58 replies to this topic

[Reznas]

Officially approved by bonesiii.

Hey guys! It's been months since we had the GIMP Help Topic up. In fact, it's been over a year! But, fortunately, it's now back up. Here you can ask questions about GIMP, discuss about GIMP, and post guides about GIMP. It's a win, win, win, right? So, I have made a beginners guide for GIMP in video format right here (Turn down your volume a bit, because my voice breaks up a bit in the first 30 seconds. Also make sure to click fullscreen.):





Here is the script to the part that breaks up:

GIMP is a photo-editing program and it’s a lot like Photoshop, except the only differences are that it’s free compared to Photoshop’s price, which is about $700 currently for the newest CS5. And the other difference is that Photoshop is definitely more professional. GIMP can do a lot of things that Photoshop can, but it will probably take a lot more steps generally.

Here is a little bit about layers and paint brushes that I couldn't fit into the first video:



Soon I will create more guides for you explaining different things about GIMP. If you have a specific thing you want me to make a guide about, please PM me telling me what you want or post the question here in the topic, of course.

Guides:

Outlined Text and Speech Bubbles - Steps to making an Outline Text Script

Flame Text

So, post your questions, thoughts, and answers here guys! I hope I can be of help to you!

-Rez

Edited by -Reznas-, Apr 18 2012 - 10:21 AM.

[Soran]

Its nice to see this topic around again. I'll be happy to help answer any questions if needed.

~Soran

[Axilus Prime]

Neither do I...which is the reason why this topic could be useful!

[Reznas]

Okay guys, I made a new guide. This time it's on outlined text and speech bubbles:



Also, here are the steps for the outline text script:

1. Copy and paste this code into a notepad document:

(define (script-fu-outline-text-logo-alpha img
										   text-layer
										   glow)
  (let* (
		(font-size (car (gimp-text-layer-get-font-size text-layer)))
		(grow (if (= glow TRUE)
				(/ font-size 3)
				(/ font-size 5)))
		(feather font-size)
		(new-layer 0)
		)
	(gimp-image-undo-group-start img)
	(set! new-layer (car (gimp-layer-copy text-layer TRUE)))
	(gimp-image-add-layer img new-layer -1)
	(gimp-layer-resize-to-image-size text-layer)
	(gimp-selection-layer-alpha text-layer)
	(gimp-selection-grow img grow)
	(if (= glow TRUE)
	  (gimp-selection-feather img feather)
	)
	(gimp-edit-fill text-layer BACKGROUND-FILL)
	(gimp-selection-none img)
	(gimp-image-merge-down img new-layer 0)
	(gimp-image-undo-group-end img)
	(gimp-displays-flush)
  )
)

(script-fu-register "script-fu-outline-text-logo-alpha"
  _"Add Text Outline..."
  _"Add an outline to text characters using the background color"
  ""
  ""
  "June 2009"
  ""
  SF-IMAGE	   "Image"				  0
  SF-DRAWABLE	"Drawable"			   0
  SF-TOGGLE	 _"Glowing Outline"		FALSE
)
(script-fu-menu-register "script-fu-outline-text-logo-alpha"
						 "<Image>/Filters/Alpha to Logo"
)

2. Save the file in C://Program Files/GIMP-2.0/share/gimp/2.0/scripts. Make sure you save it as an .scm file. So the name should be something like "outline_text.scm".

3. If you saved the file while Gimp was open, then go to Filters/Script-Fu/Refresh Scripts and the option to add outline text should be under Filters/Alpha to Logo.

Hope this helped guys! Enjoy!

-Rez

Edited by Reznas Nuva, Apr 01 2012 - 08:25 AM.

[Justax-Kal]

I was thinking about bring this back a while ago, but didn't see the need then. I'm glad someone else thought to revive this.
I'll be happy to help with any questions, too.

J-K out.

PS: Photoshop help (for those who have it) should be considered, too.

