Frogboy Administrators Posted June 9, 2004 Administrators Share Posted June 9, 2004 When the best overall skins and icon packages are announced in a couple of days you know there's going to be a riot. No matter who wins, there will be people who will strongly disagree with the results. To help people understand what the judges have to go through, here's an article that talks about it in depth: [best Overall Elements] Example: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougkinzinger Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 Wow....those are cool. EDIT: I have a question. Why does your sig say "Neowin Mod" when your avatar rank says "Neowin News"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam.sproul Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 That is quite cool Frogboy. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogboy Administrators Posted June 9, 2004 Author Administrators Share Posted June 9, 2004 I need to update my sig. ;) BTW, the icons are really a good example of why I'm glad I'm not an official judge! Which matters more? An icon package whose key icons (those 20 or so icons that you see all the time) are fantastic if you're running on Windows XP? OR the icon package who has nearly as good icons for those first 20 but aren't *quite* as attractive but works on every version of Windows AND has 3 times as many icons so that all those file type icons are automatically taken care of? If you were a judge, what would you do? What would you say to the guy who comes in second? Last time around, it was much easier. There were some skins that just towered over the others and they all had the same features. Imagine it like a PC Magazine review with check boxes: Skin X: Quality in design: 10 Uses sound: No Uses animation: No Has toolbar icons: No Has progress animations: No Skin Y: Quality in design: 9.5 Uses sound: Yes Uses animation: Yes Has toolbar icons: Yes Has progress animations: Yes Which is best overall? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hankyone Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 these are nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redestium Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 Yeah, this will be a tough call for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eliazu Posted June 9, 2004 Share Posted June 9, 2004 deleted by me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wannes Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 nice article, i read it a while ago. (Y) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuka_t Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 ya, obviously, there is always someone who disagrees wit hthe judges. however, the best Vs's and icons of all time IMO are ReLuna, GANT, Inspiriat and iCandy. agree/disagree? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogboy Administrators Posted June 10, 2004 Author Administrators Share Posted June 10, 2004 ya, obviously, there is always someone who disagrees wit hthe judges. however, the best Vs's and icons of all time IMO are ReLuna, GANT, Inspiriat and iCandy. agree/disagree? Yea I disagree. And I'll tell you why: 1) The Gant icon set doesn't cover that many icons. It only has 71 icons in it which means that many of your icons in daily use will have the default Windows icons which, because Gant is so strikingly different, will stick out. Moreover, GANT icons don't have a seperate 16x16 version for each icon. They're just 128x128 images that have been scaled down. So that ZIP file or TIFF file is going to look like a little smudge in a file dialog. I like the Gant icons a LOT. I think they're amongst the best out there. But you said "best of all time" and I don't think Gant would quite make the top 10 though it's distinct enough and high enough quality that if there were just a few more icons in the set it would probably be in the top 10 for sure. 2) Reluna is nice but again, best all time? No way. First, it is, ultimately, just Luna with a gradient and color huge change in terms of borders. The scrollbar doesn't quite go with it's overall style. Again, Reluna is a great visual style overall. But best all time? No way. I'd put Reluna in the upper 20 percentile of all time but I don't think it would make any top 10 lists by people who have been into skinning for years. 3) iCandy IS really good. Better than Gant icons IMO. He does everything right almost. But there's still only around 70 icons there which means that Adobe Acrobat file or Corel Draw file is going to look odd with it, especially since the generic document icon in iCandy is wavey. I would put iCandy in a top 10 list of best icons of all time probably but best overall? I don't know about that. When you get to that level, it's really tough. Of course, since we're judging art, it's all ultimately a matter of taste. But that's my 2 cents on it. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wannes Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 well said Frogboy and nice new siggie. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fukachu Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 i have to disagree frogboy with your comment about gant. there are far more than 71 icons. im not sure if you ahve noticed but there are many application, mimetype, folder etc. infact far more 71. i make a theme for system file replacement using gant icons and i can tell you there are certainly more than 71. maybe the icon packarger only has 71 but then again i would rather full system replacement rather then just some. as for grading themes i agree this would be a very tough thing to do, as said people have many different tastes and what might be a huge ugly theme to a minimalist person might be a masterpiece to some1 else. however i think the most important thing is the skin itself not the extras that come with it like avis etc but they give you that more complete feeling. but if there were 2 skins i couldnt decide on, one had everything and one didnt then i'd probably go for the full set just because they creator had gone that extra length :) cheers and goodluck to all those with entries.. i hope you have all enjoyed it :) fizical Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KoL Veteran Posted June 10, 2004 Veteran Share Posted June 10, 2004 1) The Gant icon set doesn't cover that many icons. It only has 71 icons in it which means that many of your icons in daily use will have the default Windows icons which, because Gant is so strikingly different, will stick out. Moreover, GANT icons don't have a seperate 16x16 version for each icon. They're just 128x128 images that have been scaled down. So that ZIP file or TIFF file is going to look like a little smudge in a file dialog. I like the Gant icons a LOT. I think they're amongst the best out there. But you said "best of all time" and I don't think Gant would quite make the top 10 though it's distinct enough and high enough quality that if there were just a few more icons in the set it would probably be in the top 10 for sure. Are you talking about the same GANT icons set that I have I have more than 600 GANT icons on my computer (GANT, GANT Halloween and GANT 2). For me GANT is on my top 3 list maybe the best icons set of all time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
