Thanks! Badboy

Is there a another way to upload a preview?

yes. go to
www.imageshack.us
upload the preview there....u will get a "hotlink for forums" copy and paste it here

alright. heres my first screen.




remember everyone : this is my first time creating a sony ericsson theme so all advices are welcome and most appreciated.

and look. rjDsouza is here. hey buddy. i've seen some of your works and i think they are awesome.

nice start. i think that the time is not clearly readable due to the bright yellow.....

thats the same thing that i thought. i think i will burn the yellow. so that green is visible...

thanks for this piece of ADvIcE

i thought maybe u cud tell me which of my entries shud be in the final thread coz now i have two different versions......

@bbt:-very nice clean and functional theme
@dasiy:-good image for theme
@NVDS1:-you have also good image to theme
@Boxie:-clean and functional
@gault:-very goo abstrac image
@longhair:-i cant see you image in detail pw is too small
@rhtz:-very professional choice of image very tough to theme
@rjdsouza:-Welcome back
................................................................................
..
my entry
First screen
how is that

which one? the first one or the second one???

as for your work, nice start...the softkey's a little too bright for my taste

ok since so many guys missed this....i have two entries to choose from help me decide.....

Another try then..hopefully you don't need glasses now

Hi Mohammed . That's one nice sketch, I'd only make the softkey more symmetric, e.g. take the left half of it and mirror it.



Hmmm, #1 imho has the nicer tab solution wheras in #2 the white highlights look better. Perhaps try #1 together with the white highlights of #2? In general, your highlights will look more elegant if you make them a few pixels smaller in height, so they aren't overlapped by the unselected text, like it's e.g. the case in the third screen ("Auto Time Zone" highlight) or the sixth screen ("Voice message" highlight). I'm sure, there's one experienced SE themer around who can give you advice about the exact pixel measure.

go with the white... but maybe you might wanna change the desktop highlight to match the rest of them


btw. Bishop's right about the highlights. I usually knock off 3 to 5 pixels from the top & bottom of highlights. Then save the file with transparent background

ohhh yeah! thanks i used to do this in my older themes but after such a long break i forgot about it thanks....

but i don't understand what u mean by tab solution
#1 has nicer Tab solution?
try #1 with highlights of #2?????

@ davis

Thanks. Good to be back

@ Gault

Looking quite promising for 1st time SE themer. Besides readability issue, how about applying the style used in the status to the menu bar?

@ mohammed_intekhab

Thanks - good to be back.... I hope I remember what to do.
I like your first screen. Might want to think about changing the checked background to something that compliments or doesn't distract from the curvy lines

@ Boxie, i think i may be out voted but i prefer the first!!!

@ BBT thanks for comment, cant believe you finished urs already, looks amazing!

@ cuteheart, LOVE the clock! Really good job!!!

@ Mohammed nice work, cant wait to see end result!!!

@everyone else.....awesome job so far.....isnt this FUN!!!!!!! love it!

@Rod
Good to know you're back with your great work and useful and helpful comments...

@all
I really enjoy seeing your previews and reading your posts... that's the spirit of TMC I like...

Hello Longhair! So glad to see you giving the competition a try. Your theme is looking good so far and I agree with BBT that the clock fits the theme well. The preview is now bigger and yeah save me from needing my good old glasses. However, would you be try to post a full, unresized screenshot? Like THIS? It helps us to see the full detail of the theme.

welcome back rjdsouza

Here is my full screen short , hope everyone like it ,,,,,,,,,, i uploaded on my profile ,,,,,




i just edit all my themes screen , hope everyone like it ,,,,,,,,,,

Wow Imran
Fantastic work. And I Love the clock
Keep up the excellent work
Please can you make the same for Nokia 6300
Thanks

This is very beautiful my dear friend.........
Very, very nice

i will try to make themes for you special_hugs ,

'deisy06'

thank you friend you like it

beautiful job cute heart, knew you'd make it something wonderful!

this is fun. i'll make one tonight

man.....how come you can all make awesome themes overnight, and it takes me like the WHOLE 2 weeks, and they still dont look half as good as yours
.........its not fair!!!!

