SkinStudio 6.2 Released

Stardock is pleased to announce the release of SkinStudio 6.2.  SkinStudio is an application that allows you to design custom visual styles for Windows Vista and Windows XP.  These visual styles (skins) can then be applied using WindowBlinds.  When creating a new skin you can change the complete look of Windows by changing the start button, taskbar, buttons, titlebars, and pretty much everything in between.

This update includes several major feature updates.

• WindowBlinds Layer Support.  The WindowBlinds layer system allows a skin author to provide multiple layers for a given section of a skin.  This also includes layer support for per-pixel borders and glyphs.  This opens up a whole new level of creativity for skinners.
  
• Skin Color Feature.  This feature allows Pro users to recolor a skin, or a specific sub-style by using the HSL sliders that is similar to coloring skins in WindowBlinds.  This will make it even easier to create sub-styles of varying colors.
  
• Animated "Please Wait" Support.  The Please Wait screen has always been a static image, now it's possible to create an animation that can be seen while the Wait screen appears.
  
• NWA File Support.  NWA files are a way to reduce the size of animations that are used in WindowBlinds skins.  These can be used on Start Menu and "Please Wait" animations and can help save considerable memory and hard drive space.  SKS 6.2 also includes a tool to create NWA files from vertical .png/.tga image strips.

SkinStudio 6.2 is available as a free download.  SkinStudio is also available in a Pro version which adds a start-menu animation builder, sub-style syncing, code editor, and more.  SkinStudio 6 Pro is also part of the Object Desktop Ultimate available stand-alone for $19.95 and $29.95 which includes WindowBlinds.

Example of a shine layer over a texture layer

Skin recolor feature