Hacking CannonFoddr's AKAIO Skins

[CannonFoddr]

Over at this thread I've already posted a selection of different coloured skins, but IF I do continue making more - I thought it'll be best to have a new thread instead of 'My first AKAIO skin' so that I can have all skins I do in one place

Spoiler: Just a few important (!) notes

Firstly: A quick disclaimer
All my skins are based on other skins found on the WWW.
Virtually all graphics used in my skins (with maybe a small modification by me) are taken from the original skin as I assume they are copyright free.
It they are NOT - I appologise in advance

Secondly:
Since I'm over 40, work full time & do shift work - there's a good chance that this post will not be getting updated very frequently, so don't expect a new skin every week

Thirdly:
If anyone give suggestions in this post to possible skin convertions, may I ask you to post a LINK to the skin in question instead of posting a load of screenshots etc.
(NDSThemes.com is a good place for suggestions). This is just a preference to try & keep the post neat-&-tidy

Fourthly:
In each of the skin sections I've used 'AK Edit's' (a skin maker) to convert the graphics & create animated GIF's for the screengrabs, but for some reason sometimes the actual skin may not look exactly the same as the screenshot - it's a problem with AK Edit. I will try, test & alter them as & whenever possible

Added 29-01-10: How to create Acekard/AKAIO skins' tutorial

Now onto my skins:

Spoiler: XMB Skin - See other thread for more pictures

'Full' =>

Also avaliable with these top screens
'Blank' =>

'Clock' =>

Avaliable in the following colours:

• Blue (Calneder/Clock/Day/Month) single skin pack
• Blue (Blank/Clock only) double skin pack
• Grey (Calender/Clock/Day/Month) single skin pack
• Grey (Blank/Clock only) double skin pack
• Cyan (Light Blue) triple skin pack
• Green triple skin pack
• Pink triple skin pack
• Purple triple skin pack
• Red triple skin pack
• Yellow triple skin pack

Note:

• Single pack contains only the full Day/Month/Calender/Clock/User name
• Double packs only contain the 'Blank' and 'Clock only' skins
• Triple packs contain all 3 skins (Full/Blank/Clock)

Spoiler

[titleS3Nintendo - as suggested by DaDownloadMan in my other thread]

Avaliable in the following colours:

• Blue
• Green
• Grey
• Pink
• Red
• Yellow

Spoiler: Animal Crossing Skin

Download Animal Crossing Skin

Spoiler: Copper Skin

Download Copper Skin

Spoiler: Black Dragon

Download Black Dragon

Spoiler: Black/White Brazil

Download Black/White Brazil

Spoiler: Phoenix Skin

Download Phoenix Skin

Spoiler: Black (Greyscale) 'Comp' skin - requested by Rockstar

Download 'Black Comp'

Spoiler: Blue 'Comp' skin - requested by Rockstar

Download 'Blue Comp'

Spoiler: iYSMenu skin - requested by bekar

Download 'iYSMenu'

 

[CannonFoddr]

Added a couple of new skins requested by other people (COMP / iYSMenu)

 

[Dangy]

Smexy. I like the Black Comp skin.

Check out my skins, please.

 

[Hakoda]

XMB skin is my favorite, very nice work. Perhaps when PS CS5 comes out I'll go into skin creating, doubt though. My PS skillz suck ass.

 

[CannonFoddr]

XMB skin is my favorite, very nice work. Perhaps when PS CS5 comes out I'll go into skin creating, doubt though. My PS skillz suck ass.

I use a combination of an old (Pre-Corel) version of 'PaintShopPro' and 'GIMP'

PSP - Because I'm so use to the controls & how they work
GIMP - To 'save' the graphics into 16-bit format (PSP can't do that) plus any 'tweaking' that need doing

And I'm not to good either at graphics - I usually find some that other people have done (or google Images) - then just modify them a little for my own use

 

[DarkCrudus]

how does one make akaio skins? i tried to change the colors on a photo once and use it as the BG and failed miserably..

EDIT
Oh my wow, perhaps I should read the 1st post more closely next time..

 

[House Spider]

Nice skins. By the way, do you use PSP7? I have that & I wanna try & make skins.

 

[nycsam786]

Nice, thank you for sharing your skins.

 

[CannonFoddr]

Nice skins. By the way, do you use PSP7? I have that & I wanna try & make skins.

No I use 'PSP X' (the last version before JASC got took over by Corel) - but a word of warning, PSP CAN'T save 16bit graphics - only 24bit

If you use 'AK Edit' to view/arrange things, & it 'finds' non-16bit graphics - it will attempt to convert ALL graphics which can cause grainy effects (not just the one that are 'wrong)

So what I do is use PSP to Crop/Colorize/Resize whatever graphics I want & save them as 24bit

THEN I start up GIMP - Drag-&-Drop a graphic into it, then 'Save As' the graphic as the SAME NAME
- but when I get to the box with 'advanced option' showing I then open it up & select the 'X1R5G5B5' to save the graphic as 16bit

AK Edit then 'sees' the graphics as OK

Once I get use to the 'quirks' of GIMP (& figure out the controls differences between this & PSP) - then I will most probably just use GIMP for making/saving the graphics instead of this 'two-step' approach