Themebuilding, getting started

[Harvey Sewdin]

Hello member, if you want to start making you own themes, you should prepare youself first. Get the right set of tools, take a look at some tutorials and get started. Here is a list of things you might want to do first.


TOOLS
You need to get the right set of tools:
► VistaStyleBuilder, software to put your theme together, get it here: http://vistastylebuilder.com/download.html
► A photo editing software like Photoshop
► Paint, for quick editing


TUTORIALS
► Complete guide to themebuilding: http://virtualcustoms.net/showthread.php/28810-Complete-Guide-to-Theme-Building
► A quick look at taskbar editing: http://virtualcustoms.net/showthread.php/40252-A-Quick-Look-at-Taskbar-Editing
► Image Locations for Breadcrumbs, Start menu, etc: http://virtualcustoms.net/showthread.php/31637-Image-Locations-for-Breadcrumbs-Start-menu-etc
► Other tutorials and questions: http://virtualcustoms.net/forumdisplay.php/810-Windows-Style-Builder-v1-5-Tutorials


OTHER SOFTWARE YOU MAY NEED
These are software you will need when making extras for the theme or for editing systemfiles
►Restorator, can be used to assemble a extras pack like 7tsp, or to edit theme dll files.


UTILITIES:
► Blade Base by MR Grim. This is a themestyle which can be used as an base for your theme. get it here: http://virtualcustoms.net/showthread.php/33480-Blade-Base
► Here are some unfinished projects made by other artist, you may continue with them: http://virtualcustoms.net/forumdisplay.php/1008-Msstyles-Dump
► Stylehacks for your stylebuilder: http://virtualcustoms.net/forumdisplay.php/859-Style-Hacks



Note that created themes with VistaStyleBuilder will only work on Windows Vista and Windows 7
If you need more help you can always ask it here: http://virtualcustoms.net/forumdisplay.php/857-Help-Support

[gor17981]

Good post man, im sure this will help alot of people. very informative, Stickied! :Smile:

[faizalotai]

Good post bud,rep for you

[Hellcat]

:flirt: great post useful info thank you Harvey :tu:

[ToastyBagel]

Thanks man. This is going to make my theme building go a lot smoother from now on. :no1:

[prikaza]

thanks

[thomasking42]

Sweet! thanks.

[jhgenius01]

This is the kind of tutorial that is definitely needed though I recommend not using Paint. There is no need for Paint when you have Paint(dot)NET! It's a better version of Paint, much better, and the creators originally intended it to replace Paint!

PS: Don't like this Error popping up whenever I have [something].[something] typed in: You must have 5 posts in order to post links. Can it be fixed please! I couldn't even put the dot in Paint(dot)NET!!!
Then again. It's only 5 posts (it's not counting the posts I had in the old board.)

[DragonKnight]

this is very helpful. thanks

[CyberGhost]

thanks for this gonna start reading all this hope it help me :D

[ajfudge]

Thank you for compiling those links.
I have Dave Senior's old links. This made it easier for me to retrace my steps when I abandoned theme creation.
I will give this theme building thing another try. :D


---
It's 2013 and I'm still on Windows 7, and I have no problem with that. :)

[poweredbyostx]

thank you for this,helped me a lot :Smile:

[IceBabee]

What a great post of info for all us beginners! I wanna thank you for taking the time to post this. :girl:

[Ali-chan]

Great post, it will help alot of people :)

[itsattiq]

Thanx, it helped me a lot... thanx this site is a great school for new comers...

[Gundamage]

Thiss great,Thank You

[r4nd.0m]

Thanks for this.

[r4nd.0m]

Thanks, good work.

[pixeldot1]

i am an artist that paints on canvas,now what i don't get when i got acquainted with the interface of wsb,is not so much the values i have to put in,but the fact that i can't see it evolve as a group,as i would a painting,as well what are the limitations?
i.e:close,reduce and minimize on the upper right,can they be any width?could i get a staircase effect,the close button wide and narrow and below it as wide moved more to the left and the minimize even more to the left,in any width...
or am i limited to specific limits?
that aside,my main point is i need to see it all at once,how to,frankly the help button is useless.

[ONE MAN ARMY]

i am an artist that paints on canvas,now what i don't get when i got acquainted with the interface of wsb,is not so much the values i have to put in,but the fact that i can't see it evolve as a group,as i would a painting,as well what are the limitations?
i.e:close,reduce and minimize on the upper right,can they be any width?could i get a staircase effect,the close button wide and narrow and below it as wide moved more to the left and the minimize even more to the left,in any width...
or am i limited to specific limits?
that aside,my main point is i need to see it all at once,how to,frankly the help button is useless.

Well Yes there are certain limitations to how the theme will run. Im not an expert at it. I still have much learning to do. But Best to play around with it and learn. Your not going to figure it out in a few months. Its a process. I pretty much always start off with the main images. Like the start menu. Window Frames and the taskbar. Once you complete those You will see your theme. as far as the min/max/close buttons those are very tricky for me I still have not figured them out but you can make them bigger and or smaller and im sure you can add some tricky animation to them as long as you fallow the rules of the program. Keep Practicing. Trial and error my friend.

[silent1694]

great post.

[Elendor]

It helps a lot of beginners like me. Much appreciated.

[bigcyco1]

I must of miss this post sorry. Great job. :smile::cool:

[r199]

Thank you very much :)

[thomrg15]

how do you apply this to windows 10????