I took no offence. If you look at some of the graphics I did in the music themes, if I did not compress them, they would have been huge.

I was actually asked about my process of skinning.
Truthfully, it does vary. I could be inspired by a subject, an event, music, art, a discipline anything..
How that translates to skinning can be several ways...

I often take the idea, create something resembling the core of what I am trying to achieve. Let me be clear, every skinning I do is an attempt at achieving. Success is a perception. I can be content but I am never 100% satisfied.

Sometimes, I just grab a pencil and foolscap pad and draw...then go into an art program and try to recreate it, hopefully better.

I also have built up a library of 3D models over quite a long period of time that I can manipulate and reshape which saves a heck of a lot of time.

In other words, I have no single set routine other than it will be on a 1920x1080 canvas at the end. truth be known, I was crap at it when I started looking back. Now I have a level of consistency with the intent to try and get better each time. Sometimes I succeed, and other times not so much.
As you all were. Cheers

For the next beta or release:

In the MAIN theme INI file, add the following setting to prevent detached sub-menus from assuming the parent-menu theme:

MenuRetainThemeWhenDetached=True

I’m also adding a global user setting that allows users to prevent detached sub-menus from switching themes. However, the user setting cannot override the skinner’s setting - if the skinner enables this option, detached sub-menus will always retain their original theme.

Thank you Jorge - Shame there is no bowing emoticon or something resembling gratitude.
That is great. I will set about adding to the themes that have submenus now, so when the update occurs, they will already be in place.

@Jorge - I also found out something else I can do with this new menu change completely by accident. It was always there, I just never looked at it from a creative point of view.

There is an active and inactive component in each menu. By accident, I did two menu's several days apart for the same theme. Normally, I would use the dimensions of the first to create the inactive menu but for some reason I did not. I found the inactive I had made smaller and an illusion occurred. The inactive menu showed all the outer rims of the active so it looked like a menu with in a menu, but with the the inactive links. Graphically that is, I hope that makes sense? So it will open up a pile of other possibilities graphically. In its current state though, that would be impractical.

I haven't made that theme available yet, but I will afterwards example below - it is screen captured below, the opener and the inactive. It is I guess a wanted accident. The gauges at the top are only in the active menu

MAIN:


INACTIVE:

Wonderful Start menu! I think the theme itself will be great if it appears in the gallery! And a question arose: the Start menu button is located on the left side of the taskbar. Is there a possibility (in the future) to place the Start menu button in the middle of the taskbar (as in Windows and Start 11)? If such a feature is available in the settings, can you tell me how to activate it?

NextSTART Preferences -> Taskbar tab -> Taskbar Settings -> Taskbar Sections . You can move the sections up and down to re-order them.

I moved the Start button thanks to you. Thank you very much!

OK - after truly hating what I did for the first time in a while - I approached it from a few different angles. Because the modules are much larger than I usually do, part of my chagrin is still the sheer real estate they take up. Nonetheless, I realise that many people rarely have every single module on so it will probably be ok. I primarily have them all on due to skinning so I can be sure they all fit comfortably within the screen.

wallpaper, module and a pile of other changes, some minor some not. The first theme with no ring or flat disk graphic either - they are in the overlay only. I will put them in for NEXUS only and double-clicking users as they are turned off mainly in the modules.

I am the first user to download and install it on my laptop again! The topic is unusual and interesting! With imagination! BassdudeNZ, thanks a lot!

You are welcome.

For people who like see the Zodiac in the Moon Modules on their desktop, I have done several distinct to specific themes.
I have been changing some ini files in themes that are relevant in preparation for Jorge's next update which means I will need to do a lot of updates in the gallery.

In case people may not have noticed in one of the music themes, The Haight-Ashbury theme has its own Zodiac as well. I enjoyed doing this specific theme because it was a massive time of change for the entire world. I had a lot of fun adding people and icons of the times, including Cheech & Chong, Easy Rider and a small nod to a much repeated song even in this century, 'Magic Carpet Ride' (upper left corner), and even a "HAIR" poster (Age of Aquarius). Additionally, I did the network gauges on two peace signs and insted of a central pivot, I managed to get them spin on an axis.
The Zodiac will do the same thing, change as the moon does. cheers

Thanks for the detailed story. You create interesting themes! How Walt Disney created his cartoons!

Thanks for the compliment but if that were true, I'd own an island somewhere

@Jorge and @AllUsers

Is it worthwhile me starting a thread something like

"Creating your first Winstep theme" ?

I am asking in advance before I set about this task for two reasons:

1. Jorge is in the process of creating a theme builder which will likely have plenty of information already in it , and I see no point in doing a double-up

and,

2. If I am going to do it, I'll do it properly, with some simple blank module placeholders (neutral as possible in color), folders with starting items like gauges, multi's, example images etc, neutral menu, using overlays, module breakdowns and more, and descriptions of every ini file and how to manually edit each.

It's a LOT of work and not something I would attempt unless people think they'd like to have a go at doing their own creations, and providing Jorge has not already got all of the above covered.

Let me know.

Regards