The Metalocalypse Wiki
The Metalocalypse Wiki

A more brutal background design[]

Gentlemen, even here I want to throw my hat in the ring (at least once). Frankly written, I do not perceive the current background design as a pleasant view. It founders on blending into the reddish lilac and displays a vexing vertical white line. Even the size appears inadequate to me, as I am mostly using a 1920x1080px screen. Because of this, I, uh, started to mess around with a wallpaper (also depicting Skwisgaar and Toki) in an image manipulation program and added gradients of a deeper purple., which might suit the theme better. Now I wonder whether this topic is debatable at the moment and how I could hand in my exemplar. -- Randfarmer (talk) 13:18, July 27, 2015 (UTC)

Odd, when I click on the link it comes up as black, I'm beginning to think my computer doesn't like colours. Suggestions are always welcome! A change could me made if we find a the new alternative better than the current background. Fetuscakes (talk) 02:26, July 28, 2015 (UTC)
Not at all, it's a blueish black - to be precise - the metalest colour I could find! Thank you for the interest in suggestions, I'd really feel flattered, if you had a look at mine. The sole problem I am having is, that I am not that keen on copyright-issues.
For example, I was working with a picture three wallpaper websites and one artist (whose signature had been largely cut out on the prior mentioned pages) claimed copyright on. Two of these sites modified the original picture (which I didn't find as well) themselves and one of them even put their own signature on it, haha. That leads to a conflict. On the one hand, I'm quite content with the background I've created and would like to show it to you, on the other one, I'm baffled regarding how serious the c-claims should be taken.
I'll try to search for the original and the associated artist in the meantime. An alternative could be a background resembling the Tribunal's screen, as they are always prying into Dethklok's affairs, speculating about their purpose - just like dedicated fans. -- Randfarmer (talk) 21:20, July 28, 2015 (UTC)
We would rather use official pictures rather than fanmade ones whenever possible, are these artists people who worked on the show? Fetuscakes (talk) 06:57, July 30, 2015 (UTC)
Hm, hm, that's very understandable. The sole problem I am about to face here is, that I have no access to high quality (resp. HD) screenshots. If you helped me out with such pictures fullfilling your demands, I would be willing to create one or more examples ( : And then..., there is of course this motherfucker Christopher Fisher, playing with digital perspectives and light like Skwisgaar on his Gibson Explorer. I strongly advise you to have a look at the original background art he provided for Season IV, as most of these apocalyptic paintings display an almost perfect size and colour-scheme. (For the Good, the Bad and the Curious: The image I've initially worked with is the lost fan art of Julie Dillon, also featured in this wiki's gallery, albeit scaled down.) -- Randfarmer (talk) 10:46, July 30, 2015 (UTC)
Where was Julie Dillon's art? We don't put fanart in most pages, but the one exception is art featured in the show or sold as official merchandise (right now we don't have a lot of photos of merchandise). If Julie's art was featured in Fanklok I can be put back in.
As for the official backgrounds, those are exactly the exmaples I was talking about :)
I would like to consult TheDethklokGuy before choosing a new image for the background. Personally I am leaning towards something from Doomstar Requiem, maybe the scene when they killed the Metal Masked Assasin, but that is mostly white, red and black which might not be easy on the eyes. A little playing around with background colors is required. Fetuscakes (talk) 20:25, July 30, 2015 (UTC)
I stumbled upon Dillon's art here, as it is not linked to any page at the moment. Having paused 'Fanklok' at the relevant points, I'm now certain that this particular image was not featured in the show. Oh! Having paused it at the relevant points also helped me to understand what you might have been thinking while reading the term "fanart", hehe. - Despite the above, I'm glad about having found something useful! - Of course it is necessary to consult every active member (especially the administration) in this matter. I initially believed that this forum would be a subcategory of the Tribunal Room, where greater changes are supposed to be discussed. Then again, I don't expect that he has overlooked it ( ;
So, this metal masked fella died, huh? With what did they kill him - a seven nation army? I hope that no one was severely injured... Well, I do. The combination of these tones seems indeed a little 'risky', but I'd really like to see the picture of what you have in mind before voicing criticism. Perhaps, it's not obtrusive at all! -- Randfarmer (talk) 13:07, July 31, 2015 (UTC)
Oh shit, I completely forgot you have not seen Doomstar yet, I am so sorry!! I hope I did not spoil you too bad.
As for Julie's image, I have seen it floating around on the wikia, but as you said, it's not tied to fanart episode, so it cannot be added as such. Such a shame, since it's such nice art too. Fetuscakes (talk) 13:39, July 31, 2015 (UTC)
Jo, considering that Dillon had already been a professional artist at the time the Metalocalypse team searched for applicable fanart might lead us to the conclusion, that she was not interested in publicising it (through the series). The fact that I did not find the image on one of her official sites suggests both of the latter options. In a hypothetical scenario outside the internet, we'd be massive dicks by promoting this wiki with her abandoned fanart, höhö. -- Randfarmer (talk) 11:13, August 1, 2015 (UTC)
Guitars Duel Background Version 03.jpg
I'm not that bright, amn't I? Yet, I wanted to give it a shot and tampered with the current background-design to achieve a version that does not need to be split (width > 2000px, as far as I understood). On the right you may see what is left. I hope, that I've vaguely met your taste. The colour used as framework is a dark, dark blue (#00000a). Oh, and try to ignore the weird cut-out, as it shouldn't be visible – even with a narrow content-space. It's obviously the hideaway for the bassist's ego... or my inability to reconstruct backgrounds. Pick one. -- Randfarmer (talk) 16:50, October 5, 2015 (UTC)
Wiki-background
I went in and adjusted the old background i had made so it was even with the layout of the wiki. But then i noticed that you had made this updated background. I went into the theme changer and put it in but it didn't match up correctly, so i tweeked it a bit and used your version as the background.There's one spot in the middle left corner where it isn't blended correctly (thats my fault, I don't possess the image editing programs to fix that) But it's better than what we had before. TheDethklokGuy (talk) 16:29, October 6, 2015 (UTC)
I think it looks great!! Fetuscakes (talk) 05:18, October 7, 2015 (UTC)
I'm glad you've tried it, your current version looks far more brutal than the previous one. If you handed out the exact measurements of this Wiki, that'd be great! My initial idea was it to prevent the background from splitting due to high and even unorthodox resolutions as well as creating a seamless transition between the modified picture and the background colour. Since I am hardly familiar with this matter, I cannot guarantee the applicability (perhaps, it's wishful thinking of mine). The Brütal Legend Wiki could serve as an example proving that splitting is not inevitable. (In this case I am solely referring to the background itself as I am not that fond of light-coloured text & dark background and a transparent content space.) Unfortunately my attempt went wrong, but because I want to improve it, I would like to know a little more about the format required and the problems that came up with my version. If you were for it, we could alternatively adapt the black-reddish style MetalocalypseNow utilises (--> see fetuscakes suggestions above). But for now, I'd only like to find out two more things: Which image manipulation program do you use? What do you think about adjusting the background colour so it fits the current picture's frame? Have a nice week! -- Randfarmer (talk) 15:29, October 11, 2015 (UTC)