Hi there, thanks kindly for taking the time to help with my wallpaper making endeavor ^_^
Here's my wallpaper so far:


Comments, feedback, suggestions, and random small talk about interesting subjects will all be very happily accepted by me n_n

Umm... I personally don't like the frame at the left side and top. Btw, your bg still looks like real photo to me, and the chara not blend well with it.

This is a quote from AssasinXXX that zazou8888 give to me for my wall.

AssasinXXX

anyway about stock photos, I'm not really the right person to ask
i recently started taking pics and edit them for my wall
this was the first 1 i submitted here
for anime wallpapers, i don't like the stocks to look realistic so i usually duplicate the stock 3 times
on the middle layer i median about 7pxl and blend it with darken (play around with the opacity here coz at 100% it looks like crap lol)
anyway the 3rd layer you might want to overlay or soft light it
depends on the colours on the picture and contrast
i tend to play around with different blending options to see which suits best
then merge all layers, at this point you should get a cartoonish or anime kinda feel to the bg
i do this to get rid of the realism so i can use it with anime chars
this is simple and fast way to do this
you can however also take your time and paint over your stock
it takes longer but looks nice
i think there's a more detailed tutorial on this at biorust.com

Okay, good luck for your wall.

Regards, Yuki

Yay! Read or die! Nice work you got there! Very clean scan and excellent extraction done. XD Here's just a few suggestions and thoughts:

- What is that bright light in the middle of the wall? Doesn't look very good there. Maybe you could remove it or replace it with something... or give it more meaning... I think. >.<

- Maybe a title? You know where that black line is... It might look good. Like... hmm... "Paper, Paper, Paper!". Actually that sounds bad... Or something or other.

- That black line... would it look better with a different color? Like really dark purple... Not sure. Or put some texture on it... Textures might work good on it. Or then again it might be good as it is.

- The stock image at the back doensn't blend in that well. Doing what Yuki-ne3Chan said would probably do that trick.

- You need a signature... but you do have it in the background but maybe you could put one down the bottom too so mods can see it better. XD

Hope this helps! Good luck with your wallpaper! =D

mint99

Yay! Read or die! Nice work you got there! Very clean scan and excellent extraction done. XD Here's just a few suggestions and thoughts:

- What is that bright light in the middle of the wall? Doesn't look very good there. Maybe you could remove it or replace it with something... or give it more meaning... I think. >.<

- Maybe a title? You know where that black line is... It might look good. Like... hmm... "Paper, Paper, Paper!". Actually that sounds bad... Or something or other.

- That black line... would it look better with a different color? Like really dark purple... Not sure. Or put some texture on it... Textures might work good on it. Or then again it might be good as it is.

- The stock image at the back doesn't blend in that well. Doing what Yuki-ne3Chan said would probably do that trick.

- You need a signature... but you do have it in the background but maybe you could put one down the bottom too so mods can see it better. XD

Hope this helps! Good luck with your wallpaper! =D

Thanks! glad you like it ^_^
For the title/signature, the wallpaper's for a contest that has to have the text as a part of the scene, so I can't put it other places and still qualify.
And, funny thing, that black is technically a very dark purple ^^ I mean, not that you could tell it is or anything, but... ^_^; anyway, yeah, I'll give that stuff a try n_n
(and thanks also to Yuki-ne3Chan... and AssasinXXX too I guess ^^)

Wow i like what you have done in the BG the Black design n_n
But the stock photo looks so real i think you should make it like anime or something thats make it not so real other than that i love your wall n_n
Or if you really want the BG looks real I suggest to make the BG black and white maybe it'll make it better
Or like Mint said about the purple Yeah it'll looks great if you make the BG with different colors like Purple and Black and somehow white n_n
your extraction is very good n_n
And yeah try add some texture to the BG n_n
I hope it's helps n_n"
Good luck ;)

Spelling error august! it says "august 199 pro cductions", don't you mean "august 199 productions"? ;P the sign looks cool. a very nice way of incorporation text! now the scan seems a bit grainy. it might be my eyes or my monitor or both, but it is fairly obvious on the pink-haired girl's navy bag. do you see it? does anybody else? is it just me? ^^;

and stock: i think AP has a rule against direct application of stock. careful ;P it's much too realistc. generally, there are several methods people use to make stock fit. filtering, texturing, and maybe even repainting. for you, texturing won't work well, so i'd say filtering.

the gaussian filter only works for skies and clouds. now for you, the filters of choice would be smart blur and median. play around with layering, different pixel radius and thresholds, and different blend modes. the median filter especially makes stuff look painted, although it doesn't work perfectly on everything.

and it seems to be your background is made up of at least two separate stocks? there's the one with the cafe and the water fountain, and the one with only the building. sorry if i'm wrong, but it's the perspectives that's giving me this idea. i'm not a fan of the bright white light, but i think removing it will make the division between the stocks clearer...

i know i know...i'm not helping much. i haven't offered up many good ideas as to how to improve your wall. >_< my walling juices are not flowing. your wall's looking good so far though. xP

Yeah, I have to go with everyone else, the stock looks way too realistic for your bg, but i do like the brushes around it.
I've used the cutout filter a lot whenever I needed to make a texture/stock look more anime-like.
I agree with asa also, about the 2 different stocks, the perspective looks kinda... funny.
you might want to try vectoring the buildings in, I know, it's a lot of work, but it will make the scan mesh with the background more. or the cutout filter thing.

WELL, i will go with everyone else. But to me all in all, its nice!

The stock photo looks a bit too real. Try to make it a bit more anime style. That should do it!

Put some painting effects on the background or something, so it wont look too realistik, kay ^^

Like everyone else says, pretzels rule. Err, wait what is everyone else saying everyone else says? Despite the fact that this wallpaper doesn't have much cleavage, or girls wielding guns or swords which is typically a requirement for me, I like your wallpaper =P Maybe I should watch read or die someday.

I give this wallpaper 3.5 thumbs up, - because my imaginary friend lost half of his thumb to a rabid wombat.