Posted by MarkOng
I've noticed that more people are getting into creating their own pictures and themes (instead about always bitching about no websites and wapsites to download...) and thought I'd start this thread to share ideas among us. Tips like enhancing pic quality, good colour combinations, softwares used etc. How about that? We could also share ideas on making some themes or maybe even start some mini design competition! (I'm just kind of bored at work again
) Hope we can share some real useful information here!
To start off, here's what I'm using
Theme Creator form christersson v4.1.1
Adobe Photoshop 6
T68 colour palette (.act file) [you really need this]
Occasionally, Adobe After Effects
Lot's & lot's of pics from the web
Also, I find that lighter shades of colours (esp. blues, and oranges) turn out rather poor on the phone. (looking almost white)
Colour saturation for pics should be bumped up quite high (this may look terrible on your pc. If your got photos, the people look like they're sunburned
) but it translates better once its on the phone.
Go easy with the contrast. It may look ok on a computer monitor, but you'll notice a lot of white patches if you transfer the pics to your phone. (i'm guilty of not adjusting this back even though I've seen the pic already sucks on the phone)
If pics turn out too light on the phone, try adjusting the phone's contrast instead of readjusting light settings on the computer and transferring again. This works on most pics.
I'll get back soon with more tips. Hope to hear some too
Posted by MarkOng
BTW, I'd really like to know what software you guys are using.
Posted by Mimzo
MarkOng>
Great idea. Information sharing is always the best way to learn and teach. Great work on your many themes also
I had an idea once to create a website/wapsite where we can all upload our creations but got absolutely swamped with work and had to put the idea on the backburner. I'll hopefully revive it soon.
Here's what I'm using:
Theme Creator v.4.1.1 by Christersson
Adobe Photoshop 7.0
T68 Photoshop color palette (I'm not too sure how to use this - help would be appreciated
)
Hope to hear from many people on this thread soon.
Mimzo
Posted by MarkOng
To use the colour palette, keep the file somewhere you're familiar with the location. After resizing and sharpening your pic, go to
image>mode>indexed colour
from here, click load and search for your .act file. Always use this method to convert your pics
Hope more guys see this post and can share more valuable tips and ideas!
Concerning the web/wap site, I'd be glad to collaborate with you on that. Problem is finding a host. I did a web site for my themes but the site seems to be exceeding the allocated bandwidth everyday, so we'd have a problem with people trying to access the site.
BTW, how's photoshop 7 over 6? I've heard that the new tools like the Healing brush and Patch tools are amazing for retouching.
Posted by MarkOng
BTW, has anyone tested the image editing software from sonyericsson.com? Of course it can't compare to photoshop but I would like to know the results after the transfer to the phone, whether the software has better colour management and is more accurate when comparing the pic on pc and on the t68.
Posted by Jison
Does anyone know how to turn a .thm file to .gif
Posted by MarkOng
Think everything is embeded in a .thm file. No way that I know off. Which pic would you like, maybe I can help you look for it or resize it. I've got a big collection of pics at the web address below. You can take a look there too.
Posted by Jison
Couldn't access your site, download limit exceeded.
I was going to put up some themes on my website. But if you want the theme to show it can't be a .thm file
Posted by Jison
BTW,
I'm using
Paint Shop Pro 7
Theme creator pro from Slavko Solar(just downloaded it yesterday)
Is there any program that you can open .thm files in, except theme creators?
Posted by MarkOng
No, there aren't any programs that can open .thm files except for the editors. This is because the .thm format is exclusive to the t68 only.
Posted by MarkOng
My stupid web hosts sucks and I always exceed the bandwidth, so you might have to try your luck when accessing the page. In the meantime, try this link http://www.pbase.com/mark_ong/profile. Feel free to download any pics you fancy. Most of the pics there I've used on my site as themes. You can also download the complete .thm files by wap at www10.brinkster.com/azcruz. This wap site is brought to you courtesy of ArnoldC.
Posted by Jison
Arnold c link was good, but I didn't find any pics on pbase
Posted by Bajie
Great thread Mark.
Have you tried playing with SonyEricsson Image Editor.
Its great. And shows exactly what an image will look like on the phone.
When you take a picture, use a low resolution so the conversion is easier.
When resizing to 101x80 pixel I choose the largest number only and let the image height resize automatically. Then I convert the height to what I would prefer. ie 80. This reduces distortion.
I use this method also when making titles.
