Written by: Bodhruj Jaman;
Date: Sunday, May 11th, 2008;
Filed under: Tutorials;
Tagged with: create, custom, how to, pc, Playstation 3, PS3, themes, tutorial, video games, XMB.
Comments:

I’ve been wondering about this topic for a while now, and only yesterday I found out that it was possible (on the 25th-is page of a google search term that I can’t remember lol).

So, if you want to learn how to create your very own custom PS3 Theme, read on!

What you need

• Download the .zip file ‘PS3_XMB_Theme_Builder_V2.zip ‘
• A PC
• A Memory stick (USB)

Tutorial

No, seriously, that is really all you need.

Step 1

Unzip the file you have downloaded (Download here ). You will notice that two folders are extracted. Oe named ’sample’ and another named ‘PS3ThemeBuilderV2.1′.

Step 2

Open up the folder named ‘PS3ThemeBuilderV2.1′ and double click the file ‘PS3ThemeManager.exe’

Step 3

This is the program you will be using to make your own custom theme. At the bottom of the window, click on the button that says ‘New Theme’. Select ‘Create a new theme from scratch’ and name your theme. I named mine ‘Tutorial’.

Step 4

Now, fill in the information on the ‘Theme Infromation’ tab. Fill in the Author, Genre, URL (If you have a website), Version (Use 1.0 for now) and Comments (optional). Leave the language as ‘Default, unless you want to manually translate into a thousand different languages.

Step 5

Go to the ‘Icons, Colors, Font’ tab and choose a temprorary background colour (you can change the background to an image soon).

Step 6

OK, now comes the long part. On the left of the window, you will see all the options of the categories and sub-categories you will find on your PS3 XMB Screen. Select each one and click ‘Browse’. Look in the ’sample’ folder you have downloaded and select the appropriate icons. Alternatively, you can create your own icons with a graphics program of your choice, as long a you save them as .PNG files.

Step 7

Now, you can preview your theme using the ‘Test Drive’ Button at the bottom of the window. ow, you can select your image background. For the HD background image, use a picture with width 1920px and height 1080px. For the SD background, use an image with width 640px and height 480px. Complete the process by selecting ‘Add a new background set’.

Step 8

Next, you can add optional sounds for functions like pressing ‘OK’ or selecting something with the cursor. I don’t do this as it isn’t necessary and the default sounds work fine ;).

Step 9

Now your theme is completed. ‘Test Drive’ it as you did before and check it is beautiful. Finally, save your theme and insert your memory stick. Select the theme you just saved, select the memory stick drive (normally F) and select ‘Move theme to selected drive’.

Now, check out my tutorial on How To install Themes onto your PS3 via USB .