Making Wallpapers for Beginners the Free and Easy Way

[Tahko Tetsujin]

You know, it was kicked around that someone should do a tutorial about how one goes about making wallpapers. Well I wanted to create one for you that would be easy to use as well as an investment for the low, low price of free.

Most people use photoshop, thus why everyone uses the word "photoshop" instad of "graphic manipulation" as they should. Now because of this, many people make the assumption that may be your only option. Well that is not the case.

I personally use GIMP which is great for beginners because it's free to use under open source licenses. GIMP is available for Linux, Mac OS, and Windows. (find out more about your operating system at http://www.gimp.org)

To get GIMP for linux it is as easy as opening your package manager, selecting GIMP and install. (Gotta love Linux)

For Windows, you will need to download the GTK+ library installer. You'll find that here:
http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=gimp-win&filename=gtk%2B-2.10.11-setup.exe&use_mirror=superb-west

Then install GIMP here:
http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=gimp-win&filename=gimp-2.2.15-i586-setup-1.exe&use_mirror=superb-west

Now onto the tutorial. We are going to do the simplest thing you can do to make a wallpaper here are a couple of things you must understand before making your own selection for a pic to convert to a wallpaper:

1) The bigger the better. Where subjects are concerned, you will find that in the end your experience will be easier and better because you can shrink a large pic and keep most of the quality but you cannot grossly enlarge a smaller pic without losing quality.

2) Make sure your subject is pronounced. This is really just for beginners like us. When learning to do this stuff, you don't want to have a background with too much going on to start with. Later on down the line when you get used to colors and lines and whatnot, you can get more advanced.

I am designing this tutorial to where you can duplicate my process and produce the same result without getting too complicated, not that I can get really complicated just really learning myself.

Here is the pic I chose:

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/2518/newphoenix2ac7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Now we wont be resizing this because it's just the right size and you can pickup resizing on your own because it's pretty easy.

Okay so let's pop this cork. Open the pic up in GIMP and then go to "Edit > Copy" to copy the pic onto the clipboard and then choose "Edit > "Paste as New"

This is going to make a new window with you pic in it. What this is doing is raising the pic to where the background is transparent. You can now close the original window if you'd wish.

Now we are going to select our Magic Wand selection tool:

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/1791/wandff2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Now we are going to click in the background area so we are going to click anywhere the white background is. This will select all the area with the same color. The selection will stop if where the subject interrupts it. Once it makes a selection, chose "Edit > Cut" to remove the selection. In the end it should look like this:

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/5153/cutoutni9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Now there will if you look, still some of the white background coming out so we are going to have to move in on it with our eraser. For the sake of understanding, here is the selection we will be zooming in on:

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4350/800preselectionvj6.png (http://imageshack.us)

[Tahko Tetsujin]

To zoom in, if you look at the lower left hand side of your image you will find a box that will have a percentage. Select it and choose your zoom in percentage. Here is a look of our area before cleaning out all the white.

http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/5417/cleanupbeforegb9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Now we get the the Eraser and select a circle (03) brush.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/619/eraserbr5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Delicately remove the white. It takes some getting used to. If you mess up, you can always go to "Edit > Undo" to take another pass at it.

Here it is after cleaning out:

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/6140/cleanupafterqx8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Congrats! You now have your top layer for your wallpaper!

Now we just need to open up a new image to edit. Of course, we are going to go to "File > New" to get the New image options. this is where you choose your size. I'm going to use 1024x768. Also click on advanced options and choose "Transparent" from the dropdown marked as "Fill with:" It should look like this:

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/4885/newimageyk0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Now, once this image is open lets go back to our top layer window and choose "Edit > Copy" then choose your new image and choose "Edit > Paste" This will place your layer on top of our background of the new image. After that we want to convert it to it's own layer instead of just a "Floating Selection" that it is now. To do that we make sure that in the Layers area "Floating Selection" is highlighted and click the "New Layer" Button.

(it looks like at this point I have to thumbnail the pics. Just click it to see what's up.)

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/5205/pasteintotv5.th.jpg (http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pasteintotv5.jpg)

Now that it is it's own layer, we can still edit it as well as play with many backgrounds and colors before committing a final decision on where you want to go with a final piece. Anyway now that the layer is made we can move it where ever we want without committing it to one area to get a good idea of where to place it. Let's choose the move tool:

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/9826/movefunctionxk6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Let's click hold down the mouse button on Jean anywhere and drag her into position:

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/397/makelayerandmoveyl7.th.jpg (http://img91.imageshack.us/my.php?image=makelayerandmoveyl7.jpg)

Now let's get to that background. I like to use a color isn't used too much that is already in the existing pic that we have. In this case the red from Jean's hair. To get the right color, I'm going to choose color picker and click on the hair.

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/2662/colorpickerpr9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Once you click on a color a window will pop up and show the color you selected. If you don't like the color just "Cancel" and try again otherwise choose "OK"

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3182/colorpickerchoosevi8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Now that your color is in the palette lets go to the layer window and choose the background layer and then from the tools choose "Bucket Fill"

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/5061/choosebackgroundvq7.jpg (http://imageshack.us) http://img489.imageshack.us/img489/5817/bucketfilloc9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Now click anywhere in the background area and click to fill the whole background with the color you selected.

HEY! We are almost done! Let's see what it looks like if we was to save it right now:

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/2934/dirtyalmosttherecf4.th.jpg (http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dirtyalmosttherecf4.jpg)

[Tahko Tetsujin]

It looks good but it could be better. do you see the edges and how they look a little tattered? Let's fix that before we give it to the world. Choose your free select tool:

http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/1766/freeselecthh5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Now it's kind of hard to show you this but go in about 400% to the edges and use the free select tool to trace around the edges a little at a time and choose "Filters > Blur > Blur".

