Hi all. I do not claim to be a pro at walling, nor is this thread an end-all, be-all of walling knowledge, but a simple thread for people new to the walling scene, to give out some tips/links to tutorials, etc. Feel free to comment with tutorials or ideas of your own, and I will try and keep it organized by updating the first post. If you or your work are referenced here and would like to be removed from the list, just PM me.
To navigate use Ctrl+F to search, such as '**2a'
*1. The Image (aka the Scan)
**1a. Official art
**1b. Own Fanart or Original work
*2. The background or base
**2a. Abstract
**2b. Scenic
*3. The Style (how the image will be colored; pros and cons, etc)
**3a. Vector
**3b. Painterly
**3c. Cel shading
**3d. Filters
*4. Resources
**4a. Stock photography
**4b. Texture or patterns
**4c. Font/Typography
*5. Walling proper: Programs (capabilities, pros and cons)
**5a. Adobe Photoshop
**5b. Adobe Illustrator
**5c. Paint Tool SAI
**5d. Corel Painter
*6: Final checks:
**6a: Style/color
**6b: Neatness
**6c: Signature
*7: Submit!
**7a: Description
**7b: Tagging
*8: Misc
**8a: Recording your process though screenshots or video
*1. The Image (aka the Scan)
- to make a wallpaper, well first you need the image you want to make a wallpaper out of. Minitokyo has an excellent Scan gallery with thousands of images to choose from,
or you can use your own art.
**1a. Official Art
Examples:
PROs
- high resolution
- professionally drawn; probably will not have technical issues such as anatomy and perspective
CONs
- will sometimes have text covering parts of the characters
- may not fit the idea or concept you had in mind for the wallpaper
- well... it's not your work. It all comes down to this: you may have done a ton of work polishing, editing, and
adding your own touches to it, but it's still not your work. On other websites, such as deviantArt, classify this as anywhere between plagiarism, tracing and outright art theft. We wallers usually make walls for
personal use and do not make any profit from our walls, but in any case my advice is simply to be careful where you post
your wallpapers. You can post on deviantArt, for example, but if someone gets it
in their head to report your work, you will find it hard to defend your art if you did use an official scan.
TL;DR
The important points in the image you will use are:
- clean
- sufficient size for the wallpaper; if you have to enlarge it, you will have to redraw or vector it; see ***3a. Vector
- does it fit the plan you have for the wallpaper?
**1b. Own Fanart or Original Art
Carrot Brigade by Tsunoh
PROs
- you decide how the characters are positioned; pretty much everything is under your control
- no worries about copyright infringement; you own all the rights to the art so you can do pretty much anything you want
with it
CONs
- technical issues like anatomy, perspective, etc. need to be checked carefully for mistakes
- lots of work. lol
TL;DR
The important points in the image you will use are:
- no technical problems? Post in the Sandbox to ask for
advice!
- clean
- sufficient size for the wallpaper; if you have to enlarge it, you will have to redraw or vector it; see ***3a. Vector
Aurora by Tsunoh
*2. The background or base
- you need a background! While some wallpapers are minimalistic in terms of design, if you just take a scan and paste it
onto a solid color bg, that's not minimalism but.. laziness. The two major kinds of backgrounds are Abstract, Scenic. For a beginner, abstract would
probably be easier, for reasons stated below:
Life is an illusion by Yina
**2a. Abstract MT'sAbstract gallery
PROs
- less details to consider than Scenic; you work with the color, sizing and arrangement of elements.
- very cool when done properly; abstract walls really have that pop to them, they stand out.
CONs
- Since you have fewer elements to work with, it must be done right... or it
doesn't look good. There is no 'A for effort' in abstract walls. You have to have a clear concept and
stick with it. Some examples of simple abstract walls that work: Showdown by bj0rn, In a Funk by tAtEkAnE, and Samurai Champloo by boogybro; clean, nice
'flow', check, check. A point to notice is that the colors in the scans have been carefully considered to
match the background.