Posted by MarkOng
That's a real interesting method Bajie. I'll check up on the pbase site. I had over 200 images there and don't know why they're all gone. Will try your method of resizing pics and see how that turns out in comparison to the regular way. Thanks for the great tip!
Posted by kaorit
im using paintshop pro7. what do you think is better?
Posted by Hanzy
How do you transfer themes from pc to t68i, i know you need cable but do you need any sw too?
Posted by bean_muncha
@Jison and others
You can open a theme file with winrar. When you open it up you get, the backgrounds in gif format, any title bar graphics also in gif and an xml file which the phone uses to adjust the colour scheme. Hope this helps.
Posted by Bajie
Hanzy
Try using Christerssons SendFile program downloadable from his site.
MarkOng
You tried yet. What did you think.
Posted by Mimzo
MarkOng>
Sorry for the late reply. Been swamped with work
About the website, I'd love to work together on it - you've done a lot of hard work on the themes and they need to be easily accessible by everyone. Web host space is no problem. I have a number of hosts we can use where we will not have the bandwidth issue hampering us. I am an Internet developer so webs are my business
About Photoshop, I think Version 7 is the by far the most powerful image editing software available. It's an amazing improvement over 6 in most tools and the interface looks much calmer so I feel more comfortable while using it
Let me know about that site!
Posted by MarkOng
Mimzo--> I'm on for it but not at the moment. I'm also really busy with work right now until around the end of the month. I'm a designer so technical issues stump me now and then. I'll upgrade to photoshop 7 when I can find the time. Will let you know about the site soon.
Posted by Stajlerboy
MarkOng-> Why don't ArnoldC have all your themes on his wap-page?
Posted by MarkOng
He said there's some problem with microsoft .net pages and needs to find a host that doesn't use cookies. He's still trying to solve the problem.
Posted by Stajlerboy
Ok.. I hope he fix it soon. Thanx for the info.
Posted by ShawO
@Jison
In addition to what bean_muncha mentioned which was absolutly correct, I would like to add that a .thm file is basically a renamed .tar file!!!
Which means you can use your favourite file comprossion program (ie. Winzip, Winrar, PKZip...) to open it!
Posted by Jison
ShawO
Thx for the tip
Posted by ShawO
np
found it when I was browsing around...
btw... you can get the Photoshop 256 colour template from here
Right Click > Save Target As...
Posted by jizzer
one q from new owner of t68, i have a palm 505 i can beam tones and backgrounds through IR that works but how do i go about sending themes and screen savers from my palm..
when i send an animated gif that i have got from the screen saver section and try to send it it says the image is to large..
any help
thanks.......
Posted by MarkOng
jizzer--> You must make sure that the pic is of the correct dimensions (101px x 80px). At times, you may be able to send the pic over but not view it on your phone. This happens to large files but it just takes some time to load or "install" into the phone. After awhile the pic will appear.
Posted by mdotto99
hi , from greece,
pls tell me were can i faund the Theme Creator form christersson v4.1.1
is it for free or not ,
is trere any Theme Creator for free...
thanks
On 2002-08-01 03:22, MarkOng wrote:
I've noticed that more people are getting into creating their own pictures and themes (instead about always bitching about no websites and wapsites to download...) and thought I'd start this thread to share ideas among us. Tips like enhancing pic quality, good colour combinations, softwares used etc. How about that? We could also share ideas on making some themes or maybe even start some mini design competition! (I'm just kind of bored at work again
) Hope we can share some real useful information here!
To start off, here's what I'm using
Theme Creator form christersson v4.1.1
Adobe Photoshop 6
T68 colour palette (.act file) [you really need this]
Occasionally, Adobe After Effects
Lot's & lot's of pics from the web
Also, I find that lighter shades of colours (esp. blues, and oranges) turn out rather poor on the phone. (looking almost white)
Colour saturation for pics should be bumped up quite high (this may look terrible on your pc. If your got photos, the people look like they're sunburned
) but it translates better once its on the phone.
Go easy with the contrast. It may look ok on a computer monitor, but you'll notice a lot of white patches if you transfer the pics to your phone. (i'm guilty of not adjusting this back even though I've seen the pic already sucks on the phone)
If pics turn out too light on the phone, try adjusting the phone's contrast instead of readjusting light settings on the computer and transferring again. This works on most pics.
I'll get back soon with more tips. Hope to hear some too
[/quote]
Posted by Jison
You can find it Christerssons:
http://www.christersson.org/software_theme.asp
Posted by Jison
BTW it's free but donations is welcome
Posted by MarkOng
Hey Stajlerboy,
Arnoldc's site is up and running again!
