Watercolor Emico

[StarLion]

^That doesn't even come close to the black color that I'm using :p

Well I pretty much just ran the bright blue version of the theme through a batch job in Photoshop to desaturated and darken everything, not all that surprising that someone working with the original files would come up with something different. I feel it's "accurate" the the overall theme though, as it's only a saturation and curves shift.

Now I'm curious...and a bit confused; what "black color" could you be using other than R0 G0 B0 (if you can even consider black as a color at all, being that it is the lack of generated and/or reflected light). Should I take this to mean that you'll be adding some sort of color tint to the black version? If that's the case I might just stick with my mod.

[Jamushroom Veteran]

Making the Blue version black with the "Black & White" tool in Photoshop adds a red shade to the image and it makes it to bright. Adding a color overlay to it with the correct color makes it look like this:

It looks less glossy then yours and it keeps the sharpness plus glossiness from the other styles. It's more a blue tint black then a red tint black. Your version also uses beige for the inner parts which doesn't look nice with black at all. The original version will also have new colors for the toolbar buttons, state buttons, checkboxes etc.

Oh and btw.. this is the only teaser you guys get Watercolor Emico: Black :p I didn't want to post any teaser but StarLion gave me no choice ;)

[transgenocide]

Wow this theme is amazing. Beats Zune which I was using previously.

[NoLiMiT06]

Thank you, I just downloaded this and I am loving it. Cannot wait to get the black version installed. Keep up the good work... :)

[ViperAFK]

Making the Blue version black with the "Black & White" tool in Photoshop adds a red shade to the image and it makes it to bright. Adding a color overlay to it with the correct color makes it look like this:

It looks less glossy then yours and it keeps the sharpness plus glossiness from the other styles. It's more a blue tint black then a red tint black. Your version also uses beige for the inner parts which doesn't look nice with black at all. The original version will also have new colors for the toolbar buttons, state buttons, checkboxes etc.

Oh and btw.. this is the only teaser you guys get Watercolor Emico: Black :p I didn't want to post any teaser but StarLion gave me no choice ;)

That looks sexy man, best XP theme I have EVER seen so far, very polished, using the blue one on my old xp pc now.

[StarLion]

Making the Blue version black with the "Black & White" tool in Photoshop adds a red shade to the image and it makes it to bright. Adding a color overlay to it with the correct color makes it look like this:

That's why I didn't use the Black and White tool, I just dropped the saturation to 0%. While I like where the above screenshot is going, I think you may have over-corrected a bit (possibly due to your monitor being miscalibrated towards overly warm), as it looks like it picked up a pretty bad blue tint when you tried to "correct" the red tones you were seeing. It's also a bit light for a "black" theme, this is more like "Watercolor Emico Bluish-Gray" :p

Compare your screenshot to this one, which has had the blue tint removed:

Or this one, which has had both the blue tint removed and has been darkened slightly so it fits the "black" title a bit better:

I know it's hard to tell with the images surrounded by the blue backing of the forums, but there really is a large difference here.

Oh and btw.. this is the only teaser you guys get Watercolor Emico: Black :p I didn't want to post any teaser but StarLion gave me no choice ;)

Heh, didn't mean to make you feel like you were backed into a corner or anything, was just curious.

Edited June 15, 2008 by StarLion

[Krokus]

They all look nice. :p

[Jamushroom Veteran]

@StarLion: I think you misunderstood me about the black color. I added the blue tint on purpose. My monitor is calibrated correctly ;)

This theme isn't going to get darker. It'll lose quality if I'd make it darker which you can see in your image. I don't want to make a dark black theme at all. I just want to make a usable black theme. That's why I hate other black themes, IMO they are way to dark.

I used this black color to maintain the quality of the theme and to be able to see the shadow from the taskbar items on the taskbar. I added the blue tint to make it look special and unique. I never said that I would be your typical black theme like LE 5.1 Black or another theme.

Ones it's out feel free to mod it for personal use only. The modern version of the black theme is almost done and it really looks awesome IMO.

Oh and about that teaser thing.. It was a joke ;) I DID actually wanted to post a teaser :p

[StarLion]

This theme isn't going to get darker. It'll lose quality if I'd make it darker which you can see in your image. I don't want to make a dark black theme at all. I just want to make a usable black theme. That's why I hate other black themes, IMO they are way to dark.

Ok, wanting the blue tint i can understand, but the theme appearing "too dark" depends greatly upon the contrast ratio and brightness of the monitor in question. Your black version screenshot looks majorly washed out to me (the image's histogram agrees with me).

[Jamushroom Veteran]

I know it's not dark and I don't intend to make it dark. I just want to make a black theme which I want to be using every day. If I make the Black version darker as the one that I have now then I wouldn't want to be using it.

As I said, my monitor is calibrated correctly and the theme doesn't look dark on my monitor either. So, the color that's being used, the darkness of it etc. is all intended.

Edit 1:

Here's an example of what will happen if I'd make it darker:

The selected buttons isn't looking the way it should be.

Maybe, and I really mean maybe, in the future I might add a darker black version to the suit. But don't put your hopes up to high.

Edit 2:

D***it.. the darker one is tempting. I hope I can restrain myself from making 2 black versions at the same time :rofl:

Edited June 15, 2008 by Capric0rn

[-ExiTjen-]

U gonna release it for windowblinds also?

[NEVER85]

U gonna release it for windowblinds also?

He already said he wasn't...

[Sethos]

*Waits for the dark/black version*

[Jamushroom Veteran]

@-Ex!Tjen-: I don't have Windowblinds or Skinstudio so I can't even make a WB version. It's been discussed a few times in this thread. But to make a long story short: If someone wants to make a port, the port will have to be perfect. It has to look exactly like the visual style.

As for my previous post, for some reason the image has been removed from imageshack. Anyways, here's the darker black taskbar:

[Scirwode]

Ooh, pretty :p !

Scirwode

[cheazles]

Ooh...Dark one is looking good! :yes:

Love your work

[ring0]

as much as i love the blue, this might finally be the black theme that i can switch to and use for more than a day at a time.

[Jamushroom Veteran]

I can't make a decision between the dark black or the light black version. Should I go with the dark one or the one that's less dark?

[Sethos]

Don't care, they all look the same, just release it :p ( But Dark Black goes better with most Wallpapers. )

[cheazles]

I can't make a decision between the dark black or the light black version. Should I go with the dark one or the one that's less dark?

My vote goes to the dark black one but the light black might be more consistent with the overall Watercolor theme?

[Jamushroom Veteran]

^The lighter one is indeed more consistent. It has the same quality as the other color styles. I could also release a the black version with the lighter black and the dark black. It'll all depend on the opinions that I'll get today.

[Setnom]

^^ Yep, I prefer the lighter one. The darker one is too much dark.

[NEVER85]

I like the lighter one myself.

[Sputnik.RU]

I would prefer the lighter one also, fits better in the whole Watercolor style...

[Jamushroom Veteran]

Alright, then I'll release the dark one as a separate release once all the colors in the list are done. I was thinking about making a dark blue version as well so it'll be fitting to release a dark black version as well.