active desktop menu's from scratch using html and VB scripting.. I made the stats myself and edited the wallpaper for the menu's so I'm not exactly asking for someone to do everything for me. I just want to see people doing something a little bit different.

Where do I look for these themes then? I've searched the whole WC website for decent themes and have found nothing worth applying to my desktop. Anyone got any idea's?

This would have been helpful in the beginning, hellish911.

Indeed, I can see your point now, except for the "bubbly garbage comments" knowing how much hard work/time the Artists here put into their work.

If you would like to see something more in line with what you have shown, a different and supportive choice of words would go a long way.

Hmmm on my machine WB uses a 00% CPU and only 2916K mem, hardly a resource hog

Sorry for the comments directed to the community. I know you guys have put a lot of hard work into your themes and the styles you chose. I'd just like to see something a little different and someone needs to 'light a fire' under the bootay's of some of these guys and get them working on something original, rather than going on what they've seen before. I admit I came out like a donkey's rear with my posts and I am sorry, but I do believe that the graphic designs that I've seen aren't as good as you guys can be. But hey, who am I to talk all of this crap? It's up to you.

Take look at essorant's work....his stuff is very good and tends to stay away from all the flash and gloss. Also, since you own ODNT, you can open the skin up in SkinStudio and tweak the colors to suit your preferences

I do understand what you are saying. Others have expressed similiar dissatisfaction with blue colored themes, glassy effects, etc. but they found better ways to express themselves. You are the one posting your ss trying to impress everyone. You seem to know about skinning. Inspire us if your so talented.

It's not all about skinning. It's about the colors you use, the amount of the colors, which colors to use a lot of and which colors to accent with. Say, use mostly neutral colors, like greys, tans, whites, and black if you like. Or tone down the color and remove some of the saturation from colors like red or blue, or orange.. Whatever. Then accent those with some more saturated colors. I've seen a lot of themes on here with 'nothing' but the same saturating color through-out with glossy bubbles and beveled buttons and it's just gross.. It's not something you can sit there and look at on your desktop without hurting your eyes. Anyway, my point is.. Put the flashy crap as a center piece on your wallpaper and not so much flashy everywhere else. Does this satisfy you, NightTrain?

Personally I really dislike centerpieces. My post was delayed and I hadnt seen your last post before posting. I was still under the impression that you were being all high and mighty. I didnt mean it as a personal attack and I apologize that it came across that way. I applaud you for trying to stir things up. However, The only way I have been able to get my desktop exactly as I like it was to do it myself.

The best way to "light a fire" under others in this field IMO is to lead by example and provide alternative styles in various works. Since it appears you have skills why not give it a try? Or collaborate with a willing skinner if one is interested. (Many do help others here, especially if someone has an interesting project.)

Oddly enough, some styles that you now find so ordinary and repetitive were once upon a time innovative and new. So perhaps if you could take the step to help make the kinds of works you're interested in seeing, others will also follow. (Although I know you mean you want them to do something different, not just repeat someone else's "new" style. But repetition and imitation happen, regardless.)

It's just that doing what one preaches seems more effective in the end than just preaching to others. Just the way it is as in most endeavors.

(And PTL, the winkies are BACK! )



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People don't skin as a service to others.
You paid for Object Desktop, you didn't pay for the skins.
Considering you're getting them for free, I'd be a bit more restrained with the demands.
Put it this way, with the skins, you're getting what you pay for.

sig101, I totally agree. I was looking at some of essorant's work with WB and his Simplex style caught my eye. I know it's something that's been done before, but that's the closest I've seen to what I think people with real taste are looking for. I'm trying to find some good simplistic/futuristic styles for msstyles. If you guys could give me some resources on where to start with this, maybe I could come up with something innovative to what we've seen. Right now I'm trying to find the .msstyles port of the Simplex theme that I saw from essorant because I'd like to skin my desktop with that for the time being. I've found one from ChaNinja but it's not the same thing. If someone could hook me up with this, I'd definitely appreciate it.

And to sig101's point....this http://www.guiolympics.com/ the GUIOlympics would be a great place to introduce a new style to the masses and a chance to get some swag

Also...with SkinStudio you can port a MSStyle for your own use. Get permission from the author to do it and you can upload it here as well....Snidely Whiplash has ported a lot of MSStyle stuff

Wizop, I wasn't demanding anything. I was simply stating the facts and I wasn't implying that people should skin for 'me.' I'm not trying to get people to do the work for me at all. I'm simply suggesting that you guys take a look in the "Themes" and "Suites" section of this website and decide for yourself if you see too many glossy, bubbled out themes. And then decide for yourself if you'd like to see something different or not. I see this GUI Olympics with a grand prize of $10,000 and I'd be overwhelmed if one of these horrible themes won that prize because the 'judges' didn't have much to look at as a whole. If someone could help me out with the resources needed to create a WB skin or msstyles or someone that's willing to work with me in it, I'd definitely give out some good idea's.