Develop Bugs

[Q] Creating your own theme....guides???

I have been searching for a guide or tute for theme making and I did find a small one done by sprint girl, but does anyone know of a more complete guide? or if anyone is willing to help me learn???? I think Im ready to take on the challenge!
Thanks!

pinkmini said:
I have been searching for a guide or tute for theme making and I did find a small one done by sprint girl, but does anyone know of a more complete guide? or if anyone is willing to help me learn???? I think Im ready to take on the challenge!
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can help what sort of things are you wanting to do? PM me if you would like help.

You could also do a search for (The Ultimate Android Teeming Guide). That has some very useful info in there
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I'm in maybe we can make a team project to help out situations like this!
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You need to get into the deal yourself all by yourself to be more familiar with what's going on inside the Rom itself!
Then when you hit a serious roadblock then call on us for the help that you need!
We can't do it for you!
Goodluck
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eVoKINGS said:
You need to get into the deal yourself all by yourself to be more familiar with what's going on inside the Rom itself!
Then when you hit a serious roadblock then call on us for the help that you need!
We can't do it for you!
Goodluck
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+2... its how you learn... just keep reading...its all in here dude...

it will really depend on what you want to do. I do a lot of modifications to get my own personal theme where it is. I dont mind helping some though i am by far no expert.
The way i learned was simply by getting one of the many theme programs that make it easy to decompile and recompile your .apk (i use a little program called "Android Theming and Tweaking v2" its an oldie but wors well so far for me another option is themePRO)
once you have that just start decompiling your framework-res.apk and if you are working with a sense rom your com-htc-resources.apk once in there you can look through. you can do a LOT by simply replacing the .png files located in drawable/drawable-hdpi with the .png files you want to use. I recommend holding off on .9.png files until you read up on them and how to edit them correctly. I would really start there. additionally you may search for the super circle battery mod post which gives instructions on how to implement the battery icon that changes every 1% as well as the notification toggle post to get the cool toggle in your notification bar. it also walks you through how to add it. Both are relatively straight forward once you get the hang of things.

pinkmini said:
I have been searching for a guide or tute for theme making and I did find a small one done by sprint girl, but does anyone know of a more complete guide? or if anyone is willing to help me learn???? I think Im ready to take on the challenge!
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out these 2 links. They're very extensive and should help you out greatly.
The first link is a guide by The Impaler called "Want to learn how to theme?"
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=916814
The second guide is by Stericson and is called "How to Metamorph/Theme
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=591329
Good luck and let us know how you make out.

I want to be a themer.

I want to contribute back to XDA for the help I received on rooting, flashing, ROM, Kernel, CWM, etc... The only way that I can do is by working on themes. I'm not sure how hard it is, but its complicated already. I do have Notepad++ and 7zip. I do not have GIMP, but I do have Photoshop 7 (which I will always stay with). I could try to use GIMP, if that is really required.
What is best for me? Work off of current themes to make adjustments, improve, etc? I dunno. Maybe something that I can work with someone on, such as if someone provide a theme, and I can work on providing multiple colors for the theme. Really need to know what I should work off of. I have bookmarked several topics and have been reading.
For me, reading on my own is not really a stable learning option (as in not that easy as it seem). I learn best through one-on-one communication (such as hands on, etc), so I'd like to partner up with someone that will be willing to do that. Such as PM, email, or messenger (AIM, YIM, or MSN).
Anyway, I'd really like to learn to keep themes alive for Epic, because new phones keep coming out and people just simply move on. I'd obviously stay with my Epic for a few years.
Oh, I'm sticking to EC05 for at least a year or so.

