Inspired by your post, I made this little program :
http://www.mediafire...eerdcafw172e8fv
It'll take any theme.zip and make it "aero" as I described in my last post. Basically it makes the app buttons (list and grid view) transparent, and changes the transparency of the text (value can be set in app). I call it Alpha-Tizer, here's a screenshot:
Sometime I may add the option to disable replacing the apps buttons (if you
just want to change transparency of text) and perhaps previewing of text as well. Dunno if I'll ever get round to that though.
Not entirely sure why you used Megaupload, since Filetrip would be more suited for this file, but its still an interesting app. I look forward to playing around with it.
Sorry to say, but only the one release tomorrow. Like I said, busy week. But let me cover a few things addressed:
1) To drop your own backgrounds into these themes, or any of your own graphics for that matter, just name them the proper name (background_wide.png if its a widescreen background, appslist.png for the long apps buttons, etc.) and just drag it over the theme.zip file. It will automatically replace the old file of said name. Then just launch your theme from the Homebrew channel. If you go so far to do this, you can follow my tutorial to modify the entire theme and really make it your own. (Seriously, this is really easy to mess around with.)
2) Editing the theme.xml file is the easiest way to change the text alpha. You can't change the font, however, or how the font is interpreted by the channel. (At least with theme editing anyway.) I usually leave it 255 because it makes the text easier to read.
3) To do what was done without the app, simple make empty PNG images of the buttons, adjust the alpha for the font in theme.xml, then repack the theme the usual way.
I'll keep making themes the way I have been for sake of ease, but modifying on the user end of it is part of the fun! My tutorial will help if further information is needed. Just be sure to keep image dimensions proper, or the HBC will revert to the original files!