Wallpaper: In The Making
Okay, so ficbitch82 asked me how I'm making my wallpapers look the way they do. I thought it would be better to explain it separately than crammed into a reply. Maybe, someone else is interested as well. :)
Hopefully this will make any sense as I've never done anything tutorial-like before. One important thing beforehand, I'm using PSP 7. If you're using another program I might not be able to help you out on where to find certain things and settings. It shouldn't be too different though, I think. I can't give you any specific numbers as it all depends on the cap and you just have to play around to get it right for every specific piece.
I'm going to be writing down what I'm doing but if you need any specific shots of how it looks somewhere in between I can make those.
This will be the end result:
1. Base of the wallpaper is a texture made by Misplaced. The circle around Cordy and Angel was already in there. There's another one of those circles behind Connor - it's the same texture in a reduced size and the rest of it erased.
2. On to the picture of Cordy/Angel. Everything outside the circle was erased until you can't distinguish between the two anymore. Then go to Enhance Photo >> Automatic Contrast Enhancement followed by Automatic Saturation Enhancement and heighten both. The next step is going to Noise >> Edge Preserving Smooth (I mostly use a setting between 5-15 depending on the size of the picture), then sharpen it a few times.
3. Follow the same steps as in 2. with the picture of Connor.
4. Next layer is the light texture made by eternalphoenix_ set to screen.
5. Then I've added a beige stripe on the right-hand side set to screen with an opacity of 30. This will be used to make this part of the wallpaper stand out more.
The next steps are all about this smaller part of the wallpaper I've just created:
6. Select the desired pictures, resize them to your liking and cut out a circle with the selection tool. Three times.
7. Then I've copied each of the pictures and set these copies to screen to improve the pics as they were quite dark.
8. Add a shadow to the original layers.
Next on is the text:
9. I've used the font Tunga in all the text parts, just in different sizes. The color was almost black; the coloring was achieved by setting it to burn.
Now back to the overall wallpaper:
10. Copy/Merge everything. Then go to Enhance Photo >> Automatic Contrast Enhancement and Automatic Saturation Enhancement once more and heighten both. You might also first change the saturation and then the contrast. If it gets too bright, lower the opacity of the layer.
Back to the text:
11. This goes for both the big and the small text. Add the text once more but in a light beige color and set it to hard light. Add it once more in the original color and set this one to burn with a lower opacity. I've also moved the layers a bit to give it all a more 3-D effect.
Back to the overall wallpaper:
12. Add another layer and fill it with a dark beige color. I've used #D69C50. Set it to soft light and maybe lower the opacity.
13. Copy/merge all once more. Go to Noise >> Edge Preserving Smooth and choose something lower than in step 2, so that it won't be too smoothed out. I've also lowered the opacity of the layer to around 60. I've also erased the three circle pictures from this layer.
14. Another copy/merge. Sharpen the image to your liking. You have to play around a bit here, trying it out. Don't oversharpen it - mostly this is visible when the edges of clothes stand out to much or even change color. The opacity here was also around 60. I've erased the text from this layer because it didn't look good in this case.
And that's it. Hope that's what you had in mind. If not, let me try again.
All opinions on this are welcome. Was it too detailed or not detailed enough? Need to know anything else, ask away. Want me to explain a different one (maybe check out my portfolio Midnight Tears), ask as well.
Hopefully this will make any sense as I've never done anything tutorial-like before. One important thing beforehand, I'm using PSP 7. If you're using another program I might not be able to help you out on where to find certain things and settings. It shouldn't be too different though, I think. I can't give you any specific numbers as it all depends on the cap and you just have to play around to get it right for every specific piece.
I'm going to be writing down what I'm doing but if you need any specific shots of how it looks somewhere in between I can make those.
This will be the end result:
1. Base of the wallpaper is a texture made by Misplaced. The circle around Cordy and Angel was already in there. There's another one of those circles behind Connor - it's the same texture in a reduced size and the rest of it erased.
2. On to the picture of Cordy/Angel. Everything outside the circle was erased until you can't distinguish between the two anymore. Then go to Enhance Photo >> Automatic Contrast Enhancement followed by Automatic Saturation Enhancement and heighten both. The next step is going to Noise >> Edge Preserving Smooth (I mostly use a setting between 5-15 depending on the size of the picture), then sharpen it a few times.
3. Follow the same steps as in 2. with the picture of Connor.
4. Next layer is the light texture made by eternalphoenix_ set to screen.
5. Then I've added a beige stripe on the right-hand side set to screen with an opacity of 30. This will be used to make this part of the wallpaper stand out more.
The next steps are all about this smaller part of the wallpaper I've just created:
6. Select the desired pictures, resize them to your liking and cut out a circle with the selection tool. Three times.
7. Then I've copied each of the pictures and set these copies to screen to improve the pics as they were quite dark.
8. Add a shadow to the original layers.
Next on is the text:
9. I've used the font Tunga in all the text parts, just in different sizes. The color was almost black; the coloring was achieved by setting it to burn.
Now back to the overall wallpaper:
10. Copy/Merge everything. Then go to Enhance Photo >> Automatic Contrast Enhancement and Automatic Saturation Enhancement once more and heighten both. You might also first change the saturation and then the contrast. If it gets too bright, lower the opacity of the layer.
Back to the text:
11. This goes for both the big and the small text. Add the text once more but in a light beige color and set it to hard light. Add it once more in the original color and set this one to burn with a lower opacity. I've also moved the layers a bit to give it all a more 3-D effect.
Back to the overall wallpaper:
12. Add another layer and fill it with a dark beige color. I've used #D69C50. Set it to soft light and maybe lower the opacity.
13. Copy/merge all once more. Go to Noise >> Edge Preserving Smooth and choose something lower than in step 2, so that it won't be too smoothed out. I've also lowered the opacity of the layer to around 60. I've also erased the three circle pictures from this layer.
14. Another copy/merge. Sharpen the image to your liking. You have to play around a bit here, trying it out. Don't oversharpen it - mostly this is visible when the edges of clothes stand out to much or even change color. The opacity here was also around 60. I've erased the text from this layer because it didn't look good in this case.
And that's it. Hope that's what you had in mind. If not, let me try again.
All opinions on this are welcome. Was it too detailed or not detailed enough? Need to know anything else, ask away. Want me to explain a different one (maybe check out my portfolio Midnight Tears), ask as well.