ThunderOKC said:
I want to contribute back to XDA for the help I received on rooting, flashing, ROM, Kernel, CWM, etc... The only way that I can do is by working on themes. I'm not sure how hard it is, but its complicated already. I do have Notepad++ and 7zip. I do not have GIMP, but I do have Photoshop 7 (which I will always stay with). I could try to use GIMP, if that is really required.
What is best for me? Work off of current themes to make adjustments, improve, etc? I dunno. Maybe something that I can work with someone on, such as if someone provide a theme, and I can work on providing multiple colors for the theme. Really need to know what I should work off of. I have bookmarked several topics and have been reading.
For me, reading on my own is not really a stable learning option (as in not that easy as it seem). I learn best through one-on-one communication (such as hands on, etc), so I'd like to partner up with someone that will be willing to do that. Such as PM, email, or messenger (AIM, YIM, or MSN).
Anyway, I'd really like to learn to keep themes alive for Epic, because new phones keep coming out and people just simply move on. I'd obviously stay with my Epic for a few years.
Oh, I'm sticking to EC05 for at least a year or so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally think, and I truly mean no offense or disrespect, that if you want to theme and are going to stay on ec05 for at least a year you are wasting your time. I doubt that anyone, especially those that would use a theme, is going to stay on ec05 once official gingerbread comes out. Many people, including myself, are already using the leaks. But if you want to do it I suggest downloading some themes you like and comparing them to stock to see the differences. If you already know photoshop than basic themes are easy. It is simply modifying images in the framework-res.apk and twframework-res.apk files. It gets more difficult when you want to work with xml files and the .9.png files. The best thing to do is start with the how to theme thread. That will get you going.
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I've been testing my abilities at theming with the new ef02 leaks its really time consuming, but I'm going to stick to it, I'm sure I can get better with practice. Besides regular png's and nine patch png's what else should I learn also?
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ac16313 said:
I've been testing my abilities at theming with the new ef02 leaks its really time consuming, but I'm going to stick to it, I'm sure I can get better with practice. Besides regular png's and nine patch png's what else should I learn also?
Sent from my SPH-D700
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really those are the biggest things to start with. Knowing where everything goes, pngs and 9s are all you need for the basics. To get advanced you will want to learn about decompiling xml files, changing them and compiling them back.
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crawrj said:
Really those are the biggest things to start with. Knowing where everything goes, pngs and 9s are all you need for the basics. To get advanced you will want to learn about recompiling xml files and modifying them.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool thank you, I'm going to try to get comfortable wth those First then.
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I have been theming for a while, but mostly for personal use. I started with the Samsung Moment, and have been making my own themes for the Epic since I got it. 7zip, apk manager, xultimate, gimp, and draw9patch are all programs I use on a daily basis. I have learned a lot from other themers, and a lot from tearing the files down and comparing them with different themes. Good luck.

I really envy you all that are good with graphic development. I have never been good at that. I know enough to get by but would really like to know how to make really nice looking graphics myself.
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crawrj said:
I really envy you all that are good with graphic development. I have never been good at that. I know enough to get by but would really like to know how to make really nice looking graphics myself.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could start with decompiling the framework res and replacing the images with ur own found images. then compile and try it out. that's the most simple method of starting

Shoulon said:
You could start with decompiling the framework res and replacing the images with ur own found images. then compile and try it out. that's the most simple method of starting
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You shouldn't need to decompile though, should you?
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ac16313 said:
You shouldn't need to decompile though, should you?
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Click to collapse
I was just about to say that... you'd only need to decompile if your editing xmls or what not. Images can be swapped through 7zip.
cd's or tapes?

Thunder more themers would be nice.. well wait....more themers that are creative and not just recolor someones elses work lmao? The sky is z limit my friend. But if you're going to be themein...start with ec05 and take off from there!
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ac16313 said:
You shouldn't need to decompile though, should you?
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You only need to decompile to work with xml files and the 9s. And you don't have to do it for the 9s but it makes it a lot easier.
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I usually create a new folder, copy all the images from the compiled apk using 7zip (example: \system\app\Contacts.apk\res\drawable-hdpi\) to the new folder, edit the images I want, then drag them back to the compiled apk. The only time I decompile really is when I need to change the text color, or add images that arent currently being used(battery mod, locksreen mod, reboot mod).
One thing that I do for icons and such is create a .psd. It makes it a lot easier than trying to do the same thing for each icon when you have a standard .psd to work with. I have done a lot of my own battery icons using a .psd.

