I noticed that a lot of people are having problems finding a tutorial on how to make your own XBOX skins for dashboards & programs such as evoX, XBMC, Unleashed X, etc… Well it really isn’t that hard at all, Just follow the steps below and you will be making your own skins in no time… [bold]How to Make Your Own XBOX Skins Written and Tested by cj2087 [/bold] For this tutorial I will be creating a skin for the EVOX dashboard… First let’s get all the required software together… [bold]Required Programs [/bold] - Notepad (You should already have this program, go to [bold] Start Button > Accessories > Notepad [/bold] - Image Editing Program w/ Image Resizing Abilities (Anything from Microsoft Office Picture Manager to Adobe Photoshop CS2 can be used) - FlashFXP (or any FTP program) Now that you have all of the programs that you need, let’s get started… [bold]Step 1[/bold] First create a folder on your Desktop (or wherever) called “Test Skin” NOTE: Whatever you name this folder, will eventually be the name that is under your Skins menu on your XBOX, So you can name this folder whatever you want, but for this tutorial I will use the name “Test Skin”, Also if you do give it another name, also do the same in EVERY AREA THAT YOU SEE “Test Folder” of the [bold] Skin.ini [/bold] file that you are about to create. [bold]Step 2[/bold] Now open up Notepad and copy & paste the text in [bold] bold [/bold] below… [bold] # Skin Template designed by cj2087 SkinName "Test Skin"," Test Skin” [Skin_ Test Skin] Text = 35,39,0.6,0xCE0000,0,"<Time>" Text = 605,39,0.6,0xCE0000,1,"<CD>" LogoType = 3 Main = "\skin\Test Skin\main.jpg" Launch = "\skin\Test Skin\loading.jpg" BarColor1 = 0x000000 BarColor2 = 0xFF0000 BarAlpha = 0.3 MenuColor1 = 0xFFFFFF MenuColor2 = 0x364927 [/bold] Save this file as [bold] skin.ini [/bold] in the “Test Skin” folder that we created earlier. [bold]Step 3[/bold] Now find two JPG files that you want to use for the MAIN screen that you see when you load up EVOX and then another JPG to show up for the loading screen… A JPG picture file with the dimensions (A.K.A. Size) of 640x480 looks great on my television screen, so I would guess that you might want to use those dimensions on your screen, if you know your televisions dimensions for a fact then RESIZE your two JPG images to that size… Once you are finished locating & resizing your Two (2) images for your EVOX Dashboard, then save both of those JPG files to the “Test Skin” folder that we created earlier. [bold]Step 4[/bold] Once the Two Images are in the “Test Skin” folder rename them according to the guidelines below…. - Rename the MAIN screen JPG file to [bold]main.jpg[/bold] - Then rename the LOADING screen JPG file to [bold]loading.jpg[/bold] [bold]Step 5[/bold] Now your skin is ready to get FTP’d to your XBOX! Open up FlashFXP and FTP the “Test Skin” folder from your computer to the [bold] Skin [/bold] folder under EVOX… Be sure to FTP the folder with ALL THREE (3) FILES inside, to the [bold] Skin [/bold] folder under EVOX... [bold]Step 6[/bold] Once the FTP transfer is finished, reboot your XBOX, and go to [bold] System Utils, then Skins [/bold] once you are at the skins menu you should see your new skin labeled “Test Skin”… NOTE: This is optional, but once you have gotten familiar with this tutorial try to mess around with the [bold]skin.ini[/bold] file to change certain things like the names of any of the files, I will try to add a part to the tutorial where I will show you how to do that also… I will try to get pictures up here soon… Otherwise, if I left anything out or anybody has any additions, let me know and if it’s good, I’ll put it in… Also let me know what you think about it… Its my first GUIDE…
can't wait to give this a try. I have found the skin making programs to be a real pain. Although i am new to making them myself. I figured some one could make an easy to use and understand version by now.
yeah i actually found some skin making programs after writing this [bold][/bold], but at least with this people can LEARN how to skin as opposed to just putting one together in a program...
