GIMP Basics Final Exam

[Astaroth]

Final Exam

Hey guys,

after several lessons the time is ripe for the final exam now! It has been a pleasure to work with you but now you have to show me what you've learned!

The exam consists of two parts, the first one being closely related to lesson 3 while the second one is more about creativity. Part A will deal with making an animated signature whereas part B will feature creating a wallpaper. But anyway, let's begin.

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Part A - an animated signature

The GIMP can be used to create animated signatures. Creating the animation itself isn't that difficult but the problem is keeping it within the 250 KB limit for signatures. Therefore, I will focus on a very basic animation which will not exceed that limit. If you want to create an animated banner or wallpaper, you can of course use a more advanced animation.

First of all you have to decide on a theme for your signature. Keep in mind that not all signatures are suited for animations. Generally, quotations work well but feel free to experiment a bit.

Remember to create a layer for every image which shall become a frame of your animation later on. In this example, I have chosen two rather basic images (of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader) and each of them has its own layer. Feel free to use more than two layers, though. Make sure that the lowermost layer is the one which you want to appear first on your signature whereas the uppermost one shall appear last. Here I put the Anakin layer below the Darth Vader layer:

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The next step is deciding on how long each image should appear before the signature switches to the next one. Simply double-click on the layers' names and put a number in parentheses behind the names. For example: Layer 1 (1000ms).

I went for 1500 milliseconds (ms) for both images so each of them will appear for 1.5 seconds. Feel free to use a different number, though.

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Our next goal is reducing the size of the whole animation a bit. Simply go to Filters -> Animation and select "Optimize for GIF". The quality of the images will be reduced a bit as a result which is especially useful when you want to use many images in a single signature.

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Now we want to test our little animation. In order to do that, go to Filters -> Animation again and select "Playback" this time. A new window will pop up in which you can test your animation.

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If you're happy with the result you should save your signature now. Make sure to save it as a .gif file. A new window will pop up and you must select "Save as Animation" as shown below. Once you have clicked "Export", a second window will appear but it's not necessary to change any of its options.

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Now all you have to do is upload your signature at the image hosting website of your choice and you're finished. Your result should now look similar to this:

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Part B - creating a wallpaper

As I've already mentioned above, now comes the creative part. And that means that there won't be a strict step-by-step tutorial. You have already learned most of the important techniques so all you have to do is to apply them. Recently, I've created the following wallpaper for a graphics competition:

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I've created this image by utilizing many relatively basic features of the GIMP - and by experimenting. I believe you're able to create something similar as long as you are creative and try new things. In general, there are several important things to keep in mind if you want to create a banner or wallpaper:

• Use layer masks! That way, blending is so much easier and you can add cut out images without problems.
• The eraser tool is your friend. When using a lower opacity and the fuzzy brush, it can for example help with removing hard edges and the likes.
• Remember to utilize the layer options. "Overlay" and "multiply" are especially interesting.
• The Gaussian Blur is a very powerful feature. It can for example be used for adding shadows behind objects but also for creating dust or smoke.
• Play around with the color curves, the "Brightness/Contrast" menu and the saturation. Pictures often look much more epic if you make them darker and increase the contrast.
• Duplicate your layer, colorize the duplicate and lower its opacity a bit. Sometimes, e.g. a red or blue touch improves images considerably.
• Remember that text is a powerful tool. Make it visible but not too dominant. Keep in mind that adding a shadow behind a text (via Grow -> Bucket Fill -> Gaussian Blur, see lesson 1) can make it much better visible.
• Use brushes. There are thousands of amazing brushes and they can really improve your images. Generally, put them on a separate layer so you can edit them, blur them or lower their opacity without changing the rest of the image.

Finally, here are a few small tutorials which can be very useful when creating a wallpaper. First of all, here's a tutorial for creating golden text.

Golden Text

Step 1

To begin with, simple open a new image consisting of a white background. Then go to <image> --> Renders --> Clouds --> Difference Clouds.

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A new window will pop up where you can select several different things. Choose something like 3.0 for both X and Y. "Details" can stay at 1. Also select "turbulence". The window should now look like this:

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Press Ok and the effect will be applied to your white background. Your image should now look something like this:

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Step 2

In order to optimize the result, increase the image's contrast. Either go to <image> --> Colors --> Brightness/Contrast and do it manually or go to <image> --> Colors --> Automatic --> Stretch Contrast. Anyway, your image should now look similar to this:

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Step 3

Now we want to change the image's color to gold. In order to do that, select "Golden" in the gradient section of the GIMP tool kit:

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Afterwards, select your image and go to <image> --> Colors --> Map --> Gradient Map:

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Now, the gradient will be applied to your image. In order to improve it a bit, go to <image> --> Filters --> Blur --> Gaussian Blur, set it to 10 for both horizontal and vertical and apply it to your image. The result should look similar to this:

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Also, go to <image> --> Colors --> Brightness/Contrast and make it a bit darker and with more contrast (so it actually looks golden).

