Dark, you can select the program that you want to use to edit the graphics. When you right clik and then select Edit With.. , clik on customize and add the paint program you want to use as the default editor. This way, whenever you double clik on the image, it will open it with the paint program you selected.

Where do i select it though, every time i try it only MS Paint appears

I believe, if Photoshop is to expencive, then you can get Paint Shop Pro. I know I rather use Photoshop but I hear Paint Shop has some nice features. I believe it was 80 dollars from last look, and 20 dollars at Comp USA with a mail in rebate.

I would also suggest just playing around and changing things on a skin. That is the best way. Then change some of the bitmaps and see what you can do.

At that point, then go to the tutorials, for you'll have more of a understaning of terms and areas of the code or program (skin studio)

Will do

Well ive gotten to the point where Im starting to redo the graphics featured in XP luna...but...dang...there are sooo many little buttons and bars and all that stuff One more problem...How do you get stuff to look 3d? Like in that Oil Well wallpaper on the right where he has that handle...and just getting buttons to look 3d in general w/o having to edit them pixel-by-pixel? (Like I did with my CurXP theme )

my thoughts exactly

EventHorizon, look for some tutorials on the graphics program you are using. While you can use various 3rd party filters to get a 3D look, using the built in filters makes a nicer look IMO.
This may not make much sense if you are new to the graphics programs (filters) but check out some tutorials and you will get the idea.

There are a lot of buttons and stuff!

(Im using Photoshop 7)

But Ive (luckily) has some experience with Gimp so I know what your talking about (More or less) I didnt realize that these 3d effects were from filters...hmm...Ill have to play around with them...

This site has some pretty good tutorials
http://www.eyeball-design.com/fxzone/frames01.htm

Good luck and have fun

K... I was debating trying my hand at skinning...

Now I'm even more skeered

Didn't say i wouldn't try just gonna postpone it now.

Ditto

Aww come on DM and Lady A, this is gonna be fun. (I hope)

Well im trying abit of a few things and i must say its not easy as people may think

Well true..when I first saw skin studio and dissected one of the 'blinds, I must say I was more than slightly intimidated...Partially because Im new to Photoshop and partially cause there are soooo many different little bars & buttons...Im learnin' tho. It cant be THAT hard tho, cause lots of people have made blinds. (The numbers in the WB section attest to that) But yes, It isnt exactly easy either.

Come on boys and girls. The challenge it's what makes it fun. If it was easy, what fun would that be?
I like Event's attitude. The question now is.... who will make the 1st skin out of you three??

To be continue.....

Not me i can tell you that now

Trust me Dark, You'll be surprise.
I bought SkinStudio exactly 2 weeks ago, and when I open the program, I had no idea what the heck I was looking at. But a week later my 1st skin was on the WindowBlinds DL library.
I hope to see yours there soon

The race is on!!!

My huge downfall is i have no idea with the graphics side of it all

What do you mean DM?

Well im no good with graphics, you know the layout, using PS (no idea how to use it)

No idea? Looking at some your walls I would say you are more than capable of producing quality results. Go for it!

Fuzzy I use Bryce for Walls...Can't for WB

Forget making complicated 3d stuff...just redo XP luna with some different colors and try to mebby add some of your own texture...Just play around with PS (I assume you mean PhotoShop) and youll get the hang of it...If you right click on the tools that have a little arrow in the bottom right corner, youll be able to access some different ones like gradient, patch tool, vertical text, sharpen, and blur, et al. Or you could try a different program called The gimp, which is free and has many of the same tools that photoshop posesses. (My experiance with gimp helped me a lot when I first got photoshop opened up)