[Argaraffe]

Okay, I guess I'll ask the first question. How to you make a reticule effect like in the third panel of this

[Soran]

Okay, I guess I'll ask the first question. How to you make a reticule effect like in the third panel of this

If you're talking about the armyish style thing, it was either added on from another image, or it was done using several tools in gimp. Its would be pretty easy to replicate.

Basically you would just be making circular selections, feathering them, filling them with the color of choice, shrinking to however thin you want the lines to be, and then cutting. In all honesty I'm pretty sure darc made the whole thing first and then added the glow around it to give it that realistic touch.

Basically: Random brushes and selections. Thats my simple answer since its hard to be specific on something like this.

[Reznas]

Okay guys, I have made a new guide, and this time it's on flame text:



So, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! Thanks again to Pohuaki, as he originally told me these directions.

Enjoy!

-Rez

[Ptolemy]

Hi Reznas, I want to make shadows underneath characters, as if they're floating a few feet off the ground, but every time I do, it ends up angled to one side or the other. And I'm not a good enough editor to add in my own shadows with other tools such as the pencil/brush/etc.

[Reznas]

Hi Reznas, I want to make shadows underneath characters, as if they're floating a few feet off the ground, but every time I do, it ends up angled to one side or the other. And I'm not a good enough editor to add in my own shadows with other tools such as the pencil/brush/etc.

Hey Ptoloemaios! I have an answer for your question. So what you need to do, is paste the character on a new layer above the background and add the filter: Filters/Light and Shadow/Drop Shadow. With: Offset X; 0 Offset Y; 8 Blur Radius; 15. That should give you a pretty good shadow. You can mess around with the options until you find it to your liking, but I found those options pretty good. Hope this helps!

-Rez

[Pohuaki]

I could be wrong but I think he's looking for something similar to this

although possibly with more detail.

I used the ellipse select tool to make a somewhat flat ellipse under the figure, feathered (I think by 15 here) the ellipse, added a new transparent layer, and filled the selection with black. The shadow should be made more diffuse (larger, more feathered, more transparent) the further the figure is from the ground.

You can't get more detail in the floor shadow without drawing or using angled lighting (resulting in an angled shadow).

[Ptolemy]

Thats exactly what I needed! Thanks for the help, both of you!

[Argaraffe]

This might seem really sad, but I never figured out to make realistic fire like in this comic. I'm assuming you just edit it out of a stock photo like with an explosion, but I'm not sure.

[Reznas]

This might seem really sad, but I never figured out to make realistic fire like in this comic. I'm assuming you just edit it out of a stock photo like with an explosion, but I'm not sure.

Well, there are multiple ways to accomplish what you want. But probably the two easiest ways to add fire like that to images are 1. To, yes, edit it out of a photo or get an image online, and 2. Using some good GIMP Brushes. Now I found a few good flame brushes on the internet, so I'll go ahead and show you them to you through brickshelf (I'm not completely sure if I can link to where I got the brushes, so I'll upload them to brickshelf instead).

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

If you're wondering how to upload GIMP brushes to GIMP, it's quite easy actually. All you have to do is save the files into C://Program Files/GIMP-2.0/share/gimp/2.0/brushes and you should have them when you open up GIMP. Hope this helps!

-Rez

[Pohuaki]

If you're wondering how to upload GIMP brushes to GIMP, it's quite easy actually. All you have to do is save the files into C://Program Files/GIMP-2.0/share/gimp/2.0/brushes and you should have them when you open up GIMP. Hope this helps!

That's the folder for the standard GIMP brushes. You can put new brushes there, but GIMP may delete them when you install a new version of GIMP, and possibly in some other situations. Also, the name of that folder changes in 2.8.

if you do Edit->Preferences, you should get a dialog with a list of things on the left and Folders at the bottom of that list. Click the + next to Folders to expand it, and click on Brushes in the newly expanded list. You should now have a list of folders on the right of the dialog, with one of the folders marked as "Writable Folder"; put your new brushes in that folder.

