GammaWorker Setup

In the previous section, we looked at color themes and how they worked. In this section, we'll learn how to take the monotony out of the gammaset generating process using an invaluable tool made by rpeterclark.

Before proceding any further, download the latest version of GammaWorker if you haven't already. Run the installation program, then start up the GammaWorker.

Using the GammaWorker

You should now see the GammaWorker and a blank work area. The first thing we want to do is load an image. To do this, click the "Load PNG" button to the right of the workarea, then browse to the location of the image you wish to color. For this example, let's use the background image for the skin, "MainBase.png". Also, check the "Auto Update" box so that changes are shown immediately.

The best way to get a grasp of what this is capable of is to play around with it. Adjust the different sliders, check and uncheck the available options, etc. When you are done experimenting, adjust the setting so that your image looks like this:

This a setting I used for Jungle Camoflauge color theme I just made. Now how do we get the information from the GammaWorker to our XML? There're quite a few ways. After setting up the "<gammaset>" Tags, you can use the "Copy Code" along the bottom, then paste directly into the presets file. All you need to do now is fill in the id for the gammagroup(in this case "background") and you're ready to do your next gammagroup.

Next for the Jungle Camo theme, I made the insets brown. Load up the "MainInset.png" and adjust to "-1632, -2368, -3072". Copy this into the XML, id the gammagroup and you're ready for the next one.

By now, you should have the concept down for your gammagroup colors. To see the rest of the XML for the Camo theme we were just working on, as well from other themes(seen below) donated by the ever-helpful Skinning community, look at this file. You may copy the contents into your presets file if you wish.

This is just a sample of what you can do with color themes. Try making your own for this skin to see what you can come up with. If you make a really great theme that you want to share, email it to me and I might even feature it here.

At this point, we've covered just about every aspect of the main window. It's time to move on and learn how to create a new window, the Thinger.