TL;DR
- Abstract wallpapers are recommended for beginners since you start out with the basic elements every waller deals with-
color, size, placement/design. You also have more opportunities to experiment- if something looks good, use it. No need
to worry about lighting or real-word logic!
**2b. Scenic MT's Scenic gallery
Sakura Garden by Tsunoh
- Scenic literally covers wallpapers that show a 'scene', like a snapshot taken from life. It is a good bit
more complicated than Abstract, since it has to follow rules like Depth perception, Light and Shadow, etc.
PROs
- awesome when done right; it makes you feel like you're standing in the middle of the scene depicted
- a rewarding experience for the details-addicted; there are plenty of things you can fuss over.
CONs
- LOTS of factors to consider; Perspective is one. Objects in the distance should
be smaller than those that are closer to the front. Depth perception is another-
far objects should be more faded and not as detailed as nearer objects (though I am guilty of breaking this rule at
times lmao). You also have to consider Lighting; where is the light coming from?
It will affect how shadows fall on your characters and other elements. You cannot have shadows pointing in opposite
directions unless you have multiple light sources.
- For those who like to draw their backgrounds from scratch, you have to make your backgrounds recognizable for what
they are. A huge blob drawn with the default Maple Leaves PS brush is NOT A TREE
QQ It's a blob. Same goes for grass- have mercy on yourself and step away from the default grass brush. There are
tutorials on creating your own trees and grass, among other things, under **4 (Resources).
TL;DR
- Scenic wallpapers are good for those who have a specific scene in mind. It is very difficult, but rewarding- I
personally love a wallpaper that gives you the feeling of being there. note: totally
biased comment. I apologize m(_ _)m
*3. The Style
Twist by Nysha
- by style, I mean how you want the image to be colored. I'm going to be very general here, since my experience is
somewhat limited- I'm sure there are other methods to color apart from the ones I've mentioned.
**3a. Vector
A dog of the military by
Grayserg
Ultimate Vectoring Guide by Nysha
- currently the most popular style on online communities. According to Wikipedia, Vector graphics are based on images that are the result of mathematical functions. Now in plain English, this means that whatever vector shape you have, while you are working on it (ex. in Illustrator; see **5b: Adobe Illustrator) it counts as an equation, and you can resize it up or down without losing quality.
PROs
- no loss in quality when resized, as mentioned above. However, once you export the vector as a flat image- for example
a JPG, PNG or GIF(?! the heck) it can't be infinitely resized anymore.
- very clean; excellent for cleaning up scans that have text or dirt on them.
- it is very easy to manipulate vectors. With a few clicks you can change the shape, color, and line thickness.
- no tablet necessary- in fact vector work is best done with a mouse, in my opinion. A laptop touchpad will work fine
too.
CONs
- CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK *beep* hi there doc, I have this thing
called Carpal Tunnel Syndrome...
- it's very clean. Unless you layer textures or gradients over the image, it will be absolutely flat.
- you will have a ton of shapes. I have an example here.
Your computer may or may not be able to handle the strain.
TL;DR
- Vectors are a good, clean option for walling; resizing and editing elements is easy once a person is familiar with the
program being used. However the final image may look a little flat, if no texture and additional details such as
blurring are added. Some masters of the vectoring craft to watch are Grayserg and LimKis.
**3b. Painterly
- former 'popular' style (this according to other people I've asked- I entered walling during the Vector
Era lmao, never witnessed this for myself) the image is made up of many, many tiny brushstrokes. Some styles are
'rough' with minimal blending of the strokes, like in this Benjamin scan. Some prefer to gently blend their colors, like Kishida Mel.
PROs
- ease. For those who work with traditional media such as oil paint, etc. this will be the most familiar.
- you can have as many or as few layers as you like
- custom brushes and textures do a lot of the work for you
CONs
- TABLET. WHEREFORE ART THOU TABLET
- it is possible to paint with a mouse. However.... *beep* hi Doc, it's me
again, yeah, another Carpal Tunnel...
