Here you will find a description of the process of making different styles(filters) for WinAmp Skin Creator. It is simple, all you need is some skill in using any graphic editor.

   A little bit of theoretical information to start. WinAmp Skin Creator is based on Styles technology - a packet of filters, which are applied to the main picture. On the illustration you can see the system of the filters superposition. Filter 1 (number one on the illustration) applying on the original picture (layer 0). It can lighten the parts of the picture, darken, insert some parts from filter 2 (see illustration 2) and fill picture's segments with different colours. It is possible since different colours were used in those filters. Filters, similar to filter 1, are then applyied to the image. Filter 2 is just a normal picture.

   Now lets talk about colours. Filters 1,3 (4,5,6, etc if exist) are used to apply some effects on the original picture. For example if we darken some areas on the picture, and lighten others, we obtain a relief picture. How to make an embossed button? First of all we need to create a new file of the needed size (you can see the sizes in Default style or just edit those files, previously copied into another folder). Next:

• Paint all area with the moderate blue colour (R:0 G:0 B:127 - this mean that red component of the color is 0, green is 0 also, and blue is 127) - the program treats this colour as transparent - i.e. the picture in this area won't change.
  
• After that lets take blue colour too, but brighter. For example R:0 G:0 B:200. And paint the upper area of the button with is.
  
• For the bottom(darker) side, lets take a dark blue. For example R:0 G:0 B:56. Paint the remaining rectange in this colour.
  

   You probably guessed already thet if the BLUE colour is lighter than R:0 G:0 B:127 then the picture in this place will become lighter, and if the colour is darker than R:0 G:0 B:127 - than the picture also become darker. Other colours act similar - where they are painted, there the alteration of the original picture takes place. This is a table of the employed colours with the description of their effects.

Colour	RGB colour	Action
	0,0,127	Transparent. I. e. nothing is happening
	0,0,>127	The lighter the blue colour - the lighter the picture becomes
	0,0,<127	The darker the blue color - the darker the picture
	255,0,255	In this place inserts a pixel(s) from the picture in Filter 2
	255,255,255	User-defined colour. For example if this is a filter 1 of the main form (main1.bmp), than, accordingly, this will be "Main Color 1" in the program on the "Main Form" bookmark