Posted by bigjobs
For best results use JPG images for pics, and use a thumbnail creating program to reduce file size, these use algorithms to reduce pic size and you can mess with various ones till you get a suitable pic, turn up the sharpness to compenstae for the rather blurry screen in the t68i.
Don't worry about safe palette dithering, jpg's look good anyway as the screen does it's own dithering of the 16 million colour jpg's.
Posted by MarkOng
I'm having this problem with photos that have dark or black backgrounds. How do you prevent those white patches from appearing in the black background? I've tried selecting it and painting in the black myself but it makes the rest of the pic look strange.
Posted by Dagger
@MarkOng,
If you're using photoshop, in the Save for Web > GIF format: Try changing your Matte color from wihte to black. That should do the trick.
Posted by MarkOng
Hmm, will try that. Thanks for the tip!
Posted by JWBlue
@markong and other theme creators:
i have a question: is it possible to make the operator name seem disappeared by making its text and shadow white, then i put as background picture something also white? will that style work?
Posted by MarkOng
Yes, It'll work. Just have a long panoramic picture (so you'll have the top and bottom black) and set the colours. Its possible.
Personally, I'd rather have a big full picture with the operator logo.
Posted by Dagger
@MarkOng; No problem. Glad to help
Posted by ShawO
i personally find this article quite interesting for us themers...
...could be helpful for wap page creators too...
http://www.ericsson.com/mobilityworld/developerszonedown/downloads/docs/wap/how_to_create_colored_wap_pages.pdf
Posted by sall4real
Hey guys, I'm a newbie. Have a couple questions.
I bought a disc off ebay that has ringtones on there, but I dont know how to get them to my phone. I have the cable required, just dont know which program will allow me to send the ringtone to my phone. thanks.
Posted by mattan
@sall4real
Wrong place to post this. However, try using the SendFile software here to send the tones to your phone:
http://www.christersson.org/
Posted by funlovinkrim
i must admit sendfile is great
i have T68i with data cable and could not get theme creator pro to send them so i just use send file WIKKKKKKKKED
Posted by ~~Xtreme1~~
hey guys, ive been creating my own backgrounds 4 a while now and i would just like 2 find out what advantages there r of using a color palette? im using paint shop pro 7 without the palette and my pics r as good as any other pics ive seen so far, so what difference is it suposed 2 make?
Posted by MarkOng
A colour palette ensures that what you see on screen would be almost exact as what you see on the phone as it uses the T68's 256 colours and not the web 256 colours which are different.
Posted by FRiC
I don't know if the screen varies between individual phones, I have a T68i and a T300 here and their screens look completely different.
Pictures on the T68i actually looks better in most cases when the 256 color palette isn't used. In theory it should look better, since you're using accurate colors, but in reality, because the T68i's screen has poor contrast it's harder to see banding while dithering can be very obvious due to the size of the pixels.
For the T300, banding is almost always obvious due to the enhanced contrast and vividness of the colors. Even worse, dithering is also obvious due to the size of the pixels and the way the different colored pixels don't blend into each other.
Anyway, what I end up doing is download multiple pictures with different color quantization techniques, and pick the best one on each phone, and keep two files for each picture that I keep, naming them T68_*.GIF and T300_*.GIF.
A somewhat related tip if you're doing pictures of faces of fair-skinned people. The difference between white color and the lightest color shade is greater than the difference between the lightest color shade and the next darker shade. So if your image (face) has a patch of white, the banding/dithering around the white color looks terrible. Try adjusting the brightness and saturation so you don't get patches of white.
[ This Message was edited by: FRiC on 2003-04-25 08:12 ]
Posted by MarkOng
Yes, that's very true. I normally bump up the saturation quite a bit (about +20 - +30) then bring down the brightness around -5. Also, bring up the contrast a little (+10 - +20 depending). Almost always good results. BTW, the contrast on my phone itself is set to -1.
Posted by ~~Xtreme1~~
@ Fric: so u r basically saying that on the t68i's 256 display its better 2 adjust the saturation, brightness, and contrast, than it is 2 use the color palette. i did try 2 use the color palette b4 but the pic looked better without it. what i normally do is after resizeing the pic, i sharpen the image, this seems 2 make a bit of a difference with the clarity. has anybody else tried sharpening their pics, and what were your results?