GIMP: Animated globe

This tutorial takes about 2 minutes to finnish, it's just a basic walk-through that is supposed to help you about the basics with the Spinning Globe script, if course it allows much more advanced end results.
I'm using GIMP 2.6.
Remember, the final image is actually animated!


1. Start GIMP and create a new document, set the canvas to 500x500 pixels.

2. Create a new layer and name it Globe Color, fill it with the color of your choice. Don't get fooled by the name, the fill should cover the whole (rectangular) layer!

3. Select the Text Tool and write anything of your choice. My font settings are as following: Sans, size 59 pixels.
This is how it should look like:


4. Now to the magic, merge the two layers you've made and go Filters->Animation->Spinning Globe.
Set the frame to 13 and check Transparent Background. It's also smart to check the Work on a copy option in case you want to make some minor adjustements or if GIMP crashes during processing.
To test the animation go Filters->Animation->Playback.

5. You're done! This is my result:

And here is another one:

It's a good tip to experiment with the different settings to get the best result.
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GIMP: Lamp tutorial

This tutorial will create a desk with a lamp on it. To the lamp we'll add some light effects.
Final result:


1. Fire up GIMP and create a new document. Make it 800x600 pixels large.

2. Create a new layer and name it Wall. Do this by pressing the New Layer icon in your layers dialog (A paper with an orange symbol on it).
Make sure the layer Fill Type is set to Transparent.

3. Create another layer and call it Chest Draw, this layer should also be transparent.

4. Grab the Rectangle Selection Tool from your Toolbox and draw a rectangle in the lower right corner. This is going to be the base of the table. A simple cube with a couple of drawers in it. Mine is 110x455 pixels big, you can easily change the size of it by dragging a corner of the selection or tpye numbers in the Rectangle Select dialog in your Toolbox.

5. Fill it with this color: #363432. (First, click on the top color box in your Toolbox and then in the HTML notation text field paste the numbers.

6. In your main menu, go Select->Shrink and shrink your selection with five pixels.
Fill this selection with this color: #727272.

7. Shrink the selection 5 pixels again. Go Edit->Stroke Selection in the main menu and make a 1px stroke with the color #363432.

8. Select the Rectangle Selection tool from your Toolbox, click on your selection to make it active. In the tool's dialog, make the size 88x41 pixels big, repeat the stroke.

9. Move down the selection 40 pixels (making the position 702, 506 if you have followed my directions). Now you have three drawers, but with no knobs. Draw a small rectangle in the upper middle section of one drawer and fill it with: #363432. Do the same to the other two.

10. Now duplicate the layer and place it more to the left, almost in the center of the document. Create a new layer and name it Table Board. Make a thin rectangle that connects the both drawers. Your document should look something like this now:

11. Create a new layer and name it Lamp Base. Again, grab the Rectangle Selection Tool. Create a small rectangle above the left Chest Draw, on top of the Table. I made mine 46x16 pixels big.

12. Duplicate the three Table layers and merge them together. Do this by duplicating them and place them next to each other and mark the top layer, then go Layer->Merge Down a couple of times.

13. Right click the Table Shadow layer and choose Alpha To Selection then click the Delete button on your keyboard. Go Selection->Feather and feather the selection by 8 pixels. Set your foreground color to black and grab your gradient tool. Select Radial as gradient shape and FG to Transparent as gradient Type. Now make a quite big gradient starting from the center of yur selection ednding 50-60 pixels outside of it. Place the Table Shadow layer beneath all other table layers and move the layer a couple of pixels south-east. Now your table should have a drop shadow!

14. Create a new layer and name it Lamp Base. Create a 42x21 pixels large cube on top of your desk. Fill the selection with a wood pattern, I chosed the "Pine?". Select the Ellipe Selection Tool and make a seleciton that covers everything of your lamp base except for the two top corners (my selection is 60x60, a tip is to press and hold down SHIFT while dragging), invert the selection by right-clicking on it and choose Invert. Then press Delete.

15. Create a much thinner but higher rectangle on top of your last one. this one should be 5x57 pixels big.
Fill this with the same pattern. Also make a tiny, tiny one again, this time at the top of the thin one. This is going to be the piece that holds the Lamp in place.

16. Create a new layer and name it Lamp. Create a circle, mine is 63x62 pixels big. Grab the gradient tool and make a FG to Transparent, radial gradient with the color: #403d32. Make it quite big so you'll manage to fill the selection.

17. Copy the Lamp Base layer and name it Lamp Shadow. Do the same as in the Table Shadow steps (13). But this time feather the layer only 5 pixels and use the color #b1a36a in your gradient. Don't forget to put it just above your Table Shadow layer.

18. Select the Wall layer and fill it with the color. #474d41. Then grab the Gradient Tool once again. Set the Foreground color to #f0e4b2 and Background color to #474d41. Then look at the gradient settings. The Mode should be set to Soft Light, gradient type to FG to BG and shape to radial.

19. Create the gradient, starting from the center of the lamp and ending almost in the upper right corner.
Now you are done!

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GIMP: Custom Brush

This tutorial will show you how to create and add a custom brush into your GIMP program.
This tutorial takes under 5 minutes if you already have made or found an image you want to use as a brush. I'm using GIMP 2.6.



1. Create a new document or open up a picture you'd like to save as a brush.
I started out on a 200x200 pixels big canvas. I did this, and then I cropped it.
2. Make the "Background Layer" invisible by clickin on the eye next to it in the "Layers Dialog" Window" (This is to make the brush transparent, I don't want the background when I use my brush).
Go "File"->"Save as", and save it as a GIMP Brush (.gbr).

In Linux (Ubuntu 8.10) save it in your "/home/USERNAME/gimp-2.6/brushes/" folder.