@ NVDVS ::
@ Mohammed :: nyc work man.. ..can't wait to see the rest of the screens
@ Daisy :: i'm going thru the same problem here .. ..


EDIT :: I have no clue what I'll do with the highlyt bars

I think I'll go with this pic:


Original is here

@ cute_heart



I do like the concept & how you've nicely blended the grey with a bit of red

But I also see some areas that could be tweeked to make it a great theme... I hope you don't mind
1. There's a smudge in your background image (bottom right) that's appearing in all areas that you used this background.
2. Standby screen - details are what sets apart good & great themes. But only if done. The "WED 4, 2009" is blocked by the time-date display. Also, I see a white line along the right side of the background image
3. Desktop highlight & active tab - same vertical white line running down the right side. But it looks fine in the other highlight bars
4. Menu bar - the vertical white dividers looks a bit out of place. Try grey
5. Valentine (the heart shape) - if you need to re-size it, keep it proportioned. Also, it's doesn't need to be centered all the time. For that matter, it doesn't have to be part of the background.
6. Font colours - they are readable but try to be consistent by using colour tones that complement the overall colour scheme (i.e. try light grey or shades of grey
7. Scroll bar - light blue does not complement the scheme because of the red heart (I feel)

Overall, your theme is titled "black.clock". You should try to apply elements of your clock (not the whole clock) on some of the other screens... would tie the whole theme together better

@ daisy


It's not how fast you can churn out a theme, but how satisfied you are with your creation
....patience, patience, patience, inspiration, inspiration, inspiration, patience, patience, patience, practice, practice, practice, patience, patience, patience

@cute heart - my friend, don't let some good words to fake you. Honestly, with this theme you got no chance in TMC. But the idea is very good, and rjd offered you a perfect landmarks list to make your theme a candidate to be on the podium.
What I can say is dont stretch the objects; meaning keep the objects on its proportioned size, and use more transparency.

@cute_heart: rjd gave you some pretty good advice.....windtalker might sound pretty harsh, but i think he is right
what i observed is that u have used the SAME image for everything...the background, the highlight bars, the title bars....the strecthed out heart looks very bad and in some cases (see bottom left) it is very pixellated and i can't understand what that smudge at the bottom right of the images is...

sorry mate....i know this sounds rough but u gotta take care of these issues

one suggestion....for the highlight bars, instead of keeping a stretched out heart, keep a tiny heart on the extreme right of the bar, and keep the rest of it blank


@windtalker: how about your honest opinion on MY theme as well? where do i stand?
@ALL: i am still confused about my entry
@Bishop: what does tab solution mean?????
@lionet: pretty good(and tough) choice! cant wait to see wat u do with it! i think u are gonna have a hard time making sure the background doesn't interfere with the text but then again, you are a LOT more experienced than me

That's exactly who Lionet is ... never selecting ideal wallpaper but often came out with a smashing theme. Did you remember? This is the guy who wanted to do a Toyota theme when there are tonnes of cool cars like Ferrari, Aston Martin etc.

LOL!!!! i know i know! it just seems that no matter how long I put into my theme it just doesnt seem anywhere near the standard that
ive come across in the TMC's ! its like you say, practice practice practice!!!!

OHHHHH....cant wait to see it completed!

@AW: yeah i guess so! no wonder he commands so much respect from the other themers i would never be able to use a background like that.......

@daisy: i like ur theme but yeah...it's all about practise

ROFL! I never liked sport cars Thank you for you kind words


really?


