retired_jennyholman

Please could someone who knows a bit about creating skins help me. I don't yet have the game but will be getting it soon and would like to create a skin as a project whilst waiting for the game to reach the island that i am stuck on. I have a relatively limited knowledge of what to do really and would just like som pointers such as which programs are good to use and some design suggestions. I'm not too bad on a computer but no real expert. im sure that any suggestions would be helpful for other people interested in making a skin also, if only for their own use use. Any pointers would be much appreciated. :thup:

retired_vpoorni

There is no complete guide to skinning, your best off looking through this forum for skinnig questions, aslo sortitoutsi's forums have a couple of guides in the guides forums (recolouring and slicing). http://smithjurdskins.co.uk/ also have some simple guides.

You'll need a image editing software (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Fireworks, The Gimp any of them should be fine). You'll also need something to edit the xml files with, you can use notepad, but I'd advise you to use an webpage editor, one with line numbers, and code in colours - makes editing a whole lot easier.

I'd suggest first downloading the Gold Demo if you don't have the game.

Make a copy of the metallic2006 skin folder in data\skins

Then edit the files inside the copy of the folder you made.

The best way to find out what some graphics do is recolour a sub-folder at a time into a bright colour, which you can not miss, and then record what each subfolder controls.

To edit the placement of stuff, you'll need to edit the xml files in SKIN_NAME/panels.

header - controls the header.
footer - controls the footer.
sections - is the sidebar on the left/right
match title bar - header in match.

When you open the xml files, you'll see loads of code.
I'd suggest adjusting just one line at a time until you know what it does.

I tend to adjust the alignments by about 100 to see what they do and where they are, you can also use -ve numbers. Once you know where the item is and how to move it use small changes to position best.

I'd advise you to just spend some time playing around with the files, so you learn what most of the stuff means.

And then come back with specific questions, they will hopefully get better more detailed answers on how to do it. (If anyone knows).

retired_jennyholman

Yeah, i knew my question was a bit vague, I mostly wanted to know programs to use and any basic info anyone had for someone looking at starting skinning with no real knowledge, where to start sort of thing. Thanks a lot for your post I got the demo last night and will have a bit of a play with it later on.
Cheers mate

retired_grimmy

There used to be a slicing tutorial on this very forum, anyone know where it has gone?

retired_vpoorni

There's a slicing tutorial in the guides section of sortitoutsi.net forums

You basicly need a file called x_left, x_middle x_right, where x is the item you are creating (i.e. button, header). left and right control the corner bits, whilst middle controls the middle, it doesn't matter what size left and right are they just need the same heights, whilst middle will have the same height, but only have a length of 1 pixel.

For boxes you have 9 slices - top, middle and bottom, with a left, middle and right for each.

Having a look at how the graphics for Metallic are split up is the best way of seeing what I mean.

retired_grimmy

I'll have a look, that is exactly the tutorial I am on about. It used to be my bible