TEKNIDERMY - ISSUE 8: February/March 2002

The Community Skin Experience
a brief history

by JellyBeanSoup

On a dark and stormy night, on the old Skinz.org message board way back when the Skindicate was going to release their first suite, CRUM simply asked if anyone wanted to join him in a small suite. The small suite quickly became a huge suite... and Dmer changed the course of history by saying, “Wow, this is really becoming a Community Skin!”

Ok... so it might not have been a dark and stormy night... but that was how the Community Skin Project was birthed. I got together with our good pal, CRUMBUT and had a little chat to him about the who, what and why of Community Skin.

Tek: First of all, what is the Community Skin Project?

CRUMBUT: Well, a Community Skin project is simply put.. a skin suite made by as many members of the skinning community.. skinning as many apps as possible.

Tek: So... is there a definite list of members, or did it change from time to time...?

CRUMBUT: Yes.. there is a list.. and yes. It does change. The whole concept is that there will always be new and or different skinners involved with each new suite. Also there will always be a new member that will head up the suite.

Tek: Who does most of the graphics? You? Or are there others as well?

CRUMBUT: Well, so far the base graphics have been mine. I would love to see someone else's graphics be made for future suites.

Tek: Wow. So how many suites have you all done now?

CRUMBUT: We have done 2 official suites, but actually 3.

Tek: I know of Heavy Equipment... what other suites are there?

CRUMBUT: Heavy Equipment, Formula One and LOS. The LOS suite arose at Lotsofskins.com shortly after skinz.org went away due to eFront problems.

Tek: Oh yes... I was part of the LOS suite.

CRUMBUT: The LOS suite differed a lil.. the main thing was that it featured a certain website rather than the community.. but we just couldn't help it. We had to show our support for this relatively new site to the scene. LOS filled a huge gap for many of us. All the skins can be found at http://www.lotsofskins.com

Tek: How did you all communicate to keep an eye on the look of the Heavy Equipment suite?

CRUMBUT: I made a simple page but it wasn't good enough for what was happening.. so I had help from Paxx.. he set us up a message board so we could all communicate effectively.. and for file stuff.. BuzzHog set us up an ftp. It really helped.

Tek: I wrote an article last time Tek came out, all about the over production of OS Skin suites.. you think that a group like Community Skin should do the dirty work when it comes to doing a new OS suite??

CRUMBUT: No. I think that the suites should be based on one of our many skinners basic graphics idea. When we skin in numbers.. many apps get skinned. It's really fun too. You meet each other and all work together to achieve a common goal.

Tek: So, do you think an idea like CS should be used more often?

CRUMBUT: No, its best that it just comes up every now and then. It is a massive undertaking for whomever takes the job.. and for the skinners too. But it all leads to a good, large suite.. made (in most cases) record time. :)

Tek: So, how you do the new suites then?

CRUMBUT: If anyone wants to start a new one they should first pass the idea around the community.. when enough people want to join in.. I will give the “leader” all the passwords needed to upload to the community. Also, they can contact HeyYou and Indigoe.. they are the keeper of the site still in progress. Another idea of a way to get a suite started is to keep an eye on the screenshot areas of the various community sites.. if you see something someone is working on and you think it will be a great CS suite.. email that author with your idea! Who knows? :)

Tek: So what are the website details?

CRUMBUT: Its still being built, Matt (HeyYou) is a student. He has limited time but tells me he is nearing a grand opening.

Tek: What did the Project mean to some of the peeps around the scene?

Chichigirl46: Meant a lot to me, my first time being a part of the community and sharing, was a great feeling and learned a lot more about other members and gained more respect and understanding what LOS means to me, “Home” like family, fun and good times......... for the Love Of Skins. :-) Chichi

Oinky: I haven't got much to say, just that CommSkin was my first real interaction with other community members. For future projects I suggest letting the users have some input on the base graphics. Thanks, Matt

Starving Artist: I'm not very good with words, but here goes my thoughts.... I thought that Community Skin was a great way to get the community together. It was cooperative, and each skin went through a phase of feedback with critique and suggestions. The end result was a amazingly huge set of high quality skins, which was shared in several large skin sites. It was a huge task, and the number of skins created for one suite was never heard of at the time. A lot of smaller, lesser-known programs were spotlighted due to their entry. While we had a base skin to work from, I think each artist (including myself) somehow added our own creativity to each skin. Another Community Skin would be great =)

PJPowell: Well I sneaked in towards the end of the HE project working with Nuvem on HE DX. CS2 gave me an opportunity to work on a complete DX theme by myself. I have real trouble thinking of a skin idea but once my imagination gets a kick start it kind of grows from there. These were perfect for me because the initial idea was already there. All I had to do was apply it to my chosen skins.

Ratage: What Community Skin Meant To Me: To put it quite simply, it was a fun little project where u get to meet people and learn new stuff. (I bet that's pretty much what everyone else wrote) It was also nice to create something that was different to the crap I normally come up with. I think that for the next Community Skin project, you should let people vote on the graphics instead of giving them something that one person thinks is good. I found that a problem with Formula one was that some people didn't really like the way it looked and found it hard to get enthusiastic.

Andrew Toth: I was trying to help Matt with the coding to speed things up a bit but he's very protective of it ;) I'm looking forward to when he's gonna finish it and we can make it public... I'm ready for some skinning action, so I hope Project #3 can begin soon.

Scarebear: It was a great way to be involved in a large skin suite. I'd always wanted to do that on my own but had never really tried. I discovered the Community Skin after reading CRUMBUT's message board thread at skinz.org (the old one) and just thought I'd volunteer to help him out. I NEVER thought it would become what it did. I may not have volunteered if I'd known ;) My role? I just made a few skins and had a lot of fun :) The message board that was set-up for the skinners was a great system too. It allowed me to meet some other skinners (and make some great friends) and see how other people were using the supplied graphics in the skins they were making. A real community developed on that message board and fun was had by all (that I saw) :) Because skinning should be fun! :)

Koasati: I worked on the first community skin, Heavy Equipment. I skinned ICQ Plus, Get Right, and made the icons. It was fun, working with so many people, at least it was fun until LCS decided he wouldn't be doing the icons, and then I felt rushed, coz the deadline was very near.........hehe. I was working on the second community skin also, but then all the admins at skinz.org, jumped ship. At this point I was too down to continue and dropped out.........=|

CRUMBUT: Well, that's all that left any words.. but I did have a few more people check in.. and saying they have an interest in another suite. CygnusXII, BuzzHog, Spoon :)

Thusly, I can say: Good was Community Skin... May it come to be once again :)

Oh, and by the way... rumour has it that Community Skin might be letting loose another suite... keep your eyes peeled. ;)