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Avandel
Gondolin
Aug 7 2014, 1:25am
Post #1 of 7
(492 views)
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Gimp stuff for Lurker and anyone else....me making quick wallpaper
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OK, so a TORn poster, often a companion in crime, expressed some interest in photo sw, so we are doing some Gimping. This is not to express any preference for any particular photo editing software, nor do I work for any sw company. But Gimp is helping us solve our artistic frustration, cheaply, in that it is open source.
Nor do I claim to be any kind of graphics expert and I haven't even read the Gimp manual yet. But bulling my way through the software, figured I would put up what I knew for Lurker, and anyone else curious. Plus LOL gives me a chance to play with pictures - e.g., make wallpaper or posters. Obviously folks should read the manual. Gimp can do a LOT, but you can ignore a lot when getting started.
So assuming you have Gimp installed, you'll have the main window w. dropdown menus where you can do stuff, and the IMO the 2 other main windows or boxes of stuff - the Toolbox and the Layers box. The Layers box is where you can see all your layers of images stacked up, and shuffle the order, delete layers, duplicate layers, and so on - you need to click on a layer in the Layer box to make it your active working layer. Right-click this layer and more menus pop up. Here you can adjust the opacity of a layer, too.
The Toolbox has all the goodies you can mess with - basically tools to paint with, erase with, rotate and scale layers around. I didn't label all the tools, just the ones I find most useful. The big thing to remember is that all of these tools have their own settings you are going to want to edit. For instance, if you want to cut out a square, decide if you want to have your square selection w. feathery edges or not and set the degree of feathering.
If you are using a brush, double-click the brush - or ANY of the painting tools like the Pencil or Clone tool - and you can adjust the brush size, hardness, and get a new brush if you want. Double-clicking a tool will bring up the controls for that tool.
Selection tools: Square and Circle, and the Free-hand or Lasso tool. The Magic Wand select tool is cool, because a lot of times you need to select similar color pixels. W. the Magic Wand, you can adjust how close
the color is you are picking up, for example all the contiguous white pixels, or all the white + slightly white. This is called the threshold (some SW calls it tolerance) and you can adjust this, a little to a lot. The Eyedropper will let you select an exact pixel color from an image and make it the Foreground color.
Clone tool: Love this, because you select a brush size with this, and can click within an image and select a part of that image to paint with - so you are painting with a piece of the actual image. Very useful for expanding a background, or getting rid of annoying body parts and text that are cluttering a perfectly nice image.
Foreground/Background colors - you can toggle these w. the little double arrow.
And a big plus - you can expand the canvas around your image - giving yourself more space to work with. This is not changing the image size, but like adding a bigger table to work on - very useful in making a poster a certain size, and your base image is the wrong proportion. E.g., add some canvas and fill w. text or clipart.
So I'm gonna make some Thranduil-Thorin wallpaper. Not my best work, so critics, this is quick and
dirty so shhhhhhh.
1. I'll start by getting a Thorin image ready before I do anything else. 'Coz I love his pose here....
In Gimp, open up the DOS poster. I am going to use the Crop tool to hone in on Thorin.
2. But this *bleep*. Got some elves cluttering my Thorin! Ha Ha - time for the Clone tool.
Clone tool works by ANCHORING your brush first in the image - hold CTRl key and click. This picks up the pattern you will be painting with. So I'm gonna choose a fuzzy brush for my Clone tool and vanish those elves....helps to zoom in here. Also, especially for the web, you don't have to be perfect about it.
If you DOUBLE CLICK a painting tool (Clone tool, brush tools, Dodge/Burn, etc.) tool you should see SLIDERS to adjust the brush size and hardness. There is a SEPARATE BRUSH EDITOR where you can choose a different brush, or make new brushes. I tend to like big round fuzzy brushes.
So here, the circle with + is where my anchor pattern is. The second circle is where I'm painting w. the pattern I anchored to - sorry, I am vanishing Bilbo....
Yep, just keep re-anchoring and painting - bye Bilbo and elves (tho if I were doing this for real, I'd be a lot more careful....)
