My first attempt at a windowskin

[Lunarhound]

An earthy, vaguely celtic themed windowskin. The border and highlight cursor I made myself (I know I know, not exactly amazing stuff), and the background texture, plus the celtic knot and gem cursors are edited versions of graphics I got from a free clip-art site. I also did the little sparkle animation on the gem, and I'm rather proud of how unsucky it is (or seems to me, anyway), despite the fact that it's extremely simple. :P

Can anyone think of anything I can do to improve this? I haven't animated the battle cursor, because I couldn't think of something I can do with two frames that doesn't look crappy. The background is meant to be tiled, not stretched.

The border was also made specifically to look good inside menus. The idea is that, when you activate a menu screen, it looks like there's one, solid border running throughout the whole thing, seperating all the windows, rather than seperate borders that are touching each other (which I tend to think looks bad). I'm trying to decide whether the top of the border hurts that or not. So if anyone could give me their opinion on how they feel that aspect of it turned out, I'd be grateful.

Edit: I made another version, without the "stripes" at the top part of the border. I'm not sure which one looks better, though.

 

[lunarea]

I like the tones quite a bit, and though the background stretches, it doesn't look too pixelated and fuzzy.

I prefer the version without the border, mainly because I'm using a script that allows a namebox, and the version with the border puts a nasty line through the name. It's also a little confusing in general, though I can see it working with certain games.

The sparkle animation on the gem is simple, but it also seems rather subtle as well (not sure if this was the effect you were going for). Perhaps you can toy around with shading the gem so it looks like it's spinning (ie sparkle in corners, moving in a direction) or slightly moving as it sparkles. This is just a personal preference, though, and simply because I worry that my game is lagging if the gem is completely still.

Overall, though, good job for your first try

 

[Lunarhound]

The subtle sparkle was pretty much what I was going for on the gem, yeah. I tried having it rotate, but a full rotation with only four frames of animation just doesn't look very good. Your idea of having it tilt back and forth while glinting would be an interesting effect, though. Maybe I'll see if I can pull that off without making it look like complete crap. I've also been toying with the idea of replacing the glinting gem with a spinning coin that has something different on each side. That might be beyond my limited abilities, though.

You should try using the background tiled instead of stretched. It looks all right stretched, but looks very cool when tiled.

 

[lunarea]

The subtle sparkle was pretty much what I was going for on the gem, yeah. I tried having it rotate, but a full rotation with only four frames of animation just doesn't look very good. Your idea of having it tilt back and forth while glinting would be an interesting effect, though. Maybe I'll see if I can pull that off without making it look like complete crap. I've also been toying with the idea of replacing the glinting gem with a spinning coin that has something different on each side. That might be beyond my limited abilities, though.

Since it is celtic in nature, you can also take a clipart/picture that's a little easier to rotate. For example:
http://amberstainedglass.com/files/imag ... mbnail.jpg[/IMG]

You can add a subtle sparkle (because that effect is actually pretty nice) and rotation/movement is easier given the small nymber of frames.

Otherwise, the gem works really well. The colors are complementary, it just maybe too subtle for some people

You should try using the background tiled instead of stretched. It looks all right stretched, but looks very cool when tiled.

Yep, it sure is
I also tried it stretched just because sometimes the pixelated effect can be pretty cool and give a sort of dreamy effect or textured effect without being too busy. I do like how the pattern stretches in your windowskin, because it's not easy to pull off.