Gee it's felt like a while since I last posted something here. It has been a pretty chaotic time these past few weeks. With my computer failing twice and my internet connection not being available for half a week, the odds were against me in terms of making new skins for June.

Well I have come today with a new skin for you boys and girls. It may not be something major like Zero-G, but I think it is something that will keep some people happy nonetheless. G.I. Joe is a movie that is coming up which looks to have a bit of promise so I decided to create a dark skin to suit the world of G.I. Joe.

There isn't really much to say here, it contains the usual series of options you have been used to. Also scenes have been disabled due to the fact that scenes really mess with the design and just look fully out of place.

Now for some screenshots:





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And that is about it for now. I am still trying to catch up on a lot of stuff so I am not sure if there will be another skin release anytime soon. At least a major one anyway. We will see what happens. I got a few things I got to work on and the juggling act is making my arms tired

The day is finally here. After a lot of work, Zero-G 3 is ready to be unleashed onto the world. So what's new in this release?

Zero-G 3 has gone through a pretty lengthy design process. Initially it began with planning on how we could make the skin adapt to Messenger 9 and keep the style that everyone was used to. Unlike version 2, where em3kay did most of the initial graphics this time because of the strong code base I already had I was able to play a larger role in the graphics department. So you can see where the effort of two graphic designers has come into play. You will also notice a few new visual effects that I have come up with which make the experience all the more sexy.

The skin was built in a pretty good manner, we would make something then expand on it constantly. Several parts of the skin had about 4 or 5 revisions before reaching the final product. The skin is divided in 4 styles (like the previous version), however the theme system has been optimized to use less resources than before.

In addition to the usual settings, there are a few RegTweaks you can play with which are found in the skins install directory. Anyway we are really happy with the result and we hope everyone appreciates the effort that was taken to bring you guys and girls this release.

Now onto screenshots:





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In other news, updates to several skins have been released. These updates are for future-proofing the skin in the event of a Messenger Plus! update. These updates aren't crucial, but it is recommend people update to these newer versions eventually.

Well that's all for now, stay tuned for more news on future releases.

Enjoy.

Willz.

Well it's been a pretty hectic start to 2009. I haven't ever been this active in skinning and it seems like its paying off a lot. The user base just keeps on growing and its going further than what I could ever imagine.

So to keep the masses happy I am continuing to bring you guys the awesomeness. May has already seen the release of Phunk'n, a skin that quickly became a favorite amongst the users and the new skin Fuse which was the result of months of coding and planning to bring to life.

So what's next? Well for now the skin releases of May have come to a close. Finishing off 2 major skins wasn't an easy task but I got through it. So I thought I would give you boys and girls a sneak peak at what is heading your way in June (at least one of the things).

Some of you may recognize this:



Yes that's right, its the return of the two-headed monster design team that is Willz and em3kay. We have begun the upgrade of the Zero-G skin and we promise it will be something that will raise the bar even further in terms of graphics.

The all new Zero-G 3 will feature the classic feel of the skin merged with the all new graphics and layout specially optimized for Windows Live Messenger 2009. For now this is all we are going to show. But rest assured this skin will be one of the major releases this year and will impress fans of the skin and newcomers alike.

Heh well that should keep you guys in suspense for a while. Just remember, if things are silent then that's a good thing. It means we are hard at work. Anyway feel free to help make em3kay's ego grow by leaving words of encouragement and whatnot. It helps fuel his designs, he promises.

Willz.

Well boys and girls. I come to you today bearing a brand new skin called fuse. Fuse is something I have been working on and off for the past few months. Messenger 9's layout is difficult to manipulate when it comes to taking down the extra space Microsoft added in.

With every skin I made, I learnt a bit more on how to get around some of these sizing restrictions to condense the space down. So after a lot of coding I was able to construct a skin which significantly brings down the minimum window size you can have when using Messenger.

Fuse features a highly compressed chat window and contact list design. It took a lot of experimentation and a mixture of code from different skins to be able to come to the final product (kinda how it got it's name, it's a fusion of all the layout compression I have done.)

Fuse features the standard options you guys have been used to in my skins recently and also uses some of the extra registry entries you see in Phunk'n as a little bonus. But yeah I recommend people check out this skin because it really does grow on you (like how it colorizes and if you combine it with the right scene it looks really nice).

Now for some screenshots:





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Well that's all for now. Stay tuned because there is still more to come this month in terms of skins.

Willz.

The release of Phunk'n has been pretty good. The response I have received has been really great. So after a bit of feedback I have added a few things into an update. There are a few bug fixes, but for the most part the changes are mainly in Infusco.

So what's in 2.0.1?

2.0.1 fixes a few minor issues in both skins. The chat history area has been improved in Infusco with a new light background being applied which should fix readability issues, this new background is also applied to the text typing area. For those that have applied the Light background reg entry this change will be seen as soon as you restart Messenger. For others they will have to run the Reg entry to use it.

The ability to use an outer glow for chat history has also been added, this is in the form of a Reg entry so just check the RegTweaks directory in the skins install directory or just download the new Reg Tweak pack when it goes live on this site. This should help readability a bit more in the chat history area. Center aligning toolbars has been fixed and now work.

For those experiencing issues where you maximize your chat window and the typing area maximizes, this is a problem caused by Messenger Discovery and not the skin itself. Matt has created a fix for this issue so just download the latest build of Discovery and it should all be fine again.

Just remember that the majority of these changes are in the bundled reg entries which can be found in the skins install directory.

This should hopefully smooth things out a bit more for people. Anyway that's it for now. Stay tuned for news on a brand new skin coming this month also.

Infusco
Niveus

Willz.