So CTRL + Click to ANCHOR, and then move the tool to start painting over the offending clutter. You can anchor, and reanchor, and change your brush size as much as you like. AND you can either click and drag, and paint with whatever the anchor crosshair passes over. Or just click, click, with the cloning tool, and the anchor will stay in one place.
2. Good enough for now - I used the Dodge/Burn (lighten/darken) tool to get Thorin's hair back to the espresso color. The Burn tool darkens what it passes over, the Dodge tool lightens it. Double click the tool to choose.
Now I'll make a NEW, empty image in Gimp. This is where I will set up my wallpaper file.
File > new. Width = 1280, Height 1024. Click on ADVANCED OPTIONS and set the resolution to 72. (or whatever works for your monitor). I like to work on a black background. Save the file, this will be your wallpaper. E.g., these dimensions will depend on your own monitor.
3. Let's open up a nice Thranduil image, and select him with the Lasso (free hand tool). You can drag this tool around like a lasso, or click, click, and it will work like a polygon select. Remember to click to join your selection in a circle by clicking the circle closed. (Obviously you can just select all and copy and paste into the wallpaper file, but the point is to get rid of those square image edges!)
Here I like to set FEATHERING so my selection edge wil be nice and fuzzy. Double-click the Lasso tool to click on feathering and set to whatever - the higher the number, the more fuzz.
Now that I have my Thranduil image selection, I can COPY and PASTE the selection into my wallpaper file. RIGHT-CLICK in the LAYERS PALETTE of the wallpaper file to convert this "floating pasted selection" to a layer.
Now I can make the Thranduil layer active by clicking on it in the Layers box, and use the MOVE tool to move him around my wallpaper file, like shoving a pancake around a plate. Anything I do will ONLY affect the "active" layer. (Also in the Layers box, you can join layers temporarily, or actually merge).
Let's cut Thorin out and add him as a layer to my wallpaper file! And while I am at it, let's add a raven - here selected by using the Magic Wand tool. If I click the Magic Wand in the blue area, it will select all the blue pixels - and then if I invert the selection, I can copy/cut the raven from the original image. You can adjust the threshold of pixels the Magic Wand will select, up or down. Tho you could do this drawing around the raven with the Lasso tool, but why hurt yourself when the computer does a better job?
Here I have brought over my raven, and Thorin layers. I am using the Scale tool on the Thorin layer because LOL he has to have equal weight as king.
4. Last tricks - so besides blending edges with the ERASER tool, you can add a MASK to a layer. A mask lets you selectively remove pixels so you can get a nice fade effect.
So to start, you add a mask, and then paint w. a BLACK brush. Or use the GRADIENT tool set from white to black, and click and drag. That's a quick way to fade those nasty hard lines in a layer.
Select a layer you want to work on in the Layers palette.
Layer > Mask > Add Layer Mask. In the pop-up box, click "White".
Now your selected layer has a mask on it. Try dragging the Gradient tool, or painting with a black brush. Remember you can change the brush opacity and the layer opacity too, so you can get all those fade effects.
When you are done, go to Layer > Mask > Apply layer mask if you like the effect, or Delete the mask if you don't like it, and the mask will get thrown out.
Finally, sometimes it's useful to CONVERT editable text to a LAYER.
You can't edit this CONVERTED text, as it is just a shape. But this is useful when you want gradient colored text, or special layer effects, that an ordinary text layer won't let you do.
Layer > Discard Text Information
Anyway, here's my quicky wallpaper - larded up w. more layers of Bilbo, Erebor, layer opacity changes, and various fading methods - e.g. you can use the Eraser tool at 50% opacity and fade edges out, or use a mask, and change the whole opacity of a layer too. Not to mention going into the color adjustment menus which is how I darkened the raven up from the original. The trick is knowing when to stop with these photo sw programs.
