Hi there! I was hoping you could give me some advice for making background images for themes. I've been tinkering for the past couple of hours with your "The Single Flower" theme but nothing I've put together seems to work. Is there some kind of format you follow? Thank you in advance :)
Hello! I can definitely try to give some advice and tips on how I personally go forward making backgrounds for my blogs. This is just my personal way of doing it, so obviously, feel free to be as creative as you want with this and not follow any and / or all of these tips if you’d rather just be inspired by them! Also, I use Photoshop, but I’m sure a lot of these tips can be used for non-photoshop users too! I’ll put this under the cut to make this post less long on the dash.
1) So first, I try to find a PSD I enjoy that I can slap on top. I’d usually go with one that you use for your icons, or one that is similar to the one you use for your icons, if you use psds on icons. There are a ton of free psds out there than you can use, if you search up “icon psd” on tumblr, or “icon psd” on tumblr. You can also try looking up similar searches like “coloring psd” etc.
2) When you’ve found a PSD you like, it’s time to make the actual background. I personally like to keep the size of the background a little on the bigger side, so that those with larger screens doesn’t get a cut off image or large parts of your blog just a single plain background color. So I tend to use the size 1920x1080px.
3) If you have a single muse, which I’m assuming since you’re using the single muse theme, you might want an image of your muse on your background. In order to make it look neat, it’s a good idea to go to google images and look up images either of the character name, if they’re a canon character, or their faceclaim / actor’s name, if they’re an oc. For example, let’s say I want to make a background for a muse using Jensen Ackles as a faceclaim. I’d search up either “Dean Winchester wallpaper”, “Dean Winchester background” or “Jensen Ackles photoshoot”. After searching, I’d also further click on “Tools” > “Size” > “Large” like in the image below.
4) Test around with some of the images which ones look best with the PSD you’re using and has the look you want. For my example, I used THIS psd by venuscommissions, and my background would now look like this:
You want to remember that you’re also going to have the container box of your posts on this blog, so you’ll want to make space for that. To know if you have placed your image in the right spot, you can always print screen your theme without a background, copy-paste it into photoshop, above your background, then choose “lighten” on the layer with the container, as in the image below. (remember to delete this layer when you’re finished making the background! It’s just gonna be there for reference to make sure everything is positioned right!)
As you can see, I decided to move the background image with Jensen a little bit more to the left.
5) Still, the background image looks very plain, doesn’t it? Maybe you want a bit more effects on it. Google images are again super helpful here. I personally tend to search up things like “Beautiful light black background”, “Colorful light dark background”, “Golden sparkles, black background”, “Flowers dark background”, etc. The reason I add “Dark background” to all my searches, is because when I copy-paste them over the image of my muse’s FC, I do the “Lighten” thing like I did with the container, so the black on the background goes away. This way, with the right images, you can make really cool effects. For my example, I messed around with two simple images, and got this effect:
Now, obviously, I could probably spend a lot more time adjusting, and finding different images to use that look a lot better, but that’s basically the gist of it.
6) Now lastly, the thing I do when I’ve made everything the way I want it to look, is I go over the edges on the right and bottom with the soft paint brush, using the background color to paint over the edges, so there’s no color at the very edge and it gets a smooth transition from the colors to the plain, background color. This way, for those with a different sized screen, it won’t just have this strong, cut off line from where your background image is, to where the blog background color is.
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Hello! May I ask for tips on making a background for your flowered sky theme (the multi one) without focusing on one specific muse? Just as a general aesthetic yknow? Thanks in advance! Ps: I love your themes, they're so simple and perfect 💙
Hello! Firstly, thank so much for enjoying my themes! And as for tips, I'd say they would largely be the same as in my tips for a single muse background that I wrote in [this] post, so definitely go check that out in terms of like... how to edit a background.
However, in the step where I wrote "search for your muse's faceclaim," or something like that, instead I'd be trying to decide on something else that makes you think of your muses in general, or just the vibe you're going for. Maybe you'd want to use an animal that represents your muses as a "focus point" instead of the actual muse(s). Maybe you want a symbol, or a plant / flowers. Maybe you want the moon or the sun or a planet. Maybe you want something more aesthetic-looking. Really, you can be as creative here as you want, but I usually like to find some kind of "theme" or "vibe" to go with before I start making a background. For example "Dark and scary", or "Bright and colorful", or whatever else that comes to mind when I think of my muses, and then I search things that pops into mind related to that, that you think might look cool on a background.
Google images + your own creativity is your friend when it comes to finding images to use. And again, it helps to be a bit specific in your searches, adding for example "beautiful lion background" or "pretty flowers dark background", or adding things like "HD" or "high quality" or "detailed" etc. Because that way, you don't just get plain images of whatever you're looking for, but usually a bit more high quality and "fancy" looking images. Also, remembering to go into the tools and look for large sized images only, because they're usually in higher quality than smaller and medium sized images, which will add more details and a more "professional" look to your background.
Also I obviously personally enjoy dark backgrounds, but you can also search for light backgrounds or any colored backgrounds for your images that you want, really!
Sometimes we have a beautiful image that isn’t a pattern to put in the background, but in different resolutions, the image doesn’t fit perfectly in the screen. Here the solution to this problem!
In the CSS, put this code:
html { background: url(images/bg.jpg) no-repeat center center fixed; -webkit-background-size: cover; -moz-background-size: cover; -o-background-size: cover; background-size: cover; }
Don’t forget to replace “images/bg.jpg" for the URL of your image!
ATENTION! Make sure that in the "body” tag on your CSS, there’s no background-color. If you have a background-color in body, the code will not appear correctly.
To change your image to the bottom left corner, use
background-position:left bottom;
For the top left corner, use
background-position:left top;
You get the point, right? :)
For a full screen image:
See Starious’s tutorial here
6. Update Preview, then SAVE.
7. UPLOAD YOUR IMAGE. On your Customize bar (not the Edit HTML section. If you’re still there, click Appearance at the top left hand corner.), scroll down until you find where it says
Click Upload and upload your image! And you should be done!
(8. If your preview doesn’t update with your image, make sure your image is in .gif, .jpg, or .png format, and not something like say .psd. If you’ve checked that, go back and double and triple check your code!)
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