[Ptolemy]

Lookie here, its me again!
Anyway, I'm trying to rotate parts (like arms and heads) so that there is a better emphasis on whats going on and all that smooth jazz, but when ever I try using the rotate tool it always ends up blurring and sludging (my new way to describe blurred and merged stuff :3). SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE

[Soran]

@Ro: Normally if a sprite isn't 2x it will look blurry. Same with smaller sprites in size. The higher the #x the less blurry it will be. Although that being said, there are tools that can normally fix that. You can go to Filters>Enhance>Sharpen then enter the amount you want sharpened. there should be a preview for it so you can see how it looks. Also it could be the interlopation. Try changing it from Linear to Cubic to Sinc and see if any of them have what you are looking for.

Heres what I do just for an easier thing. With my comics when I want to rotate something like a head, I would either use linear or sinc. It will come out semi blurry. Then I sharpen it by 15-25.

If it still looks blurry/sludgy, could you show us a picture?

~Soran

[Ptolemy]

Okay, I tried different sizes, changing linear, cubic, and sinc, and they all end up still just as blurred. I've seen other things with a rotation like this, and the blurring is not nearly as bad as this. Also, this stuff is in 2x.
Look for yourself
So on the left is the result, on the right is what it should and what I have seen when it comes to blur on rotations.

[Reznas]

Thanks, just need a chance to use a computer for more than 2 minutes and I"ll try everything and then get back to ya.
So I've tried everything you said. Yes, this is 2x, and I even tried other sizes.
It still wont work
On the left is the result, and the right is what I want/what it should look like from what I've seen.

Why don't you try to sharpen the image by 15-25 like Soran said, and then post an example? If that doesn't work, we'll figure out some other way to fix your problem.

-Rez

[Soran]

Its probably just the size of the sprite. some sprites even if 2x still end up pretty blurry. Also, sometimes you don't need to worry about how it looks completely close up but look at it when zoomed out. A lot of my masks are blurry when I rotate, and then I sharpen it. Still looks a little blurry close up but when zoomed out it looks fine.

Just to make sure, you're 2x'ing the sprites before you rotate right?

[Pohuaki]

Just to make sure, you're 2x'ing the sprites before you rotate right?

That's what I was thinking. Otherwise, I can't see what the problem is, since you have a fairly non-blurred version on the right.



Here's a 25% size version of your picture, with a few more heads (rotated to straighten and rotated back). I used Filters->Enhance->Unsharp Mask after rotating and before shrinking on the straight one on the left and the tilted one on the right.

[Ptolemy]

Well, its already in 2x, and I tried sharpening but it wasnt much better, but I'll take what I can get, thanks for the help everyone!


Okay, I hav yet ANOTHER issue. When trying to recolor using the select by color tool, it will occasionally select colors around it as well, which is very irritating, because I am then not able to fill certain shadings the right color.
Here is an example.
Help and an answer us much appreciated if there is an actual solution.

Edited by bonesiii, May 31 2012 - 01:25 PM.
double-post merged. --bones

[Reznas]

Okay, I hav yet ANOTHER issue. When trying to recolor using the select by color tool, it will occasionally select colors around it as well, which is very irritating, because I am then not able to fill certain shadings the right color.
Here is an example.
Help and an answer us much appreciated if there is an actual solution.

Ah, that is a very easy problem to fix. Just set the threshold to 1, and your problem's solved. Your threshold is set to the default of 15. This will select a color and any very close shades of that color as well. But if you set it to 1, it will only select that one color. Hope this helps!

-Rez

[Ptolemy]

Don't I feel silly. Well, that's what this topic is here for
Thank you very much!

[Argaraffe]

Actually, I'd set the threshold to 0. A few times when I tried to recolor spritesheets with a threshold of 1, it selects another color.Just set it to 0 and it will always only select that one color.

