Animated Windows 8.1 Start Button
For Classic Shell (4.0.5 and newer)
(Animated GIF above not a very good representation though since the screen capture tool made it jittery, doesn't do it justice)
Download Options:
- Attached to this thread within Classic Shell Forum
- Inline with this message below (right-click, Save As)
- Imgur links below as well
Enjoy!
UPDATE: Special thanks to user
GauravK for suggestions regarding fading of the black background and also slowing the animation down by changing the animation timing and blending. These suggestions have made a significant difference to the overall smoothness and quality of this Start Button. Thank You!
VERSIONS: The three current (and likely final) versions of my Animated Windows 8.1 Start Button for Classic Shell (4.0.5 and newer) are all similar now as far as animation timing, smoothness and blending. They look incredibly similar displayed here on the forum thread as well but you need to really try them to see the distinct differences in action. As far as which is best, in my opinion it is a toss up between
White Glow - Bright (v4) and
White Glow - Sharp (v5). With
White Glow - Bright (v4) it has a more eye-catching glow to it but purposefully loses some sharpness to it due to the flashier glow effect and was a little bit distracting for me, personally. Although it was still substantially better than the first few versions of this Start button and I think that some people may still prefer
(v4) for that extra pop that it has to it. My personal favourite, though, is
White Glow - Sharp (v5) because I did a lot of additional work in the main project file (which has about 70+ layers to it) with regards to blending frames and so on. I moved the dozens of drop shadow frames back further and brought some of the foreground layers up higher and everything was just optimized much better for the transitions of the final output image. The result of
(v5), in my opinion, was much sharper during transitions, yet more subtle for the glow effect. Overall
(v5) being the smoothest, sharpest and least distracting.
Animated Windows 8.1 Start Button (v3) Blue Glow | Animated Windows 8.1 Start Button (v4) White Glow - Bright | Animated Windows 8.1 Start Button (v5) White Glow - Sharp |
| | |