"Fallen From Grace: The Towers of Babel"
--featuring Tima of Metropolis--
--a "Have Faith" production--
http://www.angelette.com/

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by Tari Gwaemir
tarigwaemir@hotmail.com
http://tarigwaemir.tripod.com/
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I'm writing this readme even though the skin isn't technically finished yet.  (As of now, the minibrowser and AVS are still unskinned, though by the time I release this skin online, everything will be finished.)  Here you see Tima against the brilliantly rendered cityscapes of Metropolis.  I'm not specifically a fan of Metropolis--I liked the anime, of course, but not deliriously--but the graphics just call out for skinning, neh?

This skin is far, far, far more complex than anything I've ever tried before.  Yeah, yeah, I know, it looks like just an ordinary skin.  Nevertheless, I was exploring a style that I've never really used before in skinning, so I like the results a lot.  It's the subtle touches, like preserving the illusion of translucence even when the limitations of Winamp 2 don't allow for true transparency.  The shadows, the scan and circuit lines, the blurred text, the "pop out" figure in the foreground...all these were pretty new for me as well.  I'm especially proud of the equalizer.  Oh yes, the windowshades are in a new format as well.  They work even if you just have one window in windowshade mode.

The only complaints I have so far with the skin is that the playlist is too yellow (though it doesn't clash with the rest of the skin, thank goodness) and that the menu buttons just don't work.  (But I honestly couldn't figure out what to do with the menu buttons in the playlist--that's the best idea I could come up with.)  Edit:  After having finished the AVS and minibrowser, I'm also a little worried about the blending in the minibrowser--not as smooth as I wanted.  Also, there's a small mistake with the shadowing in the titlebar.  But if you have both playlist and minibrowser open, the yellowness of the playlist doesn't contrast as much.

You may dislike the stylized buttons, which are indistinguishable from one another, but hey, at least all the buttons are visible, neh?  Also, the "inside" of the rings do change color when they're "on".  They're a translucent yellow in active mode and completely transparent in inactive mode.  You /can/ tell the difference, if you click on them.  The balance bar and cuttlebar are invisible--sorry, but it was necessary for positioning.  In return, I'll promise that nothing will be invisible in my next skin, okay?

Pictures are all screencaps that I've taken myself using PowerDVD (/danke/, oniichan, for the program).  The style of the skin was originally inspired by Wingy's Acid Rain and AkaiNeko's Fight Fire With Fire (both for Weiss Kreuz, isn't that strange?), which both use technical styles, but my skin looks completely different from theirs so I doubt people will see the connection.  I actually didn't expect it to look so different, but hey, there you go.

A final note on the title:  "Fallen from grace" refers to Tima at the moment of this screencap.  The dove on her shoulder spreads its wings, a ray of sunlight hits her from above, and she looks like an angel to the people down below.  She is, of course, innocent, but being made into a tool for military domination makes her, in a sense, "fallen".  "Towers of Babel" refers to the Ziggurat, of course, because the original Tower of Babel is thought to have represented a Sumerian ziggurat.  I used the plural since there is more than one tower in Metropolis, and each skycraper to me is symbolic of Metropolis' incredible hubris:  mankind's pride insolently challenging the heavens.  It's just asking for destruction, in my oh-so-humble opinion.  But the CG are still beautiful.  ^_^

Graphics Editor: Photoshop 6.0
Text Editor: Windows Notepad
Fonts: Futura

If you wish to distribute this skin through your own web site, please remember to give me, Tari Gwaemir, full credit.  You don't need to ask permission beforehand, but you should, out of courtesy, inform me if you're going to archive it on your site.  No skinning programs were used in the making of this skin.  If you know of a skinning program that can make a skin like this, tell me, because my eyes are horribly sore.