Again do the edges only a little at a time. To attempt to do a larger selection may lead to aggravation are first while you are training your hand to stay steady in your mouse movements.

Then you can save it. I save as a jpeg but you can use whatever format if you want but because of the smaller size and decent quality, I choose jpegs.

When you save you are going told that GIMP will need to merge the layers. That just means that it will make one pic from the layers for you. Just click "Export" and it save the file.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/2928/exportvc5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

And now the final piece:
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/9514/completete8.th.jpg (http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=completete8.jpg)

Have fun and be off. If I helped you at all, just drop me a line, I'd like to see your stuff. Here are some links to get you on your way:

GIMP Tutorials:
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/

Comic Art Community Gallery:
http://www.comicartcommunity.com/gallery/index.php

Comic Candy Gallery
http://www.comiccandy.com/index.php?name=coppermine

Please contribute to this thread if this thread helped you in the true spirit of open source.

Oh and have some fun!

[Fenix]

Excellent tutorial Tahko Tetsujin. I'm using Gimp right now, and it is pretty much like Photoshop but free!

I would like to say though that for long time photoshoppers is hard to change. So I've installed Photoshop 7 and run it through WINE in my KUBUNTU linux. Obviously this goes against open source spirit...but as a Linux newbee myself I need to feel that there's something I know... not everything is different. It ease the transition, at least for me quite a lot.

Going back to the topic at hand I would like to add a frecuent question about how to upload and where to upload fresh images.
You need to use a Free web server to host your images.
Here are a couple of options:
Imageshack.us (http://imageshack.us/)
Photobucket.com (http://photobucket.com/register.php)
(you'll need to registrate first)

When you upload an image using image-hosting web servers, you will be given posting links, for graphic explanations I would use Imageshack (the one I use more) and which is also explained by other posters.

Here their examples through the different interfaces.
Individual or multiple image uploads:
Thanks to dionymnia (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=4299381&postcount=1609) and Wild Card (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=4319405&postcount=3190)
Registrated user interface:
Thanks to TheNight (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=4320048&postcount=3192)

PS: Adding this thread link to my sig.

[Fenix]

Another Thread to check about the related topic where you can find cheats for quality, extraction methods and other great stuff.
The Photoshop Editing Thread (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=146331) is for people using photoshop mainly, but it could be use by anyone because the techniques and tools are pretty similar in the Gimp or in Paint Shop Pro which are the most common graphic manipulation programs along Photoshop itself.

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Okay today's addition to the thread is How to make avatars

Let's go over a few things that you must consider when creating an avatar:

- Your stock photo can be any size but you must also consider that you will be converting that image into a relatively smaller size so you want to make sure you choose a photo with clear focus. This is why most avatars of heroes that you see are mostly face shots.

- You must consider the forum or place you will be using the avatar. Look at your profile settings and it will tell you how big and what size you can use. For example CBR's requirements are as such

"The maximum size of your custom image is 80 by 80 pixels or 19.5 KB (whichever is smaller)."

For these reasons, we will be making the avatar 80x80 and we will save it as a gif in order to make the file small as well.

Of course we need our stock photo. I chose this cool mugshot of Catwoman:

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/9481/catwomancb4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Let's open it up in GIMP. Now we want to choose out square selection tool:

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/4006/squareselectorkr7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

With this tool we are going to select the area that will be our avatar, we don't want all of it because when it shrinks down the focus of the piece will be lost because it's so small so we are going to cut out the face and a little of the mugshot height markers. It should look like this:

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/9878/bigselectionkx1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

At this point we will select "Edit > Copy" to copy our selection to the clipboard and then "Edit > Paste as New" to bring the selection in it's own window like so:

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9296/cutoutxm0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Perfect. Now to resize it to our 80 x 80 requirements. Select the Scale Tool:

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/9394/resizetoolqx0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

now we click on our new window and then the Scale options come up. The screen should look like this after adjusting to 80 x 80:

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/5003/scaleoptionsnt7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Now click "Scale" and your image will look like this:

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/3093/toomuchspacegb5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

So if we save it like this it will still save at the previous size with a shrunk face. So we want to choose "Edit > Copy" then "Edit > Paste as New" so that you have our final 80 x 80 avatar:

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/8158/finalsizetx1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Finally we will go to "File > Save" and save it as a .gif file. The GIF uses a 256 color palette which is okay for smaller pics because there isn't a great amount of detail involved. It also makes our avatar light in filesize and easy to upload anywhere. Once you name your GIF and click Save, another window will come up:

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/725/exporteq9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

All you really have to do is click export here all it is doing is telling you it's about to change your color palette to the 256 colors that gif utilizes for this image.

And here is the final avatar:
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/1539/catwomanavatarbl5.gif (http://imageshack.us)

You are finished! Upload it anywhere you like, it's highly likely that you can use it everywhere the interwebs will take you.

As usual, if I helped you out, I'd love to hear it and please contribute to this thread where you can.

[Capn]

Good stuff. I'm going to try GIMP later on. I am definitely new to creating wallpapers and such. So this was really helpful.

Thanks.

