WebGizmos' ObjectDock Background Contest

Published on April 16, 2007 By Zoomba In WinCustomize News

Following on the success of the St. Patrick's Day Icon Contest, we've decided that these community mini-contests are a pretty good idea and want to do more of them. Our next contest idea was provided by community veteran, WebGizmos, and fleshed out over a good number of emails and conversations. Now, since this is a WG created and sponsored contest, it should be no surprise to anyone who has been around the community for any amount of time, that it's an ObjectDock one

This contest is to create the best ObjectDock dock backgrounds you can. Well, it's not that simple actually, they have to be built to match an existing WindowBlinds skin. A lot of people who use ObjectDock usually find themselves scrambling to find a theme or background to match their favorite skin of the day, and usually have to settle with something that kind of comes close to matching. We want to encourage more people to make docks that are designed to go along with more skins.

Now, I know a lot of you out there aren't familiar with how to skin ObjectDock, and to that end, WebGizmos has you covered! About a week ago he emailed me a beginners tutorial on how to take an existing skin, and using SkinStudio, extract the needed visual elements to create a matching dock background. You can find that tutorial here.

Of course, what would a contest be without rules, prizes and deadlines?

Prizes:

Grand Prize - ObjectDock Plus, and one premium suite of the user's choice
2nd & 3rd Prize - One premium suite of user's choice.
Community Choice - 1 Year WinCustomize Subscription

Rules:

Deadline: 5pm Eastern Time, Friday May 11th. You have just shy of 3 weeks to build and submit your docks.
Entrants should not already own ObjectDock Plus. If you do already own it, and still choose to compete, you will receive the premium suite, and the OD+ prize will be awarded to the 2nd place winner (and so on if they also are already OD+ owners). It is possible to build and test your entries using 100% free tools (ObjectDock regular is free, and there's a basic version of SkinStudio available as well).
You must obtain permission from any skin author whose skin you use in creating your matching dock. Permission must be included in the upload to WinCustomize.
You must provide a link to the matching WindowBlinds skin in the comments section of your upload.
After uploading the dock background to WinCustomize, post a link AND PREVIEW IMAGE to the comments section of this post. Entries without preview images posted will not be considered.
Entries will be judged by WinCustomize moderation staff. The top 3 winners will be determined via voting. Judging will be based on overall quality, complexity and completeness of a dock background. The more detailed polished yours is, the better.
The Community Choice winner will be selected by public poll on WinCustomize.

That about sums it up... so get to it! To go along with the contest idea and basic tutorial, the prize of a copy of ObjectDock Plus was donated by WebGizmos. Thanks to WG for your help in this!

P.S. If you're a skin author and would like to offer your skin up for people to use in creating their matching dock backgrounds, feel free to leave a comment below.

Comments (Page 2)

BuddhaV10

on Apr 17, 2007

awesome idea!

should create some cool backgrounds. I'm so sick of using a completely transparent background...

messiah1

on Apr 17, 2007

BuddhaV10, then stop using it. There are plenty of Background in the OD library...

Digital3000

on Apr 17, 2007

The issue is specifically with Stardock Design created skins and suites. People in the past have asked if they could use pieces from them, or use other Stardock icons or imagery in their work, and every time I've gone in for permission for things like that, always with the user stating it's for non-commercial use, I've been told that we can't grant permission for reuse of much of our artwork.

As I state in the rules, if you want to pick a skin to match, you must talk to the skin author for permission to use their work as a basis for your dock. In the case of Stardock Design skins specifically, I can't grant permission.

Well I don't want to sound rude here but I'd really like to know why people can't get permission to use the stardock/wincustomize logo's for art. When they are allowed to use microsoft logo's and other product logo's without any permissions granted from those companies? Like I said more then half of the material on this site contains logo's from other companies and microsoft is a big one. To me it just seems a little odd, not that I'm going to submit some artwork with the wincustomize logo myself as I've already done so in the past many times and each time I was greeted with a few nasty emails. I love the site but there's clearly some issues in the "permissions" department. Again I'm not trying to be rude so if it came off as such, I apologize. I am just trying to understand how other logo's can be used without permission and yet when permission is applied for in the case of wincustomize.. well denied is basically automatic.