TL;DR
- Painting is 'old-school' but its charm never entirely fades. I am extremely biased regarding this, so
I'll just say... try it for yourself, and you might find you like it :)
**3c. Cel shading
- this is straightforward, since it mimics the look we see in the actual anime shows- hard-edged colors and shadows on
the characters. This overlaps with **3a. Vector since vectors involve areas of
flat color too.
PROs
- easy.
- clean
CONs
- well... it might look like a plain screenshot if you don't add something...
TL;DR
- Pretty much the same as vectors, except that these are not based on equations and therefore do not have the
'infinite resize' ability of vectors.
*4. Resources
- A good waller will have a large library to draw images and other resources from. Hail the Internet!
There are also lots of tutorials online- so put down that **** grass brush.
Don't make me come over there and take it from you *glares*
- My old deviantArt account had a ton of tutorials by other members, fav'd and collected in one folder. My new account has a few also, but they're a little... unsuitable for beginners.
- For those who like to watch videos, I hope I'm not being an ass by linking my Youtube channel. I record my wallpaper-making process, so it might be informative... for those who are interested OTL *shot for random plugging*
-Aquamary is a brilliant set of tutorials by a
PIXIV user. They're in Japanese, but the pictures are enough to learn from I think.
-Background
tutorial by Devikuro. Covers trees, mountains and other things.
-Because We're
Friends- Tutorial covers her painting process, and how she paints fur in particular.
-Clouds tutorial by
ShadowUmbre. Very informative!
-Grass
tutorial by MNU Animation. I think this is the best anime grass tutorial available! It has the basic concept- blob a
patch of grass then make a few strokes yourself.
-Rock-ing
tutorial by Scarypet. Yes, it really does rock.
-Rooftop progress by
Tyrus88. A good look at his painting process, quite straightforward.
-Tree tutorial by Yukkun of
PIXIV. Again, it's in Japanese, but very useful!
-Trees tutorial
by Vandervals. Very informative- who wants to draw a forest? *raises hand*
-Paint-o-Rama's tutorials lots and lots to
learn from here!
-Walling Tutorial general
walling guide from Alenas
-pandemonium91's
wallpaper designing tutorial thank you aozoraskies
Quote by pandemonium91
And I'd like to link some tutorials I found useful - I actually tried them and found them easy to understand, and I'm reaaally slow at learning new tricks so that's something c:
Beasiesgal's tree tutorial (painting)
Policide's water surface tutorial (painting)
Drawing fire (painting; this doesn't look too realistic so it's good for anime walls)
CricketWings (painting; it managed to make my clouds suck less (YMMV on that one though XD) and look less like floating potatoes!)
Greg Martin's realistic star field tutorial (general PS; I love this guy for writing it)And to shamelessly plug my own stuff:
Basic scan cleaning and Advanced scan cleaning
How to vector using shape layers
How to extract images with the Pen Tool
13 tips on vectoring
**4a. Stock photography
- I'm ok with the use of stock in walls. The thing is, it is not as simple
as it looks- you can't just slap an anime scan on top of a real photograph and call it a wall, cause it will look
bad. You need to manipulate the stock- editing the colors, some blurring, textures, etc. One good example is
kawai's Witch Hunter
Robin wall.
- I don't recommend Google for stock images, because it's so disorganized- if you're going to use stock, at least have the decency to credit the owner. Case in point being the banners I used in this thread- indicate who created the stuff you used. Otherwise it's stealing.
**4b. Textures or Patterns
- I actually use stock photos as textures... just a personal preference, since they have their own details which give
interesting effects when the layer mode is set to Overlay or Soft Light. Regarding Blend/Layer modes, this tutorial by Northlite is a good read.
- Bittbox
- CG Textures
- Image After
- Lost and Taken
- Mayang
- Squidfingers
Quote by pandemonium91Some good places to get textures/patterns from are also Gallery Noctilucent by SailoChiron and Bashcorpo on DA.
**4c. Font/typography
Maybe
you're gone- LUNA IS ALIVE by AssasinXXX
- lol this is not my area, so I know very little about it.
- TypeNow
- Urban Fonts
*5. Walling proper: Programs (capabilities, pros and cons)
- I am not a pro at this. Some artists, such as redjuice, use a lot of software-
SAI, Photoshop, Softimage (3d), XSI, After Effects(?!)... you get the idea. The software mentioned below are what I work
with.
