How to create a quality splash screen odd shaped like VS 2010?

Question

Hello,

I've seen some neat splash screens like VS 2010, Adobe products, etc. I know in VS.NET you can set a transparency color, etc. but I have never been able to make one look nice that didn't have some type of jagged edges or color issues on the edges. For example, I could create a black circle with magenta as the transparent color and I've tried various aliasing options in Adobe PhotoShop CS4.

Can anyone steer me or provide an example of how to make a nice one like we see on VS 2010's startup?

Thank you

Answer 1

VS2010 runs as a WPF application. WPF supports full alpha channel transparency, so the non-rectangular splash screens will always look better when using WPF than when using winforms.

I made the switch to WPF earlier this year solely based on the improved graphics capabilities.

Also in WPF, making a nice splash screen is dead easy. Just create a nice .png in the shape you want with all your non-rectangular edges, anti-aliasing, and transparent background. Then add this image to your project as a resource, and in the properties dialog box for that image, set its Build Action to 'SplashScreen'. You're done. Of course, that assumes that you make the switch to WPF.

Answer 2

Here are some links that have some info on creating a splash screen

SplashScreen Tutorial 1

SplashScreen Video Tutorial

Although, these just explain how to make one and if I have understood correctly that you have jagged edges, I think that sounds more like the image is not very clear. Is the resolution high enough or are the edges pixelated and that is why they are jagged?

Answer 3

This link resolved it for me, works great:

http://www.vcskicks.com/splash-screen.php