Sorry, I'm genuinely not meaning to insult, but it smacks of the very things you say other skin display.
For one thing,you have a light sourec that's inconsistent from the blue areas to the buttons.
It has depth, yes, but as do lots of other WB out there. Some moreso.

Boxxi, he's right, I couldn't get anywhere except for the homepage on that site, sorry to say, because the graphic layout is good.
Styl, that looks amazing...But then again, I suppose I'm a little biased...

Also, is the light source at the top or the bottom? I don't think your Start menu knows.

That was the first thing that jumped out at me, too. 

yeah, that looks mostly like a white layer on top of a blue one, motion blurred and set to dodge with a few shadows and bevels added in to the rest of it.
Overall it is a very good start, but Mike is right about the light source.
It's a simailar style to the WBmania skins from a few years ago (I think that was the name). Anyone remember who did those?

true, the most important thing is that you like it.

The thing about the light source coming from the front though, is that the highlights would be closer to the middle/front and fade as it went towards the top and bottom.

did I explain that right... not to good describing stuff like that.

This is what I ment with a 3d feeling. I Personaly feel that it has a good feeling of dept... right or what?

It needs a texture Styl. Texture gives depth. It could be technology
texture with wires and whatnot, like Jafo's example.
Or it could be a metallic texture, glass texture. But as it is, its not even a plastic,
just a bevelled color that's poorly lighted and layered a couple of times. If you mean that
you would like to see a skin rendered by a 3D engine like
Quakes, sure, I would too.

I don't think that Silver Surfer is flat.

Maybe I am getting too old and losing my eye for detail but just what exactly is so different from what styl is displaying and what alot of other people have done?
Still looks like shadows to me. Fact of the matter is , when your done struggling turning that current design into a start panel (which will cause some drastic changes in the design trying to fit in the log offs and program buttons), the shadow of the start panel on the desktop will still be a thin shadow line erasing any serious attempts at 3d. Many , many, many designs I have had to scrap becasue I just couldnt put them together to work with WB and its constrictions. No offence. and yes, I have been continuing the same run on sentence for 2 years running.

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It's not the tools you use, but what you do with them that counts. Take a look at my two most recent skins Styl and tell me you can't get a 3D look with gradients. I don't even use Photoshop...

Regarding your '3D' skin, I agree with Hippy & co. What you've produced could easily be replicated in Photoshop using simple gradients, bevels and drop shadows. The bottom part of the Start menu is just a vertically-flipped copy of the top. If you want it to look like your light source is in front of the skin, the highlights and lowlights should be consistent over all curved or rasied surfaces. At a stretch, you could say that your Start menu is lit by two light sources, both positioned at the very top and bottom edges, with the curved sections being raised enough that they cast the opposite ends of the menu in shadow.

I hate to say it, but Hippy's quick attempt with gradients actually looks a lot more '3D' than yours anyway. I think you just need to look a little harder at the skin library here to see that 3D-effect skins are what WindowBlinds does best. Compare the skins here with the multitude of flat 'minimalist' styles available for that 'other' skinning engine ( ) and you'll start to realise we're actually pretty well off already.

hehe, Could be just me but check:



The images both at the same size.

My skin has a soft polished metal feel over it, hippy's has a bit more of a plastic feel.
Lets just keep it to this, IMHO my piece is far out better, better quality etc, but ofcourse, I can't give a reasonable opinion as I am the creator of it.

And yes cerebroJD, it needs more bevels etc, just a quick preview.

If you really want someone to produce a carbon copy of your design Styl, I'll gladly oblige. It should take me all of about 10 minutes in Fireworks. I think Hippy was just proving that gradients can be used to create 3D effects, and while his isn't the same as yours visually it certainly looks more 3D.

We're not deliberately being nasty about your work, but when you make a claim as bold as the one you have you should expect to offend some of the skinners who have created 3D-look skins for a long time. Quite possibly skinners without whom you wouldn't be at the level you are now. No offense.

CerebroJD, true, the project is more or less on a hold now. Also we have been busy with some other projects.

GH, I don't take it as offence as its just a matter of personal opinion and style. The style on the left just happens to be mine and in my honest opinion I think it looks far better. I can easily produce something like hippy did, that really isn't the point but I just like to believe that my skills have developed over time so it quite bothers me that I now create a style that is (in your opinion) worse then the things I created a time ago.

Just checking something. Styl, what are you using for a monitor. No offense, I am just wondering if you actually see the graininess in your image vs the smoothness of hippy's. I am just sitting here looking at the two images and I see some graininess to your image that maybe you dont.

between the two .. i like hippys better . while styls looks like a die cut single piece.. hippys gives the impression of 2 plastic molded parts fit together ..id almost be inclined to flip the piece over to see the screws holding it together. IMO hippys has a little more 3D feel to it ..