[Reznas]

Actually, I'd set the threshold to 0. A few times when I tried to recolor spritesheets with a threshold of 1, it selects another color.Just set it to 0 and it will always only select that one color.

Both usually work, however. I've actually never had that happen. But I'm sure there are some spritesheets that are that close in shading.

Don't I feel silly. Well, that's what this topic is here for
Thank you very much!

Don't feel that way man. I make mistakes like that all the time. Everyone does. You are very welcome!

-Rez

[man774]

my problem is that when I activate GIMP, before it loads, a buch of messages from my computer pop up like "system can't find file video.exe" and "File not found. Windows is searching for solution to the problem" and they don't go away. Do you know how I can fix this?

[Reznas]

my problem is that when I activate GIMP, before it loads, a buch of messages from my computer pop up like "system can't find file video.exe" and "File not found. Windows is searching for solution to the problem" and they don't go away. Do you know how I can fix this?

I'm not entirely sure that GIMP is the problem. It may be related to some other problem with your computer. I'm not completely sure how to fix that problem though, so maybe someone else can help.

Anyways, I just made a new video guys, here it is:



Enjoy!

-Rez

[Pohuaki]

my problem is that when I activate GIMP, before it loads, a buch of messages from my computer pop up like "system can't find file video.exe" and "File not found. Windows is searching for solution to the problem" and they don't go away. Do you know how I can fix this?

video.exe should be in

C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins

for GIMP 2.8, and I think it's in

C:\Program Files\GIMP 2.0\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins

for GIMP 2.6. Make sure it's there.

video.exe is also a common file name used by various trojans and worms, so you could have a problem related to that, possibly involving some overzealous antivirus software that resulted in the file being deleted. There have been some false positives, but as far as I know that's just been with the portable version.

I assume that you downloaded the GIMP installer, instead of building GIMP yourself. If so, try re-installing, preferably with a virus scan on the GIMP folder before and after the install.

Edited by Pohuaki, Jun 03 2012 - 03:02 PM.

[man774]

my problem is that when I activate GIMP, before it loads, a buch of messages from my computer pop up like "system can't find file video.exe" and "File not found. Windows is searching for solution to the problem" and they don't go away. Do you know how I can fix this?

video.exe should be in

C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins

for GIMP 2.8, and I think it's in

C:\Program Files\GIMP 2.0\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins

for GIMP 2.6. Make sure it's there.

video.exe is also a common file name used by various trojans and worms, so you could have a problem related to that, possibly involving some overzealous antivirus software that resulted in the file being deleted. There have been some false positives, but as far as I know that's just been with the portable version.

I assume that you downloaded the GIMP installer, instead of building GIMP yourself. If so, try re-installing, preferably with a virus scan on the GIMP folder before and after the install.

thanks

[ReckoningReckoner]

Okay, I tried different sizes, changing linear, cubic, and sinc, and they all end up still just as blurred. I've seen other things with a rotation like this, and the blurring is not nearly as bad as this. Also, this stuff is in 2x.
Look for yourself
So on the left is the result, on the right is what it should and what I have seen when it comes to blur on rotations.

Under interpolation, make sure it's selected to "none". Not cubic, linear or Sinc

[Soran]

@Peng: The way Ptol wants it is impossible as its only 2x. He would have to enlarge it by a lot more for it to come out the way the 'preview' is shown. The interpolation isn't the problem, its the size of the sprite.

~Soran

[Ptolemy]

I've been able to get it to look fine as long as it's only a slight angle, and I've started to make mine bigger now anyway for text purposes as well.

[Pohuaki]

I've been able to get it to look fine as long as it's only a slight angle, and I've started to make mine bigger now anyway for text purposes as well.

I guess what's been confusing me is that you seem to be able to rotate enlarged pieces cleanly, and I was able to reduce the image that you provided (enlarged and rotated) with far less blur than your smaller rotated piece - why don't you just rotate at a larger size and reduce?

