Website background--feedback please! (56K Warning!)

[Drum Thumper]

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/drumthumper5150/websitebackground.png

I have no idea where this will get used yet (or even if it will for that matter), but this is my first attempt at a grungy background, created in GIMP.

[nevermind1534]

Looks fairly 3d (multilayered piece of something, maybe a mirror). I thought it was a picture at first. Looks good.

[Drum Thumper]

Currently sitting at three separate layers. I just goofed around with some random brushes until I thought it looked decent.

[985323]

That looks great

[msmrx57]

Looks awesome. Add some woodgrain under that and it kinda looks like my fathers work bench.

[OvRiDe]

I like it!

[jdbnsn]

I like it, but I think it's a bit too "busy" in the top right and left corners. Might distract from your header. Otherwise pretty sweet industrial look.

[Drum Thumper]

I like it, but I think it's a bit too "busy" in the top right and left corners. Might distract from your header. Otherwise pretty sweet industrial look.

Should be an easy fix--flip it upside down.

Thanks for the input guys!

[jdbnsn]

That's actually a damned good idea, I think that might look great!

[Drum Thumper]

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/drumthumper5150/websitebackground3.png

I think that looks pretty damn good.

[xRyokenx]

I like it upside down. It almost looks like you're looking into some really grungy box, lol.

[Vital]

If your going to use it as a background for a website, make sure you optimize for a webpage. Because you do not want to have anything 56k warning on your site. And you should make it a more used resolution, or make it "tileable"

Here is an optimized version:(Yours was 3.2mb, this is only 80k. And it looks decent.)
http://i43.tinypic.com/v7gryc.gif


Another optimized version:(This is 800k, but a lot better looking)
http://i39.tinypic.com/29c0zt5.png


And I like it. Maybe try using some more shades of brown.

[billygoat333]

also, you could break it up using tables and adobe fireworks (http://www.adobe.com/products/fireworks/) which would actually make the code for ya for the tables. pretty sweet software.

[Drum Thumper]

Tables are bad. I do my work with css.

If I decide to use this in a professional setting, I will optimize it, and slice away. The problem with using a busy background such as this is the shear size of the background images, whereas something like a gradient-based background (as long as it is linear gradient and not a radial) can be cut down to a x px by 1 px file and be used that way, thus decreasing the amount of bandwidth needed to display the page properly.

Right now, I'm using this on my myspace page (of all places).