Awesome themes,great work!!!

Thought I'd take the Leopard theme a step farther. The second shot came from a simulator in order to capture the transition.
And no, it's not for download. And no I won't be sharing the methods used. Sorry.

Why post it then?

I agree. I would love to see a Today Plus type theme for the 8800. Any ideas how?

I third that. Dont post it unless you're going to share it.

As a proof of concept for what can be done with theme builder

Again, it's a pointless post if you're not going give any information aside from the "Look what I can do and you can't" type.

If you don't have feedback on the theme or anything worth contributing that will benefit others please do not bother posting in this thread. Knowledge hording is a tad ridiculous and childish if you ask me. Especially if you're doing it using a free theme building application and what appears to be a modified T-Mobile template.

So by your logic source code for every application developed in a free text editor should be made available to the public? I guess virtually every software company is childish!

RIM sells themes to carriers, and for big bucks. Were I to publicly disclose how to use theme builder to make completely custom themes, I would be damaging this. You can whine and criticize all you want, I'm not going to do it.

The point here is to prove the people who say theme builder is too limited wrong.

Whatever dude, those are different circumstances. Although, i do thank you for being such an ass. IS there any other HELPFUL information you care to oh so kindly share with us?!?!

There's really no reason to get so wired up.

Some people will get wired over anything. While I understand that everyone wants the coolest phone and the coolest themes/ringers and so on, let's remember this is a forum about a device. A phone!
I agree that the ol' nah nah nah nah nah I have something that you don't have is a little third grader-ish, but who cares. The forums are about sharing and passing on info to each other and if he doesn't want to play, it's his own choosing. I guess I am just old fashioned – I use my BB for email and phone calls.


One thing that I have a beef with is how Perfect Storm said, "RIM sells themes to carriers, and for big bucks" - and yet you still posted the leopard theme.

Allow me to give you props for your talent. Heck. I can't make the simplest of themes. Your point was not understood before.

Had you prefaced with the above, the group may have reacted a bit differently.

One of the down sides to written communication is that we cannot guess, where your emotions are or even your intentions.

Rather, we have to rely on the written word with no middle ground.

Maybe there is something you can share that will help the others better their products, without infringing on your Picasso above? Think about it.

It is limited to the tools and documentation they give you.

For me, Theme Builder is limited. The templates I'm provided with and according to the documentation they are the only ones available to me and anyone else who downloads it. Just because you have found a way to edit other templates in there doesn't all of a sudden say Theme Builder has so much more functionality. It says you found a way to edit the T-mobile theme with Theme Builder and you don't want to tell anyone.

I don't think anyone here would argue that if more templates were available theme builder would be able to use them. Also, most times I've complained about Theme Builder's limited functionality it has come in the way of things you can't do with it... such as I can't move the applications screen up 25 pixels as needed, i can't change the font for incoming calls. These are not options provided by theme builder. If you know another way to do it outside of the theme builder that's super but it doesn't make the actual program any more useful.

Seems by posting screen shots but not even a way to download it (for free or to buy) might indicate to some people that you photoshopped the whole thing and it really doesnt exist you just want some weird credit to be "on top of the moutain"

I knew someone would say that in the hopes that I'd need to prove you wrong. Frankly I don't care if that's what you want to think, heck I'll even say that you're right and leave you be.


Here's what I will say regarding my reluctance to share:
1) Essentially what I've done is reverse engineered the process that theme builder takes. I happen to be familiar with this process and was therefore able to do it with nothing but theme builder and this knowledge. As far as I know it's not something that can be shared.

2) It involves a very solid familiarity with number of languages as well as windows and linux (at least the way I did it) and the BlackBerry platform. These take months to learn and can't just be explained.

3) As I've already mentioned I'm not going to start telling people how to make the themes that RIM does. It's part of their business, and I'm not taking away from that. Some PMs have offered my money for information on this. I won't take it, thanks.

4) This was A LOT of work. Far more than anyone puts into the usual icon and colour change in theme builder. Call it vanity but I'd rather that work go into making something original and unique for myself, than to give it out to every joe blow on the street.


Now, if you want a place to start your own changes, I will say that the theme .properties files are a good place to look.

Great looking theme you got there.... going to d/l it and the today theme and give them a try.

And Perfect Storm you have made a fantastic theme for yourself.

Good job guys...

How are you going to download it when he has stated that he isnt sharing it?

I believe Mandizzle is going to download the very first leopard theme that benisntfunny made and posted for everyone to download.

I noticed that, using the 8300 Leopard Today theme, with the Y!Go and Google Maps applications, the menu gets "hidden"-- that is, it shows up for a split second, then disappears, but it's still active because I can scroll through it (the problem being, each time I move up and down the menu, the menu makes itself visible again only via the brief flicker before vanishing again).