Now for a GIMP 2.8 question - I already checked the on-line help, bug logs, and did a google search on this without finding anything...
With the new on-canvas text editing, you get this useful tool to assist editing that appears just above and possibly extending to the right of the text area?



My problem is that it won't extend outside the window, which is just large enough for the image for large images, so it gets clipped off for text at the top (and sometimes right) of the image, making it useless in those cases. I have a few workarounds, but they're extra work, so I'd rather not use them. Is there a way to get that to appear elsewhere, such as at the bottom or side, of the text area.

[Soran]

This question doesn't really pertain to special effects help as it does to the program itself. Recently when I've been making comics, ever like 30 minutes to 3 hours my gimp will just stop working. It would simply freeze and not work. I tried to wait it out before but that didn't work, it seems to be a permanent freeze unless I force quit out of it. Its becoming quite tedious since I don't normally save often and I have to redo a lot of things when it does this. I use a macbook, version 10.6.8 and I also use Gimp 2.6.11. I'm not sure if it deals with the number of files I have on my computer, or the program itself... Anyone have a clue about it?

~Soran

[Felinuva]

How do I make a tree brush 2 colours like the tree trunk brown and the leaves green like in the picture?



I have a tree brush but when i use it, it comes out in one colour like in the picture below.

Edited by Feline Oneker, Jun 06 2012 - 10:54 AM.

[Soran]

@Oneker: There are guides for making tree brushes, but I don't know how to do it off the top of my head. But if you're looking for how to make trees like Nuparurocks or my backgrounds, then we didn't use tree brushes. We just used trees from pictures and basically cut them out. Here are some examples.

Tree 1

Tree 2

Tree number 2 is the same one Nuparurocks and I use.

Hope I helped,
~Soran

[Pohuaki]

How do I make a tree brush 2 colours like the tree trunk brown and the leaves green like in the picture?

That depends on the image mode of the brush when you save it.

An image with Image->Mode->Grayscale creates a one color brush that uses whatever the FG color is when the brush is used..

An image with Image->Mode->RGB creates a brush that uses all of the colors in the brush image, but they are static - the user can not change them when using the brush.

[ReckoningReckoner]

This question doesn't really pertain to special effects help as it does to the program itself. Recently when I've been making comics, ever like 30 minutes to 3 hours my gimp will just stop working. It would simply freeze and not work. I tried to wait it out before but that didn't work, it seems to be a permanent freeze unless I force quit out of it. Its becoming quite tedious since I don't normally save often and I have to redo a lot of things when it does this. I use a macbook, version 10.6.8 and I also use Gimp 2.6.11. I'm not sure if it deals with the number of files I have on my computer, or the program itself... Anyone have a clue about it?

~Soran

Is it the gimp program that crashes, or the x11 emulator? If it's the latter, download the newest version: http://xquartz.macos...e.org/trac/wiki

Edited by Peng Floyd, Jun 07 2012 - 08:12 AM.

[Fire Entity]

Now for a GIMP 2.8 question - I already checked the on-line help, bug logs, and did a google search on this without finding anything...
With the new on-canvas text editing, you get this useful tool to assist editing that appears just above and possibly extending to the right of the text area?



My problem is that it won't extend outside the window, which is just large enough for the image for large images, so it gets clipped off for text at the top (and sometimes right) of the image, making it useless in those cases. I have a few workarounds, but they're extra work, so I'd rather not use them. Is there a way to get that to appear elsewhere, such as at the bottom or side, of the text area.

I'm not sure I understand correctly the problem you are experiencing...Are you saying that when the image border is at the window border and you try to put text at the top or right of the image, the text box is no longer visible? If this is your problem I think you could solve it in two ways: first, zooming out will place the image within the window border allowing you to put the text box at any location and still see the text tool. My other suggestion is to place the text box somewhere else in the window that you can see it properly and once you have all the text options finished, move the text layer where you originally intended it to go.

I am so glad Bzp is back, and this topic too! I wish the Art II forum were more active. XD