Step4

If you're in the Xbox One Dashboard Preview Program, you'll already have the ability to create and set custom backgrounds on your Xbox One. If not, you'll need to wait for the November dashboard update to roll out to all users.

For those who fancy making their own backgrounds using Adobe Photoshop, we thought we'd put together a little guide to show you how to do it. Depending on which version of Photoshop you have, the options may be in different places, but we're using the latest version, Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 as a reference. The images in the steps below can all be clicked on, so you can get a better view.

(Obviously, you can use any image editing software you wish and you don't need to use the Theming Template. We're just using Photoshop as we have it to hand, and the Theming Template is great for reference. If you're building without it, just remember that your background needs to be 1920x1080 in size.)

Step 1

First off, download the Xbox One Theming Template from here and save it away somewhere.

Step 2

Step1

Open up the xboxone-theming-template.psd file in Photoshop, and you'll see that it already comes with a Forza Horizon 2 background.

Head to the visibility controls in the layers panel (indicated above) and click the "eye" icon on all three layers. This will hide everything - the background, the green menu boxes and other UI elements, and the document's black background.

Step 3

Step2

Click on the "New Layer" button and in the Layers panel on the right once again, click and drag the new layer ("Layer 1") down to the bottom of the list, as shown in the image above. This gives you an empty canvas to work on.

Step 4

Step3

At this point, you'll want to put your new background image in place. We just grabbed a picture of Master Chief from the Halo 5: Guardians trailer from the Internet, and pasted it into Photoshop. This is where you could play around with a few effects in Photoshop, paste in more than one image to make a mash-up, add text, geometric patterns, or whatever else you can think of!

The image size you will need is 1920 x 1080, if you're making a simple background as we are here.

Step 5

Step4

Just remember that when you're making your masterpiece, you should check how it looks with the UI layer turned on, as those boxes do take up a lot of screen space. Click on the "eye" icon next to the UI layer in the layers panel (indicated above) to quickly overlay the menu boxes and the rest of the UI over your new background.

If you're happy with how it all looks, you need to make sure that you then HIDE the UI layer once again. Otherwise, those green boxes will be saved with your image!

Step 6

Step5

Go to the "File" menu and select "Save as..." in order to save the file away. Choose "JPEG (*.JPG, *.JPEG, *.JPE)" from the "Save as type" dropdown, and don't forget to give it a name. We're saving direct to our DLNA-enabled NAS drive here, but you can save direct to a USB stick as well if that's easier.

Step 7

Step6

For best results, enter "12" in the Image Quality box as shown. Or just drag the slider all the way to the right. You want the best quality image you can, for displaying on your TV! Hit "OK" and then close down Photoshop.

Step 9

Head to your Xbox One and (if applicable) plug in your USB drive. Open up Media Player and navigate to where you've saved your new background. Open the image, then press the menu button on your Xbox One controller, and select "Set as Background." Close down Media Player, and you're done!

End

Voila!

We hope that you found this guide useful! We're sure that you can do a lot better than we've done for this simple guide. You can even just grab a 1920x1080 image from the Internet, skip to Step 9, and apply it as it is, without even needing Photoshop. However, with an image editor such as Photoshop and the Xbox One Theming Template, you'll be able to preview the UI, hide it, make tweaks, then preview it again as many times as you like without having to switch to your Xbox One every couple of minutes.

If you come up with something cool, fire it up online somewhere, and link it in the comments for all to see!