creating your own theme

[Master101Chief]

since I am a decent gfx artist, I think, I will maybe give making a theme a try
But before I trow myself into it head forward there are a few things I would like to know.
First of all how steep is the learning curve?
Then what is a good place to start of, with that I mean clear tutorial what kind of programs do you need and others.
and last do you need any skill in coding stuff if you need any.

Just to be clear I am not saying I am certainly going to make a theme, what I am going to do is take a look at it try a bit around and then I will decide if I will start making complete theme.

thanks in advance.

[Big V]

Well bud I'm not a theme builder but here is my opinion.... the 3 thing you will need is a graphics program like photoshop or gimp, windows style builder app, and a resourcer program like restorator or reshack
As far as coding I think pretty basic, the biggest thing will be setting margins and such for the images.
I would start off first by grabing mr grims class map for wsb http://virtualcustoms.net/showthread.php/29940-Updated-Class-Map-for-WSB-1-5
This will update wsb with all the correct names and location

[Mr GRiM]

The learning curve will depend on the person but as you are already proficient with your gfx skills I would expect you to progress very fast, if you look at some of the other members like Skull's, Toady and some of the other first timers then you can see that some of their first themes were amazing compared to where I started at, I started off with no help at all and learnt it all as I went along, I had no real knowledge of coding, gfx skills or anything really to do with making themes.

The best way to get better is to keep trying, don't try to master everything with your first theme, just keep it simple and and try something new with each new theme, the best place to start would be in the tutorials section, you should also check out the WSB site for some more detailed tutorials by 3am and PandaX.

The tools you will need are a good image editor like Photoshop so you can create or modify images, Windows Style Builder to be able to create the msstyles and to be able to view the images and change the properties or add properties, Restorator if you want to be able to modify the UI files in the shellstyle.dll or extract all the resources from the msstyles and notepad to create or edit the .theme file.

There is no codding required but if you want to try some advanced tricks you can edit the UI file in the shellstyle.dll to change some properties that are hard coded into the theme that can not be modified using Windows Style Builder, you can also add extra properties for some places to add extra color properties for explorer for example, I have done this with some of my themes so the Windows text color is not used and I can select a different custom color instead, you can also add extra code for animations in explorer.

I hope you have found this a little bit helpful and I would love to see what you can come up with :smile:

[_alex_]

since I am a decent gfx artist, I think, I will maybe give making a theme a try
But before I trow myself into it head forward there are a few things I would like to know.
First of all how steep is the learning curve?
Then what is a good place to start of, with that I mean clear tutorial what kind of programs do you need and others.
and last do you need any skill in coding stuff if you need any.

Just to be clear I am not saying I am certainly going to make a theme, what I am going to do is take a look at it try a bit around and then I will decide if I will start making complete theme.

thanks in advance.

Hey Buddy,

as a newbie i can tell you there's nothing so difficult, if you learn a bit, and follow Dave Senior's tutorials, with some your own tests, you'll find creating a theme funny and discovering day by day new things...
on top of that you need fantasy and creativity to melt your ideas with right images into final theme....
AS 2 Big Masters said, that programs are everything you need, for everything not explained in tutorials is intuitive and matter of trying...

Hoping to have here another talented themer...
have a nice day!!:-D

[Master101Chief]

thanks for the info.
we will see what I can do or not can do.

[razorsedge]

Hi Bud :)

If u like I have a big video tutorial here on using wsb that might give u some help :)

http://virtualcustoms.net/showthread.php/40840-Building-a-theme-with-Windows-Style-builder-video-tutorial

[Master101Chief]

thanks watching them now.

[Master101Chief]

Folks I am starting to learn how to work with this program.
And made this taskbar think it starting to look sick!
only thing left to do on this bar is replace those icons on the right and change the background of the apps thingies*I do use that notify tray thing, the circle thing represents the arrow, and is working*
but there are a few questions I have:
1. at this moment I have my icons centered by adding a quick-launch to an empty folder otherwise the side where the blue gets less width and gets between the gray will be cut off*if you know what I mean*
is there a way to move the taskband like 20 pixel?
2. is it posible to make the icons on the taskbar itself smaller? so that it will not touch the borders of the taskbar?
I did try to set content margins on the taskbar but this made the taskbar bigger and not the icons smaller.
59199
hope you guys are starting to like this.
It will take hell of a time before everthing is done cause I am building it on the aero themeXD

PS.
photoshop cs6 has the ability to give you the amount of pixels selected*width and hight* so I highly recomand all theme builders get it cause it is a time saver in setting up your margins:D

59198

59199

[_alex_]

is there a way to move the taskband like 20 pixel?

Man,

go to:
Taskbar & SystemTray > Taskband > Basic > Taskband > BackGroundBottom > ContentMargins : Margins-
first number move your taskbar icons in pixels to the right

for the other questions, sorry it is late, tomorrow i take a look!

You'll become a great themer man, thanks for joining that world!:spin:

[Master101Chief]

Man,

go to:
Taskbar & SystemTray > Taskband > Basic > Taskband > BackGroundBottom > ContentMargins : Margins-
first number move your taskbar icons in pixels to the right

for the other questions, sorry it is late, tomorrow i take a look!

