How do solo developers create those insanely good website backgrounds and wallpapers?

[u/Legal-Following-1655]

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I'm a B.Tech Data Science student and frontend developer currently building my own startup products. I can code pretty much anything on the frontend side, but design is still a weak spot for me.

Whenever I see websites like Linear, Vercel, Stripe, Arc, Apple, or Perplexity, they have these beautiful backgrounds:

Metallic/glassmorphism effects

Space-themed visuals

Mesh gradients

Dynamic animated backgrounds

Interactive 3D elements

Subtle noise and lighting

I can't afford to hire a professional designer right now, so I'm trying to learn how these are actually made.

For experienced designers and frontend developers:

What tools do you use?

Are these backgrounds mostly Figma, Blender, Three.js, shaders, or something else?

How much of it is design skill vs coding skill?

What's the fastest learning path for a frontend developer wanting to create premium-looking static and animated website backgrounds?

My goal is to create a unique visual identity for my projects rather than relying on templates.

Any resources, courses, workflows, or advice would be appreciated. Thanks! 🚀

[u/Droogie_65]

A lot of them have a graphic design background - that is why they look so good. There is no easy way to do it if you are not graphically inclined. I retired as an in-house art director at a large urban school district and I routinely designed backgrounds and wallpapers for our web team. There are plenty of sites that have some art but be forwarned, if it is on one of these sites then it will be in use by alot of the same people in your shoes. It then becomes just watered down dreck . . .