OP, More themes is never a bad thing. I used to cook roms back in the winmo days, but when I moved to android I realized that being a rom chef was probably out of my league so I started making themes.
Basic themes can be made in a 5-10 hours, but more complicated themes, and some ports can take 30+ hours to make. Their are several great themers here that I'm sure are willing to help. I would start by reading dreams how to thread about 5 times. If you get stuck, you can post in that thread, normally someone will answer your question quickly. Also, if you think I can help, feel free to shoot me a PM.

shane6374 said:
OP, More themes is never a bad thing. I used to cook roms back in the winmo days, but when I moved to android I realized that being a rom chef was probably out of my league so I started making themes.
Basic themes can be made in a 5-10 hours, but more complicated themes, and some ports can take 30+ hours to make. Their are several great themers here that I'm sure are willing to help. I would start by reading dreams how to thread about 5 times. If you get stuck, you can post in that thread, normally someone will answer your question quickly. Also, if you think I can help, feel free to shoot me a PM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with everything stated above, reading and understanding the guide is step one, step two is (in my opinion) to familiarize yourself with the framework and what does what. Then what I did is port a theme just for fun, boot it up and go from there doing the whole troubleshooting process. That's the way to learn
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[Q] *Epic Developers&All, Please Read*

I don't know how many devs work with the Epic's Framework, but this much I do know; If certain Frameworks from other devices, such as the 'HTC Sense' Framework's widgets are restricted to having that framework, who says we can't edit Touchwiz's Framework or perhaps, creating an app in order to Spoof other frameworks, make it a running process, and therefore, fooling widgets from other devices onto our epics? If any devs see hope in this, count me on board and I'll try and make this a reality, I just can't do it alone. Who's in?

No. I'm not gonna be the forum rentacop, but don't title ur thread something like that. EVER. Everyone has important info to share, urs is not special.
On thread, I'm pretty sure someones though of this one time or another. The dev's are not stupid. I'm pretty sure there's propriety software/modules/idk that the frameworks depends on. Its not as easy as opening wordpad and replacing "com.htc" with "com.samsung" or whatever they may be.
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Hm, perhaps you're right, either way. It was titled that way because I was offering to lay my cards down and commit to making it happen with the help of dev gurus. If they wanted to know my programming background, they would indeed be filled in on it. Thank you for your input though.
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Sense requires way more than just the framework to make it work. There are also driver dependecies that are required. In essence in order to port as you say, the 2 devices would have to have the same or simular device drivers which would mean having same or simular hardware which is why Sense 3.0 could be ported to the evo4g but not the epic.
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shane6374 said:
Sense requires way more than just the framework to make it work. There are also driver dependecies that are required. In essence in order to port as you say, the 2 devices would have to have the same or simular device drivers which would mean having same or simular hardware which is why Sense 3.0 could be ported to the evo4g but not the epic.
Sent from the Epic Dark Horse via Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very informative and straight to the point. Thank you.
Posted by Mr. Z's Epic 4G.

I'm very sorry but I think the point is being missed here. I'm not asking or suggesting a Sense port. Only a spoof in Touchwiz's Framework, or add-on coding in order to trick widgets from other frameworks.
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Shinydude100 said:
I'm very sorry but I think the point is being missed here. I'm not asking or suggesting a Sense port. Only a spoof in Touchwiz's Framework, or add-on coding in order to trick widgets from other frameworks.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you read his post you definitely didn't comprehend it.I'm not going to type what he said all over again, all that matters is that what you want is not going to happen. It's either full port or nothing at all.

No.. I did comprehend it.. he did say more than framework was needed for a PORT I'm not looking for a port kid. I think it is you and the other poster who did not understand me, or ignorantly is choosing not to. Allow me to fix that by editing my original post even mentioning a port, as it was just that, a mention of ports and rules that follow it.
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Shinydude100 said:
No.. I did comprehend it.. he did say more than framework was needed for a PORT I'm not looking for a port kid.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kid? That kind of condescending attitude will not win many friends on these forums or in life.
The point is, you aren't going to be able to "spoof" sense to get sense widgets working. If you are so certain you are right and everyone is wrong then feel free to work on it but don't say we didn't warn you.

You weren't quite polite yourself. Lol. I guess I'll have to take a stab at it, because I believe this method to be overhyped as 'impossible.' cheers.
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..Why can't weee be friends? Why can't weee be friends?...