[themightyjbowski]

Tahko, thanks for doing this...anywho, I downloaded the gimp
and did as u said, but I am a bit confused. U said to click on the white
after u make magic wand selection. I did and nothing happened. I assume
I have to select a color first? I'm sorry, but I'm a dumbass and I never
did this before...lol HELP!!! Don't hold your breath folks, gonna take
me FOREVER to learn how to do this! lol But by god I will! lol

[Fenix]

Tahko, thanks for doing this...anywho, I downloaded the gimp
and did as u said, but I am a bit confused. U said to click on the white
after u make magic wand selection. I did and nothing happened. I assume
I have to select a color first? I'm sorry, but I'm a dumbass and I never
did this before...lol HELP!!! Don't hold your breath folks, gonna take
me FOREVER to learn how to do this! lol But by god I will! lol

Let me see if I can help you:
1) Click on the wand tool then,
2) Click on the white (white part of the image, part that you want to get rid of)
3) "Once it makes a selection, chose "Edit > Cut" to remove the selection"

Following these steps should work. Are you sure you click in the wand and then in the white part of the picture you want to cut off? Try again.

If this is not helping ask again.

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Tahko, thanks for doing this...anywho, I downloaded the gimp
and did as u said, but I am a bit confused. U said to click on the white
after u make magic wand selection. I did and nothing happened. I assume
I have to select a color first? I'm sorry, but I'm a dumbass and I never
did this before...lol HELP!!! Don't hold your breath folks, gonna take
me FOREVER to learn how to do this! lol But by god I will! lol

No problem. There are one of two things you are missing here.

The first thing to check is if you did the step before doing the step you attempted which is opening the original image and and choosing "Edit > Copy" then "Edit > Paste as New" to make our image an editable layer without disturbing the original.

Then, it is exactly as Fenix stated:
Let me see if I can help you:
1) Click on the wand tool then,
2) Click on the white (white part of the image, part that you want to get rid of)

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/3449/selectwhitewx0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

You may not notice, but I have done this on the right of this picture's white area. Look around the edges for the dashed selection line. This line moves when you are using it.

Then what Fenix?

3) "Once it makes a selection, chose "Edit > Cut" to remove the selection"

Quite right.

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/1571/cutoutna4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

This is what it should look like after you cut the selection.

So go back a step and see if you are actually extracting the original image to a layer first before you go cut crazy because if you use the original without doing that step you will just cut out white over and over and over because it's part of the background.

I hope I didn't confuse you too much.

[themightyjbowski]

Kewel, I got it now guys...thanks! lol Btw, will this work on
any background? Even if it's not white?

[Tahko Tetsujin]

It just has to be the same color. It is a tricky thing sometimes. You see if what you are trying to extract share the same color as the background anywhere it will try to delete that area too. So if the edges of what you are trying to extract is opposing color to the background then it's easy.

If it shares colors, then you have to use your eraser around the edges in order to remove the background.

[themightyjbowski]

Here's my finished work...it's not much. lol
I also posted it in the all wallpaper topic too.


http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/5274/adamwarlock1ky5.th.jpg (http://img513.imageshack.us/my.php?image=adamwarlock1ky5.jpg)

[themightyjbowski]

Okay, somehow I lost the other box where it show's
my background and pasted layer. How do I get that box back?

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Okay, somehow I lost the other box where it show's
my background and pasted layer. How do I get that box back?

File > Dialogs > Create New Dock > Layers, Channels, and Paths

Rookie mistake, I still do it every once in a great while.

EXCELLENT First wallpaper attempt! Now you should just play around with stuff like effects and color tools and have some more fun!

[themightyjbowski]

Lol Thanks man!

[Tiler]

So how about a simple question:

How do I go about saving a project I'm working on without saving it as a jpg? What's the gimp's favourite file format?

Thanks this is fun. It will be my first really edited wallpaper.

[themightyjbowski]

Tahko, why do my pics not look clean cut when I open them.
But instead have mini boxes all around, with a yellow outline (box)?
How can I get rid of that?

[Tahko Tetsujin]

So how about a simple question:

How do I go about saving a project I'm working on without saving it as a jpg? What's the gimp's favourite file format?

Thanks this is fun. It will be my first really edited wallpaper.

Awesome. Congrats to you for giving it a go. I usually save my unfinished work as a PNG file. The only downfall to that is that it merges anything visible into one layer but I usually am ready to merge before I usually save anyway.

Tahko, why do my pics not look clean cut when I open them.
But instead have mini boxes all around, with a yellow outline (box)?
How can I get rid of that?

To be honest bud, I'd have to see that to understand what is going on with you. Just take a screenshot and post it to get a better understanding of what is going on.

[themightyjbowski]

Okay, I hope this works...I want to know what the hell
these lines are all on the picture and how to remove them. I
can't make another wallpaper til I do.

http://profile.imageshack.us/user/themightyjbowski/

[VengefulRonin]

Thanks to your thread, Tetsujin, i've managed to make my first wallpaper ^_^

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/VengefulRonin/venomtongue-1.jpg

Um, but i was wondering if there's a clone or heal tool in GIMP and how exactly i go about using them, i've tried the tutorials on GIMP's site and they're not very helpful or informative.

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Okay, I hope this works...I want to know what the hell
these lines are all on the picture and how to remove them. I
can't make another wallpaper til I do.

http://profile.imageshack.us/user/themightyjbowski/

It looks to me that you accidentally Turned on your grid view.

To Deactivate this:

1) Open up a picture
2) Click on View
3) Click on "Show Grid"

That's what I think it is anyway. If that don't fix it let me know.

Thanks to your thread, Tetsujin, i've managed to make my first wallpaper ^_^

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/VengefulRonin/venomtongue-1.jpg

That's cool I'm actually going to use that one because I loves me some Venom! Good Job.