Haven't noticed this occur with any other application on the BB, native or 3rd party... anyone else having this problem?

benisntfunny: would it be possible to fix this? (maybe for "version two"?)

Dude, your work is awesome!!!! Keep it coming !!!!!!!!!!!

Great, I'm waiting to increase the font size a little bit. Awesome work though.

Looks like someone has been dabbling in the CDK. Very nice. Plazmic's installer sure does put some interesting things on one's computer, if you know how to read.

When I downloaded this file (theme) it currupted my BB and I have to get a new one

I doubt that very much. Perhaps you should post the issues you're having and someone will be able to help.

It should be noted that this theme will not be compatible with an 8703e until (if) 4.2.1 is released for it.

I've noticed this too... I'm not sure how to fix it at this time... I'm also not all that interested in maintaining this theme. I'm going to release the "Today" version for the 8100 then release the source files on this.


Speaking of today versions... I'm going to throw it together right now and probably release it today.

Sounds good! So far I like it and it's great!

Well the problem I had was as soon as I downloaded it (because I thought that the 8700 meant it worked for all 8700 series BBs) i got a message on the main screen 'Data abor... - RESET' I spent over 45 minutes with Verizon tech and tried to restore it with Desktop Manager but they said it was corrupted and are sending me a new phone.

Final updates added....

Are you still going to release the graphic or .thm file?

Just found it, thanks!

Screw those screenshots man. Post a vid if you really want to show you can do "something special". I'm sure the RIM nazis won't come banging on your door for releasing Sup3R L33T code for Zen themes with the ribbon on the bottom. :rolleyes:

BTW, get over the "I'm safeguarding RIM's work and watching their back". It's lame.

Say it loud!!

Who DOESN'T want to make money, raise their hand!

... Just what I thought

Designing a theme takes a lot more than just being able to use a layout. Visuals and creativity are the biggest key components to making something people would actually consider spending money on.

Also of course we all want to make money, however, up until now I haven't felt like any of my themes warranted a price tag because they weren't nice enough.

Point is... while making money is nice - I like to be able to contribute free items to the theming community to get people inspired and raise the bar for what constitutes a theme worth paying for. I'm not bragging about anything I create but I found most themes for blackberry out there (and just about anything else that can be themed) to be very ugly. Even some of the stock themes for the Blackberry are embarassingly ugly. (O2 Theme maker I'm talking to you).

It's very unfortunate that there a lot of applications and devices out there that allow for different themes to be installed but the available themes are typically junk and look like they were thrown together in under an hour.

Until people move past the "I just changed the background picture and icon locations check out this new theme" mentallity showing new methods on how to create them is not going to hurt the pockets of a good theme developer.

Infact, a good theme developer shouldn't be overly concerned about this type of thing at all. To me the use of different templates is nice and opens up a few new options... but overall I find it mostly trivial and the least important part.

You're right, having respect for former coworkers is lame. Guess I'm pretty lame


Regarding on the 02 themes the comments I will say that the looks for carrier themes are mostly decided by the carriers, not the developers.

If you used to work for RIM and were trained in how to make these themes using "off market" templates then you're doing nothing new and inventive. Basically, you've discovered nothing new on your own here. So you're just showing everyone how good you thought you were at your old job with given tools.

It's called "insider knowledge" not "being inventive". Anyone who would have worked for RIM doing this could easily do the same things. What's special about that?

As I've already said I've used nothing but what comes with theme builder. There is nothing insider here. Seriously, it's time for people to stop whining.

I think the point trying to be made here is that, without the tools and knowledge you have (which I would imagine is quite proprietary) of creating such amazing themes as this, then yes, it is somewhat limited. We cannot create Zen themes with icons across the bottom, we cannot create custom icons for third-party applications, and we cannot create widgets such as you have that display statistics such as weather, news, etc. Don't get me wrong, now, I'm not picking sides here, as I believe each side has its own valid point of view, I'm simply stating that I understand where you all are coming from.

anyone knows how to move icons from left to bottom as verizon or t-mobile thems on 8800? i made some themes by palzmic but icons of all theme i made is on left. i wanna to move it to bottom. how can i do it? pls anyone help.tks

With Plazmic you can't move the icons to the bottom...least not that anybody here know. You can only use the templates that are provided and those are the Today, Zen, and Icon

Awesome themes,great work!!!

How can i download this theme i have B/B 8100 and i using Desktop Manager SP2 4.2.2.14 and i have problem downloading is asking mi for Applications Loader Files (*.alx, .ali)

I need help bro

Thnx !!!!