I hear a new apprentice you have, Emperess. Or should Jedi Xiandi I call you?

Powerful you have become, navigatsio. The light side sense I in you.

Just by looking at it, it looks like it will work (you never truly know until you put it in). There were a couple things that jumped out at me right away.

The shadows on your second layer don't match up very well. Some are very dark (gauge on bottom right), and some are cut off (gauge on bottom left). Seeing it on a white background really makes it visible, and it's always a good idea to look at your images on different background colors ... it reveals flaws you may not see any other way. Try to keep your shadows consistent throughout the entire blind.

Second thing : This bar might be a problem. It might not stretch very well, because it's angled.  So ...

... you have a few options.

1. Leave it like it is and wait until it's put in to see how it stretches (who knows, you may get lucky).

2. Straighten the bar to be perfectly vertical.

3. Put the bar on the second layer and hope you can find a perfect spot to set the margins so it tiles decently (not very likely, but there is a chance it could work).

4. Put it on a third layer, so you have a bit more freedom with where and how that margin is set (it looks like a spot in the center of it might work, but it still might look funny on larger start panels.

5. Get rid of it.

Isn't she, RedbeckDude?  She's all knowing, and all seeing, too.

Empress Xenia, You beat me to it. although you caught some things I hadn't noticed.  I had some layers out of order when I put them in groups, and then there was the drop shadow issue I hadn't noticed.  They looked fine on the grey checkered transparent background, but I hadn't studied how those bits looked against a white background.  I moved around a couple of other things while I was rummaging around, changed the coloring of the text, and here's where I am now:

I think it's time to bite the bullet and install my trials.  I want to see how things really will look.  Thanks again for your direction! 

Xenia?

The image list is on the left side, the tabs run across the bottom. Each tab does something different for the image. When you are less bleary eyed, click on a category on the left and then go through each tab to see what they do (you will not see the Code Editor tab in the trial version, I believe). Once you've gone through them and are somewhat familiar with them, start asking questions. I'm sure you will have a few.

[quote who="2of3" reply="36" id="2948903"]
Quoting Xiandi, reply 35I'm sure you will have a few........

......thousand!

 

Kerplunk

Here we go with a couple of what I'm sure will be many questions...more at the beginning, I hope, than later on as you kind folk help me to progress.  Here's my stretchable layer in PS just prior to cutting the pieces using the colored sections as a template.  By switching layers in my PSD, I also cut the tileable layer into same sized pieces.*

Assembled into SKS 7.2, we see:



As you can see, there are some problems.  Most of them involve moving the pieces into their correct positions; is this done with the margins somehow?  I didn't find out how to do it if so.

Another thing is that there is a gap between the bottom bar, and all programs.  It looks like SKS calls for 31 pixels, while Vampothika says to keep it at a max of 30 for the sake of Vista.  Mine is 30, and I'm using XP.

I have figured out how to put the second layer (the tileable one) on top of the existing one.  I tried with one piece, but wasn't successful in locating a way to delete it again.  I didn't think to try Ctrl+X.  Eventually, I closed SKS without saving, reopened it, and it was gone.

I can't find it now, but someone suggested that I change the name from Steampunk (a blind with such a name already exists, and I'm wearing it now) to something like Mally's Steampunk, or Steampunk1.  As of a few days ago, this skin will be known as...(drum role, please)...ProfMcGinnisSteamLab.  I only had 20 characters with which to work, or it would have been Professor McGinnis' Secret Steam Lab.  Now, come on...that's funny, isn't it? 

peace,

Mally

*Using a colored, mostly transparent template to cut any number of layers at the exact same places:

Select visible template layer, individual section. 
Using Magic Wand Tool, select one of the 5 colored sections.
Select visible stretchable layer (tileable layer is invisible at this point, or visa versa)
Ctrl+C (copy) that piece from whichever layer is visible
Ctrl+N to open new image document, Ctrl+V to paste image to correctly sized document.
Save as something like "All Programs - Stretchable.psd"
in a new subfolder called something like "ProfMcGinnisSteamLab PSDs\Start Menu Pieces"

I think the wood needs to be grunged up a bit i perhaps.. isn't that one of the trademarks of steam punk?

Also are u making ur images urself, gauges, pipes etc?

Looking nice and creative, Id help out some, but looks like your in good hand with this bunch...

OK, here it is. It's not complicated, I just tried to be as detailed as I could. I know you may know some of this stuff already, but figured someone else might be able to follow it too.

100 Pts for helping him Xiandi !!  

So far, I think all the images used are sourced images, pieces of things from other photographs.  Some of the gauges came from the inside of a late 19th century locomotive.  The brass pieces at the bottom came from the same locomotive; they decorated the "corners" of the boiler.  The black shapes at the top are from the dashboard of a 1987 Jaguar.  The gears are made by using a brush that someone else made (obtained at Deviant Art) and adding some of that same shiny brass for a texture.

While we're on that subject, and before I go too deeply, am I in anyway "cheating" by using either bits of other people's photography, or by not making the graphics 100% on my own?

peace,

Mally

Yes she is, vStyler.  Seems to be a contagion of class acts around here.