Um, but i was wondering if there's a clone or heal tool in GIMP and how exactly i go about using them, i've tried the tutorials on GIMP's site and they're not very helpful or informative.

Not per se, however, I encourage you to try techniques like using the smudge tool to help duplicate or blend followed by a light blur of the worked area. (EDIT: There actually is a clone tool as I learn on page 4)

I'm actually working on a lesson using these very techniques and since you brought it up, I'll try to have it in this thread soon.

Also, just a tip for the future, if you want to show a thumbnail in this forum of your stuff, when you upload the image use the code that is called, "Thumbnail for forums (1)"

Both you guys are well on your way which is cool. I, myself, am thinking of something challenging, I may bring back the pinups with disc resion but I'm going to focus on doing better ones, play with more effects and stuff. Anything I learn I'll do a lesson on and why not? Hopefully others will contribute their own lessons as well that would be awesome.

[VengefulRonin]

I'll try out the smudge and blend then ^_^ I'd really like to turn this pic into a wallpaper:

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/4601/35175betaraybill400hw3.th.jpg (http://img178.imageshack.us/my.php?image=35175betaraybill400hw3.jpg)

So i was thinking just to take some of that starry background and use it to fill up a 1024x768 background. That might be a little advanced for me, but i might as well try and figure out the tools (and thanks for the image shack help, btw).

[Tahko Tetsujin]

I'll try out the smudge and blend then ^_^ I'd really like to turn this pic into a wallpaper:

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/4601/35175betaraybill400hw3.th.jpg (http://img178.imageshack.us/my.php?image=35175betaraybill400hw3.jpg)

So i was thinking just to take some of that starry background and use it to fill up a 1024x768 background. That might be a little advanced for me, but i might as well try and figure out the tools (and thanks for the image shack help, btw).

That's a great picture and I like where you are going with it. However, I see one small hangup. You have to see if you can dig up a larger version of that picture. Remember, when doing these wallpapers, you want to find as large a sample as possible because you can shrink without losing a lot of quality but enlarging and keeping quality is hard.

Basicaly, I love the idea but find a bigger pic.

[VengefulRonin]

Well crap, image shack shrank the entire pic. The actual dimensions are 398x599, but i'll try to find bigger if that's possible. I mean they didnt make the actual cover in that size so i'm sure there's a bigger pic floating about somewhere on the interweb

[dionymnia]

So how about a simple question:

How do I go about saving a project I'm working on without saving it as a jpg? What's the gimp's favourite file format?

Thanks this is fun. It will be my first really edited wallpaper.

Awesome. Congrats to you for giving it a go. I usually save my unfinished work as a PNG file. The only downfall to that is that it merges anything visible into one layer but I usually am ready to merge before I usually save anyway.


While PNG does a good job for saving, I tend to be a "fallback" saver - I make multiple save points as I go along (e.g., Impulse_v2.psd, _v3, _v4, etc.), as I may want to open a previous version if everything goes to hell and I don't (or can't) use history tools. Thus, I tend to save in PSD . Although it's the Photoshop format, it's also available in GIMP. And, it's a lossless format like PNG, so it won't degrade the quality of the image, but unlike PNG or JPEG, you can save it with any and all layers you might have going at that moment. Since some of my images have dozens of layers before I'm totally ready to commit to merging, this can sometimes be a good thing for me. :)

- D

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Greetings Lady and Gentlemen. It is time for another GIMP lesson. This lesson I'm hoping will be the lesson that will allow all of us to experiment and actually teach each other some things.

Today, we are covering backgrounds and effects.

One of the things you have to understand, I like to keep the spirit of the piece that I am working with. This means that if your piece already has a background of sorts, I try to keep that. However, often the piece is on a monochrome background or the piece is just too complex to reproduce. When this happens I go out and google backgrounds. My rule of thumb is try to match the spirit of the piece even if it doesn't look like the colors will match because we can make it match.

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/3760/300pxmosteirodosgeronimeo3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

This is Jerónimos Monastery. I found it on Wikipedia using the googlepedia firefox extention. We are going to use this as an example of interactive backgrounds as well as preparing it for a background for another focus.

Making this into a background for another piece (Cartoon & Colorize):

One of the easiest way of doing a neato background is to make a really light or really dark version of an existing photograph. Let's take our piece and the go to "Filters > Artistic > Cartoon

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/9338/cartoonfilterbo3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

What this is going to do is add more black around all the edges makes everything a little more pronounced. You can play around with the levels and look at the preview if you need it to be more or less pronounced.

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/3397/mosteirocartoonxe2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Now we are going to colorize it. To do that we are going to go to "Tools > Color Tools > Colorize"

http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/9859/colorizedo3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

"Hue" is the color you are going to use, as you slide left or right the color will change.

"Saturation" is how much of that color it will use in order to make the color itself lighter or darker.

"Lightness" Affects the lightness or darkness of the entire piece.

With these levels, this is what we produce:

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/1597/mosteirocolorizedlz9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Now with this dark background we can lay something more pronounced and the background will accentuate the piece. For example I just used the flip tool to flip the background and then dropped Captain Britain in there.

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/6757/captainbritainto2.th.jpg (http://img403.imageshack.us/my.php?image=captainbritainto2.jpg)

The greatest thing about this technique is that it's easy to do and it can work with just about any piece and you can use smaller stock because you don't have to worry too much about loss because after the effects, no one will know the difference. Even if you do think the re size is pixelated you can just use the blur on the whole background and you are good!

This will be an ongoing lesson on effects on backgrounds. more to come!

