How do I make skins/themes?

Well, you need to have SkinStudio in order to create your own windows GUI skins for xp/vista. You can have that by buying the Object Desktop, you will have accese to WB 6 and Skin Studio 6 aswell.

Creating ugly, buggy skins is hard.  Creating great skins is very hard.

Good places to start: http://www.skinning.net/nexus/page.php?5 and http://wiki.wincustomize.com/wiki/Skinning_for_WindowBlinds

yeah, im still learning. the best thing you can do is practice.

I think it would be better to wait until skinstudio 6 is out, then it would be easier to learn. I cant count how many times i've opened the current skinstudio and went "um..!" Of course being good at photoshop or corelDraw is an advantage.

I'm a graphic artist, I've been using photoshop for over 3 years now, will that help?

It definitely won't hurt. I would recommend taking a look through the WinCustomize Wiki for information about WindowBlinds, SkinStudio, etc.  There is quite a bit information and tutorials there.

http://wiki.wincustomize.com

Reply number one best decribes this business of skinning. Try running any skin you create for a couple of weeks too. I agree that you should wait until skin studio 6 is released. Start off using that version and with your understanding of photoshop the only real limitation you might have would be lack of imagination, which doesn't sound likely. Have fun and enjoy skinning at four am.  

oops, I meant reply #2

Check out all the resources available to you, noted above. SkinStudio 6 will be released soon, there should be a 'free' or 'try it' version. The biggest advice is to have fun with it.  

Sorry to bring this thread back up from the dead, I don't want to make a new thread, I would rather continue it inside this one.

What kind of coding do you need to have? I'm very good with C++. Is this an entirely different type of coding?

depends what your making.. if its a windowblinds theme... Zero coding.

C++ would be useful for DesktopX codes, windowsblinds is more coordinates and margins. You're a graphic artist, just try