Theming and VillianRom Themer - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Why can I got get this to work?
I was trying to get ICS Domination to work on my ROM the other day. It said it works fine on odexed ROM's, but the instructions didn't work. I figured it was because I was odexed. So, I downloaded and installed a deodexed ROM that was said to be compatible with ICS Domination.
I flashed. Nothing. Not a damn thing changed. I didn't even get force closes or anything to indicate something had gone wrong. Nothing changed.
I did everything right. Copied to internal storage. Flashed with CWM. Cleared Cache and Dalvik prior to flashing. It didn't work.
So, I resigned myself to give up and wait for an updated version in case that makes a difference.
Then I got pissed off and figured I'd make some changes of my own. I thought I'd start small, with the SecPhone.apk dialer. I found some .png's I wanted to change and changed them, then I downloaded the VillianROM Themer .zip and followed the instructions there.
I copied my files like this
[ROOT_OF_ZIP]/vrtheme/system/app/SecPhone.apk/drawable-hdpi/[FILES_HERE]
and flashed. Everything was said to have gone ok. I reboot. Nothing has changed AGAIN.
Ok, so then I rip apart a couple of other mods on the site to see how they've been put together. One seems to replace the .apk's themselves.
Ok, so off I go and download apktool and decompile some apk's and get editing (previously having just taken the files from an "unzipped" apk. I finish my changes and try to rebuild an apk. I get some stupid error that I can't copy from the Command Prompt directly or be bothered to type out since it's quite large. Needless to say, my frustration is at an all time high.
So, my suspicion is that something isn't going to work when Vertumus releases ICS Domination 1.2 (or 2.0, whatever) any day now that when I flash it it's not going to work either.
The LFB version of this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1779170 works great. It just doesn't (and apparently never will) change the dialer or much of anything else.
I need one of two things from the community, or both to be great, but I need:
To know if I'm doing anything wrong at all or what could possible be wrong with my setup that won't accept VillianROM Theming (I'm using VillianROM's ROM as it happens also)
To know how the hell I make my own themes and customisations, because I'll get to work doing this and make a thread or two with some of my own mods in them. More modders = better.
EDIT:
My error when trying to build and apk was like this:
Code:
E:\android\Lab\SystemUI\res\values\public.xml:318: error: Public symbol drawable/tw_stat_sys_6_level_signal_3 declared h
erbrut.androlib.AndrolibException: brut.common.BrutException: could not exec command: [aapt, p, -F, C:\DOCUME~1\edp\LOCA
LS~1\Temp\APKTOOL4562847521524937175.tmp, -I, C:\Documents and Settings\edp\apktool\framework\1.apk, -S, E:\android\Lab\
SystemUI\res, -M, E:\android\Lab\SystemUI\AndroidManifest.xml]
at brut.androlib.res.AndrolibResources.aaptPackage(AndrolibResources.java:193)
at brut.androlib.Androlib.buildResourcesFull(Androlib.java:301)
at brut.androlib.Androlib.buildResources(Androlib.java:248)
at brut.androlib.Androlib.build(Androlib.java:171)
at brut.androlib.Androlib.build(Androlib.java:154)
at brut.apktool.Main.cmdBuild(Main.java:182)
at brut.apktool.Main.main(Main.java:67)
Caused by: brut.common.BrutException: could not exec command: [aapt, p, -F, C:\DOCUME~1\edp\LOCALS~1\Temp\APKTOOL4562847
521524937175.tmp, -I, C:\Documents and Settings\edp\apktool\framework\1.apk, -S, E:\android\Lab\SystemUI\res, -M, E:\and
roid\Lab\SystemUI\AndroidManifest.xml]
at brut.util.OS.exec(OS.java:83)
at brut.androlib.res.AndrolibResources.aaptPackage(AndrolibResources.java:191)
... 6 more
e is not defined.
E:\android\Lab\SystemUI\res\values\public.xml:319: error: Public symbol drawable/tw_stat_sys_6_level_signal_3_fully decl
ared here is not defined.
E:\android\Lab\SystemUI\res\values\public.xml:320: error: Public symbol drawable/tw_stat_sys_6_level_signal_4 declared h
ere is not defined.
E:\android\Lab\SystemUI\res\values\public.xml:321: error: Public symbol drawable/tw_stat_sys_6_level_signal_4_fully decl
ared here is not defined.
E:\android\Lab\SystemUI\res\values\public.xml:322: error: Public symbol drawable/tw_stat_sys_6_level_signal_5 declared h
ere is not defined.
E:\android\Lab\SystemUI\res\values\public.xml:323: error: Public symbol drawable/tw_stat_sys_6_level_signal_5_fully decl
ared here is not defined.
E:\android\Lab\SystemUI\res\values\public.xml:324: error: Public symbol drawable/tw_stat_sys_6_level_signal_6 declared h
ere is not defined.
E:\android\Lab\SystemUI\res\values\public.xml:325: error: Public symbol drawable/tw_stat_sys_6_level_signal_6_fully decl
ared here is not defined.
E:\android\Lab\SystemUI\res\values\public.xml:99: error: Public symbol drawable/tw_stat_sys_battery_not_charge declared
here is not defined.
E:\android\Lab\SystemUI\res\values\public.xml:326: error: Public symbol drawable/tw_stat_sys_signal_null declared here i
s not defined.
E:\android\Lab\SystemUI\res\values\public.xml:327: error: Public symbol drawable/tw_status_bar_close_on declared here is
not defined.
E:\android\Lab\SystemUI\res\values\public.xml:101: error: Public symbol drawable/zzz_stat_vt_signal declared here is not
defined.
E:\android\Lab\SystemUI\res\values\public.xml:102: error: Public symbol drawable/zzz_stat_vt_signal_null declared here i
s not defined.
both in having the folder and apk destination the same. Once I read about having the apk made in a separate folder I tried again and got a similar result.