Also Teach us your GIMP work! Play with effects and tools and see what cool backgrounds you can come up with then tell us all about it!

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Okay, so I'm going to utilize a starburst effect here.

To do that, I have already taken the monastary pic and removed the sky. Now that I have done that, I'm going to create a new layer and then drag that layer beneath the monastary layer when you have done that it should look like this in your Layer panel.

http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/663/mosteirolayervv5.png (http://imageshack.us)

Now I am going to bucket fill this new layer with blue to emulate sky:

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/8475/bucketfillfh2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/6245/bucketlightbluemontq1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Then I'm going to go to "Filters > Light Effects > Supernova"

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/569/supernovahb9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The "Center of SuperNova" can be selected by just clicking the preview window in where you want the "SuperNova" to be. I changed the color to white to make it brighter.

This is going to help us place sunlight behind the monastary as well as lighting the whole sky area.

"Radius" is basically how big around you want your burst to be. This is in correlation with the center of the burst.

"Spokes" are the number of light lines it draws coming from the burst.

"Random Hue" is a secondary color scheme that with your regular color can make some real good effects.

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/2627/supernovamonnd6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

There you go! With this effect we can throw in some color and make really strange light effects, create wormholes or black holes.

More to come!

[Tahko Tetsujin]

It's color blend learnin' time!

Okay so here is my stock piece:

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/2525/dawnvg0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Alllllright...

What? Oh right the lesson.

Okay so we will extract the piece through normal methods (See page one of this thread)

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/386/dawnlayerbc3.png (http://imageshack.us)

Okay now we will go to "File > New" Let's open up a 1024x768 in white since the bottom will be white anyway. Then we color pick our original version to get the pink into the color palette.

One thing about the color palette and how it works:

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/6686/colorpalletteso9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The reason you need to know this is because the color blend method I'm using is FG to BG (RGB). That means it's going to take the foreground color and mix it with the background color in your color palette

So we want the pink(from the color picker) in as the foreground color and white as the background color. Then you select the "Blend" tool.

http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/6971/blendyx7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Tahko Tetsujin]

There is alot to play with here but typically as an example this is what it does, the following is blue in the foreground and pink in the background with drawing a line all the way down the entire area. This is to give you an idea of what it does by default.

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/1099/bluepinkgradientfc7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

now where the color blends differs on how you toggle your settings and how long a blend line you draw.

Anyway now with that in your mind, lets go back to our new 1024x768 image we just pulled up. We just want a slight blend on top with a good 70% of the bottom area white. I have my background with the instruction of the line I drew. You basically start at the point you want the color blend to start and drag it to the point that you want the blend to stop. The other area of with either be forground color or background color with the blend you dictated in the middle.

http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/7398/blendbacklb2.th.jpg (http://img108.imageshack.us/my.php?image=blendbacklb2.jpg)
(Click for larger view)

Well now it's just a matter of dropping the main piece into the background via copy/paste. A little adjustment and edge blurring if needed and you are done!

Here is the finished product:

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/9470/dawnfinalox0.th.jpg (http://img294.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dawnfinalox0.jpg)

Alright people! This make three. I'll be sure to keep them coming but you be sure to use it!

[themightyjbowski]

Tahko, I want to take that white area out of the pic.
I select the wand, but it doesn't cover the area in that grey
squared background so I can cut it out. I keep getting the
"fuzzy select" thing, for which I don't want...how do i change
it back?

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Tahko, I want to take that white area out of the pic.
I select the wand, but it doesn't cover the area in that grey
squared background so I can cut it out. I keep getting the
"fuzzy select" thing, for which I don't want...how do i change
it back?

Fuzzy Select is the wand but with a piece like dawn it's kind of tough. You need to erase around the edges at about 400% then remove the background. I know it's a reverse of the normal process but only because Dawn is wearing white with a white background.

Another way I've learned to do it is to use the color selector.

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/879/colorselectormm4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

now when you click on your picture with this tool it will select every area with the same color. Then you just go to "Edit > Cut" and it will remove all of that color out of the pic.

One Downside though:

http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/455/dawncolorselectoris5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

This really ain't as big a deal as it looks. All we have to do is fill in the color that we removed back into the piece. We will need the color we just removed so if you use forsight and color pick it before you cut it then great. Since it's white we can just use white but if you didn't have white as the color you selected and you forgot to color pick it then just choose "Copy > Paste as New" This will create an image of everything you cut out so you can go in with your dropper there to get the color you need or even use the original piece if need be.

Now we have our color we just need to fill it in. Create a new layer and then drag the layer below the layer our piece is on. Then it's just a matter of getting out your brush and doing some old school grade school coloring on the layer under the piece. Stay within the lines and just brush it all in. A lot of times, I do go over the lines in order to see the borders then back it up with the eraser. It depends on the piece.

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/178/dawnbrushlayeryu8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Now you select your top layer and then select "Layers > Merge Down" That makes it permanent then if there is another color that you need to remove you can do the same process. I slowly removed and replaced the pink area where I needed it to be in this one to complete extraction:

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/7361/dawnbrushlayerfullug3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Obviously there is a bit more cleanup to do but there you go! This technique works better on some pieces better than others, you just have to play around and figure it out.

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Hello all!

I'm sorry I haven't had enough time to continue with the Gimp tutorials. However whenever I see some good tutorials, I'll post them here. If anyone has any tutorial requests, please PM me your request and I'll research it and come up with what I can.

