Sony Ericsson Theme - Highlights, Theme Creator Options

[Tyronne]

Tutorial for SE theme Creator.

This tutorial only tackles about the basics in SE theme Creator. Other tutorial such as how to make bars, highlights and titles in SE Theme Creator will be tackled in the second post.



To start: First of all, you need the Sony Ericsson Theme Creator. Download it here: SE Theme Creator Download



When you open SE Theme Creator, it will lead you to a window where you can see all the SE phone models.
(IMG:http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/3423/phonemodelsuf2.png)
Choose your phone model. Scroll down to see other phone models. For this tutorial, we will use K800.



This will be the look of the main screen:
(IMG:http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/3915/mainscreensetccm2.png)

Here you can drag and drop images. Just be sure to match the sizes written in boxes in SE Theme Creator. The one shown in the image is the Standby screen. after you're done with the standby screen, you can go to desktop, navigation, etc. drag and drop images or just click the import button and select the image you want. It's pretty much that easy. After you're done with everything, click the preview button to see the theme preview of course.



Now, with the coloring.. Sometimes, even if you finished putting images to all the screens and applying colors. Your theme can't be save for reason that it has this error.
(IMG:http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/7031/colorerrorng7.png)
It just means that a color overlaps a same color marked by x in the picture shown. try to avoid colors that will overlap the same color. Basically, use a different color for your text and the background of that text. You can not see the background color when the "show images" is checked. so basically, to avoid errors like the in the picture above, uncheck the "show images" found beside the Preview button on the upper right corner of the screen and check for overlapping same colors. or search for "x" marks and change those colors.


After doing all, just save your theme. hook a cable to your phone and enjoy your theme. :)
I really don't know if this tutorial is helpful. hehe.
That's it. Pretty easy huh? then let's start doing some highlights and bars.

This post has been edited by Tyronne: May 20 2007, 09:44 AM

[Tyronne]

Softkey Tutorial for Beginners


This tutorial mainly focuses on creating Basic softkeys for your Sony Ericsson themes.

From this tutorial, you can also get the idea on how to create bars and highlights too because it uses the

same concept.



First of all, you need an image editing software like Adobe Photoshop. In this tutorial, i will be using

Adobe Photoshop 7.0. it is almost identical to Photoshop CS2. so anyone using CS2 will find this tutorial

useful.
Also, obviously, you need the SE theme Creator. download link:

SE Theme Creator Download







Let's Start:In this tutorial, i will be dealing with K800 softkey. k800 softkeys size is 240x30. Open a new

document

with the size of 240x30 pixels with a transparent background.
(IMG:http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/7074/newdocumentul3.png)




Now, right-click the rectangle tool found in your toolbar and select rounded rectangle tool.
(IMG:http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/4537/rectangletoolks4.png)
and make sure to have this settings first.

(IMG:http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/1456/recsettingstk7.png)



Select a color of your choice. mine is blue. zoom in to about 300% (press ctrl+ + twice)
Trace your cursor to look much alike in the picture.

(IMG:http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/2016/softkeytraceay3.png)
and the result will be much like this.

(IMG:http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/3239/softkeycopykh9.png)



Right after this, you can either 1.) Select a preset type of style to make the plain blue rounded rectangle a

bit glamorous, or 2.) create your own style to make the softkey glamorous.




1st Option: Preset type
--Right click and select blending options. select styles. and choose whatever you like that you think will

look nice in your theme. I selected Brushed Metal.
(IMG:http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/2872/blendingoptionssc9.png)
and the finished product looks like this when zoomed out to 100%
(IMG:http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/1120/softjl7.png)
Notice that the blue color we chose didn't matter. I will explain in 2nd option why the blue color didn't

exist in the final image.





or 2nd Option: Create your own style
--right click and select blending options. select style and choose anything you like. Let's use Brushed

Metal again. But before you click "OK", let's uncheck the Pattern overlay and check Texture under Bevel

and Emboss .
(IMG:http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/7236/unchekchekovelaysay2.png)
Under the Texture category, change the pattern to "Optical Squares" as the same image shown below.

change the scale to 25%. and click Ok.
(IMG:http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/3329/texturecategorycj6.png)
The final result should be something like this:
(IMG:http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/4651/softqa4.png)




Notice that it has the blue color we pick. the reason that the blue color was absent on 1st option is

because of the pattern overlay which resembles the brushed metal. since i uncheck it and put textures

instead, the blue color is visible but now, with optical square texture.

Noticeably, you can create many softkey images through the use of blending options. Just experiment and

see what you can do.


IMPORTANT: always save your work in png format to retain its quality. and to retain the

transparency of the background. if you save your work in jpg or bmp, the transparent background will

change into white.




For the results, Let's see how our two softkeys look in SE theme Creator:


1st Option:
(IMG:http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/6449/result1fr6.png)




2nd Option:
(IMG:http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/1900/result2ck9.png)




TIPS: the above tutorial is just the BASIC of creating softkeys, highlights and title bars.

always experiment with blending options. try to check and uncheck all the options and see what happens. it will give you an idea on how each option works. it will give you so much good results. try to vary your softkey

shapes not just to rounded rectangles, you can use rectangles, or custom shapes. Just remember that

functionality comes first. When you use to creating this basic softkeys, you can now experiment to add

frames and borders, etc. and you should learn "Layering".


That's it. I think... :P

[ssivic]

Very nice...thanks Tyrone....maybe I will think of making themes....! :lol:

[wildpalms]

thank you for this tutorial. it is very helpful :clap2:

[bj1605]

This goes well with Doc's theming tips for begginers that have photoshop instead of psp

[Batusai5]

i wished there is a program tat can transfer bigger theme res to smaller themes res.... haiz..

[Batusai5]

i wished there is a program tat can transfer bigger theme res to smaller themes res.... haiz..

i have 176x220 themes but i wan then in 128x160 res..

[michael5472]

Wow thanks there is so much more i can do :)

[your_mother]

Is there any way to change the icons for a theme??

[JAIR32]

[COLOR=blue][SIZE=14][FONT=Impact] Any probelm with the themes creator, you can contact ne; my account is crawlink<email snipped>.com
xD

[your_mother]

[COLOR=blue][SIZE=14][FONT=Impact] Any probelm with the themes creator, you can contact ne; my account is crawlink<email snipped>.com
xD
[right][snapback]463567[/snapback][/right]

WOW! I don't get anything! :-))
That looks more like HTML Code to me...? Well, I'll try to find out more and ask again when I can be more specific with my questions...
Thanx!!

[komalash]

I made a theme for my K750i fone..n when i tranferred it to my fone it got aved in the 'other' folder...why is dat???did i do sumthing rong?
Reply asap..!Thnx

[Niyaz_14_k610i_2...]

As your saying that'll you need ADOBE, well i cannot use it for a reason so can someone just send me a softkey as i am an noob in this kind of stuff.
Thanks PM me if your going to help me or post it here, it'll help alot, thanks.

[Liccle-Loz18]

Hello . I need help because i have tryed to download the theme creator and it wont download can u help me :surrender:

[antonis1978]

Hello . I need help because i have tryed to download the theme creator and it wont download can u help me  :surrender:
[right][snapback]475103[/snapback][/right]

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Sony...load-16868.html