GUM v.1.0.0

Gimp around in 80 minutes

Don't underestimate the power of Gimp...

This manual describes the many functions, plug-ins and options Gimp has to offer, but it doesn't describe how to create great digital art or designs. There are probably as many Gimp tricks and tips as there are Gimp-users, and even if we wanted to, we couldn't include them all in this book. We can't teach you how to be an artist, but we've included a few examples here that will hopefully inspire you to new ideas and help you on the way to getting the best out of Gimp. This is more a gallery than a tutorial, and the object of this chapter is not to give detailed instructions, but rather to demonstrate the great versatility and power of Gimp to beginners, and maybe give an insight on new ways of using Gimp to more experienced users.

so, let's unleash the power of Gimp and Unix!

Creating Image Objects

You don't always need to import a photo, drawing or 3D-image of an object. There are many ways of creating astonishingly convincing image objects directly in Gimp.

Extracted pic [1]

A Twisted personality

To create the emblem statue I started out with a b/w photo. The background was isolated with the bezier tool, removed and replaced with a gradient fill. The image was rotated to vertical position, and tinted yellow with Image/Hue-Saturation. I reopened the selection made for changing the background, inverted it and used it again to isolate the figure, which was copied to a white layer. The figure was further adapted to supply an interesting surface for the Distorts/Twist plugin to work on. Finally, the yellow layer was applied in Difference Mode on top of the twisted layer.

Variations - gold and water spirits

The gold emblem was created by running the Gradient Map filter on the twisted figure (using the custom Golden gradient). The pale outline of the non-twisted parts was painted with low opacity airbrush and blurred within a sharp-edged selection. The blue ghost emblem was made by three copies of the original yellow-tint image. The middle copy was twisted, trimmed and set to Saturation Mode, and the top layer was set in Difference Mode. To accentuate the water- or ghostlike appearance, the original twisted shape was added to a layer, desaturated and set to Overlay. The side parts needed to be more visible so they were pasted separately in Multiply Mode. Finally a pale fluorescent shape of the figure was added to enhance the shape of the woman inside the waterwheel.

Creating a simple pen and an ink stain

The pen was made by filling selection shapes with different gradients. In this case, I used Bilinear FG to BG with medium opacity, and also a number of FG to transparent gradients on several cylinder shaped selections. The metal pen tip was adjusted with Brightness-Contrast to achieve the metallic look. The pen shadow, as well as the emblem statue shadow, was made with the Perspective Shadow Script-Fu, cleared from color and filled with a FG to transparent linear gradient.

The technicolor ink spot

To make the multi-color splash, I started by drawing a simple black sun-shape on a white background, using a medium pencil tip. I then applied the Distort/Value Propagate plugin, choosing more white. The result was blurred and bumpmapped and the background was cut away. A copy of the splash was pasted to a transparent layer, filled with a colorful pattern and set to Lighten Only Mode.

Making grooved text

The carved form pressed steel text was generated by using a deliberately jagged (not antialiased) font. The text was filled with a black/white shapeburst gradient, the tonal range was adjusted with Image/Levels and the whole thing was bumpmapped. Final touch with Image/Brightness-Contrast. A gray glow was added to emphasise the shape of the letters, by copying the text layer, filling it with gray and applying Gaussian blur (with Keep Trans. unchecked).

Organic patterns

The leaf pattern was created in Render/IfsCompose, and Artistic/Apply canvas was added. The image was blended with the background with the help of a Layer Mask and a radial gradient.

The Gimp User Manual
Last modified: 19 May 1998