[Q] How to get started with theme making? - AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note II

Hey guys,
I'm a photographer and graphic designer by profession, and I've always wanted to create a sleek, matte, "premium" looking theme for the GN2, specifically for Apex/Nova/etc.
I can make graphics, no problem, but I really don't know how to compile the theme into a flashable or app store package to get it working.
Does anyone have any ideas for me?
Thanks!
(The person with the best answer gets his/her own custom made wallpaper )

I would start with using VRtheme to apply your graphics and unzipping system apk's and just figuring out what goes where. Thats how i started

Awesome, I'm gonna have to look into it.
Thanks!

Alot of the basic theming functions are de compiling the APK, sorting through folders, and swapping out the images with the ones you want. More involved theming is editing XML's and something called 9pings or something? IDK tbh I stopped theming after metamorph made it to easy LMFAO.

Related

[Theme] I.R.M.A. jf 1.42 rc33 only

Theme:
I.R.M.A.
I Ripped My Android
Ask How to get theme
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=3442348&postcount=22
I lol'd when I saw the little tapes holding everything together..nice job as usual.
RandumAccess said:
not responsible for any damage
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Click to collapse
LMAO!
Great concept.
@RandumAccess
Will you ever finish any of your themes? This is a good idea but will you do more than the basic stuff?.
Lol, he's released like 5 themes in the past 24 hours it seems, the concept of his work is nice, there is a lot more that can be done to make it better though. Either way I could care less, I make my own personal, as well as public, use themes.
Eh, as a theme maker its good to see someone doing variety of themes like this. Like it or not, most people don't want to see overblown full themes and are happy with something like any of the the past 3-4 themes RandumAccess has done. Kudos for doing the work, it'll probably save others from getting requests like those.
Its a community, share and create alike. Thanks for making them I say.
manup456 said:
@RandumAccess
Will you ever finish any of your themes? This is a good idea but will you do more than the basic stuff?.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well as I have said in previous posts, i like "simple" cosmetic themes... its not that i cant do them but in my opinion I like them cause the icons arent so different from each other and i like to push out themes as i think of them...
I prefer basic... most themes are overcooked...lol
to me... they are complete...lol
prash said:
most people don't want to see overblown full themes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree and I am one of those people... I do not like the Overcooked themes myself... which is why i use mainly my own themes on my phone.
There is a point where the theme can make the G1 ugly... especially if not done right... I find flaws in most of the overcooked themes and would rather not deal with that and just push out simple themes.
The more themes the better.
The more the merrier, keep 'em coming!
i think it's at, you spend a few minutes replacing a couple of simple things while the rest of us spend days or weeks perfecting all the awesomeness of the "overcooked" as you say themes and i think that the perfection lies somewhere in the middle. hopefully we have some really great well-done, and some medium rare themes, that come out of this contest we are having. just a few days left for competitors to perfect the themes
I have to throw in my .02 in favor of the undercooked theme. I've downloaded a few of the amazing looking themes and then, 20 minutes later I realized that half the icons on the home pages aren't themed and it just looks... off. I rather themes that don't touch the icons or don't radically change them so when I install a new program it doesn't look like ass when I put it on the home page. Not to say I don't appreciate all the work themers put into them, but I think it's nixed the moment you place a non-themed icon on the desktop.
crys|s said:
Lol, he's released like 5 themes in the past 24 hours it seems, the concept of his work is nice, there is a lot more that can be done to make it better though. Either way I could care less, I make my own personal, as well as public, use themes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like a bit of Envy...
@RandumAccess
Sorry for clogging up your theme thread just wanted to know.
Well a theme that has just been altered is a Theme MOD and what you call overcooked is considered complete.
I seen this in another thread about this section being broken up,I really think it would be a great idea maybe add some sub forums. Complete themes,Mod Themes and a section for all the other threads.
"hey i just wanted to say thanks
ive been looking four hrs for a theme for my newly rooted g1
and while i like most of em i dont like when most of the icons are changed but then most arent
i hate a mix like that
thats why i love your themes
i just installed your green theme (sorry dont remember the name right now lol...know it begins with a g)
just looks tacky when some icons are themed and others arent
id rather have em all themed or none...with some exceptions
but thanks again i love your work"
-dtperea - one of my fans...lol
I get numerous emails like this almost daily... and This is who I theme for.
I love you guys and you motivate me to do my style of themes...
I say keep the themes coming Randum!!! I actually really like that you don't change the icons... I love a lot of these themes but the icons always kept me from using them. You sir have changed that for me!
Yeah, I think that we should make themes just like these and then use utilities like BetterCut to change the icons to ones that match.
That's what I do anyways.
Maybe the devs can post their icons in separate packs, too (as if they don't have too much on their plate already with the RC9, RC33 and ADP1.1 builds to theme... =P)
Beast84 said:
I say keep the themes coming Randum!!! I actually really like that you don't change the icons... I love a lot of these themes but the icons always kept me from using them. You sir have changed that for me!
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amgupt01 said:
Yeah, I think that we should make themes just like these and then use utilities like BetterCut to change the icons to ones that match.
That's what I do anyways.
Maybe the devs can post their icons in separate packs, too (as if they don't have too much on their plate already with the RC9, RC33 and ADP1.1 builds to theme... =P)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Guys!
Im not even doing the competition, I have created Overcooked themes and I really did not like them as much as my "Simple" concept.
This popularity about my themes has created so much more positive email and posts.. I LOVE IT!
RandumAccess said:
Thanks Guys!
Im not even doing the competition, I have created Overcooked themes and I really did not like them as much as my "Simple" concept.
This popularity about my themes has created so much more positive email and posts.. I LOVE IT!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is the mediafire link in your signiture up to date with all these "simple" themes?
I'm sorry and i know I'm not a senior member like most but honestly an artist telling another artist to change up his style is just retarded. if you don't like someone else's work keep making your "overcooked" or "completed" themes and accept that maybe there are some people out there that don't like your themes as much as the simple ones.
you both make sick themes and this is no way to treat one another like your themes are better than someone else's because you are only looking at it in your own point of view.
Keep up the good work guys and one day i look forward to be as good as you guys.
Beast84 said:
Is the mediafire link in your signiture up to date with all these "simple" themes?
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Click to collapse
Yes sirree...

