Bichur, once you have the Logon installed, you can go to the Logon Studio folder, make a copy of "My Very Own Logon" if you want, make your image, and overwrite the bmp 128 with your image. No zipping, unzipping or anything. Then open LS and apply the Copy of the logon.

Okay, I'll give that way a shot after I figure out the Sphynx' tutorial

OK...so I MIGHT be a dumb as I look...

You actually have to USE A BITMAP!!!
(thought I was using one, but they say the eyes are the first to go...they do say that don't they, it's not something else is it??!)

Second try worked perfectly. Thanks muchly Boss!! You must be so happy and proud of helping us noobs/newbs (whichever!) rip off your work!

Thanks again for your help!!

You don't havt to USE a bmp, but you need to SAVE as a bmp. And yeah, it's not just .bmp 100, it's bmp_100, so it's actually easier to open the wall...jpg, png, gif, whatever in Paint and save it as a 24 bit bmp overwriting bmp_100. That's the easiest way I've found, because Paint opens really fast unlike Photoshop.

I DO enjoy helping people out. Sad to say, when I was trying to figure out how to make a splash and knew nothing about 32 bit and alpha channels and all that, nobody that knew and that I asked would tell me or reply to my email. Sphynx was the one that showed me how when I asked him, and then he posted the tutorial shortly afterwards.

It took me quite awhile playing around before I could make a halfway decent one, but at least I knew what I had to do.

I have been using paint.net (a freebie program to get started) and used it to save the wall jpeg as a bitmap, and the rest worked great! Mostly I have messed around with creating icons from existing images, and have now started creating images (like my avatar) and starting to think of creating in layers. So this gives me something else to "mess" with!!

I have just in the last few days started entering the forums, even though I've "hung around" WC for months. It generally seems the experienced people are helpful (maybe even a little more so after Brad's year-end article/rant!). I must say I have checked out as much of your work as I could find (all amazing, V Box in use right now!), mostly here and Deviantart, and had already noticed the help and encouragement you have offered people. It seems like whenever there is a logon posted you are there to comment! Like I said earlier, I don't expect to be able to necessarily be able to create masterpieces, but I do enjoy figuring out how things are created and work. Hopefully I'll be asking more involved questions soon!

Again, thank you for the time and help - it is greatly appreciated!

Mark

O.K.
My turn. I don't have PS. I have PhotoPlus 6.0, Paint.Net, and MGI PhotoSuite 4. I had Jasc PhotoShop, but a virus wiped that out before I got a change to even open it. When I brought my new all-in-one from Dell, I got the software disc, but it didn't work. I don't know if any of these will work with logons, but I will give them a try.

Thanks very much for the nice words Mark. That's how I started, I made a few logons and then got obsessed with figuring out how to make the "splash" logons, which also led me into having to learn how the code works in the uifile. I'm no coder, programmer, graphics person, it was just something new and fun to try for an old fart like me.

There are a lot of skinners that have created awesome logons in the past...the thing is, they moved on to creating awesome Windowblinds. Tiggz, Adni, Apocalypse and more I'm sure I'm forgetting. I just don't have the patience to learn and then spend the amazing amount of time it takes to do a WB skin, so I stick with logons and wallpapers and the occasional Rainy.

MS LADY, I doubt any of those programs will help with splash logons, but there's nothing wrong with a really good Logon Studio logon at all.

I will get PhotoShop and get back with you. Can't buy it, but got lots of friends.

I'll be here.

Hiya boss...I'm working on my first logon...got most of it figured...My main prob at the moment is aligning the splash.From the right center to the left center.
Can you help a brother out?  

Hey I.R.

The splash can be set easily left, center, and right, and top, middle, and bottom. To offset it from center, which it sounds like what you want, you need to create the splash to the left or right of center on your template. Then you need to go into the uifile and move the userpanes right or left to where you need them. The shutdown button will follow the userpanes.

