Media Skins Help

A skin is more than just art and code. When creating your skin, think about how to present your theme using various types of media. Consider including audio effects that complement your skin's theme. Think about how your skin can incorporate motion, audio and visuals in a manner that totally immerses a user in your skin's theme.

Development Assistance

Media Skins Software Development Kit (Find the link to the Windows Media Player 11 Software Development Kit (SDK) and download it.)

Here are the basic steps to create a skin:

1. Create the art files (.bmp, .jpg, .gif, .png) Remember that the map file should be a bitmap (.bmp). Also, the clipping color used should be close to the color of the edges of the background image. This helps to create smoother edges once the whole skin is assembled.

2. Create the skin definition file (.wms)

3. Create JScript files (optional) (.js) Consider finding an existing skin and using its existing code as a starting point for your skin.

4. Zip it up - combine in a winzip file (.zip) then change extension to .wmz

To submit your skins:
1. Click on this link and complete all fields:
http://skinschallenge.fasttrackteam.com/
2. Send an email to skinschallenge@hotmail.com with the first name, last name, and email addresses of each team member.

Note: If you make changes to your skin after submission, re-submit using the same form. Only the most recent skin version will be judged.

Try this tutorial to go through the process of creating a simple skin: Building Your First Skin

• Skins Creation Guide
• Skin Files
• Skins Testing Criteria (.pdf)
• About Skins
• Why Make Skins?
• Skin Programming Reference
• New for Windows Media Player Skins

Other Skin Sites

• Deviant Art
• Skins Factory
• Skins for Windows Media Player
• StardockStudio
• Windowsmedia.com
• Wmplugins.com

Artistic Design

• Adobe Tutorials
• Elements and Principles of Design

Interesting Links

• Encarta - Black History
• The History Channel
• Black History Biographies