In Windows XP save it in your "C:\Document and Settings\USERNAME\.gimp-2.6\brushes\"
4. Select the "Brush Tool" and then click the select brush button, then open the "Brush Selection Dialog" by clicking the brush icon down in the right corner of the popup window.

5. In the "Brush Selection Dialog" click the small, grey arrow in the upper left corner, then "Brush Menu"->"Refresh Brushes".
6. Now you are done, create a new document and test your brush.
This is my result:


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GIMP: Simple Web Design

This tutorial takes about 15-20 minutes to finnish. I'm using GIMP 2.6.
This is the final result:




1. Create a new document. I usually start out at a quite large canvas, later on i crop it to fit the work that I've done. Mine is 1024x768 pixels big.

2. Create a new layer, name it "Header".

3. Select the "Rectangle Select Tool" from the "Toolbox" and make a selection at the top of the document. The size of this isn't really important, but if you want to know mine is about 120 pixels high.

4. Select the "Bucket Fill Tool" from the "Toolbox". Click on your foreground colour and in the "HTML notation" text field you type: a0c2de.
Then you press OK and fill your selection with the colour.

5. Now choose the "Text Tool" and write something in your header layer. Make the text white by clicking on the "Color" button in the "Text Tool" settings dialog. The font I use is called "Bitstream Vera Sans Bold".

6. Time to create a new layer. Call it "Menu", make sure it is below your "Header" layer.

7. Select the "Rectangle Select Tool" from the "Toolbox" and create a new selection, you may overlap the "Header" layer since the layer you're working on should be below it. Make the selection around 30-40 pixels high.

8. Now select the "Bucket Fill Tool", set your foreground colour to 76a0c4 and fill your selection.

9. Select the "Text Tool" once again, now it's time to write the options in your menu. Make sure the text color is set to white, then click on your menu box and write your menu options. Mine are "home", "about" and "tutorials".

10. Align your header and menu text by snapping them onto a guide. Create a guide by click and drag from the left (or top) rulers of the document. Drag it about 40 pixels from the left edge. You can see coordinates in the bottom-left corner of the document window.

11. Create a new layer, name it "Side bars". Drag it below the header and menu layers. Select the "Rectangle Select Tool" and make a small selection somewhere in your canvas.

12. Look in the settings dialog for the "Rectangle Select Tool". Fill in 0 in both of the position fields. In the size, type 20 and 768.

13. Fill the layer with the same color as the menu.

14. Now do steps 12 and 13 again but this time the position of the rectangle should be 800 and 0.

15. Select the crop tool and crop your image by the edges of the "Sidebar" layer. Being careful and accurate is good in this step.

15. Your document should look something like this by now:

16. This step is very simple, use the "Text Tool" and write your own welcome greeting and first paragraph.

17. Create a new layer and call it "Content bar". Create a rectangle, choose your own width, mine is quite thin. In your document window, click "Select"->"Border" and apply a 3 pixels wide border. Fill it with the same colour used in the menu and the "Sidebar" layer.

18. Now you are basically done. Here is what mine looked like after some tweaking of the "Content bar" layer. I hoped you enjoyed the tutorial.


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GIMP: Text effect (Outline + Mirror)

In this tutorial GIMP 2.6 is used, the tutorial takes about 10 minutes to finnish.
This is the result:





Part 1: Outline

1. Create a new document, the size of it doesn't really matter. Mine is 800x600 pixels.
2. Select the text tool from the Toolbox and choose a font of your choice and write anything you want. I chose the “Liberation Sans Bold” font, fontsize 45.
3. In the “Layers” window, right click your new text layer and choose “Set layer boundary size”. Set the width to 600 and the height to 87. Then you click on the “Center” button. To perform the task and close the dialog, press “Resize”.
4. Now duplicate your layer (Right-click and choose “Duplicate Layer”) and rename it to “White” (Double-click and write). Right-click the layer and choose “Alpha to selection”.
5. In your document window, click “Select” and then “Grow...”. I chose 2 pixels growth (but that depends on what font size you have).
6. Now in the same window, click “Edit” and then “Fill with BG color”, in this case it should be white, if it isn't change it to white and redo the step
7. Duplicate the layer and rename it to “Black”. Right click the layer and choose “Alpha to selection”.
8. Now you'll grow the selection 2 pixels again. Click “Select”, in your document window and then “Grow...”.
9. Click the “Edit” button and then “Fill with FG color”, it should be black or else change it and redo the step.
10. Now change the layer order, The original text layer on top, second should be “White” and third “Black”.

Congratulations, now you have created a text with a fancy outline!
Now we're moving ahead, down below the mirror effect is explained.

Part 2: Mirror

1. Duplicate each one of your layers (Original text layer, “White” and “Black”) and make them one solid one called “Mirror”.
2. Do this by duplicating each layer, put them next to each other on top of the three original ones and then right click on the top one, choose “Merge down”. Do it twice and your done, don't forget to rename it though.
3. In you main document window, click on “Layer”->”Transform”->”Flip vertically”.
4. Now choose the “Move Tool” from your “Toolbox” and, after you clicked and press down “CTRL” (then the layer will go straight down), drag the layer down so only the edges of the layers touch. Then move the layer down in the layer list, should be fourth in the list, just above the “Background” layer.
5. Choose the “Blend tool” in your “Toolbox”. In the tool properties, set the gradient to “FG to Transparent”. Then set your foreground color to white.
6. Hold down “CTRL” and start your blend from the middle of the “Mirror” layer and then drag the line upwards to the middle of your original outline text layer(s).

Congratulations once again! You're done!

Please leave a comment if you like this tutorial.

Here is my final result:

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