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Lurker in the Mirk
Doriath
Aug 7 2014, 1:46pm
Post #2 of 7
(393 views)
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*raises hand* guilty as charged, m'am
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a companion in crime Never thought to be proud of criminal behaviour 
Wow... so much tips and tricks, am liking the one about inverting the Magic Wand selection a LOT! And course, I'd invert the wallpaper itself since I'd prefer not have program icons getting in the way of Thranduil's magnificence on my wallpaper!
Though... wow! Even an Avandel hackjob is so pretty! clearly this padawan has a looooooooong way to go. 
Well! At least I got my weekend projects lined up. Get Thrall Wars 5 going, if writer-bloc'd, gimp some If can't gimp, get those thralls warring.  
*happily prints and saves as yet another Avvie's GIMPING Advice pdf *
I'm a lurker. Fan of both books and movies; it seems I have severely misnamed myself... for the moment.
Appreciating Thranduil, thread by thread: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII
(Tis true! More appreciation threads for Thranduil exist than ME movies)
 Thrall Wars!: What business do Elves, Dwarves or Men(?) have with drooling thralls, yea, with smartphones in tow, unto the slopes of Erebor? ... oh, yes, the Hobbit's lingering in some shadows, ever ready to swoop to the hairy rescue. Take cover if you dare!
Teh partsies: Prologue (aka the 'tater-mash of whatever came before), Two, Three, Four (new! posted 16 Jul)
"BoFA"= The Battle || "BotFA"/"tBofTA" = The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
=======
 Middle-earth dispatches out of the lurkmirk
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Avandel
Gondolin
Aug 7 2014, 2:44pm
Post #3 of 7
(381 views)
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LOL no-one should be denied the right to make pretties
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Course, some folks take to some sw, and some don't. But as far as I can tell photo sw in general is about 3 things, loosely:
1) the ability to stack up images as layers and move those layers around, and work on each layer individually;
2) the ability to select parts of an image, and get rid of unwanted backrounds, and cut and paste parts of an image into another file - or selectively erase parts of an image;
3) the ability to paint/retouch parts of an image - or outright recolor an image.
And there's a hundred ways to do the same thing, just depends on what your preferences are. Like you can use the Curves tool to darken/lighten and sharpen an image, but a lot of the time you can use Brightness/contrast tool too.
Not like I am some big expert. But no-one should be denied the right to make their own posters 
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Lurker in the Mirk
Doriath
Aug 7 2014, 3:01pm
Post #4 of 7
(380 views)
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*prints! with gusto*
Oh boy... now for trawling!
I'm a lurker. Fan of both books and movies; it seems I have severely misnamed myself... for the moment.
Appreciating Thranduil, thread by thread: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII
(Tis true! More appreciation threads for Thranduil exist than ME movies)
Thrall Wars!: What business do Elves, Dwarves or Men(?) have with drooling thralls, yea, with smartphones in tow, unto the slopes of Erebor? ... oh, yes, the Hobbit's lingering in some shadows, ever ready to swoop to the hairy rescue. Take cover if you dare!
Teh partsies: Prologue (aka the 'tater-mash of whatever came before), Two, Three, Four (new! posted 16 Jul)
"BoFA"= The Battle || "BotFA"/"tBofTA" = The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
=======
Middle-earth dispatches out of the lurkmirk
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Lurker in the Mirk
Doriath
Aug 7 2014, 3:20pm
Post #5 of 7
(373 views)
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http://trendspotter.toptentalk.com/...rdly-sitting-cats-10
I'm a lurker. Fan of both books and movies; it seems I have severely misnamed myself... for the moment.
Appreciating Thranduil, thread by thread: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII
(Tis true! More appreciation threads for Thranduil exist than ME movies)
Thrall Wars!: What business do Elves, Dwarves or Men(?) have with drooling thralls, yea, with smartphones in tow, unto the slopes of Erebor? ... oh, yes, the Hobbit's lingering in some shadows, ever ready to swoop to the hairy rescue. Take cover if you dare!
