How to make Minimalist Wallpapers

How to make Minimal video game wallpapers by Oldhat

Okay so I am sure you've seen minimal wallpapers on the web before. And if you like them or like the style that they are in, I have good news for you.

They are relatively simple to make.

In this short guide, I will go over how to make minimalist wallpapers my style.

Step 1: Download a vector graphics editor off the web. Professionals use Adobe Illustrator which is awesome and easy to use, but that's shit is pricey, so you might want to try Inkscape (http://inkscape.org/) which is a free, open source, vector graphics editor. I personally use Illustrator and you can get a free trial easily if not just pirating it all together. Either one is acceptable but in this guide, we will be using Adobe Illustrator.

Step 2: Choose an image from the web. You want to try to find a clean image so that you can see most/all of the image. (Ex. http://refreshandreload.com/storage/claptrap.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1347918852423) Usually the wikis of video games have good official artwork for an image from a video game, but its up to you.

Step 3 (Illustrator CS6 version): Open up a new document. Change your units to Pixels and set your width to 1920 and height to 1080. Alternatively, you can open up the document and select the artboard tool (Shift-O). Go up to the presets and scroll down a little until you see HDTV 1080. Hit that and it'll automatically make it the same 1920x1080 size as the way I previously stated.

Example: http://i.imgur.com/C24Gr.png

Step 4 (Illustrator CS6 version): Paste your image into the document. Upscale it or downscale it while holding shift to get the correct size you want for the wallpaper. Try to fit it within the boarders of the artboard. You can always change the size later if you don't like it.

Examples: http://i.imgur.com/vXYlW.png	http://i.imgur.com/kpUTp.png

Step 5 (Illustrator CS6 version): Go over to Layers on the right toolbar. (If you do not see Layers, go to Window>Layers and you'll see them). Click on it, then click create new layer, (the new layer should be red, the original layer should be blue). Then double click on the first layer (the white box part of it). You should see a window come up. Lock your layer and dim it to 50%. This creates a template layer for you to go off of.

Example: http://i.imgur.com/z6rpr.png 	http://i.imgur.com/DGYYW.png	http://i.imgur.com/bw5la.png

Step 6 (Illustrator CS6 version): Now go into your new layer (red). Select the pen tool (P). Now comes the fun part, tracing the image. Basically what you want to do is make shapes with the pen tool so that you can create an image.


Step 6 1/2 (Illustrator CS6 version): The pen tool is a tricky tool to master. Basically the pen tool creates anchor points that you can manipulate to create polygons. You can do almost anything with it, but it is difficult to make the shapes you want to make. You can curve your line with the pen tool by clicking, holding, then dragging your point. But the pen will want to follow the curve in the next point, so you have to make sure to click it again if you do not want to make the line curve in the way Illustrator wants it to curve. Also to make it the color you want use the eyedropper tool to select the same color from the template layer.

Example: http://i.imgur.com/26vOn.png	http://i.imgur.com/tWgCi.png

You also have to learn to "draw into the image". This means you have to put anchors into other shapes so that they overlap and then send those shapes to the back with ctrl+[ or forward with ctrl+]. Shift+ctrl+[ or ] sends the image to the very back or very front.

Example: http://i.imgur.com/vEytp.png

Step 7 (Illustrator CS6 version): Unlock your template layer and move it out of the way of the image. Check your work. White spaces and two shapes that don't connect or bleed each other are usually frowned upon. For a quick fix, you can draw a shape over the white space and send it to the back. After you check it, drag over all of what you drew. Hit cntl+g to group your image. Then hold shift and resize your image into what you want it to be for the wall. Click the rectangle tool and draw it so that it covers the artboard. Finally, choose the color you want for the background and save your work.

Example: http://i.imgur.com/p0yfa.png

Step 8 (Illustrator CS6 version): Almost done! You just have to save your image for web. Go to File>Save for Web then choose PNG-24 to save it as. Hit save and enjoy your new wallpaper!

Example: http://i.imgur.com/Wu2El.png