Making novice desktop backgrounds.

[-gabe-noob-]

K I wanna practice my gimp skills so, if you want, give me a resolution and two colors so I can make a basic abstract background for you.

note I haven't shopped images yet so if you ask me to import an image I'll try my best, though it might not have come out as good as it could've been.


edit: though you can give me an image if you want me to put stuff in it, and I'll try my best,

Go to last page for example of my best

[billgoldberg]

I'm not really in the market for a new wallpaper, but I would like to have a greenish (gnome 2.22 default style green) wallpaper with something linux/ubuntu related put on it.

I could make it myself but I don't feel like it.

[-gabe-noob-]

Woo, kk I'll try.

do you have a picture of the green for reference?

[markp1989]

Black and white or blue and white, 1440x900

[-gabe-noob-]

Black and white or blue and white, 1440x900



getting right on it, i'm not sure if 1440x900 can fit on the boards.

[-gabe-noob-]

where can I post backgrounds that are bigger then what can fit here?

[markp1989]

you could post it at gnome-look.org they have a wallpaper section

Edit: there site is down

[billgoldberg]

Woo, kk I'll try.

do you have a picture of the green for reference?

http://xs226.xs.to/xs226/08164/gnome-default839.jpg.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs226&d=08164&f=gnome-default839.jpg)

[-gabe-noob-]

Gnome-look is down.

and the 1'st image is done, keep in mind, it's Uber novice.

grey one!http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=79109

[-gabe-noob-]

green one http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/show.php?content=79110&vote=good&tan=60616312


Ask for redo's/ more

[-gabe-noob-]

anyone else?

[-gabe-noob-]

I will be redoing the wallpapers to look cooler later.

In the meantime Sugest new colors, I got a good idea for the nxt 1

I'll be using REALLY COOL EFFECTS, common :D

[smartboyathome]

blue and yellow, 1280x800. Just to see what you can come up with. ;)

[-gabe-noob-]

woo. ok I just needa finish 1 page on my term paper... but blue and yellow... that's gonna be hard to work with... oh well, I'll see what I can do.
I may make one including both, one with only blue and, one with yellow.

this isn't getting nearly asmany replies as I'd hoped :( :( :( :(

[-gabe-noob-]

your blue desktop is ready, it's by far the best I've ever done.

[-gabe-noob-]

here

ok so I didnt put in the special glow lights I was gonna, I'll make you a dark blue with yellow lights next.

it fits here cause it's png but won't go on gnome look

[-gabe-noob-]

too aquaish, is this why I'm ignored?

[cardinals_fan]

Only because you sound so crushed ;)

Make something grey. [and more like that last one than your earlier grey attempt]

[-gabe-noob-]

woo! (took me like an hour to make my most recent one... haha....................................... serriously... but it's good I think.

[init1]

Make something red and black

[-gabe-noob-]

alright desktops will be up probably tomorrow morning. the res I'll give you guys (my default) 1200x800

[barbedsaber]

something that says apt-get freedom

Dunno what color I want tho.

oh, and 1280 x 800 plz

[markp1989]

Gnome-look is down.

and the 1'st image is done, keep in mind, it's Uber novice.

grey one!http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=79109

looking good, i also like the "aqua fresh" one.

Thank you

[-gabe-noob-]

sorry these took a while, my grandma passed, and I had to go to canada heres the red and black

[Lostincyberspace]

How about a Green and Red one. I just love Christmas.


1600 X 1200 Please if that is not to large.

[piousp]

More colors:

Snow (not pure white), green and purple.

[-gabe-noob-]

Hmm is this what you ment by christmas?

I know it's how santa brought me my ps3

[Lostincyberspace]

I think one more like the red one would look better not to say I dont like the hypno... Here is all your money....

/me snaps out of this trance gabe put me in.

[-gabe-noob-]

:P I know, it was a mock background

I was fooling around with importing images, and it worked :D

[Xzallion]

Pretty good so far, now how about a dark red and black one at, oh say 1280x1024? And if you can make it look mechanical in nature, even better. :)

[-gabe-noob-]

Suprizingly green and red are hard to put together.

Describe what you mean by mechanical... I may enjoy this one :D ]

I wonder if anyone is actualy using the backgrounds, can some one post a pic if they are?

(the green and red sucks... I know)

[Lostincyberspace]

yeah green and red are not really good. together I just wanted to give you a hard one. by the way how are you making these.

[-gabe-noob-]

I'm using the GIMP which is pre-installed in ubuntu

I think it stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program (It's basicly a free alternitive to photoshop)

Also I'm trying to build on concepts I learn from here (http://gimp-tutorials.net/)

[init1]

sorry these took a while, my grandma passed, and I had to go to canada heres the red and black
Oh, sorry to hear that. Great background though!

