(no subject)

[cherry]

Quick question:

Does anyone here know anything about making mood themes? I know you need x-number of images, to go with each emotion, but is there a size limit? How does one upload?

I was thinking of making one. Power Play, or a multifandom one. (Dogma, Eternal Sunshine, Firefly, Amelie, Crouching Tiger, Dead Like Me, Ocean's 11.)

If there was any interest, I'd make it publically available.

Not that I'd expect interest. Or anything. Right. ::Cough::

Comments

[unanon.livejournal.com]

Ok...I've made a grand total of three mood themes (none of them really great) so I'm not really an expert here. Still, I'll be happy to try to answer a couple of these questions.

1) There really isn't a size limit apart from what YOU consider to be appropriate. Most people generally keep their mood themes smaller than user icon size (100 x 100). I've made themes 60x100 and the one I'm currently using is 75x75. It's mostly a matter of taste and politeness in not clogging up people's f-lists with huge mood images (trust me, I've seen people use image files WAY larger than their user icons). Personally, I think my 75x75 is a little large; I prefer the 60x100 size. There are a lot of people who make them even smaller, especially if they're making animated gifs. Sounds to me like you're doing movie pics though (YAY!) so you'd be fine with a 60x100 or comparable.

2) Images for mood themes are stored on your own web space. Once you have them uploaded onto your server, you have to go into the LJ mood theme area and 'create the theme' so to speak.

This will involve a few small steps and one TEDIOUS process. I'm sure you've already found the ever-handy LJ Mood Theme FAQ (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=64) page. Once you're there, go to the Custom Mood Theme Editor (http://www.livejournal.com/manage/moodthemes.bml) and Create a new Theme. Name it anything you want. A lot of it is pretty self-explanatory from there.

Wow. Now that I've seen this I realize that they've made it a HECK OF A LOT easier than when I first made my themes. I had to go through the administrative console process (explained farther down on the FAQ page) to make my themes...but now they have that nifty editor. Wow! That helps a lot!

Um...I don't know if this helped you at all...but if you have any questions please feel free to bug me and I'll be happy to answer them the best I know how. I'm in the middle of making a fourth mood theme (Pitch Black) so I'm going to be using the editor feature for the first time too!

Anyway, have fun! Making your own mood themes, even if someone else has already done one in that fandom, etc...is just SO PERSONAL. It changed the way I felt about my LJ...in a good way. I hope it does the same for you.

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

Hee! Thank you. I've browsed around and the prevalent size seems to be 60x100, which I can definitely work with.

This is all exciting.


Um. Does my webspace need to be able to direct link images? Because my host has that disallowed.

[unanon.livejournal.com]

Mmm...I think it does. :(

A lot of people use Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com) to host their images. I know that there is a certain bandwidth you can exceed, but I think it will be O.K. with a mood theme!

*hopes*

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

Hrm. I use Photobucket for hosting my icons, so I should probably be okay if I start a new account.

I mean, it's not exactly like there are a lot of people reading my LJ. Shouldn't be pulling up too much bandwidth.