MS Paint helps make basic bootskins?

from WinCustomize Forums
Does MS Paint really help you make basic bootskins? well if you look at my skins, you can see that they are pretty basic. i mean really basic! anybody could have made those skins! i look at other peoples bootskins and i see that it looks professional and that it took them maybe more than 2 days to make. if i'm wrong please correct me. i never saw anybody make a professional looking skin in MS Paint. if there is an easy way to make professional looking skin in MS Paint or a program that similar to MS Paint, please tell me!! I'll really be suprized!!
12,046 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

It's not 'just' the tools...it's also the talent of the tradesman....

A bootskin is about the simplest 'proggy' to skin.  A thumbnail dipped in tar would suffice....

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hey Bash, bootskins I have made using iamages from say like my last 2 Nasa.gov, after using irfanview to decrease to 16 color 4 bit, I use MS Paint to paint progress bar and border. Save it open with Paint.net to save as a jpg for preview for site. Open with MS Paint, rect. select the progress bar, from edit menu, copy to floder as prog.bmp, then from edit, cut to remove bar from image. Next pick the color of inside area of progress border and paint the 22x9 hole from cutting bar, save. Open .ini for bootskin make sure all info is correct, open bootskin app. apply new bootskin, reboot to test. Including the 4 min. to reboot takes about 15-20 min. to make bootskin.
I also use The Gimp 2.2 to decrease color, for those 2 images irfanview did a better job.
I do have a few bootskins for which I made the image, Apophysis and Terragen renders. For an apophysis adds about
45 min. since I added 512 ram now 1 gig total it renders a 1280x1024 in about 7 or 8 min. For a terragen adds about
1 1/2 to 2 hours, takes much longer to render, up to 1 1/4 hours if water in image. When I make images I have in mind a Bootskin, Logon and if good enough a Wallpaper, which for some all three are in galleries here, some of the walls my gallery only but here.
For a bootskin like your SpongeBob, Paint. net would make doing it easier, when zoom in it shows a grid for the pixels making it much easier to Paint around a pasted image.
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
thanks for your help Carven1. by the way MS Paint can zoom in and coloraround the pasted image i just couldn't do it with my spongebob skin because i didn't know how to change the color to a 16 color format at that time
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yes MS Paint does zoom but there is not a grid like Paint.net. With the grid in Paint.net you know exactly where you are painting.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Forgot to also mention; zoom in MS Paint is 800 times max, in Paint.net it up to 3200 times. Makes doing the fine details much easier.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm not blind!!! so i don't need to zoom in that close!!!
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top

3200 times....that'd be, for a 640 x 480 image on a 640 x 480 res monitor about one fifth of one pixel on the screen at any one time....

Or...

To put it another way.....

Utterly useless.....

Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
3200 times....that'd be, for a 640 x 480 image on a 640 x 480 res monitor about one fifth of one pixel on the screen at any one time.


Utterly useless


My res 1280x768, 1280x960 image opened in Paint.net at 3200 zoom, work area is 49 x 23 pixels. 3200 zoom is more useful for smaller images, 1600 zoom is useful for about any size image.