[Xzallion]

By Mechanical, parts of the abstract piece would resemble mechanical elements like gears. Think of clockwork like this here. (http://static.rbytes.net/full_screenshots/m/e/mechanical-clock-3d-screensave.jpg)

And yes, GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. For those that asked what it is, it can be found at http://www.gimp.org and if you need some sites for tutorials I'll dig through my bookmarks if you ask.

[Roberticus]

Black and orange, 1280 x 800 Please :)

[-gabe-noob-]

hmm ok ... what to do with the black and orange... shiny maybe?

[-gabe-noob-]

I was trying to do some stuff that wasn't very succsess full w/ the mechanical 1

[-gabe-noob-]

the green and red was a little half - assed soo, I tryed to make another, it's still not too good

[-gabe-noob-]

Just a little present for you red and black fans, I changed the colors of the default hardy wallpaper (which I must say is beautiful, kudos to the art team) anyways here it is.

[Xzallion]

I was trying to do some stuff that wasn't very succsess full w/ the mechanical 1

It's not bad. Not great either but not bad. I'm going to try to give some constructive criticism. The clockwork on the right is to small to fit in, and could use some resizing, plus blend in the edges. The nuclear symbol overlaid on the sphere has the lines a little to straight,so its obvious that it was painted on there plus the color is to flat to denote how the light would of effected the symbol on the sphere. I think the tool that would of helped here is in the image window, under Scripts> Map> Map_Object
but I'm not 100% sure there. I might experiment with it later, and if I do I'll let ya know.

The colors on the gears themselves was really nice. Since your taking requests to learn, sometimes it is better to keep it as simple as possible, that way they person that requested one your not sure about can give feedback on an image that didn't take you to long to draw, and you can find out what exactly they want in the image. I purposely kept my request vague to see what you could come up with, and to encourage you to experiment. overall I'd say its a successful experiment since I think we found some things you can play with.

Now because I felt like doodling a bit I made one. Lets see what you can do with the concept on your next try. Also, keep up the good work, no one gets better without practice and I hope you stick it out.

[-gabe-noob-]

How do you make the gears? that was the hardest thing for me

[Xzallion]

I just made three circles with the ellipse tool and stroked them (edit>stroke_selection), then drew straight lines between the outer two circles. After I had the lines, I took the eraser tool and erased sections to make it look like a gear.

[-gabe-noob-]

hmmm I see, thanks :D

[Xzallion]

Hmmm two days and no posts, Either something came up or your working rather hard on those backgrounds.

[-gabe-noob-]

it's been 5 days now, and it was a science rube goldberg (or however you spell it) project to make an overly complex machine (and I'm still not done) but the background(s) have hardly been worked on, though I did make a tribute to a favorite band of mine, Van Atta High (it's also my freind's brothers band, go figure) so heres that

[Christmas]

-gabe-noob-, do you use a permissive license for these wallpapers like Creative Commons? I'm looking for original wallpapers (or artwork) to make a small gallery on my site, and I wondered if I can put some made by you, with your permission, of course. All the credit goes to you.

[-gabe-noob-]

I actually haven't licensed anything

May I ask what the site is for? But sure, it's fine if you use the wallpapers , after all that's why they're posted publicly. (I don't post the ones that I like to keep to myself)

[Christmas]

Thanks a lot! The site is the third one in my signature, my Linux tutorials.

[-gabe-noob-]

That orange and black one is getting worked on little by little day by day as I'm pretty busy

[Christmas]

It's done! I added three of them, you can view the page here (http://lintut.50webs.org/artwork.html) (just scroll the page to the bottom).

[-gabe-noob-]

Thanks for putting my work on you site, I feel very appriciated now lol.

[-gabe-noob-]

I was bored in science and made this for Ibex in like 5 mins or somthing

[-gabe-noob-]

I made a few mockups for a possible background for the Ubutu Office Edition (a brainstorm in the forums)

[maniacmusician]

K I wanna practice my gimp skills

You should really try using Inkscape instead of the GIMP for most of the examples you posted. It's very versatile, and completely uses SVG. This means scalable graphics and no rasterization problems as were mentioned in the Office edition thread.

I also find it easier to draw in than the gimp.

[-grubby]

Well here goes nothing: preferably white/grey/silver/transparency, with a few roadsigns (like stop signs, those yellow warning signs with black stripes, the ones that stand out, not the green ones). Thanks for anything you do

[-gabe-noob-]

I find the interface of gimp to be much more user freindly, also is there a way to rasterize graphics?

[maniacmusician]

right, but the GIMP can't handle SVG's at all, and I'm pretty sure that's the format most art teams work in. It's hard to create resolution-variable wallpapers using the GIMP because it only deals with non-scalable formats.

[-gabe-noob-]

I thought it was the other way around, (occording to wikipedia the ... raster ones don't scale well)


also here's a simple orange/black

[maniacmusician]

I thought it was the other way around, (occording to wikipedia the ... raster ones don't scale well)


also here's a simple orange/black
Yes, that's right. Raster graphics are pixel-based and resolution dependent. Vector graphics use mathematical formulas to judge pixel placement; if the resolution changes, all that happens is that the values in the formula change, and you get a different end result, with perfect pixel placement.

