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You are here for one of two reasons. 1; you actually want to attempt the time-sucker known as skin-making or 2; you're just a curious soul wandering around the page. In the case of the first, may God have mercy on your soul. ^.~
finishes offering up prayers for the unfortunates Moving right along.
1: Gotta Have It, Future Creator
The absolutely first thing you must do to start on your skin making journey is to get ahold of WinAmp. After all, can't do anything if you can't see what it'll look like, right? Right.
WinAmp is available for download at WinAmp.Com.
Next, it might help if you have these things:
If none of that was familiar, there's not much I can do for you except tell you to get a bit more computer literate before you attempt a skin.
If this is 'Got it, Let's go', then let's continue.
2: Terminology and Basic Stuff
It takes more than one file to make a winamp skin. In fact, it takes 12 for a basic skin and 15 for the full deal.
For the basic skin, 11 of the 12 files are Bitmaps. For the full deal, it's 13 out of 15. The other files are pure text files.
What is a Bitmap? Bitmap is an image file with the extention .BMP (.bmp) and is most commonly created when using the Paint program.
3: The Easy Way Out
Programs and nifty gadgets to make skins with. ^_^ However, these are usually very restrictive design wise and probably should not be used if you're serious about making skins.
WinAmp Easy Button
Great for doing the viscolor file! Otherwise, it's pretty blah. ^^*
Skinner
I never could figure out how to use this ...
Skin Maker 0.27
Now this is pretty cool. Cookie cutter skins, sure, but a great beginner
tool for visualizing how a image will look on the skin.
Skin Wizard
Yet another program I really couldn't figure out ... or find a use for.
4: Templates; My Salvation
Templates! Download now! ^__^
These suckers made possible the world of skin making. Took me a little bit to figure out how to use this things, but with the magic of Photoshop's layers, all is possible.
Having downloaded someone else's skin and then having these templates will make all the difference to you. The premade skin will show where each section must go on the Bitmap and the lines on the templates match up to these sections. It's a matter of cut and paste from there.
So you made it past my bad explanation!! ^_^ Yah! Congrats!!
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