Making Your Own PS3 Themes For Free
If you have the an image editor, a text editor, an USB drive, and a PS3... You are on your way to making your own PS3 themes! Sounds simple enough right?
To start off you'll need to download a compiler that Sony offers free of charge (The file is compressed, so you'll need a program like 7zip to uncompress it). You can find the official download on the PS3 site here (Look for "PS3 Custom Theme Toolbox (Zip)" and click).
Once unzipped, you'll be able to find a sample theme located in PS3_CustomThemeToolbox\p3tcompiler_v101\sample\01. I recommend making a copy of the 01 folder renaming it 02. The sample.xml file, located in the new 02 folder, contains all the information used by the compiler to generate the theme. Here you can change author information, language settings, and all of the locations of the images used in your theme using a text editor like Notepad.
Backgrounds are jpegs. You should have at least two backgrounds, one for HD (1920x1080) and one for SD (640x480) resolutions. All of the other images used in the theme are png files. I suggest using an image editor like Gimp or Paint.net to edit the images that come with the theme.
Now that all your images are edited and your xml file is saved, you can now compile the files into a single theme file. Simply drag your xml file and drop it on the p3tcompiler.exe file located in PS3_CustomThemeToolbox\p3tcompiler_v101. This will open a command prompt that will generate your theme file which will be saved in the same folder your xml and image files are located.
Your newly created p3t file can now be moved to your USB drive to be installed on your PS3. On your USB drive create a folder called PS3, inside that folder create another called THEME. Copy the p3t file to the theme folder (Example: E:\PS3\THEME\sample.pt3).
Take your USB drive and plug it in to the PS3. Go to Settings> Theme Settings> Theme> Install. Chose the USB drive and chose the theme. The theme is now installed and will be available from the Theme options. Select the theme and then select Apply.
Here is an example of a Theme I have created. The theme is provided free of charge below the video.
Download Theme
Horror in the Public Domain?
Who doesn't like old campy horror movies from the 1950's to get in to the spirit of Halloween? The Internet Archive host a multitude of movies and television shows which have entered into the public domain. For those that don't know, "The Internet Archive (IA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building and maintaining a free and openly accessible online digital library, including an archive of the World Wide Web." - Wikipedia
IA hosts about 49 titles in the "horror" category (some entries have been duplicated, some may be better quality uploads). 1968's Night of the Living Dead and 1962's The Brain That Wouldn't Die are two good examples of films in the library. These films have entered into the public domain and are available for free to download. If downloading isn't your thing, they also stream the movie on the site (akin to youtube, hulu, etc.).
Link to the Horror Movie Category!
Have a Spooky Safe and Haunted Happy Holiday!
Free Font Creator!?!
Update: This service is no longer free. Please refer to the following post for more information. http://www.novacharter.com/2010/09/free-no-more-font-capture/
I've wanted to create my own font for years... and I mean, who wouldn't want to make a font? I've looked into font creators and they can be pretty pricey, from around $100 to $300! I've looked into open source font creators but never found anything that really works. I follow @chrispirillo on twitter. There he introduced me to this FREE online font creator called Font Capture.
Font Capture is extremely easy to use. All you need is a printer, scanner, and an internet connection and you're ready to go. First, go to their website http://www.fontcapture.com to download and print out their supplied PDF file. This file is a grid like piece of paper that will be used to write in your letters and other characters (they recommend using a black marker pen). Make sure you pay special to the placement of your characters on the grid!
Next, scan the paper in as a PNG or a JPG. After a few moments, your font is processed and ready to download and install (Windows= Drag and drop into the C:\Windows\Fonts folder | Macs= Double click and click Install Font).
I was truly impressed with the results I received, even on a rushed demo, and plan to use this resource again in the future.
Quick example of Font Capture
3D: Alien Fighter
3D Alien Fighter
I'm brewing up a review of the newest release of TVersity... but until then I thought I would keep you entertained with a little sampling of 3D artwork and animations. The follow image was rendered using the free open source program Blender (you'll see me referring to many other open source software in other posts in time).
Here is a short video clip of the Alien Fighter. Again the animations were rendered using Blender and then spliced together using Sony Vegas.
Streaming Media to Your PS3
One of the greatest capabilities of the PS3, in my opinion, is its ability to find media servers on your local network. I have tested two free options, both of which work very well. What are they you ask? The first one we'll look at is called TVersity, the second... the aptly named PS3 Media Server.
Playstation 3
TVersity was my first experience with a Media Server. Overall it is a quality program with an attractive interface. There are two versions of the software, a Pro and a Free version. The Pro version gives you access to "premium online content" such as Hulu. You have to manually add the folders and any online content you want to access and can stream to several devices (I have even been able to stream music and pictures to my Palm Pre using TVersity).
This program has great promise, but it has several flaws. As of today, July10, I haven't been able to get the lastest Beta (ver. 1.6, released in May) to work on Windows XP but have had no problems with ver. 1.5. Another, and seemingly common problem I have read in the forums, is that it is quite easy to accidentally subscribe to the free internet content TVersity has available. This will automatically download the video/audio to your computer taking up internet bandwidth.
The PS3 Media Server seems to be the more stable of these two programs. After install it will detect your PS3 (if its on) and needs no other setup. The media server will find your folders and are viewable by the PS3 and has automatic refresh. Unlike TVersity, every video file that I have attempted to play using the PS3 Media Server has played without any trouble and even shows a nifty thumbnail of your videos.
Tversity and the PS3 Media Server are both free and high quality streaming programs. If you plan to stream your media to multiple devices I highly recommend TVersity. If you plan to stream only to the PS3, however, I would stick with the PS3 Media Server.
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