I.R. Brainiac

on Apr 17, 2007

Tip: Once you think you finished your dock. Stretch it out to fill about 3/4 of your screen the same way you stretch out a window...then look for things like blurred edges and to check if if any tiled images are tiling correctly. If you have blurred edges you need to correct these...

LeftWidth = ?
TopHeight = ?
RightWidth = ?
BottomHeight = ?

You could set these really quickly in SkinStudio...just open a skin you dont like and use the nearly any section and put your graphic in its place...set your sizing margins and when it looks good...use them in your theme.ini.

aufisch

on Apr 17, 2007

use the nearly any section

Not sure I understand that IR..... what section? As what would you import the file into the WB, as the taskbar?

Sorry, me not understand

Zoomba

on Apr 17, 2007

At WinCustomize, we allow use of marks, logos etc up to the point where the owner comes and complains over their use. At that point, we comply with the wishes of the image owner and remove work, and block future uploads using their imagery. For example, we're very careful over Apple and Apple-esque work because they have been very protective of their IP in the past. Microsoft on the other hand is very permissive over the reuse of their logos and images.

The issue of the WC lizard being used in skins and themes has been asked before, and the decision was that we would not allow redistribution of the logo by others in their own work.

BuddhaV1

on Apr 17, 2007

i know, and i've downloaded a bunch of them, it's just one of those things where they don't "quite" fit with my theme. im very picky. i use the beelzebub WB, and the beelzebub docks backgrounds didnt work for me!

certainly no disrespect to any of the skinners who made the backgrounds. i apologize if what i said offended anyone. lord knows im having a fun time making my own WB, so i can actually feel "some" of your pain...

ZubaZ

on Apr 17, 2007

You can always use the great tutorial that WG wrote to make your own docks with any skin you want for personal use.

vStyler

on Apr 17, 2007

I am just trying to understand how other logo's can be used without permission and yet when permission is applied for in the case of wincustomize.. well denied is basically automatic.

They keep tighter control over it? Sorta obvious really...being an art related site and a decision thats purely...per company.

I.R. Brainiac

on Apr 17, 2007

Not sure I understand that IR..... what section? As what would you import the file into the WB, as the taskbar?

Sorry, me not understand

SKS can test stretch/tile damn near any image in any section of a WB...taskbar isnt the best choice because it uses 2 images...any single image graphic would be fine.(toolbar back[rebar]is a single)set your margins and drag and pull to your hearts content.

JMB1984

on Apr 17, 2007

Couple tips!

A great way to preview your skin live in ObjectDock is to, once you edit your image file and update/save the background file's ini, take a dock that is currently using that background and change its base icon size up/down a pixel or two so that it has to change the background's height. ObjectDock will reload the background from the file

I should note that any particular funniness with the background displaying for when it is on sides of the screen that aren't the bottom...particularly on the left/right sides... have been fixed in v1.6 which will be available publically within a couple weeks!

Finally, if it improves your skin I encourage using the "ProportionalStretch" tag! v1.6 gives more control on this and improves accuracy, but in the mean time, after defining the image-file-to-use if you put a line: ProportionalStretch=1 then ObjectDock will proprotion the image based on how tall the dock is. In effect what that provides for, is it makes your image not squished/fat if say your background was designed around icons being 128x128, but the icon size actually use is 64x64 or say 256x256. In v1.5 that tag must be in each of the background description sections, starting in v1.6 you can get the job done just by having it in the [Info] section.

Good luck everyone!!

-Jeff Bargmann
ObjectDock Team

lcassity

on Apr 17, 2007

Couldn't a happy medium be reached in this regards?
Such as very specific permissions where the skin artist could only distribute the artwork that included Stardock copyrighted work on Wincustomize.com ONLY, and must relinquish any rights to their work to Stardock as long as Stardock gives credit to the artist for the elements he/she created?
Needless to say, this would be on a case by case basis, like you MUST be a W/C subscriber (that way you know their real identity in case they break the agreement).

It seems something like this would allow a creative outlet for the artists, while protecting Stardock's collective butt in the case of any infringment.

Just an idea.

messiah1

on Apr 18, 2007

SWEEEEEEEEEET!

WebGizmos

on Apr 18, 2007

Yes...that is cool!

WebGizmos

on Apr 19, 2007

Ok...I'm wondering now if anyone is taking a stab at creating any docks...would love to hear from anyone that is. And also to let me know if your working on dock for a particular skin so I can stay away from it till after the contest.

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