Until then though, I have found some really good GIMP video tutorials and figured I'd drop them in here so here ya go:

http://vntutor.blogspot.com/2007/08/10-gimp-video-lessons-online.html

[Supermancho]

Excellent tutorial Tahko Tetsujin. I'm using Gimp right now, and it is pretty much like Photoshop but free!

I would like to say though that for long time photoshoppers is hard to change. So I've installed Photoshop 7 and run it through WINE in my KUBUNTU linux. Obviously this goes against open source spirit...but as a Linux newbee myself I need to feel that there's something I know... not everything is different. It ease the transition, at least for me quite a lot.

Going back to the topic at hand I would like to add a frecuent question about how to upload and where to upload fresh images.
You need to use a Free web server to host your images.
Here are a couple of options:
Imageshack.us (http://imageshack.us/)
Photobucket.com (http://photobucket.com/register.php)
(you'll need to registrate first)

When you upload an image using image-hosting web servers, you will be given posting links, for graphic explanations I would use Imageshack (the one I use more) and which is also explained by other posters.

Here their examples through the different interfaces.
Individual or multiple image uploads:
Thanks to dionymnia (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=4299381&postcount=1609) and Wild Card (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=4319405&postcount=3190)
Registrated user interface:
Thanks to TheNight (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=4320048&postcount=3192)

PS: Adding this thread link to my sig.

Hey. Fenix. I like this picture and I've been wondering if you can get something like this but with Superman, Batman and another one(not wonder woman) in the same kind of pose. I haven't asked before because I didn' know for sure where to post this. Marvel o DC. Thanks in advance.

[Fenix]

Hey. Fenix. I like this picture and I've been wondering if you can get something like this but with Superman, Batman and another one(not wonder woman) in the same kind of pose. I haven't asked before because I didn' know for sure where to post this. Marvel o DC. Thanks in advance.

ok Supermancho, I´ll see what to do when I have some time. Final Result will be posted it in the DC thread. See you there :)

[Gee013]

whats up everyone?

i told tahko that i would add this in here on the wallpaper makin' thread.

this page is a tutorial to take a image and give the subject a "3-d" effect.

http://howto.nicubunu.ro/jump_out_gimp/

enjoy!

[Fenix]

whats up everyone?

i told tahko that i would add this in here on the wallpaper makin' thread.

this page is a tutorial to take a image and give the subject a "3-d" effect.

http://howto.nicubunu.ro/jump_out_gimp/

enjoy!

Excellent tutorial. Very nice trick. :D

[Tiler]

Zuludelta posted a cool photoshop technique on one of the wallpaper threads. Does anyone know how to do that in Gimp?

[zuludelta]

Here's the brief grayscale colouring tutorial I posted in the wallpaper thread (didn't know there was a thread dedicated to just wallpaper tutorials):

the "hulk" is definitely undoable, no way to get that colored - the way i do it.

Some tips on re-colouring grayscale images in Photoshop:

Start by going to Image ---> Mode ---> RGB Color

From there, you can now use the Hue/Saturation control to go from this:
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/7079/hulkhelp00ki2.th.jpg (http://img503.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hulkhelp00ki2.jpg)

to this:
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/4416/hulkhelpgn2.th.jpg (http://img441.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hulkhelpgn2.jpg)

You can also do highlights by creating a new layer and blending it with your base layer (in the following example, I used orange highlights to accentuate the base iamge):

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/9433/hulkhelp1mx0.th.jpg (http://img515.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hulkhelp1mx0.jpg)

You can then select the different areas like the pants, background, etc., copy them as separate layers, and use the Hue/Saturation controls to change their colours. Feel free to experiment with what techniques work for you, but I hope this helps!

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Zuludelta posted a cool photoshop technique on one of the wallpaper threads. Does anyone know how to do that in Gimp?

Well, yes. Yes I do. As soon as he posted that this morning I worked on doing it the GIMP way. Here we go:

So let's bring up the pic. Now of course my personal style in GIMP, I never start with the original so let's copy this and paste it as new so we have that nice little transparant layer behind it.

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/245/grayhulkqa4.th.jpg (http://img234.imageshack.us/my.php?image=grayhulkqa4.jpg)

Simple enough. Now the colorize.
Let's go to "Tools > Color Tools > Colorize"

Now we have touched on this tool before in this thread but due to the application I feel we must go over again. Let's have a look shall we?

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6365/colorizehw7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Hue is the actual RGB color we are wanting to implement so you just slide that until you get the rough color you want.

Saturation is how bright or dark a color you want so if you want a lighter green you go higher, lower for darker.

Lightness is the brightness and darkess of all colors in the piece. If you manipulate the prior two bars, you won't have to really touch this one.

Now sure, this looks cool enough to make a wallpaper on it's own. Let's take it further though. Let's use the same technique for in a light brown:

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/4766/brownhulkom5.th.jpg (http://img404.imageshack.us/my.php?image=brownhulkom5.jpg)

And another in blue:

http://img487.imageshack.us/img487/6914/bluehulkxb7.th.jpg (http://img487.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bluehulkxb7.jpg)

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Now let's go back to the green real quick and remove everything but hulk's skin:

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/9504/greenlayerky4.th.jpg (http://img404.imageshack.us/my.php?image=greenlayerky4.jpg)

Now we do the same with the pants:

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/6652/panstsujs2.th.jpg (http://img166.imageshack.us/my.php?image=panstsujs2.jpg)

For your information, this part was harder than I thought it would be. This is why the original is in a window, for reference.

Now we take our green hulk and copy him then paste as a layer into the brown version we made.

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/8581/greenlayerongm5.th.jpg (http://img172.imageshack.us/my.php?image=greenlayerongm5.jpg)

Now we do the same with our pants we carfully extracted and line it up.