**5a. Adobe Photoshop
PROs
- the industry standard- it can do 99.99% of everything, from drawing to painting to photo manipulation. You can shoop
da woop- I mean, Photoshop someone's face right off if you like. It can edit 3d files and movie frames too, though
I haven't tried those functions myself.
- the most robust. It can handle multiple layers and large file sizes (my 7680x4800px wide wallpaper? Done in PS. Nothing else would survive that
file size :|
CONs
- price is 99.99% unreachable and 0.01% can afford it. Ahem...
- steep learning curve. There are just so many functions and tools that it can be a headache trying to learn- my advice,
start with the basics.
TL;DR
- Learn the basics first, such as the Layers menu and the Brush and Pen tools. After that you can go and conquer Sparta
with your over 9000 tools of mass destruction.
**5b. Adobe Illustrator
PROs
- Photoshop goes to Vector World; Illustrator focuses on vector creation and manipulation exclusively.
- has several interesting functions such as the Gradient Mesh, and here you can apply filters to a shape without having
to rasterize it first.
CONs
- price. One word: Adobe. .-.
- steep learning curve. Unless you are extremely organized with how you name and group layers it very quickly becomes a
huge stack of disconnected shapes.
**5c. Paint Tool SAI
Paint tool SAI tutorial by
Algenpfleger; covers pretty much everything
PROs
- lighter and faster than Photoshop.
- the brush system is wonderful for making lineart and blending colors.
- has transparency/opacity locks; if you lock a shape you will not be able to paint outside it, very useful
- Selection tools are FANTASTIC. Much better than Photoshop's.
- Color ring and Mixer palette available.
- has vector tools!
CONs
- for some reason, I can't use it for large files. If I try I get the 'Out of memory' error and KABOOM
BYE-BYE FILE
**5d. Corel Painter
PROs
- unparalleled ability to mimic traditional media such as Oils, Pencils and Watercolors.
- the way it mixes colors is superb. I LOVE YOU, MARRY ME
- Color Mixer; Color Ring available
CONs
- sadly this is the most resource-intensive in my opinion. You should not stack
layers in this program, otherwise it lags awesomely and crashes.
*6. Final checks
- almost there!
**6a. Final checks- Style & Color
- basically, go over your wallpaper to see if technical aspects such as lighting, anatomy etc. are okay.
**6b. Neatness
- I should fail this on principle LOL anyway, check for missed brushstrokes, pixelization, overlapping where you
don't want it, stuff like that. Clean up areas that need it- unless you're going for grunge in your
wallpaper.
**6c. Signature
- VERY IMPORTANT. MT wallpapers require at least a line of text with your name on it, both to protect your work and
prove that you made it. Without it, wallpapers can easily be stolen and uploaded as someone else's work. Aka, a
rip.
- this is a rather sensitive topic as really, a line of text is not very challenging to remove. deviantArt has a watermark feature that slaps a semitransparent logo across your art, but this does not apply to wallpapers. Who would want a giant logo across a character's face eh?
*7. Submit!
*7a. Description
- your descript should have at least basic information to prove that you made the wallpaper- you can talk about your
concept, how it was made, etc. Details such as the software used and the working time are nice too.
*7b. Tagging
- Makes your work easier to find!
*8. Misc
- I use the (now-defunct) QuickShot to take
screenshots during the working process- I like the ease with which it captures images (customizable hotkeys). As for
videos, I like to use Freez Screen
Video Capture and good old Windows Movie Maker. It's not perfect, but it does the job and I'm lazy to
search for alternatives xD
DOMO ARIGATHANKS.
alenas
aozoraskies
AssasinXXX
Grayserg
huke
Nysha
PAGEONE-
Oriental Patterns and Palettes (book)
pandemonium91
Range Murata
redjuice
Shigenori Soejima
sakurab
Tsunoh
Yina
Yuki-Usagi
== Comments, suggestions, and questions welcome.
