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Primary Images

You will want to create primary images for your skin. The primary image is composed of one background image defined by the VIEW element, and any other images that go with specific elements. For example, if you create a BUTTON element, you must include the art for that button, and be sure that it has a higher z-order than the background image.

Creating Art

There are numerous computer applications that will help you create artistic masterpieces, and more are appearing every day. Many people will create skins as part of a team. There are three areas of skin creation that relate to art. You may be one or more of the following creators:

Illustrator

You are an illustrator, fine artist, or painter, and you use programs focused on creating art from scratch, such as Adobe Illustrator and Metacreations Painter. You can draw and paint original images. These images can be used to create original skin art.

Designer

You are a commercial artist, designer, or art director, and you take advantage of programs that will do a lot of the art modification for you, such as Adobe PhotoShop or Jasc PaintShopPro. If you are on a team, someone else may do the original art or you may modify existing art that you obtained through a scanner, clip art collection, or digital camera.

Programmer

You do not create or modify art, but you create the code that uses the art. You may help the illustrator or designer understand the requirements for the art.

The creation process is fluid and the work will probably go back and forth between team members as the skin evolves. You might start out with an image created by an illustrator, the programmer may request image maps, and the art director may make modifications to the art based on technical suggestions from the programmer.

Similar types of teams have evolved for games and Web pages. It is unusual to have someone with all three skills, since each skill requires experience and training. All that matters is that you identify the skills needed and find the person to do the job, even if it turns out to be you for everything!

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