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/9783/bluelayeronxz3.th.jpg (http://img231.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bluelayeronxz3.jpg)

[Tahko Tetsujin]

As you can see I did a less than perfect job the first pass. However, I've saved all my previous work and can do a little of the old repetition to fix that. While I'm at it, I may as well whiten his teeth and the smoke there using my original gray.

I duplicated the bottom and used the clone tool to continue the wall. I found how to use the clone tool here:

http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/15037.html

Booyah:

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/7041/hulkiu3.th.jpg (http://img404.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hulkiu3.jpg)

[zuludelta]

Great job Tahko! Just a little suggestion, if I may... since the original drawing is rendered in a fairly realistic and textured style, it might help to add coloured highlights to the image to give a greater sense of depth and volume. What I mean is that you might want to make considerations for the lightsource in the image... objects naturally reflect light, and that reflected light is almost never white (unless it's a particularly shiny object like glass or chrome) as you have it in your image:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/dltesterzfd/hulk_no_highlights.jpg

Usually, the reflected light is in a mix of the hue of the object and the lightsource. For example, if the Hulk image was under natural lighting, the reflected light would most probably be towards the left of your colour bar (in the case of green, the highlights would be yellowish, although there are no hard and fast rules regarding the hue of reflected light):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/dltesterzfd/hulk_highlights.jpg

You can try experimenting with different real-world materials under different coloured lights to get a feel for how they should look like.

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Awesome.

I was doing the tutorial as I was taking my first shot at the technique so this is a great cap for that.

Thanks Dude.

[Tiler]

Thanks for all of this guys. I was away so didn't read it till just now but I will try to use this all next time I try a wall paper.

Thanks!

[Joe Acro]

I am currently trying this tutorial and am having trouble at the blurring step. The thing just doesn't want to blur, even if only one pixel is selected. What might be the problem?

[Tahko Tetsujin]

I am currently trying this tutorial and am having trouble at the blurring step. The thing just doesn't want to blur, even if only one pixel is selected. What might be the problem?

Hmmm.... Maybe it isn't blurring as well as you would want it to. Maybe try a gaussian blur? Sometimes when I blur I forget make the selection first and I accidentally blur the whole image.

Perhaps if you take us step by step we can figure out where the mistake may be.

[Joe Acro]

Hmmm.... Maybe it isn't blurring as well as you would want it to. Maybe try a gaussian blur? Sometimes when I blur I forget make the selection first and I accidentally blur the whole image.

Perhaps if you take us step by step we can figure out where the mistake may be.I just tried Gaussian Blur and it didn't do any better.

I follow all the steps of the tutorial up to that point, from the clearing the white background to erasing to making layers and even coloring. I was forced to save last night so as to not lose my progress.

Here's the image as it's currently saved:
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/958/batmanwallow7.th.jpg (http://img507.imageshack.us/my.php?image=batmanwallow7.jpg)

There's some discoloration around the body, but that could likely be fixed later.

If you need more to go on, just ask.

[Hellbaby]

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r136/comicfan93/CAP_WP.jpg

[Hellbaby]

Something is wrong with Photobucket. It places a bunch of white space on it, but in the GIMP I fixed it, so on my desktop it looks fine.

[Hellbaby]

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r136/comicfan93/SoL.jpg

[Tahko Tetsujin]

I just tried Gaussian Blur and it didn't do any better.

I follow all the steps of the tutorial up to that point, from the clearing the white background to erasing to making layers and even coloring. I was forced to save last night so as to not lose my progress.

Here's the image as it's currently saved:
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/958/batmanwallow7.th.jpg (http://img507.imageshack.us/my.php?image=batmanwallow7.jpg)

There's some discoloration around the body, but that could likely be fixed later.

If you need more to go on, just ask.


I think I understand. Have you merged your layers before blurring? I may not have mentioned that but if you take the jpg you showed us, you can blur the edges just fine.

Try that and see if that is what is going on. you want to merge the layer down before blurring.

[Joe Acro]

I think I understand. Have you merged your layers before blurring? I may not have mentioned that but if you take the jpg you showed us, you can blur the edges just fine.

Try that and see if that is what is going on. you want to merge the layer down before blurring.I tried it both before and after merging and neither seemed to work. I'll try again later and edit this post after I do.

EDIT: It's working fine now. And I have now realized just how tedious this is.

[Tahko Tetsujin]

EDIT: It's working fine now. And I have now realized just how tedious this is.

Keep at it dude, it gets easier with repitition.

[Hellpop]

Hey Tahko, thanks a lot for this tutorial. I've been screwing around a bit for the last few days, and the results are pretty good so far. I post them as soon as I get them uploaded.

[Tahko Tetsujin]

Hey Tahko, thanks a lot for this tutorial. I've been screwing around a bit for the last few days, and the results are pretty good so far. I post them as soon as I get them uploaded.

Excellent! I can't wait to see what you produce.

[Hellpop]

Here's a couple. I'm still uploading to Imageshack, so I'll have more for the other threads.

The Avengers by Adam Hughes:

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/6313/ahavengerscv4.th.jpg (http://img233.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ahavengerscv4.jpg)

The JLA by Daniel Acuna:

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/5315/acunajlapm1.th.jpg (http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=acunajlapm1.jpg)

[Tahko Tetsujin]

These are very good. I even saw the ones you loaded to the other thread and I like those as well.

You are well on your way. Good on ya mate.

[Flamebird]

Great thread!