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Step 4

In order to create the actual text, simply choose a font and text size and put your text roughly in the middle of the golden background. Select the text layer and choose "Select from Alphachannel". Then go to the golden background layer and press ctrl-c (copy) and ctrl-v (paste). Now, your golden text will appear. Delete the old golden background layer and the original text layer so only the golden text remains.

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Step 5

Now there is one last thing we need to do. Go to <image> --> Filters --> Maps --> Bump-Map:

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A new window will pop up where you can decide what the Bump-Map should be like. Choose settings similar to the ones below or experiment with them if you wish:

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Press OK and the Bump-Map will be applied to your text. And you're done! You have created a great golden text which should look similar to the one below. Feel free to add an outline, shadows or anything else.

(I originally posted this tutorial here)

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Alternatively, you can also save your finished gold texture as a .pat file in Gimp 2.0 -> share -> gimp -> 2.0 -> patterns. That way, all you have to do is select a text's alpha channel and fill it with the gold pattern. The tutorial can also be used to create a metal/steel texture which can then be used as a pattern as well. Here's a dark metal texture I created, feel free to use it:

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Creating such textures is actually relatively easy:

1. Go to Filters -> Render -> Clouds -> Difference Clouds and use that as a base. Apply a Gaussian Blur with a radius of around 50-100 afterwards.
2. Create several new layers and experiment with grunge brushes using shades of gray and black. Play around with their opacity as well and apply a Gaussian Blur to some of them.
3. Merge all layers and duplicate the remaining one. Mirror it vertically or horizontally, lower the opacity and set it to "Overlay" for example.
4. Finally, change brightness and contrast to improve it even further.

The next tutorial is about a feature which can look pretty good on wallpapers and banners. It's of course entirely optional, though.

Curling

This is a rather straightforward tutorial for GIMP which attempts to teach you how to achieve a page curl effect.


Step 1:

Open up Gimp and create an image, signature or wallpaper of your choice. Also decide on your foreground/background colors as they are responsible for the color on the back of the page (if you choose that option later on, that is).


Step 2:

Go to <image> --> Filters --> Noise and select "Curl" (this is from my German version of GIMP but that shouldn't be a problem):

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Step 3:

A new window should pop up. Here you can decide in which corner of the page the curl should be put, you can select your desired opacity and choose the colors (in this case, background/foreground colors are selected):

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Once you have decided on the details, simply press "ok" and the curl effect will be applied to your image. And you're done! The final result should look similar to this:

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While this is a rather short and simple tutorial, I hope that it'll be useful for you anyway.

(I originally posted this tutorial here)

This third and last small tutorial will teach you how to create rain. Just as the other two tutorials it is of course optional but is supposed to give you some inspiration and additional ideas.

Creating Rain

In this short tutorial I'll explain how to create rain with GIMP which can for example be used for editing screenshots from Total War games and the likes.

Step 1

Open up your image, then create a second black layer on top of the background one:

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Afterwards, go to Filters -> Render -> Clouds -> Difference Clouds.

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A new window will pop up in which you can change several settings. Remember, the more "dots" you use, the heavier your rain will become.

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Then go to Layer -> Transparency -> Color to Alpha and select black. Black will now become transparent and only the white dots will remain.

Step 2

Now go to Filters -> Blur -> Motion Blur and set the length to something between 100-200. The angle is up to you and depends on where you want the rain to come from.

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You'll notice that the rain is basically invisible now so you have to duplicate its layer several times (around 8-12 times) and merge down the layers afterwards. If you think that the rain is too heavy and uniform, you might want to take the eraser tool with an opacity of around 20-30% and a fuzzy brush and erase parts of the rain to make it look more realistic. Eventually, I'd also darken the whole image a bit. Here is what I came up with (credit for the original screenshot goes to tone and the RS II team):

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But there's also another way to create rain. Skip the first few steps of this tutorial and use a fuzzy brush for a few small white dots on a new layer instead. Try to vary the size of the dots a little by using different brush sizes. Afterwards, apply a motion blur as explained above. You can combine the two different methods of creating rain or stay with one of them if you wish.

Creating snow is very similar, simply use a larger white fuzzy brush for the dots and use a shorter length (of about 5-10 at most) when motion blurring.

