(lovingly copied from my topic in Main, just figured I'd post it here too)
More commonly reffered to how make an acceptable ~aesthetic~ and not have your profile not look like it's from Myspace 2006.*
*Unless you're being post-ironic, and if so, eat your heart out.
This guide will mostly just be covering basics such as .gif backgrounds, how to fit ANY background, file sizes, and other tricks I've learned about after monkeying with lucid's wonderful (albeit flawed) coding.
I'll go over the basics really quick:
- What do all the options do?
Brighter texts makes black text turn white if you're using a darker themed background.
Tiling backgrounds make the image you are using tiled (this doesn't compress the background, so it's good for backgrounds that are patterns and low dimensions).
Fixing backgrounds makes your background in a static state that scrolls with your profile. It's good if you only want a certain part of a background to show or you have an image that doesn't quite necessarily fit, however, it will only show the dimensions of your background relative to how many your profile has. It's good if you have a really big profile, though I'd say it's still shoddy.
Stretching backgrounds will stretch the dimension of your background to fit the file size limit of your profile. It is not about how big the picture is, rather it is how much bandwidth the server can handle. I'm pretty sure lucid did not want to waste a bunch of money on bandwidth so he limited profiles as such. If you've ever wondered why your huge background did not fit despite it being much larger than your profile, that's why. Also note that it will properly stretch your background if it meets the 600-700kb limit.
And that is also what I'm going to be going over, and how you, (yes, you!) can fit any background, .gif or whatever you desire to your profile.
Things you'll need:
Internet
A capacity to understand image software editing to some extent
An epicmafia profile
Good sites and places to look for backgrounds, .gif backgrounds, etc.
Wallhaven.cc
Thepaperwall.com
Giphy.com (I like to search for pattern, abstract, etc.)
Konachan.net (If you're a weeb. Please learn how to use tags!!)
Don't use tumblr, it's low-grade and is likely ripped off from one of these sites anyways. Always go to the source.
Websites/Programs to use for image editing:
Paint.net (It's basically just a cheaper, less esoteric version of Photoshop. Really good for barebones stuf which is basically what this is.
JPGMini.com (This will reduce the file size of any photo in .jpeg format. Self-explanatory.)
ezgif.com (Good for file reducing or cropping. Use the optimizer settings at the expense of noise in your .gif background to squeeze down some of those kilobites.)
gifreducer.com (Self-explanatory. It really shrinks .gifs down quite a hefty amount by using the no dither option, all at the expense of maybe some noise in your .gif.)
Q and A:
Q: I want use a .gif background but no matter what I do despite using both gifreducer and ezgif, it still won't load! What gives?
A: Unfortunately, some .gifs are just not gonna work. It all depends on how many frames the .gifs have and how much bandwith the server can take. You can try splitting the .gif or resizing it if all else fails, but there might be a loss in quality if you do.
Q: How big can my background be? I have this really nice picture I want to use that shows the whole thing instead of just a fraction. What do I do?
A: This is a good question because the options given to us by lucid don't always cover what we need. If all else fails, you can screen capture your profile as it is right now using Imgur or Puu.sh and make note of the dimensions, which is always WidthxHeight in numerical value.
Let's say you're using a smaller image and you want to resize it to fit your profile. More often than not, if you try to upscale something, it will lose it's quality. This however doesn't wholly affect downscaling something, which means you have a lot more to work with. If I have, say, a 1600x900 background I wanna use, and my profile dimensions are about 1600x1303, I could resize the dimensions in paint.net at the expense of losing quality; in this case it won't be too bad because the dimensions of the background aren't too far off from the dimensions of my profile.
So what would happen if I had an image that was, say, 2600x1200? If I didn't use any of the options given (Tiling, Fixing, etc.) all it would do is reject the background because of the file size limit or cut out parts of the background to fit your profile. You would like 1/4 of the picture as your background, which can look a bit weird.
To combat this, you just need to reduce the file size by using JPGMini and maybe resize it. Trying tinkering with all the options, and remember, stretching will compress your background. Don't use it on bigger sized pictures.
Q: How do I do that thing your profile is doing right now?
A: Paint.net and the magic lasso tool. Works wonders. I won't go in-depth but if you're really curious you can PM me.
Q: I hope to become an aspiring profile maker like you one day.
A: You flatter me. I just have a lot of time on my hands.
