This is a tutorial on the making of skins for Winamp 2.x.  I wrote it and put it online because I thought there was a shortage of good, detailed Winamp skin tutorials, and the ones there were seemed to be disappearing.  I was crazy enough to think that I might amend the problem.

I call this a tutorial, even though I think it would most accurately be termed a "guide": some tips and techniques, mixed with some basic details, that might or might not help you in making a Winamp skin.  After all, I make no claims about my methods.  They may be good, or they might be horrendously inefficient and inartistic.  They are simply the way I do things, and I don't hide my results, so you can be your own judge.

If you do find this guide helpful, or have questions, or think it was not helpful and would like to tell me why, or have anything else in the way of comments, please feel free to let me know.

01. The "Trade" [tools and terms]
02. The Base Image [positioning and style]

February 4, 2003
Although this tutorial is as yet very unfinished, I decided to upload it now because who knows when and if I will ever finish it, but I think the section on the base image is the most important part, my personal thoughts on the "big picture" of designing a skin.  Yes, tips and tricks would be helpful as well, and I've never found any sites that explain them in as much detail as I would like, but they do exist out there.  The theory behind making an image skin, that I've never seen, so I will consider it my contribution to the art, as it were.

Unfortunately, I am very slow with these kinds of things, so I was unable to even begin uploading this tutorial before NullSoft released Winamp 3.  Unlike previous updates, Winamp 3 is totally different from Winamp 2.  On the other hand, it now seems to be just like Windows Media Player.  This is both good and bad.

It is good because Windows Media Player has more functionality, such as the ability to play videos, and the ability for skins to totally customize the player including changing the window size and the location or existence of buttons.

It is bad because these "features" make the program more bloated, and make skinning far too complicated for my poor little brain to handle.  For that reason, I will not upgrade to Winamp 3, I will continue to skin for Winamp 2, and I will hope that others do the same and still find this tutorial useful.