[Xzallion]

The first and third office pics, the ones with the logos. The logo itself needs some work. I like the smudge effect on the first one, but the brown going into the head throws it off. Two things that would help there, make a copy of the layer you have the logo on, and on the top logo layer, smudge from on the head off it, so it l eaves the blur trail like its moving without filling part of the head with the brown. No if for some reason it loses the head shape a little set the second logo to be visable, and if it still doesn't look right move the second logo layer on top of that one, and set its mode to multiply. Then go over the logo, theres some pixels between the heads and bodies that needs cleaned up, and possibly remove the white outline around the logo parts. Its small, but the white doesn't go well with the pieces color scheme.

The one between those two, the all brown one. It looks like you covered something up in the center, leaving kind of a smudge. This ones going to be harder to fix so that there won't be an outline, but one method that might work is to use the color select tool to select a brown just a little outside the smudge, Then using the wand select tool select the smudge, go to edit stroke and make sure to use a paintbrush thats fuzzy, or the airbrush to stroke it. I think that one will do it, I'll play around with it tomorrow to verify that.

The last one looks nice, I'll look at again tomorrow when I'm more awake, but its a good piece overall.

maniacmusician is right about .svg's being better for the wallpapers since you wouldn't have to make multiple sizes, they would scale without any image loss. But I think I saw a way to import and auto-magically convert .bmp files to .svg's but I can't remember where. I'll look around for this, but keep using the tool you prefer.

Allrighty, I'll catch ya later then.

[-gabe-noob-]

Thanks for the tips everyone, maybe if I open the image in inkscape, could i then convert it to .svg?

[-gabe-noob-]

here is the start of that grey silver one

It's like the aqua fresh one, simply because i'm using it for my background currently, and i thought it looks best.

[Xzallion]

That one looks pretty good. I tried to get rid of the smudge in the center of the brown Ubuntu Office pic (the one without the logo) and couldn't get it to look right. I'm not the best at blending colors though. It just needs to be messed with some, but I just wanted to let you know the method I thought would work didn't work as quickly as I would of hoped.

[-gabe-noob-]

that smudge is from erasing the ubuntu logo, but the background is blended from a lighter to a darker shade so it's impossible to get it spot on,

[-grubby]

here is the start of that grey silver one

It's like the aqua fresh one, simply because i'm using it for my background currently, and i thought it looks best.

Wow Man..that looks great :D. That looks like it's done, yet you're doing even more! Bravo

EDIT: Why is that not 1400x900?

[-gabe-noob-]

Cause i always mess stuff Up :p


I can change it, don't worry :D

[-grubby]

Cause i always mess stuff Up :p


I can change it, don't worry :D

Thanks! I should just be happy you made it in the first place, lol :D

[-gabe-noob-]

here it is... sorry


it may be pixelized

[-grubby]

Meh, looks fine to me.

[cardinals_fan]

I was bored in science and made this for Ibex in like 5 mins or somthing
Lucky. I spent Biology peeling rotting flesh off a bear paw...

[gameryoshi600]

black and light blue. 1280 X 800
edit: w/ some linux/ubuntu related

[-gabe-noob-]

Lucky. I spent Biology peeling rotting flesh off a bear paw...



nice, the trick is to make it look like your doing work... (multi desktops for the win!)

[tompickles]

if your still "in buissness"?! light blue and pale greens

1280x1024

please!

[-gabe-noob-]

Sorry, I've had personal problems of late, anyways, I've expiremented with some glow effects, heres the light blue on black

[gameryoshi600]

i like it

[-gabe-noob-]

wow, your desktop looks nice, though now I prefer an openbox look as opposed to that one.

[-gabe-noob-]

Hi guys, I was away for a while (Boston for 3 days, got back went to greece cyprus and egypt for 10 :)
I'll get to making the ones i've missed. (Graduating middle school today WOOT)

[-gabe-noob-]

oh and I made these on the plane

I like the neoney effects i can make

I made a preliminary one tompickles, if you like it i'll fix the resoulution. if you don't i'll spruce it up in the proper resoulution

edit: oh yeah, and I made the last one as a logo for an advertisement project we had to do

[rjmdomingo2003]

Black and yellow variations of the openbox logo (1280 x 800 res) please..:KS

[-gabe-noob-]

Okay, sorry I havent been up to date, I'll try gettin' this stuff done.

[lukjad]

If you're still looking to make a wallpaper, I would like a Linux penguin png. If possible, I would like it to be on a clear background. I'm not sure if you draw from scratch. If not, then how about a Fear the Geek wallpaper?

[-gabe-noob-]

UGGHHH my attempt at the penguin is sooo uglyt

[lukjad]

Well, mine too. ;) That's why I'm looking for one. I like art and making things with GIMP but I can't draw consistently.