Well boys and girls, the moment you have been waiting for has arrived. The release of one of my most popular skins so far: Phunk'n.

But before I get onto that I'd like to take a second and thank all the people that have supported my work over the years. I didn't really think I'd be around this long, but hey it's you guys that keep me going. I just had a talk with Menthix (the guy who runs the skins database) and he has given me a number which represents how many downloads I have had since the Messenger Plus! database opened. Ready for it?

7,489,442 (Excluding things like Open Live and discontinued skins like Sopair)

Pretty scary though considering skins were lucky to get 100,000 downloads 2 years ago. It's good to see skins are becoming really popular. Keep it up everyone!

I have been really busy these past couple of weeks working on bringing the skin back to Messenger 2009. It was a tough road but I think the skin will speak for itself in terms of quality.

I had to completely recode the entire skin and re-think certain parts of the skin to suit Messenger 2009. While most of the skin retains the layout from the previous version you will notice some differences in version 2.

The most major one is that fade animations had to be scrapped. Sad to say that they have changed in Messenger 2009 and are extremely restricted. I couldn't really find a balance between making it work, look right and not lag the skin up.

So in the end I decided to scrap it altogether. But with that being said I did add a bit more functionality to the skin. Version 2 now allows users to go back to classic Messenger icons in case they don't like the ones supplied with the skin. This was one of the requested features in version 1 so I am proud to say this is available in version 2.

The skin has adopted the layout mode that I first introduced in the LTD skin. Users will be able to switch between this mode and classic mode and also be able to align the chat window how they wish.

Scenes have been completely removed in this skin. This was a pretty hard design decision but I think I made the right choice. It was just too hard to find a balance where the scene actually complemented the design. I found that there was too many variables to deal with and most of the time it just made the skin look weird. But I have given the ability to stretch chat window backgrounds to the full area so hopefully that will remove the need for scenes.

The custom Messenger Plus! UI has also been scrapped due to the fact that Messenger Plus! Live 5 will be entering development soon and I would rather wait to see what is going to happen with the UI before diving in too deep.

The registry entries that I added in the previous version return in version 2. There are a few new ones such as choosing the size of the extra display picture in the chat window and also the one in the contact list. Toolbar alignment options are also in these entries.

Because you can't colorize the alert I have written a series of entries which forces the alert to become a certain color. All you have to do is pick the entry that suits your tastes and away you go.

And yeah that should about cover it. Now for some screenshots:

Infusco:




Niveus:




Well that should keep people busy for a while. Oh yeah and while I was building Phunk'n I was also toying with a brand new skin design. Expect that one soon, its going to push the envelope a bit so yeah expect something cool.

Enjoy the release!

Willz.

Well guys I just finished up adding the final touches to Phunk'n. This means that it is in its final stage of development which is the last test run. Pretty much I just use the skin intensively over the course of the next few days and see if there are any more issues to iron out (but from the looks of it things are looking pretty sweet).

So with that being said I can safely say that the skin will release next week sometime. Not exactly sure when, but it will happen for sure. So keep a close eye out on this site or the facebook page because the release is only about a week away!

Stay tuned.

Willz.

Messenger Plus! Live has officially hit its 8th birthday and its creator Patchou has begun talks about the next major version, Messenger Plus! Live 5. Often before starting a major project it is great to get feedback off the people that matter most, the users.

So Patchou has put up a page for everyone so that they can give feedback on Messenger Plus!. Basically if you have an idea or feature that you have been dying to see then submit the idea. If you really want it to be seen then it would also be a good idea to get your friends to do this. Remember if there are a lot of people requesting a particular feature it improves the chances of it being implemented. Just remember nothing is guaranteed to be used and also to forget about suggesting anything like ad-removal (there is a 0 chance of that one happening).

I highly encourage everyone to take part in this as it is going to shape the next version of Messenger Plus!. Anyway hit the link below to take part in the survey.

http://www.msgpluslive.net/news/2009/04/...-from-you/

Willz.

Well boys and girls this is the last week of the Transformers 2 skins marathon and sadly like all good things it has to come to a close. I figured what better way to do so than with the release of the last skin in the series: Megatron.

I am sure people will really enjoy the design that I have come with as much as I enjoyed designing it. Anyway the skin features the same set of options as the previous skins and is only for Messenger 2009. You will need at least Messenger Plus! Live 4.80 to run this skin properly.

Now for some official screenshots:




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And that about covers it. For those who missed the other skins they are available at the links below:

Optimus Prime Skin
Barricade Skin
Bumblebee Skin

Well that is all for the Transformers skins. Next on the release schedule is the return of the highly popular skin Phunk'n. Expect that in May sometime. Not sure when because I want to make sure everything is right for it so that might take a bit of time.

Anyway enjoy the release everyone.

Willz

This is just a quick post to note that the downloads section has been temporarily restored. This is just so you guys can download all your favorite reg entries, but please note there may be some issues. It is just a quick fix. Also note the Downloads section may go down again depending on the testing we have to do with the sites upgrade.

In other news, Phunk'n is on schedule for a May release. The Infusco edition of the skin is in what I call ME stage of development (minor edits). This mean that the core coding of the skin is complete and it is just being tweaking before I take it on test run.

Once the test run is complete I will then be using the Infusco skin as a base to build Niveus. Things are going well, but the Left 4 Dead content pack got released yesterday so I am kind of being distracted at the moment Tongue.

Meh I'm feeling a bit generous so I will post a screenshot of the state the skin is in:



Rest assured the skin will ship out on time. Stay tuned because tomorrow we will see the release of the last skin in the Transformers series. Megatron!

Anyway back to work I go.

Willz.