A quick example, lines 517 and 518 in a default splash uifile:

element sheet=styleref(toppanelss) id=atom(toppanel) width=139rp layoutpos=left/
element sheet=styleref(toppanelss) id=atom(toppanel) width=139rp layoutpos=right/

The widths are set equal at 139. If you set the left width to say 79, and the right to 199, it will move the userpane 60 px to the left.

There is a lot of trial and error making the splash offset and then getting everything else to where you want it, but that should give you a basic idea.

You can always email me with questions or send the logon so I can help you out. That should give you a bit of an idea though.

Thanks Boss...yeah I got the trial and error thing happening  I have been at it for hours!I cant get the user panes to budge.
let me try some of your fixes and I'll be back.(you may be getting some email soon  )

I dont want the splash offset from center,I want it on the left side of the screen.It went left once,then as soon as the user pic shows it moves back toward center.  

Ok, I understand now.

Line 514, or thereabouts depending on the ui:

element id=atom(contentcontainer) layout=verticalflowlayout(0,2,2,2) layoutpos=client

Change it to this:

element id=atom(contentcontainer) layout=verticalflowlayout(0,0,2,2) layoutpos=client

The whole splash will move to the left of the screen.

That tip about the user pane worked great!I looked all over the internet and not one reference to that trick.
Am applying the next trick.    

No tricks, just tons of time changing numbers, seeing what happens....and whether something moves or the logon locks up....

Yay!It moved and stayed put.Now on to repositioning the lesser elements.
Can the shotdown button be placed anywhere on the splash(with the shutdown text removed?)

My biggest prob is going to be the scrollbars...I only have one account on this pc and if I create new ones,this account(with all my customisations is no longer visible,damn windows!)

Boss you have been a huge help,this first logon shall be dedicated to thee.  

Hey I spent hours researching and testing til I had a headache and in minutes you have me over half way thru.  

The shutdown button can be moved left or right, just like the splash, and up or down a bit. It CAN be moved to the top of the splash but then it messes with the usernames and moves them WAY down and screws everything up. Not worth the hassle in my opinion to go through all that.

I only have one account also, the second and a guest account are used only for making logons so I can adjust everything for the scrollbars. I don't have a password or hint, but I added them to the second account to see the "go" and "info" buttons.

So far so good,everything is lining up correctly...except my splash graphic is too small for scrollbars!hehe.(483x420)
I was gonna redo all the graphics anyway once I figured out how to place everything.  

Can the Splash be moved to the right without offsetting the image in the graphic?

I wonder how I can add some accounts without losing the current Admin settings?

I tried but the initial admin account disappears unless you are in safe mode.(and you have to completely setup your new admin account from scratch)

Again,thanks,it all seems so simple now......riiight.  

I usually start with 600x500, and the splash will show wherever you create it in relation to the center of it.

I don't think you can move the whole thing as a unit...maybe a bit but not much. It's pretty much just left, center, or right. After you've done a few of them it's easier to just create the splash offset in your template and move the userpanes where you need them.

Play around, you may show me a thing or two. Once I figure out how to do what I want to, I don't explore much further. I'm sure there's a lot of things that can be done that I don't know about. Hell, I'm no coder, I just played around a lot until I figured out what I needed.

Hell, I'm no coder, I just played around a lot until I figured out what I needed.

That's how skinning really started....especially with Windowblinds...

Oh lordy,lordy...if it was all like this,I would never have started.  Skinstudio saved me from a lame beginning of replacing bitmaps in Nextstart.  Still,once the challenge was on,I'm stubborn.I knew the info had to be out there somewhere...should have known it would be right here at Wincustomize.  

Once you learn it the hard way, I may give up a couple of "easy" ways.

I found a solution to the user accounts issue here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151
Once implemented I only had to fix a few preferences and relaunch some Stardock products.

  
Saved me a heap of trouble setting up the new admin account.

Cool. It sure sounded strange to me that adding accts. messed up your main one, but glad you got it figured out.