You'll become a great themer man, thanks for joining that world!:spin:

doesn't seem to work just to show what I mean here a few pics:
if I do not use quick acces thingie:
59200
if I do use quick acces thing with the taskbar not set to locked just to show what I mean:*this is the same as first image but now I did not set my taskbar to locked witch made those small dots appear*
59201
and last, when I set content margin to 50*It is actualy a glass theme but the taskbar in not transparent, maybe I will make the blue bar transparent however:D
59202

last suprise, suprise while I was waiting for an awnser I was also making the button thingies:D.

[JokeStar]

Now you giving me the bug.........:sigh:


I gotta start doing this....just sooooo much time invested in my case modding right now.........Keep the updates comming.............so I can learn more!!

[Mr GRiM]

Folks I am starting to learn how to work with this program.
And made this taskbar think it starting to look sick!
only thing left to do on this bar is replace those icons on the right and change the background of the apps thingies*I do use that notify tray thing, the circle thing represents the arrow, and is working*
but there are a few questions I have:
1. at this moment I have my icons centered by adding a quick-launch to an empty folder otherwise the side where the blue gets less width and gets between the gray will be cut off*if you know what I mean*
is there a way to move the taskband like 20 pixel?
2. is it posible to make the icons on the taskbar itself smaller? so that it will not touch the borders of the taskbar?
I did try to set content margins on the taskbar but this made the taskbar bigger and not the icons smaller.
59199
hope you guys are starting to like this.
It will take hell of a time before everthing is done cause I am building it on the aero themeXD

PS.
photoshop cs6 has the ability to give you the amount of pixels selected*width and hight* so I highly recomand all theme builders get it cause it is a time saver in setting up your margins:D

OK you had the right idea with the content margins on the Taskband Taskbar & System Tray > TaskBand > Aero > TaskBand > BackgroundBottom the thing is you will need to increase the margins here to the desired amount but at the same time that will increase the size of the taskbar height so we now need to reduce that height and that can be done with the content margins here Taskbar & System Tray > TaskBand > Basic > TaskBand > TaskItemButton.

So say for example you need to increase the content margins on the taskband eg 0, 0, 8, 8 you would then go to the second location and change the default value of 10, 10, 4, 4 to 10, 10, -4, -4 so your subtracting from there the same amount as you added in the first location, if you wanted to make the taskbar height even smaller you can decrease that number more for a more slimline looking taskbar, the default for large icons is 40px and you are going to stay with that then it's also best to make your taskbar images the same size, of course this is only for the bottom taskbar position using large icons, if you want to do the same for small icons you will need to edit the following locations.

Taskbar & System Tray > TaskBand > Aero > TaskBand (SmallIcons) > BackgroundBottom
Taskbar & System Tray > TaskBand > Basic > TaskBand (SmallIcons) > TaskItemButton

If you want to make this theme for Basic as well you may also need to add new images and properties for the small icons.

Taskbar & System Tray > TaskBand > Basic > TaskBand (SmallIcons) > BackgroundBottom

You will also need to do the same thing for the top taskbar position.

Anyway I will leave it at that for now and see how you go, don't want to try telling you too much or it will just confuse you lol


Edit: looks like I didn't read your post right although maybe it will be useful information for you anyway lol so I think now what your problem is, you are using the content margins to move it across but you have not set your images up for the taskband to include the part so it wont work, the best way to do it is how you already were, just add the blank toolbar to the left side and use it to move them over.

[Master101Chief]

OK you had the right idea with the content margins on the Taskband Taskbar & System Tray > TaskBand > Aero > TaskBand > BackgroundBottom the thing is you will need to increase the margins here to the desired amount but at the same time that will increase the size of the taskbar height so we now need to reduce that height and that can be done with the content margins here Taskbar & System Tray > TaskBand > Basic > TaskBand > TaskItemButton.

So say for example you need to increase the content margins on the taskband eg 0, 0, 8, 8 you would then go to the second location and change the default value of 10, 10, 4, 4 to 10, 10, -4, -4 so your subtracting from there the same amount as you added in the first location, if you wanted to make the taskbar height even smaller you can decrease that number more for a more slimline looking taskbar, the default for large icons is 40px and you are going to stay with that then it's also best to make your taskbar images the same size, of course this is only for the bottom taskbar position using large icons, if you want to do the same for small icons you will need to edit the following locations.

Taskbar & System Tray > TaskBand > Aero > TaskBand (SmallIcons) > BackgroundBottom
Taskbar & System Tray > TaskBand > Basic > TaskBand (SmallIcons) > TaskItemButton

If you want to make this theme for Basic as well you may also need to add new images and properties for the small icons.

Taskbar & System Tray > TaskBand > Basic > TaskBand (SmallIcons) > BackgroundBottom

You will also need to do the same thing for the top taskbar position.

Anyway I will leave it at that for now and see how you go, don't want to try telling you too much or it will just confuse you lol


Edit: looks like I didn't read your post right although maybe it will be useful information for you anyway lol so I think now what your problem is, you are using the content margins to move it across but you have not set your images up for the taskband to include the part so it wont work, the best way to do it is how you already were, just add the blank toolbar to the left side and use it to move them over.

Thanks for the info anyway I will make the icons smaller the way you sugested and keep the empty toolbar where it is:D