Thoughts about themes

Since android was disponible, this community did a great job on creating theme for this platform. Although android is not defaultly skinnable, themers had to create custom updates for change icons and other graphical things.
On another side we saw many people involved in modifying google open source apps such as launcher, browser and so on.
Why don't we put the two sides together?
Consider that someone modifies, for example, launcher app to be allowet for changing icons. Themeing would be better and simpler. No compatibility problems because images would be loaded directly from the operating system, directly from the app to be skinned. Such as open home or such as every other app that is skinnable.
Don't you like the idea?
You should contact the developer of the launcher. He will be able to make the modifications to allow for this (because yes, as of currently, its not really skinnable [at least to my knowledge]).
But yes, good idea.
You wouldn't be able to change the status bar for example. .
Maybe just personal opinion but only 2 or 3 of the themes look good at all, a lot of them look terrible!
While I admire the hardwork , I wish someone would make more black/dark themes. And nothing too over the top.
Kill off the "hero" look, Make the bottom pull tab transparent.
Enoch is about the only decent theme here.
maxisma said:
You wouldn't be able to change the status bar for example. .
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Click to collapse
Cannot we modify source of each apk we want to theme?
Well because each app that google owns and we can't distribute, we can't even include a custom icon which would be modifying copyrighted contend.
digitallysick said:
Maybe just personal opinion but only 2 or 3 of the themes look good at all, a lot of them look terrible!
While I admire the hardwork , I wish someone would make more black/dark themes. And nothing too over the top.
Kill off the "hero" look, Make the bottom pull tab transparent.
Enoch is about the only decent theme here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally agree, and also don't create anything for the community to use.
digitallysick said:
Maybe just personal opinion but only 2 or 3 of the themes look good at all, a lot of them look terrible!
While I admire the hardwork , I wish someone would make more black/dark themes. And nothing too over the top.
Kill off the "hero" look, Make the bottom pull tab transparent.
Enoch is about the only decent theme here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sine mianosm has seconded this, i will third it. Stupid themers can't create some iamges that look good. I mean it must not be hard at all since we have all of these ugly themes, so why doesn't someone make a good looking one for once. Can we get a good theme finally!!!!
digitallysick said:
Maybe just personal opinion but only 2 or 3 of the themes look good at all, a lot of them look terrible!
While I admire the hardwork , I wish someone would make more black/dark themes. And nothing too over the top.
Kill off the "hero" look, Make the bottom pull tab transparent.
Enoch is about the only decent theme here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it is the right thread for commenting themes.
Here's the reason why; you're completely forgetting about variety. Asking devs to prepare a rom a certain way is roughly equivalent to ramming a particular theme down your way, but not everybody will like it. Whichever theme it is you like, there will be 30 more people here that find it either dull or tacky (let's face it, the Theme's subforum is full with examples of both), but hey, that's their taste. When we make builds, we like putting out a known base, in this case, the default Android look. Cyanogen resisted theming his builds because of this, and if he did add variations to visuals, they were very, very minimal, and very tactful. What comes to mind is the horrible (in my mind) bootscreen for tehseano's Hero theme. Though the screen was nice, my phone is my phone, not advertisment space, so having "a theme by tehseano & Moonspoon" in there, even if it was only during boot, I felt was horribly inappropriate and tacky. Or there's the horrible rom King-something-or-other made with the stupid bootscreen. Many people don't agree, and that's great, because there's variety and diversity, and that's where themers come in.
You're asking for a reduction of choice, but choice tends to be a personal issue. Whatever it is you like, I assure you, there's going to be plenty of people that don't like it.
Let devs do instead what we do, develop, and let themers do their job, and let people have the ability to make choices.
this is actually a really good idea, however people would definitely need to coordinate thoughts and idea's better, but on that sense it would provide a much closer knit community.
would be interesting to see what develops from this.
The simplest way is for the themer to include the png's when he creates the theme and have the end user repack and sign, or use better cut if they don't care about the app drawer icon.
mianosm said:
I totally agree, and also don't create anything for the community to use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL
Some people just don't get it.

