Installing themes I tweet out.

Download the zip file I tweet, extract the folder, make sure the folder only contains .png files, move the folder to var/mobile/ischarging and select the new theme in isCharging settings.

Tutorial

All animations included are created in AfterEffects, Photoshop and ImageOptim.

AfterEffects

In AfterEffects I create a new composition with the width 1000px and height 1000px. Frame rate is set to 60, resolution full, duration is 0:00:02:00 with a background color of black.

I then create the animation.

When I go to render I choose PNG Sequence as the Format, and RGB + Alpha as the Channels. I output to a folder on my desktop with the naming convention of [###].png

Photoshop

Once rendered to a folder I first go through and delete any blank images. I then copy one image from the folder to my desktop. Open in Photoshop and create an action that will resize all the images to 200px by 200px. I do this by going to window and choosing actions. Click new and name the action. Go to image, image size and set to 200px by 200px. Press ok then command s to save. Then close the image window. The action is done so press start. I then restart PS just because if it crashes you will lose this action. I also delete that 1 image I moved to the desktop. Once reloaded I go to file, automate, batch, in the play section I choose the action I just created. In the source section I choose source folder, the folder of my images and include subfolders, destination is save and close. Press ok. PS will now go through all images resizing them to 200px by 200px.

ImageOptim

Photoshop resized the images but size is very important, I run all images through ImageOptim to compress. I've had an image folder that is 16mb taken down to 958kb using the PS resize and ImageOptim. Size is VERY important. You want the images to be as small as possible.

Conclusion

isCharging themes are stored in /var/mobile/ischarging. It really doesn't matter how you create these images, but this is my process. There are many other ways to create a png sequence and it really doesn't matter how many images you use, but keep it as minimal as possible.