Thread: Thinking of Theme Making? You Can Do It!

Hello BBOS,

I just wanted to take a moment to give some words of encouragement to anyone who is thinking of taking the plunge into creating their own themes. It does take a significant amount of time at the begining, however once you get the hang of it, it takes less and less. I competed my very first theme on 4/5/09, so right around 3 months ago. Since then I have completed around 10 unique themes and around 30 variations of those originals.

I can't speak for all theme makers but for me and many others its addicting and really, really fun.

Here are the steps I took to get going:
1. Download Plazmic theme builder here: Plazmic Content Developer's Kit v4.7 for BlackBerry (its a pretty hefty file so it takes some time to download)
2. Your also going to need a image editing program. If your familiar with photoshop it works great. I use a fee program called gimp that you can get here Gimp.
3. I would recommend finding some basic icons by searching online. You can find many free ones just make sure the ones you use are open license. Keep in mind you can use your image editor to make you own as well.
4. I started by making a basic Zen theme to get use to the functions of plazmic. This helped me a lot to get use to the lay out etc.
5. From there move into the custom option. There you have many more options to play around with.
6. Don't get frustrated. There are areas that if its not done right, it may not look as good as it could (i.e. Icon size)
7. Ask questions, there is no need to re invent the wheel. Feel free to PM me or post any questions you have. Myself and many others are here to pitch in and help.
8. Move into creating animations and SVG files. This is a bit more advanced and where you create docks and animations.

I hope this gives a few people that were hesitant to start theme building to finally say "yes I will do it!"

Let's see your creativity and Enjoy!

rellims, thank you so much!! im sure this will be very encouraging to anyone considering theme making... me included, i might take a plunge and try it so you might be hearing from me with questions

Wow very impressive. Thanks for taking time to very clearly delineate how one can make themes. I don't think I have seen someone make a short and sweet list like that. Too kind rellims. A big thanks and happy 4th to you my friend.

Nice Rellims. This will help a lot of people.

Thanks Rellims :fing02: I will show this to my wife and see if it helps her out. Nate was too busy to help her :nutkick:

Originally Posted by Bryan

Thanks Rellims :fing02: I will show this to my wife and see if it helps her out. Nate was too busy to help her :nutkick:

:bsflag:Yeah right. i asked you to send me the revised version. Never heard from you again about it!

I didn't bother the revised version didn't work either :lmao:

Originally Posted by Bryan

I didn't bother the revised version didn't work either :lmao:

I don't understand why it won't work. Is she sure she has the App icon font set to default? You can't change the font, size or color.

Thanks Nate I will pass this on and see if it works.

Wirelessly posted (Bold 9000 )

Nice Sean thanks for the write up...

I been making themes for couple of months then retired then I'm back again, now I have a question, I use to be able to do this but don't remember how, I'm trying to put a launcher in a svg but it doesn't work, some like you Nate did on the BBOS theme, how do I do that?



IE: I want the the word BBOS launch the bbos site, but don't want to put that as a web link.

Thank you Rellims!!! Awesome write up!! I tried making a theme a few times...got nice icons and so on...and then got lost with SVG :banghead:

Wirelessly posted

Originally Posted by ealvnv

Wirelessly posted (Bold 9000 )

Nice Sean thanks for the write up...

I been making themes for couple of months then retired then I'm back again, now I have a question, I use to be able to do this but don't remember how, I'm trying to put a launcher in a svg but it doesn't work, some like you Nate did on the BBOS theme, how do I do that?



IE: I want the the word BBOS launch the bbos site, but don't want to put that as a web link.

Maybe Nate can chime in on how he did it, but way I do it is place your image (in this case the BBOS) and convert it to a button. From there set the "on activate" option to go to the BBOS site. Let me know if you need a more detailed description.

Wirelessly posted

Originally Posted by olta777

Thank you Rellims!!! Awesome write up!! I tried making a theme a few times...got nice icons and so on...and then got lost with SVG :banghead:

No problem. I've only used SVG files on my last 3 themes. You can get pretty creative and make some nice themes without them.

Originally Posted by Rellims

Wirelessly posted



No problem. I've only used SVG files on my last 3 themes. You can get pretty creative and make some nice themes without them.

That's also true....may be I should try again...

Originally Posted by ealvnv

Wirelessly posted (Bold 9000 )

Nice Sean thanks for the write up...

I been making themes for couple of months then retired then I'm back again, now I have a question, I use to be able to do this but don't remember how, I'm trying to put a launcher in a svg but it doesn't work, some like you Nate did on the BBOS theme, how do I do that?



IE: I want the the word BBOS launch the bbos site, but don't want to put that as a web link.

In composer you have to have the icon activate a 3rd party application. It has to match the exact name of the app module name. To see the name go to Options>>Advanced Options>>Applications. Then highlight the app and select view properties and copy the module name.

Wirelessly posted (Bold 9000 )

Thanks guys will try that tonite and let you know

I have been thinking of start making themes again. This is great information and thank you for sharing.

lol ive been working on a theme on and off for like the entire summer...just never get it the way i want

Originally Posted by bdube

lol ive been working on a theme on and off for like the entire summer...just never get it the way i want

You sound like a perfectionist.

lol, im ocd about alot of things but mostly i just want the homscreen part to be very clean looking and so im very picky about any stray pixels, or slight off centers, etc. it also doesnt help that i was inspired by a ui i saw on a phone that isnt out or very publicized lol, i have to make almost every aspect from scratch or a really off picture