Graphics Creation Help

Goin a little nutz here

from WinCustomize Forums
Hello all,

I have been working on an lcars skin for windowblinds to go with the lcars evolved desktop x theme I modified and added to.

The problem I am having is in the graphics area. I use ulead photoimpact xl and I use corel draw 12. The bad part is that I cannot get a clean rounded corner to save my life. I created me start menu panel several times with photoimpact and the image looks geed before I impliment it and then the shocking pink shows around the edges of the rounded corners. Even if I make it jagged with no blurry pixels.

I created the same thing in corel which has perfect lines (no blurry pixels) but when I export the image... bam... there are the blurry edges again and the little pink pixels show again.

I also have a problem with the 5 images not displaying in proper porportion. I went by the dimensions that Night Train posted in another thread but for some reason the "more programs" background falls 1 or 2 pixels and throws off the look. All dimensions are correct in the whole but it is making me a bit crazy.

Anybody got some tips for me to get my clean rounded corners to work?

I can't break down and learn photoshop now... I have too much invested in the other programs to learn all over again.

Thanks for any help anyone can give.
skinning
2,580 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
What format are you saving it as? It almost sound you are saving it as JPEGs. If that's the case, then there's your problem due to the JPEG format's way of compressing the file. You will want to save in a loss-less format, such as png, bmp or tga.

If you are not saving as JPEGs, then I'm not sure. Could you post some pictures to illustrate the problem?
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I saved all images as uncompressed bitmaps .bmp



In this shot you can see that the corners are still showing some of the shocking pink that is supposed to be interpreted as transparent. See the circled areas>







In this image you can see where the more programs background slips down 2 pixels causing the programs and places images to not line up






Here are the 5 images I created to make up the stary menu according to Night Train;s directions in a thread.






   









Top bar- 380 x 64
Programs list- 190 x306
Places list- 190 x 336
More programs back=190 x 30
Bottom Bar- 380 x 40
Total size when all parts combined- 380 x 440
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Have you tried moving the sizing margins/content margins for the places and prog panels? I had to do a little tweaking in this even though image sizes were perfect. As for the majik pink, try setting tranparency=enabled, but leave out the transluscency.....?

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yea... I have played around with the margins a bit to aparently no effect but I will try some more if that is what it will take.

As for the transparency... that is how I have it. A check mark in the trasparency box and no check in the translucency box cuz that just makes the top and bottom dissapear.

A bit a wits end on the pink stuff.

Thank you for the suggestions scorpio-logic
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Looks like, zoomed image using FireFox, that you have used some kind of line or select tool to do corners of images, the first pixels of magic pink show some bleeding of the blue. Use color picker in photoimpact to check them.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
?

Even if I do a full color on the mixed pixels the same thing happens and one line of pink shows
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Okay,

Well I was able to get the pink problem solved (even though it didn't allow clean curves) but still having a terrible time with the moreprograms area allowing a 2 or 3 pixel drop causing the images to not line up as in image 2 of the first post.

I have played with the margins till I was blue in the face and none seem to make any changes.

confused.