Teh partsies: Prologue (aka the 'tater-mash of whatever came before), Two, Three, Four (new! posted 16 Jul)
"BoFA"= The Battle || "BotFA"/"tBofTA" = The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
=======
Middle-earth dispatches out of the lurkmirk
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Avandel
Gondolin
Aug 7 2014, 9:05pm
Post #6 of 7
(370 views)
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Oooh thanks!!! - and right back at yah w. Thranduil tips - make a pretty!!!
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LOL them kitties Do stuff like that, like jumping into impossibly small boxes and hilariously sleeping on their back - life is good *grins*.
How about a SIMPLER Thranduil pretty?
So OK, trot over - or Google up - "Thranduil cutout" - you may want to BUY one of these sometime - or try:
http://imagecache5d.allposters.com/...g?ch=1060&cw=566
So you can get this image, the point being it is nice and big. But *how rude* it may have watermarks!
But let's fix that. Set your fore and background colors to white and black - which you can toggle back and forth anyway w. that little curved double arrow.
We'll deal w. the white areas first. You can either Lasso select the marks in the white area, or use the Magic Wand with a high threshold - say set that at 52.
Once you have the mess selected, use your Bucket tool to flood w. white. OR you can just set the Bucket to a high tolerance and just click to flood all the white areas.
OR you can just paint w. a white brush. If you have made selections, then Deselect!
 or 
How about the watermarks on his coat and trouser leg? THOSE can just be painted out with the Clone tool,
or another cheat is to draw a Rectangle selection (set the Feathering to 1 pixel). Now select a bit of the cloth
without a mark.
Then copy the selection, make a new layer, and paste your selection into that. Now you can move this
bit of pattern down to cover up the mark, and since the edges are fuzzy no-one can tell. You can "merge
down" in the Layer palette to permanently fuse the "patch". (Merge down in the Layers palette combines
the selected layer with the layer below. This is different than "Flatten" where all the layers collapse to one.)
This shows both fixes! On the left, I selected a bit of cloth and made a new layer - this patch has been darkened so you can see it.
Point being, it's a separate layer I can just drag over the watermark.
On the right, I've anchored the Clone tool (CTRL plus click) a bit above the mark - the anchor is the circle with the +. Now I can
paint with the pattern I am anchored to and seamlessly vanish the blemish.
Finally - you can just get in there w. a white Paint brush and clean stuff up, or toggle your background color to white and Erase (same thing, kind of.)
Thranduil's crown is kind of a pain, I had to erase around that by hand.
So we get:
No marks LOL! Now you can use the Magic Wand to select all of the white areas - hold the "Shift" key down so
you get all the white, like under his arm. Holding the Shift key lets you add to areas you are selecting.
When you have all the white selected, Invert Selection. Now copy/paste your background-free Thranduil someplace
(I added a drop shadow to Thranduil as well):
LOL a quick Thranduil pretty. There's a handy rune generator at http://derhobbit-film.de/...generator.shtml#rune
You can type in whatever you want, and it will make a .png file of it. Mind you, this is NOT editable text, but you can
save the .png file and of course, using Gimp, just select the white text from your file and cut/copy into another Gimp file -
background free. I like to generate the runes at 72 points, nice and big.
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Lurker in the Mirk
Doriath
Aug 8 2014, 1:07pm
Post #7 of 7
(352 views)
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*Squee* More project possibilities!
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Thanks! I think the thralls will have to wait for a bit longer
MUCH LOVE!!!
I'm a lurker. Fan of both books and movies; it seems I have severely misnamed myself... for the moment.
Appreciating Thranduil, thread by thread: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII
(Tis true! More appreciation threads for Thranduil exist than ME movies)
Thrall Wars!: What business do Elves, Dwarves or Men(?) have with drooling thralls, yea, with smartphones in tow, unto the slopes of Erebor? ... oh, yes, the Hobbit's lingering in some shadows, ever ready to swoop to the hairy rescue. Take cover if you dare!
Teh partsies: Prologue (aka the 'tater-mash of whatever came before), Two, Three, Four (new! posted 16 Jul)
"BoFA"= The Battle || "BotFA"/"tBofTA" = The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
=======
Middle-earth dispatches out of the lurkmirk
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