Did you know that PlayStation Universe hosts one of the largest collections of PS3 Themes on the web? We have a dedicated Theme section on the site specifically for uploading and browsing through hundreds of creations. Furthermore, all themes can be downloaded directly from the browser of your PS3 and then accessed from the PlayStation Theme folder located on your XMB.
The Theme section of PSU has been up and running since 2007, but the reason why were keen to bring it your attention right now is that we plan to run a series of Theme competitions, where we’ll challenge you to create a Theme for a particular game. The Themes will be judged based on how many downloads they receive and the winners will receive some great prizes. Keep an eye on PSU for more details shortly.
If you’ve never created a Theme before it’s actually relatively simple. All you need is a basic graphics editor, the PS3 Theme creator software and a good imagination. With the PS3 Theme creator software you can create backgrounds that totally transform the look of your XMB, but you can also replace all the icons on the menu screen and even include your own sounds.
The following video tutorial shows you how to create a theme at its most basic using the PS3 Theme Creator. The video is aimed at novices and will be a good starting point if you’ve never tried to create a Theme before, or don’t know where to start. We suggest you watch it in HD so you can see all the icons clearly.
If you missed anything in the video, or just wanted to double check on the various file sizes you need, check out our step-by-step walkthrough below.
Step-by-step
1. Head to http://www.lili-chan.com/ and download PS3 Theme Creator 2.5 and install it. Go back to website and download the 3.0 upgrade
2. Grab some graphics and screenshots from the likes of Google images and official game sites (make sure they’re not copyrighted!)
These are the various images that you’ll need to input into the PS3 Theme Creator.
Background
HD image – 1920×1080 Jpg file
Standard Def image (cropped HD image) – 640×480 jpg file
Optional images
XMB Icon images – 128×128 png files
Other XMB Icon images – 170×128, 228×128 png files
Theme and author image – 64×64 png file
3. Use graphics editing software to crop your images to the right size and make your creation.
4. Open PS3 Theme Creator and generate your theme by inputting your images (see video.)
5. Head to www.psu.com/themes and upload your p3t.file and the preview.png file that was generated by the Theme software.
6. Head to the browser on your PS3, go to the theme section on PSU.com and download any theme you like.
7. All downloaded Themes can be found in the Theme folder on the XMB. Click apply and your dashboard is transformed.