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While preparing for this month's Spotlight I came across some Halloween skins.
Enjoy.
PS: If there are any I missed post the link here.
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This month’s Spotlight is a real treat (sorry for the Halloween pun, SDN’ers)
Have you ever gone to the wallpaper gallery and seen a wall and been blown away?
In a world made of repetitive fractals you know when something better comes along. Chances are good that it is a Sed creation and you know you have to have it.
In almost every wall gallery, at any site, you are sure to find a wall by Sed. Sed has been doing his thing since 1998. Besides being a longtime member of SDN, he is a Journeyman at WinCustomize, a Wizop at Skinbase.com, an admin at Basehead, as well as a member at Terranuts, Skinartistry2, and Skinnalicious.
Skinners have come and gone, yet, Sed is still going strong. With over 4000 walls spread out over the community (well over 100 walls here at SDN), Sed shows no signs of slowing down.
Here is your October Spotlight.
How did you get started in skinning?
”Probably the same way most of us had. Finding WinCustomize freaked me out that you could change the skins on the screen. Bought WindowBlinds and they made me a member of WC. HUH?
So I started learning. A web developer showed me how to use Photoshop at his place of biz. He uploaded it on my home PC to help him with some artwork.
That’s how I found I couldn’t live without it. Bought Bryce3 when it came out and taught myself that AFTER I lost the handbook. Trial and error.”
What type of skins do you prefer to make?
”WEIRD! I like to stay AbZtract (I like that "Z") but I use a lot of mirrors to bring mine back down to Earth.
I love my Bryce.”
Who are your favorite skinners?
”Easy, Adni18 (web design) and Navigatsio (WindowBlinds), Lately TON300 is really getting impressive with his walls,
Richard Molher does something I have not figured out yet, I don't know everyone has a different feel.”
Has anyone of them, inspired you to make a skin? If so, elaborate a bit.
”I have an old Adni wood WindowBlinds (skin) that I tried to copy. Disaster!! I did finish one that I kept for a long time,
but I never figured out how to upload it for display. Remember, Self-Taught. Did some walls 800x600 and was well received in the beginning.
I knew nothing about rendering to disc so all my first Bryce works were small. After playing with WindowBlinds, I think I will stick with my wallz. Hytham/Kilua always has interesting Bryce ideas”
Of the skins you made, which is your favorite?
”Observation Deck. It won an award at Dev-Art (Deviant Art). My first there And I have a 24x18 of it hanging in my office.
There are others but I have over 4000 now. Thank God for so many places to upload!!”
Do you have anything you are working on now?
”Mastering Multi-repetition on Bryce --- I have no mathematics in my brain! XYZ?? Trial and error again.
I have done many Bryce landscapes but I still prefer my replication works.”
What skins are you using right now on your desktop?
”Just bought a new system [7] and I am waiting for a GOOD WindowBlinds....
Lately I have not been impressed and I’m not sure my old Adni is gonna work.
The wallpaper? Water Dancing, mine of course.”
Stay tuned to find out whose next under the Spotlight.
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BoXXi is synonymous with skinning.
In 1998 before there was WinCustomize.com, he built up enough courage to upload a wall to skinz.org, and the rest is history.
Just about every skinner knows of BoXXi (aka Bryan Cook) his influence is seen throughout the skinning community.
He inspires people. His style can be seen in the skins of the many skinners he has mentored.
BoXXi the Master, recently topped the 5 million mark in total downloads and is the third “All Time Top Skinner” at WinCustomize.com. And who can forget the awesome community project done as a tribute to him. Admired and respected by so many skinners BoXXi remains humble towards it all…Speaking about his Master status he said “I think of it as an honorary title rather than an opportunity to sell skins, because I have never thought my skins were good enough to sell.”
In this Spotlight as in others, we ask the artists several questions that help us build the post along with questions you read in each Spotlight. Boxxi was open in his answers, I wanted to share some of those parts we do not normally add, so here is the September 2011 SDN Spotlight, BoXXi.
How long have you been skinning?