Hey, boxie, that's easy enough... If you'll add one layer above your picture, paint it into one neutral color, and add some transparency to it, than you'll get a pretty good background for your text please try

u could have tried a Rolls Royce theme then

i m in

You choose a good wallpaper, but...........what I think you have to reserve some more time on your theme. ie. you organized the big highlight pretty well (meaning the height of it, and how the text suited) but the small highlight is on its default height. Cut 2 pixels from up and another from down and it will show up better, on a transparent background ofcourse.
I recommend you to take a look at the old winning themes in TMC. Try to get some inspiration from there, ofcourse you can not be perfect from the first day, but inorder to make some improvement you have to try a bit harder. If I were you I would use blue highlights with this theme and add some dark blue-black gradient. Contrasting border is also not suited in my opinion on the highs. And also the text colors are very important what I think. Try to choose the suitable contrasting text colors since you keep the balance and harmony.
If I were you I would go and see some of Jasnasto's and PatrickLippe's themes.

hmmm...that was very detailed. thanks

so u mean i should use blue highlights? did u see my first version of this? the one in which i have used Blue highlights??? maybe that is what u meant?

i will make the highlight bars smaller of course, but tell me shud i do it with the blue one or the white one.....

and what text color would you recommend? i though white looks best on this theme

and now while i wait for your reply i am off to Jasnasto's and PatrickLippe's homesites

Thank you for your lovely advice ,

@ cute heart: your idea is solid and a good one, but you seem to be lacking follow through, the great thing about design is well ................ you design it how you want it, there are no restrictions in art but your own imagination. Your bars ( highlights ) should not be soo big, as long as the menu text can be seen on bars thats enough, me I go 2 pixels from bootom and top usually, especially if i going to really do detialed bars, and want to create an illusion of depth on a 2D object. I often utilize those extra spaces of pixels for adding drop shadows, or deeper shapes etc as i said anything goes so here is a quick list of what i would personally do to your theme to spruce it up a bit.

1 - I would make the clock animation smaller maybe 30% smaller, this would allow for both your clock and the themes digital clock to be seen easily. also it would allow the operator text to be seen.

2 - on your highlights as stated earlier I would make highlights not so big, and I would also change the heart graphic from being stretched to being even sized maybe 20 by 20 px, and placed on the end of each highlight, this means text can be easily seen. Plus it will look a lot better than currently.

3 - think more about your themes color pallet, if your main colors are to be black and red, then choose similar colors for other details, like make the scroll bar red, and make your text white for screens, cause white can be easily read on a dark surface, and make the scroll bar background black, for a black background, with a nice red scroll bar will look great, and totally fit in with your themes appearance and style.

4 - When ever you wish to use a busy image on the navigation content, try this little trick.

make your image the first layer, then add a new layer next select all of the new layer by using ctrl A , and then fill it in with flat black #000000, next go to your new layers blending properties and change the overall layer opacity ( first option at top in menu ) to say 70 or 80% , this will allow you to still visabley see your image, while adding enough cover to now also see any text written over it

All of what I have said may seem hard or confusing for you now, but given some time and practice, will become common sense in newer projects etc, it all comes with time ( don't believe me go see my older work lol )

so yea just rememebr it's your theme there are no set boudries in how you go about skinning, and it is this that sets each designer apart, sure being skilled at digital art helps, but it's not everything, imagination is

best of luck

Ok, here is my standby screen :-)
Hopefully you will see i have been playing around more and made an improvement :-)

very nice, mamaflump. i think it would be better to have ur statusbar 2 pixels bigger

@BBT: oh wow! i had never though of adding a drop shadow in the remaining space! thanks

ok so here is another version, with subtle changes over the first one.....



so now it is either this one, the first one, or the second one with smaller highlights.....

Hi, i am planning to use this wallpaper...any suggetions??????

@ Boxie

how many versions are you going to create for this theme ???

this one also looks nice. but i liked white one more.

Great Wallpaper Sam

@sam: hmmm.....interesting pick....can't wait to see what font color, and highlight color, you use.......

@Gault: i plan to create as many as it takes to get it right...down to the smallest of details that's wat i have learnt from themers like BBT, Jasnastos, and others. if you don't dedicate time to your theme(or wally), you can't expect to win......

i will wait to see what the others say, coz i have to choose from the white and all-blue versions for the final entry thread......


anywayz....i have REVIVED my theming thread

here's a link:
BoxieBlue's Themes