creating a theme

maybe this is out of my league...
but is it pretty much as easy as extracting the images, changing there colours (maybe using photoshop??) and then re packaging and updating my hero?
if its not too much harder could someone point me towards a guide, or if im smack on, lead me to the apk i have to extract? theres no "sense" apk and i did not find any images in the rosie apk!
i would really appreciate this, thanks in advance
im jus using winrar to extract the apk's, so far i have found alot of the images but i havnt come across any that id like to change
edit #2
ok so i was looking through and have started to figure out how they sorted all there files... but i was wondering if there was like universal png's somewhere? cuz it seems like every apk has its own black bar at the top (for the pull down tray)
maybe this is in the wrong forum?
try looking in the themes thread, i am sure I saw a guide to creating themes somewhere...
take a look at the Dream/Magic/Sapphire boards there are several threads about this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=574167
should help

[Q] Can someone port this?

Hi.
I hope it is the right place to post this.
I was hoping someone could port this theme:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=574139
For the Desire or make a theme copying the style. Mostly opendesire or Defrost.
I really like the Buuf style as I use it in ubuntu and ADW launcher. But I lack the skills and the knowledge to make a theme or port it.
(I don't know which image files does what...)
Thanks in advance. And I hope you can help me.
-Simon
No one. no
Well if someone could atleast point to a tutorial on what which picture file does what I guess I will see if I can do it myself. (And maybe a little on how it works. I have ubuntu.)
Hi
Unfortunatley you aren't going to get much advise on this here, I too like a theme but it is not for my phone it's for T-Mobile Pulse.
I too wanted my theme ported as I do not have the skills, I'm fine with photoshop but its knowing which images and xml code need changing. Also photoshop PSD template would be great.
But I guess there are no tutorial or anyone willing to create one. I'm doing my own research but haven't yet found anything useful. i'll let you know if I get anywhere.
Good Luck mate but I think we are on our own with this one
Thanks for answering. And think you are right about the "on our own" part. I guess I'll have to find a tutorial on which files to edit and then make my own theme. If you find anything. Could you please give me a PM?
Sent from something using the internet.
Just thought I'd let you know that I managed to port the theme I wanted, not too bad but is not perfect stills some issues.
Shame there are no PSD templates. please see thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=7730046#post7730046
The problem is that theme is ugly and childlike no offence but it is.
This puts people off porting themes as there will be only one or two people that will actually like it and use it. What rom are you currently using? I may have a go at porting it tomorrow when i have some spare time. Not sure how much of it i would be able to do. I'm new to all this stuff too!
Lol.
I know It's childish. But so am I
I am shifting between defrost 2.9a, opendesire 3.3.0 and cyanogenmod rc2.
So if you have time, you can deside.

[Q] looking for a push in the right direction to theme

I would like to slowly step into learning how to code. I would like to start with turning widgets of applications and icons.
unfortunately, I have no idea where to start. I would like to take an original facebook and a themed one, study the changes and make my own. What program, that is readily available and easy to use, should I use to unpack an apk? Are they even like zips? Can I use a word or notepad?
Thanks in advance. Everyone starts somewhere.
Swyped from my Cyanogen Evo
Here is a link for zipping and unzipping the apk. They ate basically just zip files http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=695701 most of the changes well just ne changing png files not a lot of coding. Here is a link gig marketing themes http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=471586
Sent from my unrEVOked using xda app

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