The title was supposed to be Loopy Loony Luna's Super Spifftastic Siggy and Avvie Guide to GIMP Graphics: Newbie's Edition, but it wouldn't fit... I run Ubuntu Linux and GIMP 2.4.5. I haven't figured out how to install new fonts on Linux yet, so I use an online text generator. This is also my very first guide... ever! I am aware of the fact that there is another guide similar to this, as well as other guides that have some of the same stuff in them. Most of those are for Photoshop though, and I learned from most of them. This is kind of a compilation of everything/attempting to really simplify it. Purpose of Guide I wish to help educate you (or remind you) in how to make an awesome avvie, siggy or both using GIMP. I have created none of the original images, Note: There is a glossary of all bold words at the end of the guide, if you'd like to look something up. The Signature 1. Find an Image You have a few options here: A: Find any good-sized image on the internet (at least 400 pixels wide and 150 pixels high) B: Find a render and a background. C: Find a render and make a background. for the purpose of this guide, I will do option B. Renders can be found on various sites, I use planetrenders.net. All you have to do is register (for free) and they seem to have a pretty good database that's easy to access. Here is the render I'm going to use: Spoiler You can find a background anywhere. I just searched "river" in Google Images and found this: Spoiler Keep in mind you want to keep it rather realistic. You might not want the Master Chief from Halo sitting next to that river. 2. Load Images into GIMP There are many ways to do this: A: While viewing an image that is downloaded onto your computer, right click and go to "open with" then "GIMP." B: Copy and Paste the image into GIMP (paste it onto a canvas larger than what you'll need (I usally use 2000 by 2000), then anchor your layer then go Image -> Autocrop Image and you should be left with just what you want C: While in GIMP, open the image (by going File -> Open or holding Ctrl and O) D: Drag and Drop the image into GIMP You're going to want each of the images in a separate window right now, because they will be easier to work with. 3. Edit/Make Your Background Just work with GIMP. Play around with it, to get an effect you like. With mine, I will change the colors, soften the image and add scanlines. A: Scale your Image If you don't, it /could/ look funny in the end. Go to Image -> Scale Image and enter in either length OR width. Neofriends limits signatures to 800 pixels in width and/or 400 pixels in height. You can scale it to whatever you like (within those boundries), I usually go to about 450 to 600 pixels in width. The height will automatically change. B: Change Colors I went to Colors -> Hue-Saturation I wanted my water red, so I adjusted all the colors by moving the Hue bar. C: Soften the Imgage There are many ways you can do this. I went to Filters -> Artistic -> Oilify and left it on the default settings to achieve this: You can use whatever method you'd like. You don't even have to soften your image at all! D: Scanlines I figured out how to make these by adapting Regenerated's Guide. I'll post my adapted instructions here: -Make a New Window, 3 pixels by 3 pixels with a transparent background -Zoom in, so the image fills your screen -Select the smallest brush (1 pixel) -Give your image the following pattern: -Copy your image -Go back to your background image. Go to the fill tool (the bucket icon) and select "Pattern Fill" and "Fill Whole Selection." Next, select your pattern. You'll want to select the top left icon, which is your clipboard. It will be a very little, hard to see image. Select your opacity. You'll want it to be pretty significant, for my image I used 30.0. -Click your image. You should get something like this: You can make your scanlines stronger if you want. There! You have a background! 4. Paste your Render You can edit your render before pasting, if you'd like. I will not be. A: Copy your render. B: Paste your render. C: Scale your render by going to Layer -> Scale Layer. (if needed) This is my result 5. Crop your Image A: Select what you want your image to look like B: Go to Image -> Crop to Selection Just that simple! 6. Add a Border A: Make a new image ten pixels longer and ten pixels wider than your current image B: Change the color of your new image to whatever you want. I'm going to use black. C: Copy your siggy image that you've been working on into your new image. It will automatically be centered. D: Do the same thing again, except using a new image that is 18 pixels longer and 18 pixels wider than the one you made in step C. Use a different color as well. I will use white. Now there is only one step left. 7. Host your Image You'll need to host your image to be able to link to it on Neofriends. There are many free image hosting services you can use, personally, I use Photobucket.com. After that, it is easy. Just place the image URL between two image tags. Now you're done! Isn't that nice? The Avatar 1. Find an Image It can be anything - a random image from the internet or a part of your siggy. I'll use this image: 2. Load image into GIMP Same instructions as before. 3. Add your Username (Optional) You can add text any way you want. I use cooltext.com test generator, using the "Outline" option, I can chose my outline color as well as chose colors for a horizontal or vertical gradient. This is what mine looks like after this step: http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp354/alicebynight/avvieaftername.jpg [color=#408000]4. Crop Image and Round Corners[/color] Actually, you can do both at the same time. A: In the Rectangle Select tool, you need to fix the aspect ratio to 1:1 (by clicking the box/bubble) and click the box/bubble marked "round corners." How much you round the corners is up to you, and it is dependent on your image size. Just eye it up ^_^ B: After you have your image selected to where you want, you'll want to add an alpha channel (transparency) to the image. You do that by going Layer -> Transparency -> Add Alpha Channel. C: Invert you selection. You can do that by right clicking going to Select -> Invert, hitting Ctrl and I, or going Select -> Invert from the top of your window. D: hit delete. E: Go to Image -> Autocrop Image. This is what mine looks like to this point: [img]http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp354/alicebynight/avvieaftercropping.png 5. Scale your Image Go to Image -> Scale Image and enter 75 into either height or width. It should automatically adjust so both height and width are 75. 6. Add Shine I learned how to do this (and I got the shine image) from Sapphire's Guide. Again, that guide was written for Photoshop. I just adapted it to fit GIMP. A: Save this image to your computer: B: Then, go to File -> Open as Layers and select the shine. C: Position the shine on your image where it looks right. D: Open a layers dialog box. You can do that by going Dialogs -> Layers or pressing Ctrl and L E: Change the opacity of the shine. I put mine down to 35, but just do it so it looks right. F: Merge layers by going Layer -> Merge Down G: You'll have to save the image as a .png file, to preserve the transparency of the corners ^_^ Heres my finished product: and you're done, once you upload it to Neofriends. Not too bad, eh? Glossary Spoiler pixels: the smallest possible part of in image. When you zoom in to the image a lot, they are the big squares. render: a high-quality image with a transparent background anchor: in GIMP, it refers to making your pasted layer part of the background or layer below it. It is not part of a ship. scale: in GIMP, it refers to making your image smaller or larger while keeping the aspect ratio host: put your picture (or anything) on the internet So, any questions/comments/complaints? :funky:
Yes Gimp is free. Good guide, but maybe you could add some effects on the the copied image. Im sure Gimp has some basic features you can show how to use.
I just downloaded it. This should be interesting... :rhett: Edit: I just spent hours trying to find the round corners button...truns out the toolbar was hiding. T____T