”Since around 1998 when I discovered Skinz.org, and I decided I wanted to try and make my own wallpaper. I found that I really enjoyed doing it, even though I was just fumbling in the dark at that time with Photoshop. I eventually got a wallpaper past moderation at Skinz, and that really inspired me to get better and get some more wallpapers on that site, which was one of the top skinning sites at that time.”
How did you get started in skinning?
”Just from the desire to make my own wallpapers initially, but like everyone else, you discover things like WindowBlinds etc, and then you REALLY get hooked. It was Larry Kuperman at Stardock who pushed me to make my first WindowBlinds (skin), but I was certain I couldn't do it as I'm not really a technical person. But he persuaded me, so blame him! (I think I was right). But back then I was lucky enough to get help from people like Treetog and Jafo and MikeB314, who are all brilliant people and helped me immensely. Paul (Jafo) helped me with programming Litestep, which was one of the early desktop (explorer) replacements. I loved Litestep, but then I discovered DesktopX and found
it suited my non-technical style a lot more, so I started making DX themes too. Since those days, I've just kinda plodded on making things when I get the inspiration, or when I have time. Time is the big factor for me these days, I have very little of it that I can give to skinning as I'm a single dad of four children.
What type of skins do you prefer to make?
Hmmmm... good question....... I think I get the most satisfaction from completing a WindowBlinds skin, just because I find them so damn difficult to make. But I get the most enjoyment from skinning the music player "Xion", because of the freedom it gives a skinner to go crazy with their imagination, and because the skinning system is pure genius and so user friendly. But at the moment I'm really enjoying
making cursors for CursorFX. I like the challenge of coming up with new, interesting designs in such a small medium, and dreaming up entertaining animations. They are good fun! And of course, I still like to make the odd wallpaper now and again, when I'm trying out a new Photoshop technique that I have learned.
Who are your favorite skinners?
”The obvious one's are Treetog, MikeB314, Essorant, Johanne etc, the old school guys. They made incredible stuff back in the day and really pushed skinning to where it is now. I have always been in awe of their talent. I like Vstyler's skins for everyday use these days, he knows how to make a clean useable skin. But for pure indulgence, some of the new breed of skinners are really turning out some interesting stuff, and I love the skins that Vampothika, 2of3, The AVMan and Xiandi make. I love Xiandi's style, I always think her skins look like something that came out of MY head, but she knows how to really
make them work, unlike me! But, my ultimate hero is Layne Karkruff, of "Blue Sky Heart", it was seeing his wallpapers when I first got my computer that really made me go: "WOW"!! ........ I think many skinners, even some of the newer ones are influenced by his work...”
Has anyone of them, inspired you to make a skin? If so, elaborate a bit.
”Layne Karkruff........ Treetog... MikeB314... just seeing their work years ago inspired me to try and learn Photoshop... (I'm still trying!!).”
Of the skins you made, which is your favorite?
”I love all my skins, because all of them gave me some kind of pleasure while I was making them. But I guess I would have to say a wallpaper called "Love's Dying Embers".”
Do you have anything you are working on now?
”Oh man! you have NO idea how much stuff I have here......... time and inspiration will determine if they ever see the light of day.”
What skins are you using right now on your desktop?
”"Sakura" WB skin, "Rounder" icons, "Omgi7" ObjectDock tiles, "LibertyIX" Xion skin, "Glissando" wallpaper and an unnamed cursor that
I am working on. 
But tomorrow it could be Frontier again, or even my Gridscape DX theme... I change all the time, can't help it, I'm a skinner!! ”
Stay tuned to find out who is next to be put under the Spotlight.
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 sed27 Jan : 14:09 G-Morn
D Man27 Jan : 13:43Morning SDN
willistuder27 Jan : 13:24Greetings. We have a nice layer of ice over everything--people will have to skate to work.
WOM27 Jan : 12:59 GoodMorning to all. 38F
Hankers27 Jan : 12:45TGIF! Raining out. Hope it doesn't freeze.
willistuder26 Jan : 14:345 inches? You must have got some flooding.
WOM26 Jan : 13:55GoodMorning to all. 45F. Got a much needed 5 inches of rain.
D Man26 Jan : 13:44Morning all
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