And with that this lesson comes to an end. You should now be able to create your own banners or wallpapers by applying what you've learned in this lesson and the three previous ones. It has been a pleasure to teach you guys and I'm confident that you'll be able to complete this final exam successfully.

Cheers,
Astaroth

Homework

In order to pass this exam and to complete the GIMP Basics class, there are two things you have to do.

1. Create an animated signature. Utilize what you have learned in this lesson and the other ones to create a beautiful animated signature consisting of several frames. Show me what you've learned and try to use as many techniques as possible (e.g. use brushes, text, reflections, a signature border etc). The maximum size is 550x175 pixels but your signature can of course be smaller than that if you wish. Keep in mind that it musn't exceed 250 KB, though.
2. Create a wallpaper or banner. You may use a theme of your choice and can for example create a banner for a modification or game if you wish. Try to utilize the techniques which you've learned by now - e.g. blending, shadows, work with your text etc - and impress me! There is no real size limit for this task but your wallpaper should be at least around 800x800 pixels.

Please also give me a short summary of what you've done and list the techniques which you have used! If you need help or have any other questions, comments or complaints, don't be afraid to ask. Good luck!

The deadline for this exam is Tuesday in a week, the 9th of June. I might extend it a bit if necessary, though.

[Killerbee]

Great job Astaroth !

here's part A :

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Again , LOTR stuff I haven't done much nice stuff , will do that later .. Maybe adding some more frames And making the text LOTR-Style

Anyway , great stuff Astaroth , will update my homework tomorrow ..

Part 2 : Golden text :

Without white background :

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With white background

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[Astaroth]

Glad you like it. The animation is cool and funny but please also make an animated signature (550x175 pixels maximum) if possible.

[sithlord447]

Here is a very very simple animation
more detailed work soon




EDIT it seems not to be showing up here is a link instead

http://s712.photobucket.com/albums/w...nt=project.gif



EDIT 2


here is a better animation sig(i did not feel like adding the text of his speach but if you want i could )

[Lü Bu]

Animation:

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Creating rain /funny I make tutorial about this in Graphic workshop/:
Original:

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Edited:

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Golden text:

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Wallpaper/banner:

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Tehniques:Bsicly same sa you Astaroth!

Darn it I just read that i only need to do wallpaper or banner and animation!

[Tzar]

Part A




Part B

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Rainy Times

[PubliusKhannus]

Easy stuff first:

Animation:

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Rain:

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Golden Text:

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Part B :

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[Astaroth]

Good job guys.

Publius, for the rain you might want to duplicate the rain's layer another few times and to use an eraser to erase the white spots near the top of the image.

karlost, maybe use a bigger wallpaper size. Currently, it's a bit hard to recognize anything. I've increased the minimum size to 800x800 pixels now, 600x600 is too small I think.

[Ratbag]

Ok, Here is an animation.

[Lü Bu]

karlost, maybe use a bigger wallpaper size. Currently, it's a bit hard to recognize anything. I've increased the minimum size to 800x800 pixels now, 600x600 is too small I think.

Ok,sure!I just kep myself in borders you give us!

[Astaroth]

I'm only giving a minimum size, you can of course make a bigger wallpaper if you wish.

Good job, Ratbag.

[Lü Bu]

I was thinking this is max size

[Roloc]

Here is my animated sig:

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Here is my wallpaper:

Deutschland über alles!!!!!

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[Ratbag]

My Animated Sig.

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And my wallpaper. Sorry that's it this big, but my sister wanted to use it as a background.

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[Tzar]

I finished my Wallpaper and you can see it in post #6

[NLegari]

My animation:

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All those images used in it were made by me.(that is why they look so horrible.) Most of those images are rather simple. For the pillar one that is in it, I selected the middle of the image and filled it with red. That is what I got, so I dunno.

My wall paper:

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If it is too big, let me know.

Here are the original images:

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[Eöl]

My animation: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/album...ictureid=18112

My wallpaper comes later

[sithlord447]

here is my wallpaper

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[PubliusKhannus]

Try not making it so this side that side, overlay one side onto another, perhaps merging the flags in the middle, allowing to flow more freely. But that's just my opinion.

[Icedie El Guaraní]

This place reserve for me!!
For this i use the signature bar technique and some overlay, borders, Blend tool and some other small stuff , like brush deletion lightning filter.
First attempt:

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EDITED
And this is a blend of just about everything you taught us as you can see i hope this is enough, size suppose to be 1024x764 i believe that is enough for a wallpaper.
Wallpaper

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Sorry but is not saving at the right size , it gets smaller after saving it.
Here is a link to it. Image size is 1244px928px.
Final test Wallpaper