Thanks for starting it. I've been using microsoft photodraw for a while now; and while it is user friendly, it's not very flexible.

big surprise, there. :rolleyes:

But I downloaded Gimp a while ago and now it's cool that I can teach myself how to use it, with the help of the people around here.

If I ever learn anything that isn't covered, I'll gladly add to the thread; but right now I'm pretty much in "baby-step" mode.

[Hellpop]

Hey Tahko (or anyone else): is there a way to increase the quality of a magnified image besides increasing the sharpness? For example, I recently made this:

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/95/glbychadwicknf9.th.jpg (http://img107.imageshack.us/my.php?image=glbychadwicknf9.jpg)

which I'm pretty happy with, except that the resolution isn't so great. There's a lot of "dirt" on the image because I had to up the scale so much. I sharpened it, but I'm still not satisfied. Is there anything else I can do?

[Tahko Tetsujin]

What I usually like to do when I blow up a picture is blur the pic, raise the contrast and then sharpen it.

I'm not sure if that is the right way to do it but it seems to work for me.

[hovercarracer]

Made a quick tute on improving image quality/clarity/colours, going from:

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z33/hovercarracer/Image%20Quality%20Tute/th_JSA_46_2michaelblair.jpg (http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z33/hovercarracer/Image%20Quality%20Tute/JSA_46_2michaelblair.jpg) TO http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z33/hovercarracer/Image%20Quality%20Tute/th_Final.jpg (http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z33/hovercarracer/Image%20Quality%20Tute/Final.jpg)

Covers: layer modes, colour levels and balance, unsharp mask, blur tool and gaussian blur.

Posted here (http://hovercarracer.livejournal.com/6874.html), due to the number of pictures involved (although they're thumbnails). It's the first tute I've done, so some feedback (usefulness, clarity, etc) would be awesomeness! :D

[Tahko Tetsujin]

I just made a real quick and dirty HOWTO on the clone tool in one visual aid. I figure I better put it here for posterity.

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/2576/clonetooljt5.th.jpg (http://img100.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clonetooljt5.jpg)

[hovercarracer]

Tute for themightyjbowski, who wanted some constructive crit.... It's not as pretty as Tahko's tutorials, and I think some of the techniques have been covered by others in the thread as well =P
Turning THIS (http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/2354/vigilantejusticefeaturiyf4.jpg) into http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z33/hovercarracer/Wallpapers/th_jb.png (http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z33/hovercarracer/Wallpapers/jb.png)

Background:
1. Select all the non-background areas using the rectangle select tool (set the tool to '+' so that each rectangle you select is added to the current selection)
2. Press Ctrl+I to invert
3. Press Ctrl+K to cut out all of the background
4. Create a new layer and fill it with the desired colour (bucket tool); drag it underneath the image if needed
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z33/hovercarracer/mjb%20tutorial/th_tute1.jpg (http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z33/hovercarracer/mjb%20tutorial/tute1.jpg)
5. [Optional] To add a bit of texture to the background, grab a texture you like (I used a wood table... lol) and import it into your workspace. There are a few ways to do this:
a) Drag it from your 'my documents' folder (or similar) into the main workspace (the bigger window)
b) Go File --> Insert as layer --> Picture location
c) Paste it in, and then click the 'anchor' button on the layer window
6. Drag the layer (in the layer panel) so it's the one immediately above the red background layer
7. Set the layer mode to 'overlay' or whichever mode you want (Screenshot (http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z33/hovercarracer/mjb%20tutorial/tute8.jpg))

Shadows:
1. Duplicate the picture twice (you can access the layer panel with Ctrl+L)
2. On one layer, select the larger rectangle, invert (Ctrl+I) and delete the selection (Ctrl+K) (Screenshot (http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z33/hovercarracer/mjb%20tutorial/tute2.jpg))
3. On the other layer, select the smaller pic (bottom-left corner), and repeat
4. To add the shadow, select the relevant layer and go to: Script-Fu --> Shadow --> Drop Shadow (Screenshot (http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z33/hovercarracer/mjb%20tutorial/tute2.jpg))
5. You can fiddle with the drop shadow settings (colour, blurriness, etc) if you want - I usually leave everything the same, except I de-select the "Re-size" check box. Sometimes if this remains checked, the canvas resizes when the shadow is added, and the dimensions of your final piece may be slightly off.
6. If necessary, drag the shadow layers underneath the picture layers so you don't get shadows on top of your pictures...
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z33/hovercarracer/mjb%20tutorial/th_tute4.jpg (http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z33/hovercarracer/mjb%20tutorial/tute4.jpg)

Random faded part on the gradient...
1. Duplicate the layer with the picture you want on the gradient
2. Select the part you want to keep (Screenshot (http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z33/hovercarracer/mjb%20tutorial/tute5.jpg))
3. Invert selection, and delete again
4. Crop the layer with Layer --> Autocrop
5. Scale the layer to roughly the same height as the gradient section (about 650px high) (Screenshot (http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z33/hovercarracer/mjb%20tutorial/tute6.jpg))
6. On the layer panel, use the drop-down box to change the layer mode to 'Overlay'. You could also fiddle with other layer modes - I use multiply, screen and grain merge most often
7. Move the layer until it's where you want it to be
8. [Optional] Select a rectangle on the part of the overlayed picture that's on the gradient. Invert.
9. Go to Select --> Feather. This makes the edges fade a bit. Use 2-5px if you only want the edges slightly blurred, or 50-100px if you want to really fade the edges. (Screenshot (http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z33/hovercarracer/mjb%20tutorial/tute7.jpg))

Presto! =]
Hope it was helpful