Skinning Guide?

[cyberphr]

Is there anywhere I can find a skinning guide for vbulletin 3.5.4?

Most of making skins is easy enough,
but I'm unsure what templates to edit to change certain parts of the board...

Someone wanna help me out? :knockedout:

[G0F0RBR0KE]

You need to know .CSS and XML inside out

Make your layout in .PSD and than slice it and know how to code.


http://www.mysticgaming.net/forum/?styleid=7
is my first skin i made. I'm still under develope on the black edition

[Shelley_c]

Alternatively, Grab yourself a coffee, some headache Pills, and a high quality punchbag. :confused:

[peterska2]

Alternatively, Grab yourself a coffee, some headache Pills, and a high quality punchbag. :confused:

Thats my prefered method, only minus the headache pills and plus plenty smokes

[Bubble #5]

Everyone thinks that skinning is just a few 'tweaks' here and there. It's not hard (mostly HTML, CSS and Photoshop) but it IS very time consuming ;)

Install a 'test' forum on your server and use that as a guinea pig :bunny:















Please note: no guinea pigs were harmed during the making of this post :)

[G0F0RBR0KE]

Get tons of coffee and make sure you DON'T have anyone else beside you. You might go phscol (misspell)

[Ohiosweetheart]

for heaven's sake make sure no kids are around to distract you. Turn off the tv, the phone, and wear earplugs, unless you're darn good at multi-tasking, which I ain't ;)

[Neo_Angelo]

hmmm, skinning basic skins is always good to start off with, but they can be VERY time consuming when you have to create buttons for everything.

on the side not its fun when you get used to it and if you can use XML (which i can't :( ) you'll be able to create very nice skins and manipulate the things you want.

[G0F0RBR0KE]

Very important guide.

Keep all weapons far away that can danger someone or ur-self just incase you go insane >.<

[cyberphr]

lol great advice...Much better than I expected on a professional forum :P

Anyways lol I found a skin similar to what I'm planning so I'm using it and just changing everything...I have a test forum...

Too young for kids (At 13 I am a kid rofl),
have some coffee and lots of painkillers,
good at multitasking and always keep a large switchblade knife at my desk.

All in order? ;)

lol well it's going alright :D

[SaintDog]

There's really not a great deal to styling your forum, depending on how far out you want to go. You don't *need* to know HTML and XML inside out to develop a vBulletin style, though knowing the basics of HTML would be a requirement if you want your code to be neat, tidy and function across all browsers.

[SmashinYoungMan]

There's really not a great deal to styling your forum, depending on how far out you want to go. You don't *need* to know HTML and XML inside out to develop a vBulletin style, though knowing the basics of HTML would be a requirement if you want your code to be neat, tidy and function across all browsers.
Yeah, the most time-consuming part of developing any skin?at least for me?is making sure it renders correctly across multiple browsers. I expect that to become an even bigger pain in the backside once IE7 comes out of beta.

[Bubble #5]

I expect that to become an even bigger pain in the backside once IE7 comes out of beta.
*shudders* :confused:

[Ohiosweetheart]

There's really not a great deal to styling your forum, depending on how far out you want to go. You don't *need* to know HTML and XML inside out to develop a vBulletin style, though knowing the basics of HTML would be a requirement if you want your code to be neat, tidy and function across all browsers.I agree with SD, I am quite good with html, also with designing graphics and webpages, but xml knowledgeable, I'm not.

I think there's one important thing to remember.... there's a difference between a skin designer and a style designer. In my understanding, a skinner is one who not only designs a style, but changes code, templates, etc., to develope an almost entirely new look to the forum. Whereas a style designer works only with the design and graphics. I'm the latter. I have no use for redoing code, nor do I want most of my style to be an image. Almost all of my styles are css-based, minimum of graphics, except for a customized header, gradients, buttons, etc. Makes for easier and faster page loading for dialup internet users... yes there are some still around ;)

[Bubble #5]

Makes for easier and faster page loading for dialup internet users... yes there are some still around
Well that's not necessarily true. Hopefully your computer has a cache ;) As for dial up users, most people worldwide are still dial up users today. However there are only so many color changes that you can use on the same old-same old squarish boring forum look, and after a while that gets very old very quick. In a survey we ran a few months back most posters equated simple square based templates with the forum as being unprofessional, as compared to graphic based designs. I guess it's all about what 'image' you want your site to reflect (pun intended) :)

[Ohiosweetheart]

I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree ;)

[peterska2]

I'm of the keep it simple brigade. If I can get away with no images what so ever, then believe me, I will. Most of the time it works well though, so not a problem.