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Maybe I am wrong but I think that your png needs to be in drawable-xhdpi and not in drawable-hdpi in order to work with S3

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Mopral said:
Maybe I am wrong but I think that your png needs to be in drawable-xhdpi and not in drawable-hdpi in order to work with S3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
I just tried that instead, though, and there were the exact same files (different names) in that folder. I edited those and did the same format. Nothing
I'm going to pull the SecPhone.apk from my phone now, though and see if they actually DID get changed cause if not I've got a problem.
EDIT:
Ahh, ha. Ok, so I don't have a problem with the VillainROM Themer as the file I just pulled DID have my changes. I guess I just need to see where exactly the files are and see if that works.

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Kryten2k35 said:
[ROOT_OF_ZIP]/vrtheme/system/app/SecPhone.apk/drawable-hdpi/[FILES_HERE]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is your mistake!
It should be:
/vrtheme/system/app/SecPhone.apk/res/drawable-xhdpi/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

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Mopral said:
Here is your mistake!
It should be:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Opps, just typed it out incorrectly. It's in that folder, though Like I said I just managed to pull the apk and check the files were correctly copied by VRT - they were. So I guess I just need to hunt down the right/all location(s)!

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Kryten2k35 said:
Opps, just typed it out incorrectly. It's in that folder, though Like I said I just managed to pull the apk and check the files were correctly copied by VRT - they were. So I guess I just need to hunt down the right/all location(s)!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just not forget that your new png should have the same name and the same size (96*96 for apk icon,...)

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All I've been doing is opening them in PSP and then saving them, then copying them into the VRT zip.
I've looked through the whole folders sad changed all the files I can see that are of try dialer. I've pulled through apk from through phone and the changes are there... so where are the old files coming from? I've cleared the caches...
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

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Bump
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

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Might be easier if you upload your non working zip so we can take a look.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

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Hi Lenny,
Ill do that, though I think it's something I'm missing because as I said I've pulled the apks that were supposed to be changed by the zip and they have the changes in them. So I think the script is working as it should.
I'll get a copy uploaded when I get to my pc (about 5 mins lol)
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

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There we go:

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I've tried compiling the png's using the png9 tool in the Android SDK, too. No different.
There's a theme out there that themes the dialer... doesn't even touch SecPhone.apk and it's all in SystemUI.apk. Yet, I've ripped open his SystemUI.apk from his mod file and I can't even see the images that would relate to his mod?
This is... frustrating.
Does anyone have any GOOD theming guides? This is something I want to get into but there's this "nothing works for me" barrier to entry.