Root Themes

[savoxis]

Anyone know of any phones with roughly the same display area as the Ally?

 

[GRZLA]

There are a lot of phones with the same resolution as the Ally. Not a lot of themes work for our phone though. Our display is 480x800.

Phone Finder Results (Phone Scoop)

 

[savoxis]

My goal is to try and make a theme I like by using different resources (images) out of other themes and throw them into a working mm theme control file. I tested this a little by using pieces from R1L and Ubuntu and it worked beautifully.

I am horrible a graphic design work but not so bad at image manipulation and layout so hopefully Ill be able to pull something together

 

[GRZLA]

I attempted to make a theme myself the other day but I don't have internet hooked up yet so it became rather frustrating. I was attempting to make a clear glass style theme.

Once the Cox people come set up my internet then ill be more than happy to make some themes.

 

[turbine]

If some one has specific instructions, I'm a part time graphic designer. I can modify stuff or make new things, but I have no idea how the skins for these phones work. Let me know if you need some help.

 

[savoxis]

If some one has specific instructions, I'm a part time graphic designer. I can modify stuff or make new things, but I have no idea how the skins for these phones work. Let me know if you need some help.

What I have been trying is taking existing themes (RedFury's Ubuntu works good) as a base, and using the same control file.

You can extract a theme on your computer and edit the individual png files to your liking. The extracted theme will give you a myriad of small png files containing one piece of the whole theme.

Editing an existing theme is easy. I was able to change the app drawer and notification bar pngs VERY easily. I cant even imagine where you would begin making one from scratch. Since i am inept at photoshop/gimp I am just trying to assemble png files out of existing themes to make one SuperTheme using the best out of what I have available.

 

[Mitchell4500]

A cool idea would for someone to make a "base theme" that is designed to be modified to make themes like how you guys are doing this. I think i might try this...

 

[Jace417]

A cool idea would for someone to make a "base theme" that is designed to be modified to make themes like how you guys are doing this. I think i might try this...

You mean like a template? Something that is coded for easy "plug and play" replacement of the demo graphics? Insert a new image with the same name and dimensions of the demo graphics and presto... you've got ThemeYOU!

A base template would be great... I made a template out of PNG for people to modify Twitter backgrounds once, since people use different graphics editors. I'm not 100% sure I have the coding chops for a project like this, but it does sound like a fun one to me.

 

[turbine]

Yeah, I've made things like templates for websites, so I'll check it out this weekend and see if I can just mod up a theme and test it out to get the process down. I'll probably just do a black and white one with some translucency so it can be easily modded into specific colors. Does anyone know of a guide that shows you where to find the files for the different parts of the theme? or is it pretty self explanatory?

 

[savoxis]

I have been toying around with finding the theme files to change and have made much headway.

You can extract apk files using 7zip or other archive tool and inside you will find a folder called res, inside there you have a few other folders some containing the image files used by the phone.

/system/framework/ has a good one, and /system/app/launcher2.apk contains some useful ones.

Making a control file is not as daunting as it may seem either, I have been examining existing ctrl files and for instance to add your changed pngs to framework, you simply make a folder called framework-res/res/* where * is the name of the folder containing the pngs (use the same foldername the extracted folder had) and to make MM apply these changes you would add this line to the control file.

<item>framework-res.apk</item>
<path>/system/framework/</path>

Edit: before testing it is a very good idea to make a nandroid backup

 

[savoxis]

I successfully ported The Luna Theme to my Ally. It was much easier than I thought it would be, screen shots are as follows.... The see no, hear no, speak no evil penguins where NOT ported. I added those

Seeing as how easy this was, if anyone has any ideas for themes they want ported let me know and I will be happy to help. I plan on completing this theme by adding all app theming, right now it themes contacts, phone, settings, framework-res, and launcher2.


I may upload it somewhere when its done. I dont like this theme much however, I was using it mostly as a test

 

[Jace417]

I haven't done any researching on theming yet, so I don't know how easy nor how involved it may be. I've been android user since the G1 had a pre-order list... erm, well... I was on the list. Android user since launch. There... now that's a more accurate statement.

In spite of being one of the first to root and play with the G1, I've never built nor modified a theme for it nor the Ally.

It sounds like a really fun project though. If you can direct me to any information regarding what is required, a simple how to... or similar then I'd be glad to work up the demo template we spoke of. And I might just start creating simple (yes SIMPLE) themes every quarter.

Point me in the right direction to start learning, and I'll start working.

 

[savoxis]

I haven't done any researching on theming yet, so I don't know how easy nor how involved it may be. I've been android user since the G1 had a pre-order list... erm, well... I was on the list. Android user since launch. There... now that's a more accurate statement.

In spite of being one of the first to root and play with the G1, I've never built nor modified a theme for it nor the Ally.

It sounds like a really fun project though. If you can direct me to any information regarding what is required, a simple how to... or similar then I'd be glad to work up the demo template we spoke of. And I might just start creating simple (yes SIMPLE) themes every quarter.

Point me in the right direction to start learning, and I'll start working.

I havent looked for a how to yet, or a guide nothing of the sort, flying by the seat of my pants here.

Once I learn more about it I will make one

 

[gregskeels]

I successfully ported The Luna Theme to my Ally. It was much easier than I thought it would be, screen shots are as follows.... The see no, hear no, speak no evil penguins where NOT ported. I added those

Seeing as how easy this was, if anyone has any ideas for themes they want ported let me know and I will be happy to help. I plan on completing this theme by adding all app theming, right now it themes contacts, phone, settings, framework-res, and launcher2.


I may upload it somewhere when its done. I dont like this theme much however, I was using it mostly as a test

I do I get that on my phone