[Bubble #5]

I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree
Mmm... cottage cheese :)

[MetalAges]

At what point does knowing XML inside and out help when skinning the sites? (real question, I'm curious)

[SaintDog]

XML is more for hooks and plugins and the inner-workings of the vBulletin styles, not specifically the development of them.

[Bubble #5]

...and the inner-workings of the vBulletin styles
Such as?

Show us some skins that require XML to work... ;)

[Ohiosweetheart]

I'm curious as well. Really. I've been doing styles for a little while now and haven't had to touch the xml except to download it and zip it up with the graphics

[SaintDog]

Inner-workings would be defined as 'Download -> Edit'. If you edit the style via a text editor, it will be in XML format. Aside from editor-based editing, you don't need to know XML, rather, you should be aquainted with (X)HTML (2 completely different things).

Perhaps it was a typo originally, though you need not know XML to produce a vBulletin style, you need only know how to upload it via the Admin CP :).

[Bubble #5]

you need not know XML to produce a vBulletin style
Thanks for the clarification ;)

[SaintDog]

Many get XML and (X)HTML confused, when they are quite a bit different; it happens :). Glad I could clarify things for you....

.....Now get to work on a new style release ;).

[Bubble #5]

.....Now get to work on a new style release
Actually we have 5 new ones in development. Nothing like you've ever seen before. They will be available through our commercial division this fall, or sooner if we can find a way to put more than 24 hours in a day ;)

[Ohiosweetheart]

Inner-workings would be defined as 'Download -> Edit'. If you edit the style via a text editor, it will be in XML format. Aside from editor-based editing, you don't need to know XML, rather, you should be aquainted with (X)HTML (2 completely different things).

Perhaps it was a typo originally, though you need not know XML to produce a vBulletin style, you need only know how to upload it via the Admin CP :).exactly. Thank you for clearing that up.

[cyberphr]

Alright can we get to the point?

I need help with some skinning parts.

I'm working on a skin and would like to know how to get the tcat above the tborder on the index?

[MetalAges]

Bubble what's your company URL?

[Bubble #5]

Like most companies our company policy is that we're pretty tight-lipped about revealing too much information before we've formally announced a product.

Stay tuned, though... our dev team is hard at work :)

[cOuNtErFiET]

so is there a tut on how to convert a skin from another board format to vb3.5.4, or is it just get the images and change them and put them in folders and then change the xml fole or what?

i want to convert a php nuke or nuke platinum skin to vb3.5.4 to me this sounds relatively easy but i dont know how to create a skin or nothing yet, so should i do that first or convert i would think that converting woudl be a lil easier since most of the images are already made just have to code them into place, but with the code there should just be changing images and stuff right or am i way off?

[SaintDog]

Creating a style (skin) for vBulletin isn't as easy as simply uploading images and then you're done, you'll still need to work with the templates to achieve the effect you're after.

The complexity depends on how complex your current style/skin already is. Most work is done through the header and footer templates within vBulletin, though many go deeper into the additional templates vBulletin has.

[Ohiosweetheart]

I rarely mess with anything other than the header and footer templates on my styles, and that's only on a rare occasion.
Most of my styles are accomplished through the style vars and main CSS, along with custom graphics, icons, buttons etc

[Freesteyelz]

I have to learn that. I tend to go through everything which makes upgrading more work than it could be. This time around (for 3.6) I think I'm going with a simple, but hopefully, appealing layout. For a site that's built around gaming the community expects heavy graphics and a lot of custom front-end stuff; well, they'll be in for a shock. :D

[AyeCapn]

this thread makes me sad :(

I think I'll just find a skin that looks close to what I want rather than reinvent the wheel.

[cOuNtErFiET]

ok now that i have played around, i need to know what templates to edit to add a little header above the forums and a footer to them, i believe i have found the footer place thats in the main stuff but i want to wrap a little header around the tcat or even replace that, im thinking it is forumhome_level1 or one of them templates but i dont seem to be finding what i want any help on what one i want to look in, most of you skinners will know what im talking about