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skinz
I thought some of the members of the lug-list might find the following
articles interesting, possibly as the inspiration for some projects.
The URL for the following article is
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB938560367212650841.htm
It is better viewed under netscape because it contains some web art
examples, however you may not be able to access it.
Jack Miller
jsmiller@arsc.edu
All Over the Internet,
There's a Rash of Skins
By KARA SWISHER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Everywhere you look on the Web, people are searching for the
perfect new skin.
Skins, in Webspeak, are computer graphics for decorating
software such as an Internet browser or a music player. Rather
than look at a plain player while listening to music, an Internet
user can bestrew it with castles floating on a sea, a Stratocaster
guitar or spears of broccoli.
Skins, which can be changed at a user's
whim, are the latest way to show a bit of
personal flair in cyberspace. Thousands
of mostly amateur programmers are
creating their own skins, while still more people are downloading
skins made by others. There are currently more than 5,000 skins
available, according to the Skinz.org information site. And sites
that encourage the use of skins on their software say they are
getting dozens of submissions a day.
"People love the skins because they seem to have a personal
relationship with them that can change depending on [a person's]
mood or the type of music," says Rob Glaser, founder and chief
executive of RealNetworks Inc., a Seattle maker of audio and
video software for the Internet. Mr. Glaser's favorite skin is one
made to look like clay that squishes when buttons are clicked.
Lots of Skin
Skin-loading has become one of the more popular downloads for
RealNetworks, whose audio and video technology is one of the
most widely used on the Web. So far, more than 40,000 skins
toolkits, which help users create skins, have been downloaded
from RealNetworks' Web site -- more than a thousand a day
since early August. More than 300 skins have been submitted for
inclusion in the site's archives.
Skins, which started to become popular
about a year ago, seem to be an extension
of a practice that started with decorative
mouse pads and cardboard frames taped
around PC screens. Similarly, PC users
have long customized their screens with
"wallpaper" art that adorns the space
behind the windows on a monitor screen.
Now that new computers come loaded with
rolls of wallpaper, colorful screensavers
and an endless ability to change fonts and
colors, skins provide a novel twist.
Rather than hovering in the background,
skins actually sit on top of a software
program's visual display. Two skins
available for use on the SoundJam music
player for the Macintosh computer cover
the player with images of gloppy condiments -- one looks like
grape jelly and the other like mango-ginger jam.
Drew Cohen, president and chief executive officer of NeoPlanet
Inc., sees skins as part of a larger trend toward increased
personalization on the Web. He calls it "Internet fashion."
But marketers are embracing the trend, too, slapping their names
and products onto skins. NeoPlanet, a Phoenix company that
helps users customize Web pages, says the New Line Cinema
production company paid it an undisclosed sum to develop an
"Austin Powers" skin for Web browsers. The skin, mimicking the
lead character from the popular movie series, squeals "Behave!"
when you push a button. Unilever PLC's Lipton tea business also
posted a skin on the NeoPlanet site, but didn't pay a fee. Other
sites feature skins bearing logos for such brands as Pepsi,
Coca-Cola, Budweiser and Nike.
While some of NeoPlanet's skins
are clearly commercial, Mr.
Cohen says users have created
most of the more than 300 skins
that have gone up since
NeoPlanet began allowing
postings this summer. A user, for
instance, created the "Blair
Witch Project" skin for Web
browsers. It replaces the plain
browser icons with the creepy
stick figures that symbolized
death in the horror movie.
The commercial presence irks
some professional Web designers. "It feels more like a plan to get
more corporate branding on our desktops," notes John Boyden,
who is creative director at Pets.com, a San Francisco
pet-products site.
'You Don't Know Jack'
Mr. Boyden, who was also creative director of the popular online
game show "You Don't Know Jack," is also dubious about the
designing abilities of average Web users. "The Web is starved
for well-designed content, so let's put our energy into that, not
slapping layers of goop onto perfectly clear tools like browsers,"
he says.
But the Web industry is racing to promote the practice.
Professional programmers for RealNetworks have created skins
to get users interested in changing the face of the company's
RealJukebox, which downloads and stores digital music on
computers. One, called Hasta La Vizsla, allows music to be
played by clicking on a dog's collar while information about the
music appears on its chest.
Matt Chretien, Web master for
Sonique, a music player owned by
Lycos Inc., says the San Francisco
company started up its skin archive
(now numbering just over 100)
because users wanted to make the
player, which has rounder edges
than most other players, even more
dramatic. A lot of the skins for
Sonique are metallic and
mechanical, such as Polaris, which
has been downloaded nearly
14,000 times.
Polaris was designed by an 18-year-old student in Sweden,
Christoffer Sjoberg, who calls himself Vendicator. Mr. Sjoberg
says he likes to design skins partly for a sense of variety. "I don't
like to see the same thing every day, day after day," he says.
Besides that, he thinks designing on the Web will give him a
certain measure of fame. "I want to be remembered and known,"
he adds.
Amateur programmers like Mr. Sjoberg use design software, such
as Adobe Systems Inc.'s Photoshop, to create skins. They can
also pull from the millions of images across the Web to help build
their skins.
One of the most popular sites for would-be designers is run by
Nullsoft Winamp, a San Francisco online-music software company
owned by America Online Inc. The Winamp site has logged more
than 3,000 skins for its music player since it began posting them
last year, according to spokesman Robert Lord. That includes 51
in the "drink" category (one bears a picture of the Kool-Aid
mascot), 152 in the "celebrity" category (such as a Marilyn
Monroe skin) and 277 in a category titled "ugly" (one is made of
digital dirt).
Mr. Lord notes that the popularity of skins
reflects a need of Internet users to take
part in the development of the medium.
The growing number of skin discussion
groups and Web "rings," which link sites
with similar themes, are likely to further
popularize the trend, he says.
Winamp didn't always like the idea of
designers, whom the company dubbed
"skinners," putting new faces on its music
player. "They were hacking our player,"
Mr. Lord says, "and our first reaction was,
'Hey, that's trouble.' But our second was,
'Hey, it's pretty cool what they're doing.' "
The URL for the follwoing article is
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB938536322819309065.htm
however you may not be able to access it.
Getting Started With Skins
Now that you've heard all about "skins," you'll want to spiff up
your Macintosh and Windows desktops and programs with a new,
cool look. A growing number of Web sites offers the resources to
get started.
Skinz.org (www.skinz.org) lists the most popular skins, new
"skinnable" software and other skins-related news, while
customize.org (www.customize.org) rates recently developed
skins and provides links to download them. Customize.org also
contains links to tutorials in addition to dozens of skins and other
skins sites.
Skinning 101 (squadron.telefragged.com/skin101) offers news
and several tutorials, from the simple to the advanced. Nullsoft
WinAmp's skins page
(www.winamp.com/winamp/skins/index.phtml) provides skins
customized for the WinAmp audio player, encouraging users to
add their own skins or modify existing ones.
The music player Sonique includes an extremely helpful section in
its Web site (skins.sonique.com) on "using skins," with
step-by-step directions. But the section is a bit pedantic, as the
company feels compelled to mention, perhaps tongue-in-cheek,
that no animals were harmed in the creation of any Sonique
"skins."
NeoPlanet (neoplanet.com/cgi-bin/skinViewer.pl) also offers a
selection of skins for use with its desktop-customization
applications, while SoundJam offers skins for its Macintosh audio
player.
As skins' popularity grows, so does the community of skin
designers, or "skinners." You can access the Skinners Web ring,
with links to 33 skinners' sites, at the hive
(funk311.virtualave.net/index2.html), to broaden your skin
horizons.