Post: How to create your own ps3 theme (DETAILED TUTORIAL)
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08-17-2011, 05:40 AM
#1
RADDY1993
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INTRODUCTION
This is my tutorial on how to create your own ps3 themes with sounds. Before we start there are some things that you will need to know. The first thing I will talk about is the ps3 theme builder this was created to work only on windows xp however it will work on windows 7 but some features will not. The first theme builder is 2.5 and then there is a 3.0 update the 3.0 update is what we want as it allows us to put sounds into the theme. The trouble is 3.0 does not work at all on windows 7 but don't worry as I have a 4.0 beta version which does its basically the 3.0 but its been patched to work this will be included with instructions in my theme pack posted below. The next thing i will talk about is the theme sounds in order to put sounds into your theme you need to have a sound converter that converts files into VAG format. This format is not that common so most sound converters will not have this format to convert to. However after some searching I have found a very good converter that does this for us. This converter will also be included in my theme pack. I would mention that when searching for sounds to use in your theme I recommend them being no longer than 2 to 3 seconds maximum, as any longer will result in an error message when trying to build your theme. The last thing to talk about is icons and backgrounds. For the icons you can either create your own in photoshop or something similar or you can use some that are already in a theme. All you need to do is download a theme which contains the icons you like and then extract them using the theme builder. Remember icons need to be PNG format and the size 128 x 128. I will cover this in my tutorial. You can also create your own backgrounds using photoshop or C4D. These need to be JPEG and you will need one for HD which is 1920 x 1080 and one for SD for 640 x 480. Now I have explained a little about how themes are created we can now start to build our own. The next thing to do is download my theme pack this contains all the tools we need to create a theme.
1) First thing to do is extract the download to your desktop you should now have a folder. Inside the folder open the sound converter folder and run the setup once installed you can set up the them builder just open the theme builder folder and right click the file highlighted.
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2) Now we can start to gather our sounds,icons and backgrounds for our theme. First lets get some backgrounds, as i said before you can either make your own in photoshop or c4d or you can just download some. For this tutorial we will just download some for speed. The site i use for my backgrounds isYou must login or register to view this content. here you can download a theme in any size ytou want perfect for what we need as we need to sizes. So just find the theme you like and click it then below it you can use the preset sizes or type in your own. Remember we need one at 1920x1080 and one at 640x480 so just put the size in and then submit then just right click the background and save as. Now you should have 2 backgrounds for your theme.
3) Ok lets get some icons, all you do is go to a theme site i use You must login or register to view this content. find a theme with the icons you like and download it. Simple you now have your icons.
4) Right now sounds i use this site You must login or register to view this content. as it has loads of great sound effects and loops. I always go for WAV files but im sure you can use other formats but for this i suggest WAV as i know they work in the converter. So you will need to register to be allowed to download this only takes a few minutes and is worth it. Once you are logged in just find the sounds you want to use you will need 4 sounds and remember 2-3 seconds max. I would say for now get 1 second ones but you can try longer sounds later.
5) So now lets start to build our theme . Open theme editor and you should see this.
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Now click open then find your theme you downloaded and you should see something like this.
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Now hit generate preview you will now see this.
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Hit the generate button and you will see a preview of the theme all we are doing here is unpacking the theme so we can use the icons. So click the bottom of the preview where it says (click here to save the preview and close).
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Now hit close again and you should be back to your theme builder now just click build you will see it unpacking the theme when its done just press any key to save it.
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6) Right now lets make our theme open theme builder again and hit new theme then click copy from existing theme now name your theme what you want then click browse you will now need the theme we just unpacked it should be in my documents/my play station themes now doulble click it and press ok and it will open up in theme builder.
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Just fill out all the bits like i have but with your own stuff of course. You can put a theme icon and author icon like i have these need to be 64x64 and PNG format. Ok once you have done that hit (icons,colours,and fonts) and you will see something like this.
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Here you can look at your icons and if you have made your own this is where you put them in but for now just use the ones we chose earlier you can also change the font and pointers so once you have done all that move on to (backgrounds,notifications and sounds and you will see this.
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Ok we are nearly done so first delete the backgrounds do this by clicking on where it says background 1 and then hit delete selected below do this on how ever many background there are in the theme. When done click add new background and browse your 1920x1080 for theHD and 640x480 for the SD. So now the sounds if there are already some sounds added you need to delete the do this by selectind a action in the sound effect box and then hit delete sound. Now we need to convert our WAV files into VAG so go to your desktop and open the sound converter you will see something like this.
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Now press Ctrl+b and you will see this.
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Make sure the convert waveforms tab is selected then press next. You will now see this .
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All you do is drop the WAV file onto the converter it can be a single file or a batch so once done just press next. Now make sure you have the same settings as me.
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Now just hit start and it will convert your files into VAG files when done hit close. Now back to our theme builder all we do now is pick a place for each sound effect to go so for instance click cursor in the sound effect box then hit upload sound and pick one of your VAG files we just made you can then hit play to hear the sound. Once you have done all the effects just double check everything and go back to (theme information). Now click generate preview just like before and you should get a preview of youe theme then make sure you click the save and close part at the bottom of the preview or it will not work then close the next window and you will be back on your theme builder again. Now this is it hit build theme like before when its doen hit any key and you have now made your own ps3 theme with sounds .
7) Right lets get the theme on our ps3 first go to where you saved the theme and open it you now should see all the theme unpacked. So you just need to find the .p3t file it will look like thIs.
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All you do now is right click and copy or drag it to your desktop then put it on a mem stick and install it on your ps3 like this.
Create a folder named “PS3″ (without the quotes) on the storage media and create a subfolder named “THEME” (must be all uppercase, again, without the quotes) within that folder.
Copy the theme you created (.p3t) to the “THEME” subfolder on the storage media.
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Insert the storage media in the PS3 system.
In the XMB (Xross Media Bar), go to (Settings) > (Theme Settings) > [Theme], and then select [Install].
Select the theme that you just installed.
After installation has been completed, go to (Settings) > (Theme Settings) > [Theme] again, and then select the theme.
Your done now enjoy your new ps3 theme.Hope you like this tutorial as it took me ages to make any problems just pm me and i will try to help if i don't reply straight away don't worry im probably just busy just be patient.
The following 3 users say thank you to RADDY1993 for this useful post:
08-17-2011, 06:09 AM
#3
RADDY1993
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Originally posted by Speirs
1 question - Can we change the size of icons, instead of being a set 128X128 P Could we use something like say 640-480 P and create full on images and create a XBL dasboard type interface?
That is one ps3 theme I am looking for.
That is one ps3 theme I am looking for.
I don't think so you can try but i think the theme builder will not let you put bigger icons in. And you may get an error when trying to build your theme.
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