Planet Aston

Hacker’s Lair Theme for Aston Desktop

krstatzar — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 19:21:25 +0000

I admit it, this theme has some elements of Matrix. The so called “falling code” gave it that Matrix feel, but that was not my intention it just turned out that way. Anyway I think the theme is really cool and offers really nice and pleasant experience. When I started to make the theme I didn’t know where the creation process was going to take me. I just went with the flow and it payed off well. In the screenshot below you can see the theme in full size (1920×1080 when clicked) , the actual theme can be downloaded from here. Of course you will need Aston in order to use it. If you have some ideas about themes that you would like to see in future please write me about it.

Snow Leopard Theme For Aston

krstatzar — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 21:48:30 +0000

First thing first it got nothing to do with Mac OS (which looks great). One day I stumble upon this great wallpaper and was really keen on building the whole desktop theme around it. Theme uses many textures and yet trying to maintain light aero style. Give it a try, you can get theme here and Aston which is required in order to use this theme here. Below you can check it out in full screen. Enjoy!

Call Of Duty Theme For Aston

krstatzar — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 18:01:10 +0000

Call of Duty (black ops) is a great game no doubt about it. Always loved all the COD games so I thought it was time to make a cool desktop theme inspired by the game style. Game design is awesome so I have tried to follow it and port it to a desktop theme. I took few screenshots, made a color scheme and worked like crazy but it was worth it. BTW I registered at COD official site and got the wallpapers from there to get even more inspired. I think it helped big time. You can get Aston theme here and check it yourself. Making graphic style was not that hard although it took me a while to overlay the right textures and try many different options and ideas. I have used one thing from screenshots and that is monitor image you can see in some widgets. It was much easier than trying to make it from scratch, plus it contributed to getting the right game atmosphere.

Below you can check out the full screen shot of the theme

Making this theme was really fun and I hope you will enjoy using it.

Samurai Desktop Theme for Aston

krstatzar — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 19:58:02 +0000

One day I came across this awesome wallpaper made by young french author galaregan and decided to build Aston theme around it. It was a demanding task due to wallpaper complexity but the effort has paid off well and the results are here in front of you. The theme combines aero(web 2.0) and grunge style and it is rich in textures and details. Below you can see it in full size. In order to use this great theme you need to install Aston first and then apply theme itself which can be downloaded here.

Once again special thanks and credits go to galaregan the author of the wallpaper.

Enjoy the theme.

Ubuntu Style For Aston

krstatzar — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 22:09:27 +0000

You have a chance now to taste Ubuntu on Windows (XP, Vista or Win 7) by simply applying theme for Aston windows desktop manager. One day I just had to try Ubuntu 10.10 and see what is all about.
Ubuntu is great but Windows is better for me (I won’t go in to details now), but I really like simple and clean default theme so I decided to try and make Aston theme based on what I saw and experienced.
Making theme was not that hard since Aston is very handy for making all kinds of taskbars. The most problems I had with weather icons, since I could not find the genuine Ubuntu weather icons I had to make my own and I am pleased how they turned out. I made 5 versions that differ very little but that little difference is what some users look for. Below you can see 3 full screen shots.

Fancy Black

Purple

Orange – Most similar to original Ubuntu 10.10

You can get theme here and I hope you will like it. Theme is simple but has its own beauty and I think it is ideal for everyday use. In future I will try to make some more cool themes based on new type of layouts. Comments are welcome. Please write if you have some special theme requests. if I like the idea I will most likely consider it for future.

Learning HTML/CSS By Viewing Source

krstatzar — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 18:31:10 +0000

It is quite fair, in my opinion, to check out someones source code of web page or website in therms of mastering the art of HTML/CSS (web development in general). I think some people are real pain in the arse whining about how they invented some CSS property or some trick and all the others are stealing from them. I admit it, every time I see some cool stuff on some web site I wonder how was that done and try to figure it out usually starting by pressing CTRL+U keys combination (view page source). That does not mean I plan to take something that is not mine….nah. Opinions vary on this subject and the line is pretty thin where the curiosity ends and the stealing begins. I will try to illustrate the website authors approach and opinion on this subject by showing you two screenshots of source code.

Example 1 from hicksdesign.co.uk

Brilliant really (BTW huge fan of Hicksdesign) – dude said it all “don’t steal wholesale” .

On the other end we have more cases like this

Read the rest of this article on krstatzar.com

Delight theme for Aston

krstatzar — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 14:25:46 +0000

Very strange colors for my taste but I wanted to try out something new. and here it its. Delight theme for Aston desktop shell is avery light and full of cool features at the same time. Tricky stuff was tiling that mash (grid) texture you can see in Start menu and in some of the widgets but at the and of course clock widget. You can see the full screen shot below

Dimpal and I tried to make a real clone of HTC clock and in a way we succeeded. Some more improvements will be applied in the near future.

In a video below you can see some of the theme’s features. I hope you will like it. HTC style clock widget that you can see in the video will be available with the next version of Aston.

Titanium Theme for Aston2

krstatzar — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:26:25 +0000

This is a great treat for all Aston2 users. Titanium theme is in my opinion my best theme so far. You can get the theme here and below you can see it in full screen size. Making this theme was really great experience and I applied some really cool design stuff and some new Aston2 skinning techniques.

I made a clock that had a gear (cog) in the back and when Nick Egorov saw it he said what about gear rotating as in the real clock.

I liked the idea and the result was fantastic. The clock is really awesome and added a great flavor to the entire theme.

Another cool design stuff I applied is so called “zebra table” in weather widget. As you can see I applied different color for odd and even lines and would be even better if weather widget could show weather for more days ahead.

Also very nice taskbar design and more functionality. Yes rivets are present in the entire theme and its elements but in taskbars rivets spiced it up really nice. Plus, compared to my previous themes, taskbars in this theme have more space around the icons so taskbars are more functional and icons now have more space to breathe.

All in all I am very pleased the the final result and I really hope you will enjoy in this theme.

New stuff coming soon

krstatzar — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 22:19:49 +0000

Well as some might have noticed I have been pretty absent lately but it is time for a change. Oh yes I have been skinning, I participated in creating World Cup theme for Aston2 and I have been working on several new things but have been also busy with some personal issues. Now that is all behind me and I am ready to rock, in between the watching the football games, and you will see some very cool and fresh stuff coming soon. I promise. So I will return soon with something more substantial.

Smartphone Inspired Theme

krstatzar — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:39:36 +0000

Theme for Aston inspired by smartphones GUI design took me much time and still not fully finished. I am at the moment occupied by some personal issues so I will return to this theme when I have more time. For now it includes many widget skins but I promise I will return and polish it up some more. Below you can see full screenshot and the theme can be obtained here. See ya soon.