Into the backgrounds: Tips for creating custom character images
Originally published at The Preternatural Post. Please leave any comments there.
When roleplaying characters with popular faces, it can be a challenge to make them your own. Especially when you are using generic backgrounds found on many of the basic sites like Google, yahoo, or tumblr. If you want your characters backgrounds and avis/playby/avatars to stand out and be your own, you will have to make them yourself.
How hard it is to make a background depends on how unique to your character you’d like the artwork to be. Some people simply take basic pictures of their characters and put their usernames on them. This is especially common for thumbnail images used as avis.
Others, like myself, try to make something that will personify the character I’m writing for. In doing so you typically need a graphics program similar to Photoshop. I’ve used Microsoft Digital Imagine Pro, and Gimp, but I’ve gotten the best results from Photoshop. Some people I know use Gimp, which is a free open source software application, to good effect. It just depends on what you like and are used to.
General Guidelines for Backgrounds
No matter what program you use, some simple and general rules apply.
When choosing pictures to use in creating your background know that the bigger the picture, the better the results. When you try to enlarge a very small picture the image will become blurry or pixellated. You can always shrink something down, but you can never make something bigger without compromising the integrity of the image you’re using. For backgrounds, wallpaper-sized pictures (larger than 900 pixels) work best. You might also consider making the master file for your background a larger size than you actually want it and scaling it down when you are ready to import it into Twitter or Tumblr or wherever you are going to use it.
Most backgrounds, unless you intend to tile them, are rectangular. They have the same standard dimensions as any wallpaper. I typically go by 1027 x 956 pixels but any standard size will work. Unlike most wall papers however, backgrounds for Twitter especially place more emphasis on the sides of the image than on the center. This can also be true for Tumblr depending on which theme and the number of columns being used.
Formulas and Examples of Background Styles
There are lots of formulas you can use when making these personal backgrounds, but a great beginner formula would be :
Body Shot> Face shot> Abstract> Tint
What that means is find a picture of your characters entire body, another picture of their face only, and an object of significance for them. An Example of this can be found on my @Scarlett_UDV page. If you have a photo manipulation program you will have no problem blending and tinting the finished product to your liking.
There are many other styles and variants on the formula that I’ve used:
- Blend backgrounds with photoshoot photos ( @DarlingViolet_)
- Take an entire scene and head swap then tint ( @TB_PamR’s tumblr at Pam’s Place)
- Layer an abstract over a photoshoot ( @Queen_of_DC)
Never forget to watermark your creations. Always put your character name if not your real name somewhere both legibly and illegibly so that you wont have to worry about someone using your creations as his or her own.
You can find inspiration for your backgrounds in many places. But please, don’t steal people’s concepts. Some people spend a lot of time and effort creating their backgrounds and having someone use a core image with minor tweaks or a face change hurts. Always give credit where credit is due if you use an image someone else created.
You now have most of what you need to get started customizing your character images and backgrounds. Get out there and create! Oh, and let me know when you’re done by posting a comment below. I’d love to see your work!
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