Shinydude100 said:
I'm very sorry but I think the point is being missed here. I'm not asking or suggesting a Sense port. Only a spoof in Touchwiz's Framework, or add-on coding in order to trick widgets from other frameworks.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I did understand that. My point is that you still need driver support to make the widgets receive the information they require to operate properly even if you are just trying to spoof the widgets.

My goal is to simply get the widget spoofed on there, as for the drivers etc, I'll worry about that later, nobody can deliver a product that's 100% finished.
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Theres a couple parts to the framework. Framework-res.apk, twframework-res.apk and framework.jar.
Also the ui (touchwiz, sense, miui, motoblur) relies on those 3 files and things can be traced all the way to the kernel.
You need a direct port and that ain't easy. Theres no hacking around it
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I see... I am assuming Rosie's Framework is not open source.. I'm uncertain behind the truth on a Video I saw from an XDA user who claimed to have ported sense on epic.. anyway that's what got me to poking around. It sure can't be easy, I say never impossible though! =)
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Shinydude100 said:
I see... I am assuming Rosie's Framework is not open source.. I'm uncertain behind the truth on a Video I saw from an XDA user who claimed to have ported sense on epic.. anyway that's what got me to poking around. It sure can't be easy, I say never impossible though! =)
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes htc's rosie's is closed source. Yes someone started to port sense to the epic but he never finished.
Imop its easier to create a app/widget to look.like what you want then it is to port the actual thing it self
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I've been just giving it a lot of thought... that's all. It sure is nice to hear from you, I had downloaded your rom, but then odin'd back to EC05 because I didn't grab the right kernel, didn't want to risk losing Data settings from MetroPCS, on top of that I'm roaming so if I lose my settings, I'm screwed. Lol
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063_XOBX said:
Kid? That kind of condescending attitude will not win many friends on these forums or in life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just want to say that is incredibly ironic coming from you.
cd's or tapes?

schnowdapowda said:
I just want to say that is incredibly ironic coming from you.
cd's or tapes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hardly. If at times I come across as condescending its simply because its the same people who keep making pointless threads, not searching or posting wherever they feel like.

shane6374 said:
Actually I did understand that. My point is that you still need driver support to make the widgets receive the information they require to operate properly even if you are just trying to spoof the widgets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe we could spoof the drivers kinda like Chainfire 3d except for the launcher or widgets or whatever.

(slightly off-topic) All I want for Christmas

Is someone to teach me how to decompile, mod and recompile a kernel......
And:
evenyone on here to have a safe and Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah,
and Merry happy holidays.

you don't decompile kernels
Your best friends would be learn patch, diff, git, lkml, etc. There's several guides for compiling and creating an initramfs as well.
*edit*
Also start compiling and Modding kernels on your own Linux desktop too. Its a bit easier since you don't have to use a cross compiler. There's several guides about it. (Zen-kernel.org maybe )
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bbedward said:
you don't decompile kernels
Your best friends would be learn patch, diff, git, lkml, etc. There's several guides for compiling and creating an initramfs as well.
*edit*
Also start compiling and Modding kernels on your own Linux desktop too. Its a bit easier since you don't have to use a cross compiler. There's several guides about it. (Zen-kernel.org maybe )
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks thats where ill start. but, don't you decompile kernels to see how the other person did whatever it is that they did? i know there is a thread on here (xda) thats uses a script to take the zimage apart. ill find it again and post the link.
Linux is not my friend and know very little about the other things you mentioned. I can theme my arss off and make mild changes to xmls, but want to go deeper.
again thank you. ill look into the things that you mentioned.

spdwiz18 said:
thanks thats where ill start. but, don't you decompile kernels to see how the other person did whatever it is that they did? i know there is a thread on here (xda) thats uses a script to take the zimage apart. ill find it again and post the link.
Linux is not my friend and know very little about the other things you mentioned. I can theme my arss off and make mild changes to xmls, but want to go deeper.
again thank you. ill look into the things that you mentioned.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So any chance you can give me a good direction to go in to learn about theming?
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chrisbass said:
So any chance you can give me a good direction to go in to learn about theming?
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
start here: themeing
dreams is an great guy.

