Not too shabby there, slac...eh, John boy!  I likes eet!! 

Gotcha Giz! 

John...lookin' good.

I'm curious...did Scooter and Jim Bob get yer engune back together?

Frames \ XP   

Battle ready now eh?  lol

Thx Wiz

Gotta say I kind of identified with the 'battle hardened', zillion light year/Medicare version and wish there were a way to apply those fantastic textures you created, John.

Sad there isn't. Maybe Neil can work his code wizardry... it would be so wonderful if he could, eh?

Well....I have the upgraded version and the original. Perhaps one of each.

Okay

Those are only for personal use John.

diggin' dem scrolls.... perfect with it...

very true...

it was a fabulous effect.... loved it too... very classy grunge look...perfect weather/asteroid beating.....great pity artistry is bound by technical constraints...  would love to have seen both versions available... 'cause I gotta say, the shiny one is looking extremely spiffy on my monitor right now....  

*syd goes to find some more walls... 

Really amazing concept, John. Quick question, if I may. What informs your choice of lighting effects? Your skins always seem to have very interesting lighting coming at different angles in different areas that really makes the skin unique.

sViz continues lurking

You're right, you know..there is a saying...LITTLE secrets from BIG masters

Ponce De Leon looked for it too and you see where that got him.

Interesting question.

I've always tried to be a little creative when it comes to lighting a visual style, If you take anything, in the real world, you can see light hitting it from different directions, objects that stick further out, further in, different materials, and colors, some things absorb light, some reflect, some diffuse.

Typically if i make a more minimal, usable skin, I will light from top left, and keep it uniform thru out the skin, shadows bottom right, etc. Global lighting.

When i make a more out of the box skin, like this, or Penthouse, Krome etc.. I like to throw light sources in from different angles, different strengths, different colors and shades.

Whether it is physically correct or not, to me, doesn't really matter..as long as to the eye..it looks good, and if It doesn't, someone is always gonna let me know.

Now, if I were doing still life drawings, or nature paintings, It would be different but I think in UI design you have a certain amount of creative license to break the rules a little in the interest of coming up with something eye catching for the end user.

As far as method, my two main weapons are a good vivid light blend mode in Photoshop, and my trusty dodge and burn brushes.

I make almost everything with vector shapes, then if I am going to do any brushing, flatten the image and go to town with the brushes.

Whether any of this made sense or not, I have no idea.. hope it helped.

Rolo.. I'll try find a link to those walls, they aren't mine but fit the skin exquisitely.

Cheers!