User_Deleted Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 Are you talking about the same GANT icons set that I haveI have more than 600 GANT icons on my computer (GANT, GANT Halloween and GANT 2). For me GANT is on my top 3 list maybe the best icons set of all time. yea i have to agree here the gant icon collection is HUGE !! adlest 600 Gant icons in the 3 collections that he has released Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vf- Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 I think Brad means the Official standalone GANT iptheme, theres been quite a few others got permission from manhatten or whatever his name is putting them together and also seen mixed sets... As for GANT2 I can't really tell any difference with them but GANT2 is not a full new set or maybe I am wrong but I just can't see the big diference in GANT 1 - 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
User_Deleted Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 Gant2 is a full set LOL same with gant 1 yea i will agree that most of the Ip themes SUCK and dont cover very many icons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fukachu Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 gant 2 is in almost all way a full set but in other areas it adds to gant 1. eg filetypes its simply adding to the already existing file types from gant 1. also the ccase for applications and some other areas. IP definately lack the ability to cover enough system replacement but i dont think it will ever be able to do everything. and only some gant files on the system make the system look stange as frogboy said they are very different and stand out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogboy Administrators Posted June 10, 2004 Author Administrators Share Posted June 10, 2004 If someone has a link to the "full" gant icon package, I would love to check it out. I can only go by the ones I have downloaded. And Dark Vega, the TYPICAL icon package in the GUI Olympics has over 100 icons in them. What do you mean "not very many"? IconPackager can change ANY file type icon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetter Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 pakage one: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/3035321/ Pakage two: http://www.deviantart.com/view/4896281/ mini halloween pack: http://www.deviantart.com/view/3626931/ I don't like iconpakager becuase the typical skin only changes a few start menu and system file icons, some more compleate skins change a lot more but none offer a TOTAL change like GANT (or foood's iCandy Jnr) do because they have so many icons for everything. Maybe this is a problem with the icon designers not the stardock itself... (sorry for being OT) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icexswipe Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 dude iconpackager changes all the icons it can without hacking ur system files and when u say 'more compleate skins change a lot more', they are only icons created, (they just dont change ur icons). other people actually create the shell packs for u to use and apply on ur system. but its a tedious task to create shell packs, icon packager is great for applying an icon set quickly and without any effort. its pretty easy to make an ip urself. the trend is changing towards icon packager. many ip themes are available for download for popular icon sets created (last order, pastel and a lot lot more), unlike shellpacks, which u dont see too often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fukachu Posted June 11, 2004 Share Posted June 11, 2004 the reason why you dont see shell packs too often is icon creators are only making minimum amount of icons to create IPs i make themes for GUIReplacer which si a program for shell replacement and i have trouble finding sets that are complete enough. its not that there is not a community to make these shell packs out there its jsut that the icon creators arent making complete enough packages. which is fair enough because it takes lots of time and effort. and shell pack replacement is now easy with 1 click install solutions in the new shells packs and the GUIReplacer program. it would be great if icon packager could extend in the future its abilities.. how i dont know but i would look foward to seeing more changes tehn it might be worth while purchase. i will always keep my eye on the program to see how it improves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogboy Administrators Posted June 11, 2004 Author Administrators Share Posted June 11, 2004 Which icons on your computer isn't IconPackager changing? I don't mean that rhetorically, if there are some icons people want changed that Iconpackager doesn't already change let us know. But a TYPICAL IconPackager icon package has over 100 icons in it. It doesn't just change a few icons. Some of hte packages in the GUI Olympics have almost 150 icons in them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fukachu Posted June 11, 2004 Share Posted June 11, 2004 i will give you and example.. my update to my gui replacer theme replaces files in over 100 system files and im only half done with the icons at this stage but it does over 200 icons atm and that doesnt include file types for programs that dont come with windows XP because adding those only assumes that people use those programs and need the file types changed. i figure people can always change those themelves as there is always an edless number of programs that have files types that need icons. but windows has so many for itself. this even included changes as small as the internet connection traffic of the 2 monitors in the systray. it would be great if icon packager could one day dig so deep. but i must say they has definately been an improvement from the older versions and it is becomming much better :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icexswipe Posted June 11, 2004 Share Posted June 11, 2004 i will give you and example.. my update to my gui replacer theme replaces files in over 100 system files and im only half done with the icons at this stage but it does over 200 icons atm and that doesnt include file types for programs that dont come with windows XP because adding those only assumes that people use those programs and need the file types changed. i figure people can always change those themelves as there is always an edless number of programs that have files types that need icons. but windows has so many for itself. this even included changes as small as the internet connection traffic of the 2 monitors in the systray. it would be great if icon packager could one day dig so deep.but i must say they has definately been an improvement from the older versions and it is becomming much better :) thats netshell.dll - system file, as i said in my earlier post, icon packager doesnt hack system files i dont think stardock is allowed to change system files as they have some thing going on with microsoft i remeber reading some article on that well just wait till frogboy responds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClubNinja Posted June 11, 2004 Share Posted June 11, 2004 Fizical your program is the best skin tool period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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