Heres Another by Impaler
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=916814

spdwiz18 said:
thanks thats where ill start. but, don't you decompile kernels to see how the other person did whatever it is that they did? i know there is a thread on here (xda) thats uses a script to take the zimage apart. ill find it again and post the link.
Linux is not my friend and know very little about the other things you mentioned. I can theme my arss off and make mild changes to xmls, but want to go deeper.
again thank you. ill look into the things that you mentioned.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, if you want to see what someone else did you look at their source or ask them

spdwiz18 said:
thanks thats where ill start. but, don't you decompile kernels to see how the other person did whatever it is that they did? i know there is a thread on here (xda) thats uses a script to take the zimage apart. ill find it again and post the link.
Linux is not my friend and know very little about the other things you mentioned. I can theme my arss off and make mild changes to xmls, but want to go deeper.
again thank you. ill look into the things that you mentioned.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The changes can usually be found on a git...you cannot decompile a kernel, the closest thing u can do to that is unpack the intramfs but that wont really help other then getting the init.rc and modules...
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Want to theme/ make custom roms

I really really reaaaaaally want to learn how to theme and i would like to make roms but i have no clue how!! I think there is a tutorial around xda but im not really a read nd do person i would really apresiate sumbody helpin me with the basics and any help i need im really interested in this and i have the time to actually do roms, themes ect please can sumone help me?
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GaBoRoOtSs said:
I really really reaaaaaally want to learn how to theme and i would like to make roms but i have no clue how!! I think there is a tutorial around xda but im not really a read nd do person i would really apresiate sumbody helpin me with the basics and any help i need im really interested in this and i have the time to actually do roms, themes ect please can sumone help me?
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was gonna ask the same question but decided to do some searching and reading. Im gonna figure it out sooner or later because you learn from your mistakes and practice makes perfect.
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solehjeff said:
I was gonna ask the same question but decided to do some searching and reading. Im gonna figure it out sooner or later because you learn from your mistakes and practice makes perfect.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Were are you reading to theme/rom?
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First you should get yourself familiar with Androids innards. It is very unlike windows and closer to linux/osx. Grab yourself Root Explorer, it will be a very worthwhile investment unless you are already familiar with ADB.
Make sure you have 7ZIP, and GIMP, and know how to use them first. Also install Brut.all's APKTool (base for Android-Utility/APKManager)
Download and install the Android SDK
Here's the Developers guide, It has quite a bit of information in it related to specific png locations, names, how they're displayed, etc and more.
Here's a guide I used to get into theming made by TheImpaler747 (VERY notable dev)
If you have a Mac/Linux grab Android Utility (Essentially APK Manager for Mac), it has a very active and helpful dev, as well as a very intensive guide.
If you have Windows/Linux grab APKManager
These are advanced APK/Android tools that let you edit APKs, Sign ZIPs/APKs, and much more.
Remember only sign APKs that go in /Data, if it's in System, don't sign it. If you edit an APK/ZIP it will lose it's signature, so remember to resign. If an APK goes in /System/App, don't sign it. All update zips must be signed in order to be flashed. Make sure that the updater script is in UTF-8 form and saved w/o a filename, many things can go wrong with this and make your zip unable to flash.
Here's another very large compilation of guides
Messing with AOSP? There's a guide for that.
Wanna Learn ADB
.9.pngs killing you? Me too, I have several links to those
Long Text Guide
The guide I found that was like an Epiphany
Hex/XML Editin? Grab Notepad++, Learn about color hex codes, memorize ffffff=white 000000=black ff0000=red and in GIMP/PS/PXM/Etc make sure you have a color pallete/notepad of the colors you need to recall on the exact same value more than once, this will be alot of colors.
Edit Settings.apk's List via XML

Gentleman, pm me. I have information I have sent others... It does require reading though... Exstensive reading. But its how all of us learned how to make roms and themes...

I updated my post with a small guide. I will continue to improve on it.

Thanks guys!
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fowenati said:
I updated my post with a small guide. I will continue to improve on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks alot
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@ fowenati:
That is a great post man. These guys will be theme'n in no time.

12MaNy said:
@ fowenati:
That is a great post man. These guys will be theme'n in no time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man!

fowenati said:
I updated my post with a small guide. I will continue to improve on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent work...