Final Fantasy XII Self made wallpaper =p
 

Here are some wallpapers I made of ff12 using photoshop. I've never used ps before so these arent that great, but i got sick of not finding something that suites my taste (or my desktop resolution). I'd love some feedback and even more some tips on how to add style to my art..I feel like a lot of them were very plain and i coulnt think of muh else to add. I messed with filters and they looked cool but actually using them for a wall seems cheesy.

http://hdimage.org/images/7df4da6a2p...cans_thumb.jpg

http://hdimage.org/images/sg5zvpbe1n...dges_thumb.jpg

http://hdimage.org/images/vl8dwnjhnq...ange_thumb.jpg

http://hdimage.org/images/w6r5m4wyf5...reen_thumb.jpg

http://hdimage.org/images/3k1sobfm57...blue_thumb.jpg

http://hdimage.org/images/7t9gvoyf6u...eoys_thumb.jpg

http://hdimage.org/images/nmsrxicy97...irls_thumb.jpg

http://hdimage.org/images/nsjpxzyuyh...gray_thumb.jpg

http://hdimage.org/images/3a48qr8wze...sred_thumb.jpg


If anyone wants to use one and the res is too high, let me know and ill scale it down for you. I doubt anyone will want one though =P

First time, ever? If so, hm not bad. Even my very first photoshop mess turned out much worse than what you posted. But that was before I knew about online tutorials.
That said, you asked for tips on how to dress up your wallpapers. You will get a lot of different answers in how to do this since we all have different tastes. Some might say add a light texture, vectorize it, or even suggest adding a in game cityscape picture to the background. It's up to you.

If you're going to ask me:
- Wallpapers are meant to enhance your desktop. Not so much diverting your attention from whatever it is you're working on. So avoid harsh or clashing color combinations. Bright Red/Purple on black gradients? Yeah, don't do that.
- Unless you know what you're doing avoid using blending options like the outer glow. It only makes the wallpaper look more distracting.
- Try applying some basic rules of photography. More specifically, the Rule of Thirds.
- Read more tutorials. It's the internet, so it is available.

Sorry I can't be more help, I don't make a lot cut and paste wallpapers. I much prefer drawing them from scratch.

Thanks for the reply!

It's funny because a lot of the things you mentioned I was taking into consideration, like the rule of thirds. I tried applying that to most of my walls, failed miserably with the basche/ashe/rossler one, but thought I did pretty good on the others.

I really wanted to do something with either a blown up character head or like you said, a city scape. I just couldn't find a big head, or for that matter how to do transparency (I'm sure if i found the head i would have figured it out though.

I never thought about wallpapers like the way you mentioned them, how they are to enhance but not take focus away from. I felt like the gradients were my lifesavers. when I look at the two judge walls the one with the orange gradient looks SO much better to me, same with the villians wall. I wish I knew another way to make backgrounds, that was what I felt was lacking the most. I basically just trimmed some pics, "feathered" them and threw em on there. I guess I should feather less (I didn't use layer options just the feathering)

Most of the time, it's better to work with just one character on a wallpaper. That way, you won't have as many colors clashing one image and it would be easier to make a color choice. My only exception is if multiple characters are pretty much wearing the same colors and stuff.

Well, that's just how I roll anyway... For starters, just work with one character as the focus and work around that character. Should be a good starting point with wallpapers.

Otherwise, not a bad start. We all gotta start somewhere.

What I don't understand is how people get such awesome background and efects...look at these

FFXII - Fran wall by ~EdotenseiHime on deviantART

Fran - Wallpaper by ~atharaxis on deviantART

Final Fantasy XII Judge by ~Chaos-Nephilim on deviantART

are they painting those themselves or is there an option in photoshop to make things like broken glass or lightning?

Brushes. Most of the stuff in the BG could be done with those. Although in the second one, the frames around the Fran, is a whole different tutorial.

You could find some pretty decent ones around deviantart.

Here is a wall I made today for my little brother. I didn't want to work with so many characters but he wanted his pets =P

I messed with the brushes a little more and tried to fill in the background with something other than gradients.

http://hdimage.org/images/yuibwealel...1680_thumb.jpg

He didn't like the font or ground too much so i changed it for him. he likes it much better, I think I do too. It seems to match more

http://hdimage.org/images/4lntivio0a...rend_thumb.jpg

http://hdimage.org/images/eef9ri256y...end2_thumb.jpg

I tried to make snow on that second one

Outer glow is cool and all, but I personally think it'd look better just cropped and cleaned up. Just a suggestion; keep it up!

I know you're still new to this wallpaper business, and you're still learning the ropes and stuff, no problem with that, and I know that we all know that those wallpapers you did aren't that good to the eyes. They suck.

My advice is to look at wallpapers you find good to you and try to copy them, try to learn how they were made, how images are placed and how they are designed in such a way that it looks appealing to your viewers. Remember, what looks good to you may not look good to other people. I'm not an expert or anything, but your stuff needs a lot of work. If you want to be good at it, you better start working on it. Hard.

Agreed with Vemp.
Even if you didn't say anything, anyone would be able to tell that these are your first attempts. Don't take it harshly though, you need to start somewhere and atleast you got a great program to practice with.
As Vemp said, practice by looking at wallpaper you like. You seem to like the look of a gradients but sometimes a simple wallpaper can be good.